Rural Carriers can not mark packages anymore  

I'm starting to get suspicious about some sort of new screw-job that the PO has planned for us concerning parcels at the next mail count... we're starting to hear more and more about them wanting people to scan parcels in the AM before departing the PO... either AAU scans, or whatever this thing that specialm0313 is talking about... 

Does anybody but me see some sort of wild conspiracy theory at work here... 

D.B.Cooper said
I'm starting to get suspicious about some sort of new screw-job that the PO has planned for us concerning parcels at the next mail count... we're starting to hear more and more about them wanting people to scan parcels in the AM before departing the PO... either AAU scans, or whatever this thing that specialm0313 is talking about... 

Does anybody but me see some sort of wild conspiracy theory at work here...    

We had a stand up talk today for the rural and city carriers today and the supervisor told us that we have to start scanning every package out for delivery and then the scanner sort the packages and tell you which row the package is on..Like row 1,2,3,4,5 or 6 and that’s how you would load your vehicle..All the carriers were  pissed it pretty much was a shit show in our office today..🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Uh yeah this won't work... At least not in my office. I load my packages first thing after doing flats and were not allowed to grab our scanners until the clerks say so which is shortly before I leave because the scanners haven't finished updating (so they say)

specialm0313 said
Been working for the po for nine years ran a aux route 5 years and just went regular 2 months ago...My question is how do Carriers not mark their packages? We was told by the supervisor we cannot mark our packages any more we have to scan all of them out for delivery then the scanner will put them in order and then we load our vehicle..Any other office is doing this new thing with the packages??  

Have you notified your DR?

This sounds like a terrible idea.  I always have a ton of packages from China, large flats, or photographs etc. that don't have a barcode on them to even scan.

Also how does the scanner magically put them in order after you scan them ?  Wouldn't you still have to go hunting through a million packages at every house to find the one you are looking for even if the scanner notifies you that you have one ?

And if you are taking the time to organize them at your case or in your truck so you know where they are that is going to take as much time as marking them.

I haven't seen any changes in the 603, might have missed them because the NRLCA doesn't give updates on anything but funeral arrangements for 8th stepcousins of past national officers and so forth.

PO 603 says 

223.23 Flats and Odd-Size Pieces
Case flat mail and odd-size pieces that fit in the same separation as letter
mail. Generally, case these items after letter-size mail. If management
approves, such items may be cased before letter-size mail if this does not
delay the redistribution of missorted preferential mail or hinder the efficient
casing of letter mail. Place parcels or odd-size pieces that do not fit in the
separations on the case ledge and sort into sequence of delivery. A letter
may be reversed in the proper separation, or some other method may be
used, to alert you that there is a parcel or odd-size article that cannot be
cased for that address.

Didn't want to make prior post long.

The reason we get 20 seconds office time for a parcel is because we are to line them up on our ledge and place them in the hamper in order.    And when loading (check M 38 section 3 I believe) you place the parcels neatly in your vehicle keeping them in the order that you previously put them in.

None of that row x, BS. In order!!!!     During Christmas OT, if that is what they want to do while you are in OT status, then fine.  But otherwise file a grievance for actual time for sorting them out on the route or during loading.   Also include time for retreating after you miss one unless they want you to bring it back and sort it into your vehicle again next day. LOL 

here's another.......... PO 603  262 Loading Vehicle
262.1 General
Load all mail in the vehicle so that it is in sequence of delivery to ensure that
no time is lost on the route searching for the proper bundles and parcels or
containers.

We can hope this is just a localized fluke... but what if this is some sort of new thing coming out of the time study, and is to be implemented USPS-wide before the next mail count... or maybe something to deal with the avalanche of parcels we're gonna have over the next couple of months... 

We've heard from a few different people about this now... getting stand ups and so forth...  sounds all half-baked... which is usually how they do stuff, so maybe it's a real thing??? 

Special, for right now you should be able to file a grievance over the change in the way you are being "allowed" to place your parcels in order. Any changes , especially something as drastic as the one you mention are to be made after a pre-count conference in preparation for a soon to follow count.

The change of parcel marking is not something that has been discussed with our union and is not "inflictable" yet, and may never be. For the USPS to have carriers start using the scanners as you mention, they would have to be trained to do so and that training is paid training. File a grievance and get your DR involved. If you can think up a way that can make this new order "unsafe" you can explain to your supervisor that you will not be following that order because you believe it to be unsafe. You could use the fact mentioned in post # 6, by Jacob. Trying to find unmarked/non bar coded parcels while delivering mail would take your attention away from your driving and place you and others into danger, or cause you to be parked along busy streets while searching for those parcels. Tell them you refuse to follow this new order unless they can demonstrate/train you how it is supposed to be done without placing you in harms way.

Oi veh. said

Have you notified your DR?  

No I haven’t bc we have a rep I’m our office and she said she was going to work on it...So I’ll see when I go to work.

Maybe UPS used this program 20 years ago to load the trucks.  

They sold the program to the PO, for a nice profit.  The PO as an organization (if you can call it that) is way behind the times in many ways.

dumbolehickfromms said
I haven't seen any changes in the 603, might have missed them because the NRLCA doesn't give updates on anything but funeral arrangements for 8th stepcousins of past national officers and so forth.

PO 603 says 

223.23 Flats and Odd-Size Pieces
Case flat mail and odd-size pieces that fit in the same separation as letter
mail. Generally, case these items after letter-size mail. If management
approves, such items may be cased before letter-size mail if this does not
delay the redistribution of missorted preferential mail or hinder the efficient
casing of letter mail. Place parcels or odd-size pieces that do not fit in the
separations on the case ledge and sort into sequence of delivery. A letter
may be reversed in the proper separation, or some other method may be
used, to alert you that there is a parcel or odd-size article that cannot be
cased for that address

I have'nt figured out how to place 150 parcels the size of 50 lb dog food bags on the ledge of my case.

Ask the boss for assistance.