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Postal Grunt

(240 posts)
5. There's no easy solution..
Tue Jul 25, 2023, 11:24 AM
Jul 2023

There's no easy solution to your problem. The USPS is having trouble retaining new employees. The job that people used to wait for months or even a couple years, as I did, isn't all that desirable anymore. Most letter carriers these days start off as essentially disposable temps with no benefits or job security and relatively low pay even though management expects them to perform at the same level and with the same dedication to the job as a regular carrier. The letter carriers union, the National Association of Letter Carriers, has been trying to help remedy the service problems but they have to deal with a management structure that has long been captivated by numbers rather than satisfying customers.

Regular carriers are assigned to the same route on a daily basis through contractual agreements. It makes sense because these days a route can easily have more than 700 individual stops or delivery points to deal with. While most mail is machine sorted, the carrier is still expected to know who is whom on their routes and not misdeliver a single piece of mail. That's easy to say for a manager but sometimes difficult to do since approximately 25% of Americans are moving somewhere every year. Try to imagine keeping a couple hundred change of address orders straight in your head along with their family members for at least six months on top of the existing deliveries. It's difficult enough for a regular but an impossible task for the sub who is criticized by customers and management alike.

Obviously, the solution carriers would suggest is to hire more career/full time carriers who are assigned regular routes or to relieve the regular carrier on her/his scheduled day off. Management has long said that they have to manage using overtime to see that every day's mail is delivered on the day it is received at the station so someone will get their mail late or not at the expected time. Increased automation was expected to minimize overtime and increase accuracy of delivery but it's easy to see that it hasn't and isn't fulfilling projected expectations. Despite their fevered protestations that they can't hire more career carriers due to long term costs of employees, falling utilization rates of the many services offered should be but isn't accepted as a warning sign that they're wrong. Most management has little to no regular contact with everyday customers. They can't recognize and solve problems until they meet their customers face to face.

The expected UPS strike will shine a light on the USPS and it probably won't be a pretty sight. Customers who are presently using UPS will turn to FedEx and the USPS for shipping. The difference is that the USPS is required by law to accept all mail and deliver to every street address six days a week. There will be overtime, there will be frustrated customers, and there will be tired carriers working in what is expected to some of the worst heat related conditions of the summer. I'm glad to be a retired carrier because I've been there and done that.

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