Protecting Your Assignment in the Street
The last article I wrote about protecting your assignment dealt with issues in the office. This article I would like to address protecting your assignment in the street. The first thing that you should do is drive the speed limit. Mostly all the towns on Long Island are either 20 to 30 mph. You are not at the Indy 500, drive the speed limit.
Relay Points: As you are driving your vehicle to your relay points remember that you must park the vehicle at a safe legal location. Do not park at a fire hydrant, do not park at a bus stop, do not park in someone’s driveway, do not park where the street sign says, “no parking”, do not double park. You must park your vehicle in a location that will keep you out of harms way! When you find that location you must chock the wheels, take the key out of the ignition, and lock the doors every time you leaveof the vehicle.
Parcel Delivery: If the parcel is too big or heavy to put into your satchel the proper way to deliver that package is as follows: If you park your vehicle before the address with the big parcel you flag the house with mail for that address, when you are done with the relay you drive to the address and deliver both the mail and the parcel at the same time. If you are passing the address prior to you parking the vehicle at the relay point then stop at the address and get both the mail and the parcel and deliver it before you start your relay.
Accountable Mail: according to the M-41: section 122.22 Deliver and obtain date, time of event, and signature receipts for registered, certified, Express Mail, insured, and other special services mail. Use scanning device where appropriate. Section 122.221: Receipt for such matter, except insured and Delivery Confirmation mail, at the Post Office before beginning route.
M-41 section 123.2: Report to unit manager all unusual incidents of conditions relating to mail delivery, including mail found trapped behind wall-mounted and wall-recessed apartment house mailbox units, condition of street letterboxes and relay boxes (e.g., unanchored boxes and schedules).
M- 41 Delivery and Collection Rules: section 131.11: Keep the mail in your possession or locked in a relay box or vehicle. All equipment and undeliverable mail must be returned to the post office at the end of each trip. Section 131.12: If the use of a satchel cart is authorized, exercise reasonable care to prevent any attempted theft from the cart while delivering your route. Section 131.22: Do not place letters, large flats, and other mail within the pages of magazines, catalogs, etc., at any time. Whenever letters and flats are cased together, care must be exercised to avoid having letters fall between pages of magazines, etc. Section 131.44: Report on Form 1571 all mail undelivered — including all mail distributed to the route but not cased and taken out for delivery. Estimate the number of pieces of mail. Section 132.11: Accept letters handed to you by customers for mailing, providing that postage is affixed. Go to the porch or door to receive this mail from the customer. Section 132.21: Collect mail from designated street letterboxes, cooperative mailing racks, and mail chute receiving boxes. Avoid standing in the street when loading or emptying these boxes. Section 132.24: Report to manager any person who tampers with or deliberately damages mailboxes or takes mail from them without authority. Section 133.2: Do not finger mail when driving, or when walking up or down steps or curbs, when crossing streets, or at any time it would create a safety hazard to the carriers or to the public. Section 133.3: Use crosswalks when crossing busy streets and following traffic signals or the direction of traffic control personnel. Section 133.6: Report immediately when you are being followed. A number of important arrests have resulted from such reports.
Breaks: Depending on your local agreement you get either one or two street breaks. These street breaks are usually 10 or 15 minutes long. You cannot take them in conjunction with your lunch break, they must be separate. The union fought hard for you to get breaks because of the hard work that you perform take them or LOSE THEM.
Comfort Stop: You are allowed to go for comfort stops for bathroom purposes. The bathroom must be a clean safe location. If there are none available on your route, you may return to the post office to use their bathroom facilities.
Lunch Break: You get a half hour for lunch, nothing more or nothing less. Your lunch break starts when you get back into your vehicle after the last delivery on that relay. If you are driving to a location to take lunch the time it takes you to travel to and from is included in your lunch period. If you leave the vehicle while on lunch, you are required to lock the vehicle and chock the wheels. If you do not take lunch and work through it after 6 hours of work the USPS automatically deducts a half hour from your timecard. So again, use it or lose it.
Return to the Office: Clearance for Accountable Items Section 431: Keys Turn in mail keys in exchange for assigned key check or signature clearance. Section 432: Registered and Certified: 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 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.
3M case: make sure that you put the mail that you brought back to the office in the proper slot in the 3M case. Do not leave mail by your case at night. All mail brought back must be endorsed by you.
Wash-Up Time: After you complete all of your office functions in the afternoon some locals have an afternoon wash up time of up to 5 minutes to clean up, again use it or lose it.
These are just some examples on how to protect your assignment while out on the street. If you want a complete run down of how to be a professional carrier in the office and street, I suggest that you read the M-41 manual that is at your case, in your route book, on how to be a professional letter carrier.
