Removing
shrink wrap and straps
Straightening out "Helicopter" flats so they can be cased
Trays of
DPS with small half-trays inside of those and rubberband bundles
Don't forget those ungodly long accountable
numbers and all the
extra pink/peach slips we have to fill
out now!
Casing DPS in the office
USPS boxholders that didnt show up during count
Writing
names on new labels
Time to get supplies, like PD envelopes,'s etc
Time required to perform personal
delivery vehicle
maintenance and re-fueling
Explaining
to customers why they can't mail back a
package they
have opened when the box says
"Return Postage guaranteed"
Time on the phone dealing with customers
Time in office, dealing with management
Time waiting
for a clerk, to get accountables& to
get cleared of
accountables
Moving equipment in dock area prior to unloading
vehicle
to allow unloading of parcels collected on route
Checking 's to see if mail for Mr Z should be attempted,
or if he is one of the people who have moved in the last year
from the apartment where
at least 10 names are currently
getting mail
Putting
on and off layers of coats, boots, etc in the winter
so
we can deliver without frost-bite
Changing flat tires
Cleaning straps, strings, boxes and routing slips
from
boxholders and samples out of our vehicles
Giving directions to people who flag us down for help
because
they are lost and say
" I thought, who would know better than a mail carrier
how to get to ...."
Writing notes to the other carrier on the route to tell
them of a customer complaint or request
Doing "publication watch" when
a customer has had a
problem receiving their subscription
or newsletter
Making friends with the dogs on the route
Dismounting to deliver mail to a box which is
blocked
by someone who ignored the raised flag when they
parked in front of the box
Waiting for kids to
move themselves from the path to
the box to a safer location
behind it
Backing up, or waiting in the nearest driveway, to let
the
combine or road grader you met on a narrow road get by
Following farm machinery at 3 miles per hour
Running
across a field chasing the postcard that blew
out when you
opened the mailbox
Trying to get the bent-up mailbox door to close because
you know if you just slam it, it will fall open as you drive away
and scratch your car again
Asking customers to p l e a s e exterminate the hornets,
or
ants or evict the birds or mice which are building a nest
in
their mailbox
Listening sympathetically to the customer who has recently
lost a loved one, is lonely, and grieving
Picking everything up off of the floor before
you leave to
serve the route, so they can clean the floor
Putting everything back down on the floor when you get
back
Picking everything up again before you go home,
because they didn't get to your part of the floor
Putting
everything down the next morning
Explaining to the customer that if they check "family" on a
COA, all of the mail with that last name will be forwarded
Explaining to a customer
that if they receive mail using
three last names, they will
have to fill out three COA's
Writing the customer's current last name on their forward mail
Looking
on every side of a parcel when sorting/delivering
because
there is no uniformity to the delivery confirmation
stickers
or locations of same on a parcel
Time spent switching sides of vehicle when PM instructions are
to be under the wheel traveling to/from route if over 1 mile from PO, or if
deadhead
is over 5 miles, to be under the wheel
Waiting during foul weather for the weather to clear enough,
and the flash floods, sands storms, and the snow flurries, the
hurricane winds, to continue delivering the mail
Marking up parcels that have
opened, lost contents, become
damaged through handling etc
Casing Raw Mail that was DPSable, that was curtailed at the
plant
due to their problems, that shows up in the raw mail
Working in the crowded conditions brought on by the
staging of DPS mail
Finding a supervisor to report incidents upon returning from
the routes
Talking to another postal employee who demands to carry
on
a long conversation concerning new construction on the route
Having an LLV during Christmas and not getting parcel
help
while non-LLV drivers get the help
Talking
to a clerk or customer who doesn't understand the
evaluated
system, and thinks it's OK to talk on light mail days
because
you are early
Talking on the phone to a customer with a broken English
accent who doesn't understand why things are done that way
Providing non-contractual
help to a customer for the sake
of customer satisfaction
Not being rude to customers because they insist on talking
because
they have no friends and you are there
Returning from the route on a Saturday to find out the clerk
that clears you is on a break, because they schedule him
according to city routes who
come in 20 minutes to an hour
later because they have built
in breaks and take half hour lunches
Training new supervisors on rural procedures
Stand-ups that go
way beyond the minutes
Sorting parcels on the two hampers on either side of your hamper to
filter out the
mis-throws that you will be handed as you walk out the door
by the carrier next to you who comes in a half hour later
than you do
The carrier next to you talks to you on purpose to try to slow you
down so that you won't
come in under evaluation, because he doesn't like the
rural carrier job he has and wishes he were a city carrier
paid on the clock
The city carrier across from you wants to ask questions to pass the time
The clerks
get the mail late, and can't get flats to you until all your
mail is cased having to work flats around letter mail
You get a clearance clerk who hates your guts and drags
his
feet to clear you
The carrier who feels you want to know all of their personal
problems dumps on you on the clock in the most unprofessional manner
Writing up
a repair tag on an LLV
Finding and using a city LLV that uses a different tray setup,
or has the jump seat installed as a substitute vehicle while yours is being
repaired
Trying to get your hamper across that janitors buffer electric cord
Cleaning up rubber bands that fall
on the floor
Having to backtrack on the route to deliver a parcel because a customer
met you at the box
Lifting that heavy lawn mower on the back of a older customers pickup
Forwarding that customers non-forwardable
mail as a favor to
him while he is on a temporary forward
Walking into that business to deliver their mail because they stuff
their mail box full of outgoing mail
Updating that apartment roster because the new apartment
managers
don't know that it's their job
Waiting while that secretary who writes very slowly fills in the pink slip
or the senior citizen who didn't carry their glasses to the door figures out
where the X is on the pink slip
Going to the customers relatives house two blocks down to get a
signature when the customer isn't their to
sign for an express mail
Throwing a dog biscuit to rover so you don't run over him while he
barks at you
when you try to pull away from the mail box
Spending extra time with paranoid new customers to get the know them
well enough so they can trust you to deliver their mail
Writing all the instructions down for your sub so he
can stay current
with route events and other events he needs to know about
Notifying a supervisor when a carrier
is very late so that a route may
get covered before dispatch
Finding a parking space on a busy day when you
return to the PO and
find a customer or postal employee who should know better parked in your
space
Finding
a parking spot when you arrive at work in the morning because
the collections carrier has parked his LLV in a well marked
reserved rural
carrier parking space
Waiting for a 5 mile long train going 15 miles an hour across the road
in front of you
Calling ten different people to locate a sub to cover an auxi-route so
you can cover the
main route
Having a letter drafted to a customer who has been receiving
preferential treatment and expects
better than he is getting because his
third class mail isn't being forwarded daily, only weekly, explaining why he
can't have that kind of service
Answering a note from a disenchanted customer who has sent out hundreds of
time-sensitive invitation envelopes that are returned for an additional
cents because they are a non-standard size
envelope requiring special handling
Reading extra small faded print on printed labels or distorted labels
Separating bypass flats that use glued labels
Separating bypass flats that shrink-wrap shrink-wrapped flats
Finding that address that falls in your number scheme that's not on
your route
Separating super
thin cards that cling to each other
Trying not to tear the customers Wall Street Journal and other mail who
use those plastic mail boxes with the support ribs inside the box
Explaining to customers why we can't chat
because we have time
standards that require x number of hours to finish our route
Circulating those yellow
cards advertising rural carrier testing
Delivering full coverages for the food drive
Collecting food
for the food drive
Explaining to customers why that blank white envelope better have an
addressed check in
it or else they are out their money, and why they need to
use the orange stamp order envelopes
Breaking a
stamp book up to sell an individual stamp to a customer
who has left change in the mailbox with an unstamped letter
Counting pennies a customer has left to purchase a stamp
Fending off that dog who would love to chew on
your leg, and filling
out the dog warning paperwork when you get back to the office
Calling animal control
on your cell phone and waiting while they figure
who's jurisdiction that falls under
The time it takes
call a tow truck and call a sub to cover your route
when your POV breaks down
The time you spent casing your
route before Montezuma's revenge
strikes and you have to call a sub to finish the route
Weighing and stamping
heavy letters and flats collected on the route
Shoveling yourself out of the snowdrift which was deeper than it
looked
Going to a customers house to tell him his horse is loose and eating
his neighbor's sweetcorn Helping
him catch it
Waiting in lines for construction and paving zones
Dodging barrels, signs and cones to
get to the mailboxes
Driving slowly over freshly tarred roads (When it splatters anyway,
you call it "under-coating")
Casing mail using your flashlight to see
because the power is off
Retrieving your delivery car from a parking space out on the street
because the snow
removal contractor piled all the snow in your assigned
parking place before you arrived
Shoveling a track
to your car so you can push the cart to it, because
the
contractor hadn't shown up to plow
Moving your car out along the street because the contractor finally shows
up
to plow the lot and can't wait until after you load up
Removing snow from your vehicle
Waiting
in lines at the post office to service a customer that left you parcels
to mail out insured, in addition to a stamp order
and there is only one clerk and it
tax filing day
Driving down long driveways for accountables and parcels
Shoveling a path to your vehicle to load and unload because your post office doesnt
want to pay to get it shoveled
Subsidizing the PO with woefully inadequate EMA
Staying at your dismount stop because they "prefer
you dont leave"
because of a tornado warning
Rolling an entire bowl of pennies that a wonder Amish customer left in the box
to buy stamps Clerk wont accept them
Cant be refused because it is revenue
Digging yourself out of the mud you got stuck in attempting to deliver a
parcel
down a dirt road
Cleaning all of that mud off of your hands and clothes
"John Doe"
moved from house A to house B Leaving people of the
same
name in house A months later that John Doe moves to house
C
while another of the same name moves from house A to house
B No COA can be used (Same name same houses!) TYLENOL ANYONE!
Scanning signature capture times before it takes
Waiting for the clerks to finish their break so they can
finish
throwing parcels so you can leave
Picking
up click n ship parcels left in/on box that didnt
request
a pick up via usps.com
Taking a whole day of annual leave to buy a POV.. Aint EMA great
