The Southwest Area Conference (SWAC) was held in Dallas TX from January 13th – January 16th, 2023. Rural carriers from the Southwest Area assemble at a SWAC every year in January.
Below are highlights of information I’ve received by rural carriers that were present.
Remember, Ruralinfo.net is not affiliated in any way with the NRLCA or the USPS. If you have questions you will have to reach out to your local union.
GENERAL RRECS INFORMATION
The one thing I have heard from everyone that was there is that RRECS will be implemented on March 25th. There will be no more delays. Delays in the past were due to the USPS not giving the union access to all volume reports. They now have all but one point of data, with that one to be ready before the mini mail survey.
You will not be able to grieve your salary. This is the new way of evaluation for rural carriers. This was ordered during an arbitration and there is no going back on it. Arbitration is a legal document that forces it forward. YOU are responsible for your route and doing the job necessary to get the maximum benefit from the new system.
Basically, you, the individual carrier are responsible for how your route evaluation will turn out. If you are only doing the basic 6 scans, then you are not going to do well in this system.
They are working on making some changes to the scanners to cut down on the mistakes. One option may be to gray out choices that are not relevant to the current scan.
Your evaluation will depend on these things:
Edit book submission to AMS monthly
4003 updates submitted at the same time as the edit book
Mapping done monthly – DPM and LTM
Mail surveys done twice a year
Performing the scans as intended with the scanner
There will not be an app on the national union website for daily data. They previously had said there would be, but due to server cost and not having the infrastructure to house all of the data, it will not be implemented. They also stated that a way to access data is the responsibility of the USPS. With that being said, the USPS is working on a new report called RADAR. It will provide a single location to display the volume captured through End of Run reports and IV reports. It should be ready before the mail survey begins and either posted in your office or a copy provided.
It will show the following items:
DPS letters
Cased letter
FSS Flats
Bundled Flats
You can keep up with your daily data by asking for a Scanner report and an End of Run Report. Your PM/Supervisor should be able to print them out for you.
MINI MAIL SURVEY INFORMATION
ALL routes are included in the mini mail survey.
RRECS Mini Mail Survey Will Be Held From February 25-March 10
The mini mail survey is one component used to determine the route evaluation under the Rural Route Evaluation Compensation
System (RRECS).
The survey is only 6% of the evaluation with Office footage equaling 1% of that.
The mini mail survey gathers a minimal amount of data that is not otherwise available through automated processes, through the MDD scanner, or from route mapping.
The data collected during this survey will be combined with all other elemental data to determine the rural route evaluation.
Data collected during the mini mail survey will include random letters, random flats, PARS 3982 labels and miscellaneous activities, not otherwise recorded in a standard allowance.
These items will be counted and entered into RMSS on a daily basis.
Rural carriers will be provided a copy of the Daily Volume worksheet and at the conclusion of survey, the Mini Mail Survey Summary will be provided.
EAS employees will conduct the mini mail survey. Craft employees on “higher level” may conduct the required activities for the mini mail survey provided they have received appropriate training and are acting in a higher level capacity.
All offices will be required to complete the Office Walk Database for each route in the office.
All distances will be measured jointly by the assigned rural carrier and the manager and recorded as a round trip.
At the conclusion of the survey, if a regular desires to elect the High Option (if applicable), they must indicate their option election on the Mini Mail Survey Summary and sign the leave commitment accordingly.
The rural carrier and manager will certify the data on the Mini Mail Survey Summary is correct, no later than March 14th, 2023.
Saturday, March 25th, 2023 will be the effective date of your new evaluation.