Postal Employee Retirements, “hilly” areas may contribute to mail delivery problems
Mail that goes undelivered for months. Packages delivered to the wrong address. Long lines and unfriendly service.
Those are just some of the issues with mail delivery and the post office in Douglas Park, residents say.
The neighborhood email listserv has been abuzz for months with reports of postal problems, and it’s not the first time the south Arlington community has experienced such issues.
Last year WJLA reported on mysterious mail problems in Douglas Park, including cases of mail that was inexplicably delivered several months too late, without so much as an explanation or apology.
On Wednesday night, four U.S. Postal Service officials addressed a meeting of the Douglas Park Civic Association to hear residents’ concerns. After some two years of off-and-on postal problems and two previous meetings with USPS officials, residents are frustrated to the point where they’re no longer reporting issues through official channels — only griping on the listserv.
A number of factors could be contributing to the erosion of mail reliability in the neighborhood.
Officials said the Postal Service is being hit by a wave of retirements — often leaving less experienced mail carriers who are still getting up to speed on their routes. Owens said USPS is trying out a pilot program to better train new mail carriers.
Another, more localized factor, has to do with topography. Douglas Park is hilly, with few businesses or large apartment buildings. That means that a mail carrier needs to walk for much of their route, which can be exhausting and makes the route less desirable. Because mail carriers with seniority are allowed to pick their routes, that has left a succession of less experienced mail carriers in Douglas Park, residents were told.
GREAT COMMENT !!! ALL THE CLOWN MANAGEMENT WORRIES ABOUT THE NO COMMON SENSE STANDARDS. CAN YOU BELIEVE I GOT A OFFICIAL DISCUSSION YESTERDAY ON THE BUSIEST DELIVERY DAY OF THE YEAR BECAUSE IT TOOK ME 5 MIN EXTRA TO DELIVER THE MAIL
us postal circus where diversity trumps sound business principles! what a turd world cesspool that could not manage itself out of a paper bag with holes in it.
One damn excuse after another, it only takes a carrier 1 week to learn to work a new route. How do postal managers explain mail being delayed for 2 months, mis-delivered, long lines and unfriendly service?
There are many geographically challenged routes in the country, not just Douglas Park.
Fire all inept postal managers/supervisors is the answer.
Here’s something else that needs to be discussed: the increasing unreliability and mishandling of mail across the nation, not just in one town. Postal “officials” are the primary cause of the terrible service, and this downturn was predicted by most city letter carriers as soon as the details of the City Carrier Assistant or CCA program was announced.
The Postal Service won in the last contract award the right to eliminate the part-time flexible carrier position, one that converted new hires to career employment after a three month probation. They did not have to have their own route to enjoy the job protection. Now, CCA’s do not become career employees until a route is permanently vacated by a retiree, transfer, medical issue or removal. In tons of offices this means they can be working for years before becoming full time career city carriers, and one week a year they are “removed” and then (usuall) reinstated for another term.
Their starting wages are the lowest any new carrier ever experienced, and because they can be fired much easier than a regular carrier and the NALC seems totally disinterested in their situation, they are under enormous stress, forced to work sometimes months with only Sunday off, if they aren’t brought in to deliver parcels. This includes holidays which takes them away from family on Christmas, Thanksgiving and other holidays.
They are not trained how to forward mail, handle mail that needs to be returned, and are discouraged from looking at “pink cards”, the cards regulars record recent change of addresses on. They are told they don’t have the time, and the regular will clean it up.
Additionally, they usually case and carry one route and then are expected to sometimes case another and carry extra mail after that. They simply are not given a fair amount of time to do the job properly, and that’s why service is in decline because management only gives a shit about one thing: numbers. It’s all speed to them, the hell with accuracy and responsible performance. The management in far too many offices consider customers to be a royal pain in the ass and they simply do not want to be bothered with stupid (to them) complaints about getting mail all the time for streets two or three blocks away, next door and not getting mail at all.
This is terrible, and the NALC is just as culpable for not putting pressure on management to train carriers properly and take the time to do the job right. You can be fast and efficient, but you can’t literally run, shove all the mail into a box whether it’s deliverable as addressed or not, and haul ass to the next box. That is the result of unfair pressure from management and the turnover is more than they expected because many many other businesses pay as well and don’t run their employees into the ground doing it.
Whether the NALC fought against the CCA program or accepted it without complaint is debatable, as I have heard claims for both sides, but it’s a moot point now. In the next contract, the union must push for reinstatement of the PTF program, and place as much emphasis on the declining level of service as possible. Delivering mail is very hard work and all should be better compensated and CCA’s converted to unassigned regular status after a year if no route is available. Somehow I figure this problem will not even be discussed.