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.

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.

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.

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.

Ask the boss for assistance.

joggernot said

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.

  

First off, how do you even deliver those?  Do you have box van or do they allow you to use a 2 ton USPS truck?

Anyway, we all know the 603 was printed in 1991 and updated a few times for tech changes.  Our union has failed since that time. Yes we got Striving for Excellence Together (SET) checks at the end of the year for “delivering parcels to the door” for a few years to offset the m37 to PO 603 change for parcel delivery- plus the 10 second additional route time for going to the door.   

That was not too onerous for 90% of rural routes until the UPS strike.  After that parcels that wouldn’t fit inside boxes have increased to the point where the 10 seconds isn’t anywhere close to the time needed for delivery. 

Maybe the time study is going to show / make up for 20 years of rural carriers working for FREE!!! 

Changing the subject  If PO is going to implement this new duty as a result of the time study, shouldn’t a REAL UNION demand the time study data/time value  be put  into place immediately.    Remember the MOU said nothing can be put in place until the FULL time study is implemented? 

Oh wait funeral arrangements need to be posted for so and so’s great great stepgranddad.

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??  

In the ARC Academy class, we teach the new ARC’s two ways to use the MDD scanner. 

1) Dynamic Delivery has a pre-identified manifest. It is a way for the PO to know the routing flow of the parcels. A route and delivery sequence number may be hand written on each parcel so that you can load your truck in delivery order. Management sets up Static routes and can include variable street times. You would scan the parcel and it will give you a sequence number to help you load the vehicle.

2) Quadrant System

Using LIFO or Last in First out, typically lower numbers next to driver. Divide the back of the truck into sections that contain parcels of a similar number range.

When you are delivering a Static route, the delivery sequence may indicate delivery of parcel 45 at your first stop, parcel 3 at the next stop and parcel 53 and the third stop. If you load in numerical order, the scan order number can help you locate each parcel, even though they are not in delivery order.

As you can see from some of the basic material being taught, it is easier said than done. The MDD can show in color. As you scan a parcel, the number assigned to that parcel will turn green. If it is yellow, that indicates more than one parcel for that location. If you have any gray ones, that indicates missed scan.

Now as we all know, the battery life will not be able to handle all of this along with SPM’s.

The MDD’s also are equipped with GPS navigation for those unfamiliar with area.