Office Work

With management going full throttle with route count and inspections all over the area, and with some offices having already completed the route count and inspection I thought I would remind carriers of their office responsibilities. With  the mail and parcel volume down, it does not stop you from doing our job professionally in the office. These are some of the office functions that you should be doing every day as a professional letter carrier to protect your assignment. 

VEHICLE INSPECTIONS: M-41 City Delivery Carriers Duties and Responsibilities:  

Section 832.1 Inspect vehicle as described on Notice 76, Expanded Vehicle Safety Check for deficiencies, body damage, or inoperable items. How many of you make sure, that your office is doing vehicle inspections. You must do this vehicle inspection with another carrier. The buddy system, you need two carriers to check one vehicle. Make sure you are doing the vehicle inspection. When you discover defects, including fluid leaks, they should be reported on Form 4565. If you do your job, the burden shifts to management to do its job. The Branch wants you to come to work safely and go home safely, so please do this vehicle inspection, don’t cut corners! SWEEPING OF MAIL: Make sure that you case all your mail at your case before sweeping mail. Don’t sweep mail after a vehicle inspection, a comfort break or being called to the supervisor’s desk. Take the time it takes for you to walk from your case to the clerk’s area to sweep your mail. WORKING OFF THE CLOCK: How many of you know or see carriers working off the clock to maintain the 60-minute rule. Shop stewards if you see this is going on in your office file a grievance for that carrier(s) to get paid. Management will stop this immediately SERVICE & SAFETY TALKS: When management is giving these talks make sure that you STOP casing your mail and turn around and listen to the service or safety talk.

Stewards, if you see carrier(s) casing mail interrupt the supervisor and tell them that all the carriers should be listening to the talk and not casing mail. OFFICE BREAKS: If your office has an office break of either 10 or 15 minutes, stewards make sure that all carriers are taking the break and are not working through the break. THIRD BUNDLES: On park and loop routes you are only required to carry 3 bundles of mail. Mounted and Dismounted routes you can take out more than 3 bundles. Now with no FSS in offices a lot of the 3rd bundles will go to the street as the 3rd bundle. With that said you do not take them to the street in the strapped bundles. You get time in the OFFICE to cut straps and count out the 3rd bundle into relays. If the code above the address has ECRWSH you are allowed to case it. If the code above the address has ECRWSS you take it out as a 3rd bundle after you count it out into relay order. CASING STANDARD: The only casing standard is 18 letters per minute or 8 flats per minute not both one or the other. And 70 pieces of mail a minute for strap out time. An old professional letter carrier taught me years ago when the USPS was conducting route inspections the old fashion way to professionally case mail: He told me just don’t read the name and case it because you know that the Smith family lives here, or the Jones family lives there. He told me that every envelope has three lines; read the name, the street address, the city, or town, the state, and the zip code. This will make sure that you are casing the mail into the correct slot professionally. SPR’S: SPRs that get thrown/sorted into your parcel hampers, in such a case we get time to fish them out of the parcel container then bring them to case to sort into trays in delivery sequence. This is all during office time as well. FIXED OFFICE TIME: In offices that do not have an office break, the minimum fixed office time is 33 minutes. Offices that have a 10-minute break, the minimum fixed office time is 43. If you have a 15-minute break in the morning, the minimum fixed office time is 48 minutes. Some offices have even more fixed office times than that, but that is the minimum. The fixed office time includes your vehicle inspection, break, wash-up, etc. WASH-UP TIME: If your office has a wash-up time before hitting the street, either 3 or 5 minutes make sure that you are taking this time. PERSONAL TIME: Section 922.51.g of Handbook M-41 states: Personal Needs, etc. An allowance of 5 minutes is permitted on the first trip for personal needs, obtaining hat and coat from wall racks before leaving office, visiting swing room to obtain rain gear from locker, etc. You should also ask to look at the Route/Carrier Daily Performance /Analysis Report this will show your projected office time in the AM projected street time and your projected PM office time. Don’t let management rush you out of the office without doing your job professionally! Office time—Return Handbook M-41 directs letter carriers to clock to office time first and then perform these additional office duties. This requirement is contained in Chapter 4 of Handbook M-41. See that clerks are available to check in accountable items as efficiently and promptly as possible. As indicated, handbook provisions state carriers should clock back into the office immediately after unloading their vehicle and before disposition of collected mail. Disposition of collected mail place the mail collected on designated receptacles. Sorting of outgoing collection mail and all other end-of-day activities should be conducted on office time. Letter carriers should also return accountable items to the clearing clerk for proper clearance while on office time as indicated in section 43 of Handbook M-41 and Section 127.c of Handbook M-39. Section 43 Clearance for Accountable Items 431 Keys, 432 Registered and Certified. Section 432.1 Give finance clerk all undeliverable articles and Forms 3849 and/or 3811 for each registered and certified delivery. Section 432.2 Complete Form 3821 showing the number of receipts and undeliverable articles returned to the clerk. Ensure that any accountable items are found in the DPS mail are added to the total accountable pieces included on the form. If form is properly completed, clerk will sign and return it to you. This is your receipt, keep it for a 2-year period. Processing of undelivered mail should also be performed on office time, whether this mail is processed in the morning or in the afternoon upon return from the route. Section 44 of Handbook M-41 explains this requirement: Follow procedures listed in part: After processing, place this mail in throwback case, as explained in part 24. These are just samples of the activities letter carriers should do on office time in the afternoon. Letter carriers should ensure that they are making proper clock rings to reflect these tasks. National Agreement Article 8.9 Section 9. Wash-Up Time Installation heads shall grant reasonable wash-up time to those employees who perform dirty work or work with toxic materials. The amount of wash-up time granted each employee shall be subject to the grievance procedure. Educated members are the union’s best defense to discipline. Read the M-41 handbook, just google M-41 handbook and it pops up read it at your leisure it has a wealth of information to protect you and do your job professionally!