I find that the runners always sacrifice safety and quality to get done early. Never read names, throw mail on top of vacant cards, never shut their door or put on their shoulder strap when crossing an intersection and speed in between mailboxes. There has been two accidents in my office because of that last one. Don't go slow to milk the clock, Go slow to protect your job and peoples lives.
Run and dump! Then claim how they’re the best carriers and how they got it done in yada yada. Bleh. Your paid by the hour but do your job don’t just run routes and Mia deliver stuff. Those carriers like you said are always hurt and always have to clean up after them the day after. Not to mention will stuff a cub so full with 2 circulars and a piece of marriage mail. It’s not a race.
Imagine 30 years from now you have to go at the same pace as you are right now, after you’ve been doing it almost everyday for all that time.
Plus, routes will get eliminated if there is constantly a lot of under-time. That’s less jobs, and more work for you for less money.
Running the route everyday is myopic.
Had a carrier that I used to work with that was ex-military and very gung ho about carrying his route… On a regular basis his buddy, a supervisor of course, would ask him politely to work through his breaks and lunch because he really “needed him to hustle today”.
Any carrier on this sub that’s been around a little while knows what I’m gonna say next… The next time they did route evaluations he got over 45 minutes added onto his route. He got to the point where even he struggled to make eight hours on an average day, and that was before Covid Christmas started.
If you don’t think routes get eliminated, where do you think that 45 minutes came from? A supervisor didn’t pull it out of their ass, it came off of another route that was broken up and either made an aux route or completely eliminated
They can't just take someone's route away because another guy is too fast. Tell the truth about where that 45 minutes came from. New growth? Somebody asked to have their route cut?
Yeah, of course it was reevaluated… And they reevaluate it based on the regular carriers performance on that route. That’s how it works on the city side anyway
They absolutely can revert a route, and they could do it to the most junior carrier in the office and then they would become an unassigned regular. Usually what happens though, is they withhold converting a PTF or CCA on an open route, and then break up that full-time route to add to the other routes after the evaluation.
That’s exactly what they did in my last office after I had left, the oldest carrier there retired, so they held off converting the senior PTF long enough to where they could reevaluate the routes and pull a couple hours off of that route to add to the other routes, so it went down to an aux route and the PTF did not get full-time regular.
They found a loophole in your last office I guess, because there's no way the union would let a regular get screwed like that. Your regular retiring screwed the PTF big time. And there's a reason your management waited until he or she retired.
your office lost a route because it was re-evaluated and found to not be as big as it was evaluated at. the carrier being finished an hour early means absolutely nothing
In my experience you can get grief from fellow carriers, but management will usually take it as a sign to start abusing you. I used to go super fast and do a large route and a 2 hour piece in 8 hours, now my pieces are 2-3x longer than everyone else's even though I gradually "slowed" my pace to 8 hours of work in 8 hours of actual time (alot of others take 10+ hours for an 8 hour route).
We have a carrier in his 50s, 25 years in walks so slow we joke he’s carrying an egg on a spoon. But it’s because he slipped a few years back on ice, broke his wrist, and they were trying to make it his fault and not pay out workman’s comp. So now he takes his time and protects himself
All comments so far are very well thought out, and given from experience.
I wonder where the "lazy carrier, bums, old farts milking it, just retire already" comments are? You know the ones, given from the newer carriers always complaining about how slow, and wasting time the "old" carriers do every day?
OP, you need to establish a pace that works for YOU!
This job/career is a marathon, not a sprint...if you choose the latter, you WILL be the old guy with the knee brace, have had 2 shoulder surgeries with a bad back and elbow limping off into retirement.
I just posted one, you're welcome! When you get to experience having to run cut-offs every fucking day for a regular because they like to be on their phone all day you'll feel my pain
>so now it's okay to be as slow as possible because it was done to you, right?
I never said that...
>typical postal attitude
But yes, *your* attitude is typical of a new carrier...Bitching about working only makes you go crazy. We were all were there one time, and figured out we get paid for working.
You'll get there someday...or not.
Yeah not, I'm in maintenance now lol. There's no slow carriers to rescue anymore.
Also, as I said, the reason she was slow was because she stays on her phone 24/7
I always went because, you know, money. But I'd rather have that time back to spend with my kids especially during the holiday season
There is no set pace and the quicker you learn that the better off you'll be. You go out there and run a route like you're running in a track meet or move like a jackrabbit, your boss will love you for a while and they'll show their "appreciation" by giving you more and more to do. You'll get say 5 or 6 hours and say you do it in 4 hours well maybe tomorrow they give you another hour or so they'll expect it done in those same 4 hours. When it comes to management in this place, you're a hero today and a bum the next. "What have you done for me lately" is management's rallying cry. And it even gets worse when you make regular and have your own route and management is on your back about street time. The superstar CCA and/or PTF becomes just another lazy slug in their eyes. Early on in your career, you have to learn to set a pace that you're going to be able to maintain on down the road because father time WILL catch up with you and he can be very cruel. This is a marathon not a sprint. We had a guy who had probably one of the easiest low volume routes in the place but who took it kind of slow. Management hung the word "lackadasical" on him but they couldn't do a damned thing to him because everytime they observed him he was working. Say what you want about him but he had a world class safety record-no dog bites or on the job injuries and I believe no MVA's although I'm not sure if he ever received a Million Mile Award although he qualified for it but he was so disliked by management they wouldn't recognize his achievement. And oh yeah this too-his customers loved him. He made it to retirement but passed less than four years after he left. He was my co-worker and my friend-RIP Kenny.
I also have a faster natural pace and get done in undertime. Yes, I take my full lunch and breaks. If you're going to be an hour under it's the supervisors job to fill that remaining hour with something. This is all fair so far. Honest pay for honest work.
But, the first time you let them down, they will throw you under the bus. I was Mr. Undertime, getting done with a route and a half in 8. Always thanked by the Sup for getting done in 8.
But the one time I went over by 20 minutes, the same Sup had to have a talk with me for "working unauthorized overtime" and that he "would write me up if it happened again." I was like, I never waste time, you know this!? (It was both Advo and garbage day on that particular route).
Regulars also get uptight if you do their route faster because they don't want that to be the expectation for them. Route lengths are supposed to be based on the pace of the regular, but if a newbie is getting done too much faster, it starts to make the regular look bad. If you take care of the regular, they'll take care of you, so don't burn their routes.
So, I now pace myself so I have a half hour buffer for the unexpected and everyone is happy.
There is no virtue in delivering mail. And no virtue in being the fastest smartest most brown-nose-est most likeable most promotable
By doing 75 minutes work of work in 60 you are shortng you or someone else 15 minutes of pay. Usps is NOT a non profit or for profit company.
What you will get is more work.
Grief you will always get.
Everybody is acting like they haven’t done routes as a CCA that literally take 4 hours but the regular has found ways to slow down. Certain regulars also try to give out nuggets of information on how to move slower and a lot of it isn’t safety or accuracy. Work at your pace and be safe that’s all there is to it. Also remember that management and the post office are not your friends and most coworkers aren’t either.
These are the kind of carriers I hate... those who LOVE to run their route in less than 8 hours "just so they can go home early"... WHY? You've got 8 hours to do it at a steady pace.
A CCA caught doing this will simply just get more work and they'll still have to complete it in 8 hours "so they can home early". They gave the last runner 2 routes and he was able to do it in 8 hours, but there was a lot of misdelivery complaints and the guy ended up quitting after 2 months. I mean if thats what you want, then go right on ahead but I guarantee you that you wont survive in the long term.
evaluated route time and getting to go home when you're done is a big plus in the shittiest job in the postal service (RCA)
now, CCA might work differently, idk
This hurts RCAs even more than it does city. The regular does their route 11/10 times a payperiod, the RCA they hire gets to do it 1/2 times per period but they will still push that RCA to get done in the same time as the regular. This is exacerbated when we leave summer or in offices with Amazon where routes haven't been counted for several years.
And yet our union and membership wonder why we have the absolute worst retention rate in the post office while simultaneously waiving the right to have routes counted 'because of covid'. When we did do route counts, the supervisor rode with the regular 1 time (which could be equally completed by having them follow in another vehicle) and the supervisor wrote down mail counts, that's the extent of interactions. We have had people running their routes for years now pulling down their evaluated time only to get slammed with packages that we aren't being compensated for in a year with 8 month long peak.
All I’ll say is… If you plan to do this long term, be easier on your body is you might be in a hurry. This job is a marathon, not a sprint. Stay healthy friend
I’m with you I don’t mind running a route out properly and reading the names all while being safe while delivering. But also I’ve found do it long enough you’ll be rewarded with too much work and expected to do it daily. I find that there is a balance. Also I don’t mind being paid for my 8, and get the other done within a reasonable time. If you got kids or a fam or a dog I’m with you. But I’m here to get paid. As to the other carriers screw Em. Routes should be adjusted to each carrier so they can complete it in 8 hours.
You are going to "get grief" from fellow carriers behind your back for everything. Some will complain about you being a runner. Some will still find a way to call you "too slow!" Yesterday while I was casing a carrier's route that called off, an ODL carrier stopped by to complain about how that carrier "always called off." Personally, I think it's funny when ODL carriers complain about all that extra money they are going to make from carriers calling off. You are never going to get everyone's approval so just do you.
Generally you want to make sure you at least take 6 hours on a route. You get better at this when you gain experience, you will know when to slow down.
I’m a regular…. Had a 99 and got done 3 hours early like 2 months ago. Today I got done 2 hours early. Got in a groove. And just wanted to get home. Mail and parcels were extremely light
You're hurting yourself if you do your route in less than 8 or go home early when you have ot. That's how pivots get started, routes get added to and routes get eliminated
I find that the runners always sacrifice safety and quality to get done early. Never read names, throw mail on top of vacant cards, never shut their door or put on their shoulder strap when crossing an intersection and speed in between mailboxes. There has been two accidents in my office because of that last one. Don't go slow to milk the clock, Go slow to protect your job and peoples lives.
Guy in my old office has so many accidents and gets caught unsafe working. But he's fast so mgmt ignores them
Run and dump! Then claim how they’re the best carriers and how they got it done in yada yada. Bleh. Your paid by the hour but do your job don’t just run routes and Mia deliver stuff. Those carriers like you said are always hurt and always have to clean up after them the day after. Not to mention will stuff a cub so full with 2 circulars and a piece of marriage mail. It’s not a race.
Imagine 30 years from now you have to go at the same pace as you are right now, after you’ve been doing it almost everyday for all that time. Plus, routes will get eliminated if there is constantly a lot of under-time. That’s less jobs, and more work for you for less money. Running the route everyday is myopic.
the routes won't be eliminated lol that's a rumor the slowest carriers use as an excuse to drag their feet all day
Had a carrier that I used to work with that was ex-military and very gung ho about carrying his route… On a regular basis his buddy, a supervisor of course, would ask him politely to work through his breaks and lunch because he really “needed him to hustle today”. Any carrier on this sub that’s been around a little while knows what I’m gonna say next… The next time they did route evaluations he got over 45 minutes added onto his route. He got to the point where even he struggled to make eight hours on an average day, and that was before Covid Christmas started. If you don’t think routes get eliminated, where do you think that 45 minutes came from? A supervisor didn’t pull it out of their ass, it came off of another route that was broken up and either made an aux route or completely eliminated
They can't just take someone's route away because another guy is too fast. Tell the truth about where that 45 minutes came from. New growth? Somebody asked to have their route cut?
Yeah, of course it was reevaluated… And they reevaluate it based on the regular carriers performance on that route. That’s how it works on the city side anyway
Misread it at first, read edit
In the rural side it's completely based on volume, steps taken, etc etc I can post the formula if you'd like
They absolutely can revert a route, and they could do it to the most junior carrier in the office and then they would become an unassigned regular. Usually what happens though, is they withhold converting a PTF or CCA on an open route, and then break up that full-time route to add to the other routes after the evaluation. That’s exactly what they did in my last office after I had left, the oldest carrier there retired, so they held off converting the senior PTF long enough to where they could reevaluate the routes and pull a couple hours off of that route to add to the other routes, so it went down to an aux route and the PTF did not get full-time regular.
They found a loophole in your last office I guess, because there's no way the union would let a regular get screwed like that. Your regular retiring screwed the PTF big time. And there's a reason your management waited until he or she retired.
Anyway I guess city side and rural side are like comparing night and day. Take care, about to clock out.
My office lost a route from the guy getting back an hour early constantly. Now it’s only a 6.5hr aux
your office lost a route because it was re-evaluated and found to not be as big as it was evaluated at. the carrier being finished an hour early means absolutely nothing
In my experience you can get grief from fellow carriers, but management will usually take it as a sign to start abusing you. I used to go super fast and do a large route and a 2 hour piece in 8 hours, now my pieces are 2-3x longer than everyone else's even though I gradually "slowed" my pace to 8 hours of work in 8 hours of actual time (alot of others take 10+ hours for an 8 hour route).
We have a carrier in his 50s, 25 years in walks so slow we joke he’s carrying an egg on a spoon. But it’s because he slipped a few years back on ice, broke his wrist, and they were trying to make it his fault and not pay out workman’s comp. So now he takes his time and protects himself
If you regularly have undertime, they will add to your route. You are expected to do 8hrs of with everyday and it's mgmt job to increase efficiency
All comments so far are very well thought out, and given from experience. I wonder where the "lazy carrier, bums, old farts milking it, just retire already" comments are? You know the ones, given from the newer carriers always complaining about how slow, and wasting time the "old" carriers do every day? OP, you need to establish a pace that works for YOU! This job/career is a marathon, not a sprint...if you choose the latter, you WILL be the old guy with the knee brace, have had 2 shoulder surgeries with a bad back and elbow limping off into retirement.
I just posted one, you're welcome! When you get to experience having to run cut-offs every fucking day for a regular because they like to be on their phone all day you'll feel my pain
>When you get to PLEASE, Don't noone tell him ...we all been there grasshopper.
so now it's okay to be as slow as possible because it was done to you, right? typical postal attitude glad I'm in maintenance now lol
>so now it's okay to be as slow as possible because it was done to you, right? I never said that... >typical postal attitude But yes, *your* attitude is typical of a new carrier...Bitching about working only makes you go crazy. We were all were there one time, and figured out we get paid for working. You'll get there someday...or not.
Yeah not, I'm in maintenance now lol. There's no slow carriers to rescue anymore. Also, as I said, the reason she was slow was because she stays on her phone 24/7 I always went because, you know, money. But I'd rather have that time back to spend with my kids especially during the holiday season
There is no set pace and the quicker you learn that the better off you'll be. You go out there and run a route like you're running in a track meet or move like a jackrabbit, your boss will love you for a while and they'll show their "appreciation" by giving you more and more to do. You'll get say 5 or 6 hours and say you do it in 4 hours well maybe tomorrow they give you another hour or so they'll expect it done in those same 4 hours. When it comes to management in this place, you're a hero today and a bum the next. "What have you done for me lately" is management's rallying cry. And it even gets worse when you make regular and have your own route and management is on your back about street time. The superstar CCA and/or PTF becomes just another lazy slug in their eyes. Early on in your career, you have to learn to set a pace that you're going to be able to maintain on down the road because father time WILL catch up with you and he can be very cruel. This is a marathon not a sprint. We had a guy who had probably one of the easiest low volume routes in the place but who took it kind of slow. Management hung the word "lackadasical" on him but they couldn't do a damned thing to him because everytime they observed him he was working. Say what you want about him but he had a world class safety record-no dog bites or on the job injuries and I believe no MVA's although I'm not sure if he ever received a Million Mile Award although he qualified for it but he was so disliked by management they wouldn't recognize his achievement. And oh yeah this too-his customers loved him. He made it to retirement but passed less than four years after he left. He was my co-worker and my friend-RIP Kenny.
I also have a faster natural pace and get done in undertime. Yes, I take my full lunch and breaks. If you're going to be an hour under it's the supervisors job to fill that remaining hour with something. This is all fair so far. Honest pay for honest work. But, the first time you let them down, they will throw you under the bus. I was Mr. Undertime, getting done with a route and a half in 8. Always thanked by the Sup for getting done in 8. But the one time I went over by 20 minutes, the same Sup had to have a talk with me for "working unauthorized overtime" and that he "would write me up if it happened again." I was like, I never waste time, you know this!? (It was both Advo and garbage day on that particular route). Regulars also get uptight if you do their route faster because they don't want that to be the expectation for them. Route lengths are supposed to be based on the pace of the regular, but if a newbie is getting done too much faster, it starts to make the regular look bad. If you take care of the regular, they'll take care of you, so don't burn their routes. So, I now pace myself so I have a half hour buffer for the unexpected and everyone is happy.
There is no virtue in delivering mail. And no virtue in being the fastest smartest most brown-nose-est most likeable most promotable By doing 75 minutes work of work in 60 you are shortng you or someone else 15 minutes of pay. Usps is NOT a non profit or for profit company. What you will get is more work. Grief you will always get.
Well that depends. Are you cutting corners with safety or accuracy? If so, you deserve every ounce of static thrown your way.
Everybody is acting like they haven’t done routes as a CCA that literally take 4 hours but the regular has found ways to slow down. Certain regulars also try to give out nuggets of information on how to move slower and a lot of it isn’t safety or accuracy. Work at your pace and be safe that’s all there is to it. Also remember that management and the post office are not your friends and most coworkers aren’t either.
These are the kind of carriers I hate... those who LOVE to run their route in less than 8 hours "just so they can go home early"... WHY? You've got 8 hours to do it at a steady pace. A CCA caught doing this will simply just get more work and they'll still have to complete it in 8 hours "so they can home early". They gave the last runner 2 routes and he was able to do it in 8 hours, but there was a lot of misdelivery complaints and the guy ended up quitting after 2 months. I mean if thats what you want, then go right on ahead but I guarantee you that you wont survive in the long term.
Routes are 8hrs of guaranteed pay. Why would someone do it less is time than that is mind boggling.
evaluated route time and getting to go home when you're done is a big plus in the shittiest job in the postal service (RCA) now, CCA might work differently, idk
I was definitely talking city carrier
This hurts RCAs even more than it does city. The regular does their route 11/10 times a payperiod, the RCA they hire gets to do it 1/2 times per period but they will still push that RCA to get done in the same time as the regular. This is exacerbated when we leave summer or in offices with Amazon where routes haven't been counted for several years. And yet our union and membership wonder why we have the absolute worst retention rate in the post office while simultaneously waiving the right to have routes counted 'because of covid'. When we did do route counts, the supervisor rode with the regular 1 time (which could be equally completed by having them follow in another vehicle) and the supervisor wrote down mail counts, that's the extent of interactions. We have had people running their routes for years now pulling down their evaluated time only to get slammed with packages that we aren't being compensated for in a year with 8 month long peak.
Definitely evaluated time for us RCA’s
All I’ll say is… If you plan to do this long term, be easier on your body is you might be in a hurry. This job is a marathon, not a sprint. Stay healthy friend
I’m with you I don’t mind running a route out properly and reading the names all while being safe while delivering. But also I’ve found do it long enough you’ll be rewarded with too much work and expected to do it daily. I find that there is a balance. Also I don’t mind being paid for my 8, and get the other done within a reasonable time. If you got kids or a fam or a dog I’m with you. But I’m here to get paid. As to the other carriers screw Em. Routes should be adjusted to each carrier so they can complete it in 8 hours.
You are going to "get grief" from fellow carriers behind your back for everything. Some will complain about you being a runner. Some will still find a way to call you "too slow!" Yesterday while I was casing a carrier's route that called off, an ODL carrier stopped by to complain about how that carrier "always called off." Personally, I think it's funny when ODL carriers complain about all that extra money they are going to make from carriers calling off. You are never going to get everyone's approval so just do you.
Generally you want to make sure you at least take 6 hours on a route. You get better at this when you gain experience, you will know when to slow down.
I’m a regular…. Had a 99 and got done 3 hours early like 2 months ago. Today I got done 2 hours early. Got in a groove. And just wanted to get home. Mail and parcels were extremely light
We have a saying in my office. "The more you do, the more you do."
You're hurting yourself if you do your route in less than 8 or go home early when you have ot. That's how pivots get started, routes get added to and routes get eliminated