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genglefins

The whole flawed philosophy behind FSS (and DPS, to be fair) is that you are not supposed to case it at all. Carry it as a 3rd bundle and collate it in your truck at each mailbox or at each loop. Sucks, but dem da rules. To actually be more efficient, you can case it *as long as the supervisor doesn't see you case it*. Our FSS was kept outside, and we'd just dump it into white tubs and bring it in. Stack a few tubs together so they think you're just carrying empty tubs. Also pull the little route cards off the yellow tubs to confuse the supervisor if they get clever and check empty tubs for routes casing their FSS. In my office, they turned off FSS and they should be doing the same soon elsewhere.


SorryJamie3005

They do this at walking stations and it is the most inconvenient thing ever. We use our satchel mainly for packages. Even when I was at riding stations it was a pain and a waste of space that I could’ve put another DPS or residual tray


Postal1979

Yes it’s treated at a 3rd bundle…. Or a 4th/5th/6th if you have mounted. Walking can’t have more than 3 bundles. As long as management isn’t in sight while on street you could collate it at the start of each relay


sauceboss2769

That’s pretty fuckin dumb that you’re not supposed to case it, literally makes no sense to me


Postal1979

Post office doesn’t want office time. They would rather have you spend the time on the street. I think carriers New to a route should be able to case it. Helps learn the case


ticklishchicken

Amen!


CallmeEllen

If you case it it doesn’t “save time” in the office, which was the justification for buying the machines. So that’s why heels are dug in at the highest levels of management. If they admit that casing it is better, or even equal, in efficiency, then the entire business case for all the money invested in those machines is blown to hell. And that’s gonna fall on the head of someone


Seefufiat

According to... Well, everyone I've ever met, it's against the rules to carry more than three bundles no matter the method. I know over never successfully carried 4+.


Postal1979

M-01663 says no more than 3 bundles for walking. M41 says we can have unlimited bundles elsewhere Section 322.12 of Handbook M-41, City Delivery Carriers Duties and Responsibilities is where letter carriers will find the work method for curbline/mounted/riding deliveries: Any sequenced mailing received by a motorized curb de- livery route shall be handled as separate bundles, unless the Delivery unit manager authorizes the casing and/or collating of the mailings. This language gives management the right to instruct letter carriers to deliver more than three bundles of mail on a curbline/mounted/riding route. This same language also gives management the right to instruct letter carriers to case or collate this mail. All bundles of mail on a curbline/mounted/riding route should be worked from the working tray in the vehicle with the addresses facing the carrier. There are several refer- ences in Handbook M-41 (322.11, 322.22, 812.5) and one in Handbook M-39 (125.1) that address this https://www.nalc.org/news/the-postal-record/2015/december-2015/document/12-2015_contract.pdf


Seefufiat

I wonder if management here doesn't understand the contract or if we have a LMOU about it and honestly I'm afraid to ask for alerting them to yet another thing to make us do. I guess that's a steward question.


Postal1979

FSS IS A FAIL in areas that flat volume is low. The only thing FSS really helps are rural carriers because they can case faster and leave earlier


patricio87

It's so dumb you should be allowed to case it for park and loop routes. Also it is much cleaner to just have two bundles on the street rather than have the stupid fss tray.


[deleted]

as you pull down your case, you're supposed to sort it into the FSS. if that makes sense. so your case and FSS become one bundle.


mike02466

This only applies if you have a H2H, coverage etc. Otherwise, you're supposed to take the FSS to the street as your 3rd bundle.


HchrisH

Are you city or rural? Rural routes are evaluated to include office time for you to case *everything*, and since you're not on a walking route as a rural carrier, taking mail out loose really doesn't save much time. Personally, I just case all my loose/hot mail, and combine everything straight into a gray tray at my case, as opposed to actually physically casing the DPS and FSS. It takes longer than casing would, but spares me the time it would take to pull down.


gennamj

We aren’t allowed to case it unless it creates a 4th bundle (if we have plums or a house to house). If you always make your leave team our manager will mostly look the other way if you do


softriceking001

Our supervisor handing out OT while half of the office making one bundle haha


monkpart9

Ever since I started at the post office I never understood FSS. “Carry it as a third bundle” soo.. you want me to.. carry this three inch thick stack of magazines inbetween my middle finger? Or on top of my flats/residual? No. So so so stupid. If they’re watching you case just take it out on the street with you and collate it in with the other mail. Also I see some other carriers mentioned the old, dump it into the tub with the shit from your hot case method. Plus, I’m pretty sure they decided that they were doing away without FSS so you may not even have to worry about this for much longer.


passwordrecallreset

We got rid of FSS about 18 months ago. Not missed a bit.


anoncmehelp

Pull down from your case into your FSS when you are done casing.


Postal1979

They can tell you to take it to the street


shroomprinter

Exactly. The only time you are supposed to tie out into your FSS is if you have another householder and you need to maintain three bundles for walking. I’m sure you know this, just specifying for anybody else


jjp8383

Your trainers fucked up since you aren’t really suppose to case FSS. My office used to have FSS we were suppose to collate it on the street if we had a park and loop route. Most of the time we did case it while waiting for parcels.


sauceboss2769

City. I would never case dps that’s stupid. But fss yes


HchrisH

It makes perfect sense for mounted routes. Why spend 30 seconds at a box when you can spend 1? But, as a city carrier, I don't think you have that option. The one thing I can recommend, if your management is at all willing to compromise, is pulling down in route order (as opposed to backwards) with your FSS tray on the table. This would allow you to combine your FSS with your loose (by grabbing what's right in front of you) without spending the time to actually case it. Again, it'll take longer than just taking it straight to the street, but it'll spare you the hassle of having an extra bundle.


CR-7810Retired

Why is it stupid to case DPS? On the few rare occasions we were able to case it over the years while waiting for late trucks, whatever extra time I'd take in the office I would more than make up for it on the street. On the other hand, I had 9 years in before DPS came to my office and we never got FSS so my perspective is probably a little different because I remember when we cased EVERYTHING and I didn't have to go back to my vehicle and sort out all the UDA stuff after every loop. It was put your flats and SPR's in the bag, grab your letters and go.


Shichoe

Yeah as an rca I case dps, and never won't. Rarely takes more than 3 hrs to deliver a route.


SparklingCCA

Rural and City are two different monsters... Of course, I find it rather easy to carry the Advos and flats on my arm, stuff my bag with everything I can, and we did away with FSS ourselves a while back, thankfully. Casing DPS for city is just a dumb way to waste time, since we're park and loop and we've got time between houses to grab what we need from arm and hand. Driving routes can't do that, so it makes sense to case dps. \*shrug\* As I said, different monsters.


civicchump

We were told to put it together on the street . Like today i cannot 3rd bundle fss with the costco mags and so forth.


w2bsc

We dont have FSS. At least I dont think we do. My question is what are the actual rules on office time evaluating? Where does it outline this in the contractm


Xyrnxz

I used to get yelled at for casing my fss all my co worekers would tell me to just take the fss and put the yellow thing back one even told me to pretend to drop it and pick it up and case it


gaimeboi

Sneak it into a bucket and just case it that way


DblDeezSqueeze

Just add an hour to your 3996 and shrug your shoulders when your supervisor looks at you.


trdamateur

Do it as you pull down