City Delivery
In this article I would like to give you some pointers on how to save assignments from Route Adjustment. During the live week, make sure that you take
your 30-minute lunch, 8-minute wash-up, and your 10-minute street break. When
you don’t take your lunch and wash-up, you are giving the postal service half
of your hourly rate of pay back. Imagine that you get paid $30 dollars an hour,
and at the end of the day if you don’t take your lunch, that’s $15 you give back.
Multiply that by 5 days a week and that is $75 a week, $300 a month and $3,600
a year. Now imagine if you did overtime or V time, the money you will have
given back. You work too hard to be giving that hard earned money back. Even
so, the postal service is happy to take it from you.
I also notice that many carriers are carrying extra bags on top of their carts.
That practice means work being taken away from the Combo Drivers. God forbid
you are hurt pushing that cart, management will refute your claim stating that
you caused your own injury. We get paid by the hour, why are we shortchanging
ourselves? We are losing Combo Driving assignments across the city because
some of us are helping management with these actions. Many of us have a long
way to go before retirement and by not working smart we will encounter a tough
time along the way.
How much time are you saving? If you know that your relays are always late,
submit a PS Form 3996. RIMS message management to inform them that you are
waiting for your relays. Imagine, if your station only had one relay driver to do
the relays for the entire station. Guess what, it can and does happen! I hope that
this station does the right thing and shows management that it is impossible to
only have one relay assignment in a station and expect overtime not to fly through
the roof. Just a heads up the TIAREAP team doesn’t give time if you have been
waiting extremely long for your relays.
You are also entitled to comfort stops. Comfort stops are bathroom breaks,
water breaks if the weather is hot, and time to warm-up if it’s cold outside. These
are things that the union has fought for and made available for us to utilize. If
you count all the breaks and wash-up, we get about 36 minutes of pay for doing
nothing. That means we need to work 7 hours and 24 minutes for a full day’s
pay. If we can maintain an average street time of five and a half hours and if the
route has a percent to standard time of two hours, your station should be fine.
When you deliver packages, please don’t use shortcuts. Remember using
a shortcut means you are taking time away from your route. Ring the bell, go
upstairs and deliver those parcels. By doing so, you will form a bond with your
customers so tight that it will last long after you are gone. It would make delivering the mail so much easier. Ask your customers to tell you when they are going
on vacation, of if someone new moves in with them or the building. They will be
your eyes and ears. If you can manage to follow these pointers, I have no doubt
that when the TIAREAP (Route Adjustment) comes to town, you will fare well.
Customer Connect
The weather is getting nice, businesses are opening and closing. If you see a
new business pop-up ask if the postal service can better service them by saving
them money on shipping and/or advertising.
There are many events, happening around this time of year, and new leads can
be generated. Weddings are being planned, halls rented, photographers, florists,
and DJs needed, and all will be in high demand. You may have party planners in
need of new clients and decorators with great new ideas to be shared with consumers. Summer camps will be accepting applications and looking for more kids
to sign up. Sports programs such as football, basketball and baseball are aways
looking for kids to join. Travel agencies may have great deals that they wish to
share. I mention all those things for three reasons.
The first reason is that I want to ensure that the company that I count on to
pay my bills, feed my family and keep the roof over my head is generating money.
I need them to last as long as I live so that I know that when I am up in age that
the money keeps coming in. The second reason is to keep the mail flowing in the
system. Without our customers what do we have. They count on us, just as much,
as we do them. The third reason is when they save money, we make money. They
are more likely to return if they save money and we offer them the best service
in town. So, when you are out on your route, strolling with a loved one or on
a beautiful vacation and see a business that may benefit from our service, help
them help you. If they are looking for advertising, get their full name, business
name, address and phone number. If shipping information is needed, submit that
lead either to Liteblue, your scanner or a Customer Connect Coordinator. Thank
you for your time and enjoy your summer.