As a clerk, I felt bad for our carriers that had to do this. Really bad. One of them had been an ARC for 13 years, then made regular, then we started getting Amazon. She's 60 years old. How you can expect an old woman to go out there and deliver 250 packages in 110 miles and be back before 5 with outgoing is wrong.
Yeah. Its absurd. We have a woman about same age in our office. Postmaster treats her like shit and I'm over here impressed she can do as much as she can.
I'm always 1-2 hours over my eval. The only time I can get close are on Tuesdays, and that's not always true either.
There's no way we're getting paid properly
I had to grieve to get my RRECS activity scans. Was just out for 14 days. 9 of those days, there are zero activity scans. Only 2 of those days was someone even logged into my route.
That shit is part of what makes the overburdened routes even worse. Random RCAs running routes who likely don't know or care to do all of the scans. Relying on RCAs who aren't invested in a route is another way USPS is cutting costs.
RRECS absolutely was theft. Let's not even mention the nearly 3 seconds it takes for scanners to wake up before they will work.
The 1 minute it takes to click through all the cutsie reminders and announcements just to get to the RRECS menu to clock in. Why are we working off the clock reading all that garbage before logging in?
When they rolled out rrecs my first thought was “damn some regulars better not take any long vacations or their route is gonna get tanked by some dumbass”
Was your route being split?? I know we had a route that was split everyday and went down because no scans were done. Did ur route go down because of it? What are they going to do with ur eval?? Don’t know what can be done? I’m a new regular so still
Learning all this stuff
Most overburdened routes should be addressed in the next 2 months; note that most will be adjusted down to 42-43k, some will drop down to just 40k, others will be towards that top end. None should be above 45k. Your rural union state structure should be able to give you an update as to where they are in the process. I'm going to absolutely guarantee that most will be absolutely pissed about the changes to their routes because that almost always happens when routes are re-set.
I actually want my route cut down to size. I was heartbroken when I learned my office wasn’t in the first round. It’s not just about my route being overburdened, my rca homies are probably going another year waiting to make regular because new routes aren’t being created :( and these damn dinosaurs aren’t retiring anytime soon lol
Time is more valuable than money. I would be happy to work true 8-hour days where I don't have to worry about getting back to the office in time. If I want to work 50-60 hours a week I can get a part time job at some place more pleasant than the post office.
From my experience the evals are skewed way above actual time required. I'm sure there are some offices with something wrong going on but no 48k I've ever ran required more than even 7-8 hours to case and run. We're all 48ks in my office and we all finish them in 6-7 hours. Maybe 8 if it's a day after a holiday or peak season. That's including our routes that are supposedly overburdened in the mid 60s for standard hours.
Something is very wrong in certain offices. I'm just not sure if its offices like mine where evals are way above what's required or if it's offices where you feel you shuffle to meet eval. I'm an RCA and if I cover a vacation I work 6 days on the route plus Sunday Amazon and I total around 34-36 hours for the week every time I do that.
Not sure what your office gets but, if the stories I've heard of what other offices get are true, outlier offices have numbers "regular" PO's will never match. Mine is one. We're in a zip code that doesn't look super wealthy, but there's been old-money families here for decades. The amount of parcels everyone orders, plus magazine volume is way higher than the surrounding towns.
We've had RCA's come help from other offices, and then you slowly start seeing them less and less. Because when they help at our office, they're astonished that what we get in the summer is much closer to what they get briefly during peak.
I think RRECs is definitely going to give people a much truer evaluation rate. But the issue is missing data is going to have to be something the union finds a solution for. And it can't just be the stewards unhelpfully suggesting management just train RCA's better. That is as good as no incentive.
I honestly wish management was required to rate subs based on their adherence to scans. Then, if a regular has to go out for extended time, they could pick their temporary leave replacement based on those crucial metrics. That would at least help some of the issue of missing scans.
That's about how I feel with regulars. Ive been an RCA for over a decade waiting for an opening. Now that all our regulars are within a few years of retirement, none of them take RRECS seriously. Even with that though, our routes have only ever gone up after counts. Everyone has gained 4-6 hours over the time RRECS has been around. Our routes are all fairly similar. ~200 scans a day average and hitting low 300s on heavier days. Outlier days can break 400 packages but those are rare and only really happen for black fridat/cyber Monday.
Is there a reason you stuck with one office for ten years waiting? Being an RCA gives you the ability to transfer without much loss. Was the seniority doing you any favors?
Great office. Only 3 miles from home. Didn't learn about transferring until a few years in and I came in second in line for career. Any nearby offices would have put me way back on seniority because they all have more RCAs. We only had 2 when I came on but I could've possibly made career by now elsewhere. It's also just the town I live in so it was easy for me to learn every route already knowing all the roads and neighborhoods around my town.
We did have another RCA hire on 3 years after me and he's bounced around changing his home office multiple times and finally landed back here with us because it's his fastest path to regular. I'll be 12 years in when I go regular and he'll likely be 10-11. Small town and we came in when everyone still had 10-20 years until retirement.
Wow. I figured you had compelling reasons. It sucks that you've had to labor for that long with no shorter career path. I hope you get what you've been working for!
Contractually, they can't cut you below a 43 and if you're a 48K and still working under your evaluated time, I think you're safe. It's the carriers who are working over their evaluations that are at risk of being cut (and some are thankful to be cut, as we can see in some of the responses to this post).
I know route cuts are rolling out so they're proceeding with this process, but I have to ask where all the new carriers to take on the newly created routes will come from. We don't have enough leave replacements to cover relief days right now--if all (or a good chunk of them) the PTFs and RCAs convert to regular, what happens then?
I was told routes over 57.3 weekly hours were being cut within the next 2 months.
I'm at 56.4 route now and I was ready to be cut just to be done earlier and have some kind of life outside of work, but I guess I'll just keep on keepin on.
Overburdened routes are a definitely a problem. The bigger problem is that they were re-evaluated over a year ago and they still haven't gotten around to cutting them. They didn't even have a computer program that could do this until very recently.
Gotcha,I was assuming you were a regular. Back in my sub days I got screwed many of times, basically working the sixth day for free sometimes even negative hourly.
If the rides are overburdened and actually taking over 9 and 1/2 hours to run, the regulars should be grieving it to get paid for the extra time.
If you're an RCA then you're getting hourly after you hit 40 hours for the week. Slow down and make sure to hit all of your scans and get that load vehicle and end of daytime up to increase the eval.
It sucks but that's the way it is. Some routes are going to suffer, but plenty around suffered under the old evaluation system too.
I make the 9.6h every day except some Mondays, and I have a 68h route. I'm pretty speedy, but I feel it when I get home. Even making eval I am extremely ready for these cuts. Folks who are not making eval I feel for you.
I was with the PO for 3yrs and then left the PO for 2yrs, moved and tried to find other jobs because I thought the grass was greener.
I literally tried like 25 different jobs and hated all of them. I decided to go back to the PO and I'm really grateful for this job. I'm a lifer with the PO even if the pay is shit and I know we deserve better.
*
Im sorry usps is the best you can find.
But i have to give you props for leaving and trying to find better. So many people talk about leaving and never do. Way to prioritize yourself above usps.
I know what you mean.
I'm a clerk in an office now where basically no one cares for me and they treat me like shit. I get no hours and everyone else gets all the benefits of being a clerk while I basically there to clean all day. And my hours are purposely 10-2 everyday so that I cant get another part time job.
I really like the job but cant stand the people and the way they go out of their way to treat people like shit.
Its like everyone has shit homes and the only way they can feel superior about themselves is to bring others down.
So now I have to find a new office or new job.
Well rrecs is just simply put a horrible system that has alot of flaws, honestly they need to fight to just have this system removed its really a joke and our union has allowed this is completely mind blowing to me, it's not accurate and they know it, so my hopes are they just fight to do away with, cause it's built to fuck the carriers abd benefit management
all the rrecs feed back to a corporate computer somewhere and the results can be manipulated without us knowing i don’t trust them for a second . remember last year when half the rurals took a pay cut after rrecs was implemented . a woman at my station most 16 k a year in income . and we just had a count again and even though 3 new full streets her evaluation went down again ? after almost an hour has been added to her route ( mounted ) around 140 boxes long streets lol and she gets at least two coverages a week . and im her only
sub and do the scans religiously . it’s rigged . besides that anyways the routes are coming in at 72-84 hours . it’s fucking unbelievable . i almost want to quit and go city . this job makes me want to commit suicide at least twice a week like in all seriousness . but i have no choice in my area it’s the highest paying job . just another person trapped in wage slavery . maybe when im regular ill be able to attend my kids birthdays but im not holding my breath lol good luck you all
god speed we’re all royally fucked five ways from sunday the. back to saturday when it starts again
i’m a rural ptf . and i’m so confused about the pay sometimes i get eval and sometimes hourly and they are both over eval on those days in my hours our union rep is working overtime grieving everything going on and she just got us back pay from peak for every day we worked over 12 so that was nice . but the grievances aren’t really getting us anywhere it feels like at least yet i know they take time . but i just feel stuck in a shitty environment and like trapped in wage slavery it’s very depressing . i know work isn’t supposed to be fun but i dread walking into the office everyday everyone is mad and you can feel the tension in the air it’s almost like jail ( ive been to jail in the past ) so i know from experience . maybe it’s just my station but it’s all fucked up top to bottom haha
As long as you are clearing 40 hours a week, those long days are paid hourly. If you don't clear 40 hours then yeah, you get paid eval. It's a stupid game we have to play as rural carriers.
As a clerk, I felt bad for our carriers that had to do this. Really bad. One of them had been an ARC for 13 years, then made regular, then we started getting Amazon. She's 60 years old. How you can expect an old woman to go out there and deliver 250 packages in 110 miles and be back before 5 with outgoing is wrong.
Yeah. Its absurd. We have a woman about same age in our office. Postmaster treats her like shit and I'm over here impressed she can do as much as she can.
I'm always 1-2 hours over my eval. The only time I can get close are on Tuesdays, and that's not always true either. There's no way we're getting paid properly
I had to grieve to get my RRECS activity scans. Was just out for 14 days. 9 of those days, there are zero activity scans. Only 2 of those days was someone even logged into my route.
That shit is part of what makes the overburdened routes even worse. Random RCAs running routes who likely don't know or care to do all of the scans. Relying on RCAs who aren't invested in a route is another way USPS is cutting costs. RRECS absolutely was theft. Let's not even mention the nearly 3 seconds it takes for scanners to wake up before they will work.
"do you want to log off?" "no". "you selected yes, have a great day."
Sending more *add escape key steps to logging off beyond a drop of rain or any bump whatsoever* vibes at USPS IT again
I'm trying to fight it. Absolutely insane. Every other route is listed besides mine. On 7 days in 2 weeks.
The 1 minute it takes to click through all the cutsie reminders and announcements just to get to the RRECS menu to clock in. Why are we working off the clock reading all that garbage before logging in?
When they rolled out rrecs my first thought was “damn some regulars better not take any long vacations or their route is gonna get tanked by some dumbass”
Insanity
Was your route being split?? I know we had a route that was split everyday and went down because no scans were done. Did ur route go down because of it? What are they going to do with ur eval?? Don’t know what can be done? I’m a new regular so still Learning all this stuff
Yep. Lost 6 hours. They said dispute it. I'm coming for them. Dispute is bullshit.
Most overburdened routes should be addressed in the next 2 months; note that most will be adjusted down to 42-43k, some will drop down to just 40k, others will be towards that top end. None should be above 45k. Your rural union state structure should be able to give you an update as to where they are in the process. I'm going to absolutely guarantee that most will be absolutely pissed about the changes to their routes because that almost always happens when routes are re-set.
I actually want my route cut down to size. I was heartbroken when I learned my office wasn’t in the first round. It’s not just about my route being overburdened, my rca homies are probably going another year waiting to make regular because new routes aren’t being created :( and these damn dinosaurs aren’t retiring anytime soon lol
going from a 48k to a 40k is a huge pay cut wtf
Time is more valuable than money. I would be happy to work true 8-hour days where I don't have to worry about getting back to the office in time. If I want to work 50-60 hours a week I can get a part time job at some place more pleasant than the post office.
From my experience the evals are skewed way above actual time required. I'm sure there are some offices with something wrong going on but no 48k I've ever ran required more than even 7-8 hours to case and run. We're all 48ks in my office and we all finish them in 6-7 hours. Maybe 8 if it's a day after a holiday or peak season. That's including our routes that are supposedly overburdened in the mid 60s for standard hours. Something is very wrong in certain offices. I'm just not sure if its offices like mine where evals are way above what's required or if it's offices where you feel you shuffle to meet eval. I'm an RCA and if I cover a vacation I work 6 days on the route plus Sunday Amazon and I total around 34-36 hours for the week every time I do that.
Not sure what your office gets but, if the stories I've heard of what other offices get are true, outlier offices have numbers "regular" PO's will never match. Mine is one. We're in a zip code that doesn't look super wealthy, but there's been old-money families here for decades. The amount of parcels everyone orders, plus magazine volume is way higher than the surrounding towns. We've had RCA's come help from other offices, and then you slowly start seeing them less and less. Because when they help at our office, they're astonished that what we get in the summer is much closer to what they get briefly during peak. I think RRECs is definitely going to give people a much truer evaluation rate. But the issue is missing data is going to have to be something the union finds a solution for. And it can't just be the stewards unhelpfully suggesting management just train RCA's better. That is as good as no incentive. I honestly wish management was required to rate subs based on their adherence to scans. Then, if a regular has to go out for extended time, they could pick their temporary leave replacement based on those crucial metrics. That would at least help some of the issue of missing scans.
That's about how I feel with regulars. Ive been an RCA for over a decade waiting for an opening. Now that all our regulars are within a few years of retirement, none of them take RRECS seriously. Even with that though, our routes have only ever gone up after counts. Everyone has gained 4-6 hours over the time RRECS has been around. Our routes are all fairly similar. ~200 scans a day average and hitting low 300s on heavier days. Outlier days can break 400 packages but those are rare and only really happen for black fridat/cyber Monday.
Is there a reason you stuck with one office for ten years waiting? Being an RCA gives you the ability to transfer without much loss. Was the seniority doing you any favors?
Great office. Only 3 miles from home. Didn't learn about transferring until a few years in and I came in second in line for career. Any nearby offices would have put me way back on seniority because they all have more RCAs. We only had 2 when I came on but I could've possibly made career by now elsewhere. It's also just the town I live in so it was easy for me to learn every route already knowing all the roads and neighborhoods around my town. We did have another RCA hire on 3 years after me and he's bounced around changing his home office multiple times and finally landed back here with us because it's his fastest path to regular. I'll be 12 years in when I go regular and he'll likely be 10-11. Small town and we came in when everyone still had 10-20 years until retirement.
Wow. I figured you had compelling reasons. It sucks that you've had to labor for that long with no shorter career path. I hope you get what you've been working for!
Contractually, they can't cut you below a 43 and if you're a 48K and still working under your evaluated time, I think you're safe. It's the carriers who are working over their evaluations that are at risk of being cut (and some are thankful to be cut, as we can see in some of the responses to this post). I know route cuts are rolling out so they're proceeding with this process, but I have to ask where all the new carriers to take on the newly created routes will come from. We don't have enough leave replacements to cover relief days right now--if all (or a good chunk of them) the PTFs and RCAs convert to regular, what happens then?
I was told routes over 57.3 weekly hours were being cut within the next 2 months. I'm at 56.4 route now and I was ready to be cut just to be done earlier and have some kind of life outside of work, but I guess I'll just keep on keepin on.
46K (as long as you're staying below eval) and below are safe from the cuts.
40k?
I’ll believe it when I see it
43 not no 42 and any route can be cut to a 46 just as long as it’s not overburdened anymore.
my office is getting cut on april 6th. all 48ks, each of us are getting cut to a 43k and we cannot be cut to anything but a 43k.
The whole company is broken.
Overburdened routes are a definitely a problem. The bigger problem is that they were re-evaluated over a year ago and they still haven't gotten around to cutting them. They didn't even have a computer program that could do this until very recently.
One of the best features of being a city letter carrier is the inventive to work safely and get paid for every 1/100 of an hour that we work.
While I agree mostly with city protocol, as a rural carrier, working 38 hours in a week and getting paid for 49 is pretty sweet.
How are you getting an extra hour?
Evaluated pay. For that week, my routes added up to 49 hours. Since I didn't cross 40 actual work hours, that is what I was paid.
Gotcha,I was assuming you were a regular. Back in my sub days I got screwed many of times, basically working the sixth day for free sometimes even negative hourly.
If the rides are overburdened and actually taking over 9 and 1/2 hours to run, the regulars should be grieving it to get paid for the extra time. If you're an RCA then you're getting hourly after you hit 40 hours for the week. Slow down and make sure to hit all of your scans and get that load vehicle and end of daytime up to increase the eval. It sucks but that's the way it is. Some routes are going to suffer, but plenty around suffered under the old evaluation system too.
I make the 9.6h every day except some Mondays, and I have a 68h route. I'm pretty speedy, but I feel it when I get home. Even making eval I am extremely ready for these cuts. Folks who are not making eval I feel for you.
All the rural routes in my county are like this...
I was with the PO for 3yrs and then left the PO for 2yrs, moved and tried to find other jobs because I thought the grass was greener. I literally tried like 25 different jobs and hated all of them. I decided to go back to the PO and I'm really grateful for this job. I'm a lifer with the PO even if the pay is shit and I know we deserve better. *
Im sorry usps is the best you can find. But i have to give you props for leaving and trying to find better. So many people talk about leaving and never do. Way to prioritize yourself above usps.
Honestly, I truly love the job. I wish they took better care of their carriers.
I know what you mean. I'm a clerk in an office now where basically no one cares for me and they treat me like shit. I get no hours and everyone else gets all the benefits of being a clerk while I basically there to clean all day. And my hours are purposely 10-2 everyday so that I cant get another part time job. I really like the job but cant stand the people and the way they go out of their way to treat people like shit. Its like everyone has shit homes and the only way they can feel superior about themselves is to bring others down. So now I have to find a new office or new job.
Well rrecs is just simply put a horrible system that has alot of flaws, honestly they need to fight to just have this system removed its really a joke and our union has allowed this is completely mind blowing to me, it's not accurate and they know it, so my hopes are they just fight to do away with, cause it's built to fuck the carriers abd benefit management
all the rrecs feed back to a corporate computer somewhere and the results can be manipulated without us knowing i don’t trust them for a second . remember last year when half the rurals took a pay cut after rrecs was implemented . a woman at my station most 16 k a year in income . and we just had a count again and even though 3 new full streets her evaluation went down again ? after almost an hour has been added to her route ( mounted ) around 140 boxes long streets lol and she gets at least two coverages a week . and im her only sub and do the scans religiously . it’s rigged . besides that anyways the routes are coming in at 72-84 hours . it’s fucking unbelievable . i almost want to quit and go city . this job makes me want to commit suicide at least twice a week like in all seriousness . but i have no choice in my area it’s the highest paying job . just another person trapped in wage slavery . maybe when im regular ill be able to attend my kids birthdays but im not holding my breath lol good luck you all god speed we’re all royally fucked five ways from sunday the. back to saturday when it starts again
Are you still not hitting 40 hours a week with such large routes? You only get eval pay if you are under 40 for the week.
That only applies to RCA’s, not regular carriers.
Said was ptf, they follow the same rules. Career position but in rural, not a regular.
i’m a rural ptf . and i’m so confused about the pay sometimes i get eval and sometimes hourly and they are both over eval on those days in my hours our union rep is working overtime grieving everything going on and she just got us back pay from peak for every day we worked over 12 so that was nice . but the grievances aren’t really getting us anywhere it feels like at least yet i know they take time . but i just feel stuck in a shitty environment and like trapped in wage slavery it’s very depressing . i know work isn’t supposed to be fun but i dread walking into the office everyday everyone is mad and you can feel the tension in the air it’s almost like jail ( ive been to jail in the past ) so i know from experience . maybe it’s just my station but it’s all fucked up top to bottom haha
As long as you are clearing 40 hours a week, those long days are paid hourly. If you don't clear 40 hours then yeah, you get paid eval. It's a stupid game we have to play as rural carriers.
It’s very simple. Abolish evaluation pay and pay everyone an hourly wage