The NRLCA has officially requested that the Postal Service temporarily postpone the data collection period for the Rural Route Evaluated Compensation System (RRECS). Collection of data began on April 23, 2022; however, the NRLCA has identified many critical issues that must be resolved before the system can go “live.” We have apprised the Postal Service of these issues, but many of them remain unresolved. For example:
1. USPS has not adequately trained all rural carriers in the new RRECS Activity Scans. Many carriers received NO training, and some “training” has consisted only of being handed a “cheat sheet.”
2. Management has failed to ensure that every rural carrier understands the importance of the RRECS Activity Scans and to ensure that each carrier completes the scans daily. Only 65-70% of rural carriers complete even the basic 6 required RRECS entries on any given day. This is much lower than it needs to be for the system to record the necessary data.
3. USPS has not yet provided the Union with the basic data elements required to ensure transparency or to enable the Union to validate the data.
4. USPS has not yet provided the Union with the final business logic used to calculate route times and evaluations.
5. USPS has not yet provided answers and clarifications to the Union on several issues with the mapping program and the data collection process.
The NRLCA believes that the RRECS system can only work if data collection is done with the appropriate training, transparency, and safeguards to ensure accuracy. Therefore, the Union will not accept any data collected by USPS until the issues that we have raised with the Postal Service – including those listed above – are resolved to our satisfaction.
We do, however, remain steadfast that all rural carriers should be completing the RRECS Activity Scans EVERY DAY as instructed. The scans/entries are now a core job function and carriers will continue to be compensated using supplemental pay (8127) until the new scans are built into the route evaluations with a base hour change.
Stay tuned to the NRLCA website for further updates on RRECS data collection.
Thank you,
NRLCA National Board