Casing & Delivering of Mail
Many times I receive phone calls from family and friends about their Mail delivery and issues that they come across when getting their Mail out of their Mail box. Remember this does not only encounter Carriers on Long Island but also in other parts of the city, state and country. I would like to discuss the way that the professional Letter Carrier cases and delivers the Mail for delivery to their customers.
First of all the standard for casing Mail has not changed it still is 18 letters or 8 flats (magazines) a minute not a combination of both it is either one or the other! Even though you are a professional Letter Carrier and have been on your assignment for awhile I strongly suggest that you read the entire 3 lines on either the letter Mail or flat (magazines): the name of the customer, the name of the street and the name of the town. By doing this it will not only insure that you are casing the proper Mail for the proper address but will also be protecting your office time that you receive each day for the amount of Mail that you receive in the morning.
When you start casing your Mail; grab a good amount of letter size Mail to hold in your hand look and read the address like I explained above and with your other hand take the envelope and case it into the divider that corresponds with the address on the envelope. You repeat this process till your entire letter Mail is cased. Now it is time to case your flats or magazines; you grab a good amount of flat Mail (magazines) and put them in your arm look and read the address like I explained above and with your other hand place it in the divider behind the letter size Mail. So at the end of the morning you should have letter size Mail to the left and the flats to the right in the same divider for each address on your route. If you prefer to work the flats before the letter size Mail you can do that also but just remember that the letter size Mail should be in the left of the divider and the flat Mail should be behind the letter size Mail.
Never does a professional Letter Carrier put the letter size Mail in between pages in the flats or magazines while casing Mail in the office or out on the street. The reason why we don’t do this is because we want to also protect our street time not only our office time. If we put the letter size Mail in between the magazines we are not doing the following: We will be walking from house to house with nothing to do, no Mail to sort through, so we will be walking at a faster pace, because we don’t have to look down at the Mail that we sorted, this will cut down on your street time and you will be finishing your route quicker than the allotted street time that was established for the route.
With scanning of parcels, packages and accountable Mail, the Postal Service knows your every move so why would you rush to get done if they are tracking every step you take out on the street? And secondly if it is one or two pieces of letter size Mail that you put between the magazine the customer might not know the letter Mail is in there and if they don’t read that magazine because it is third class Mail or just advertisement they will be throwing out that important first class Mail. That piece of first class Mail could be a bill, a check or financial statement that is important to the customer. You don’t want to bring attention to you by having the customer call the office complaining that they received a late fee on a bill or didn’t get an important piece of Mail that was sent to them and they tell management that they receive their Mail on a daily basis with the letter size Mail in between the magazine Mail. Remember a happy customer is good for you and the USPS. So if you are doing this I strongly suggest that you cease this type of casing and Mail deliver.
I would like to wish all my brothers and sisters and their families a Happy Safe Holiday Season – Merry Christmas – Happy Hanukkah and Happy Healthy New Year!
