City Carrier Assistants (CCAs)

The CCA uniform program has been very problematic. Maybe the program launch has been not quite as bad as the Healthcare.gov website rollout, but it is still with lots of issues. As a vendor, getting the CCA’s into uniforms has not been easy. There are plenty of CCA’s who have worked their 90 days but still can’t get their vouchers. Before discussing specific problems and solutions, here is the back story:

Under the NALC-USPS National Agreement that covers the years 2011 – 2016, CCA’s are to get a $390 uniform allowance in 2013. Details about the uniform allowance can be found at the NALC website, specifically in M-01822 and M-01819. A copy of the complete contract is also on the union’s website. Instead of issuing the Citibank Visa uniform allowance debit cards to these non- career employees, the USPS decided that they were instead going to issue a “Letter of Authorization” (voucher), which the CCA’s are to get after 90 working days or 120 calendar days. Once received, the CCA could then give the order to the vendor of their choice along with the voucher.

Postal Uniform Discounters is one of the leading providers of CCA uniforms and so we have some perspective on the program from the vendor’s side and the CCA side (as we are constantly getting feedback). From speaking to some of the other uniform companies, it seems that most won’t ship the uniforms until they receive payment or confirmation that payment is in the works. The main reason given for not shipping without some type of payment information in hand is a result of the confusion amongst the station managers or officers in charge about the process to pay for these uniforms. There has been some clarity out there, but we are still running into a lot of managers that still are not informed about how the program works.
Once we receive the order and the voucher from a CCA, we create an sales order. After that, we fax the order and the voucher to the station, and then call to make sure it was received. We run into a lot of post offices where we can’t get thru on the phone, or the manager’s been transferred, or their fax isn’t working, etc. If we are lucky we get a manager on the phone “

in the know”. When that happens, we’re able to ship the uniforms fairly fast. But that rarely happens unfortunately. Usually we have to repeatedly call, sometimes taking weeks. Messages are often not returned. We try again, and again. We mail certified packages of the orders and vouchers to the manager’s attention asking for them to contact us, but often are still ignored.

When we do finally make contact with the manager, we often then can get the order moving. We are finding that the managers are getting more tuned in than they were just a couple of months ago, which makes this smoother for everyone. We are hoping with the second go around of CCA vouchers next year the process will be a lot more seamless.

Here are some potential answers to these problems for CCA’s trying to get their uniforms:

Try to provide the issuing managers email address to the company that you want to order from for your uniforms. Unfortunately email seems to be the best way for the managers to be reached by the uniform companies. Another way you can help is to bring a copy of the voucher and your invoiced order straight to the manager yourself and request that they call the vendor with payment information. This will insure that the manager has received the paperwork. Phone the uniform company right after meeting with the manager. Request the uniform company to follow up with a call to that station now that the manager has the paperwork. By being proactive like this, it will help in most cases getting your uniforms quicker.

So for those poor CCA’s who have been waiting months for their voucher or their uniforms, we apologize! This has not been easy. We thank you for your patience. We’ve really brainstormed these issues to try to come up with solutions. So even if you are going to purchase from someone else, we will still be happy to help you with any questions or issues that you may have. With all the thought and research we have put into this program, we think Postal Uniform Discounters is the place to go for CCA uniforms.

Michele the Uniform Girl
www.postaluniformdiscounters.com
support@postaluniformdiscounters.com
1-800-733-1243