High-tech help
New computer program helps carriers, customer
July 21, 2015 Shane Stricklan is watching a computer screen that shows tiny trucks moving along a map. This isn’t a video game: It’s a program to help strengthen the Postal Service.
The trucks indicate the current locations of letter carriers in Layton, UT, where Stricklan is Postmaster. Each truck is one of several colors, including green, which means the carrier is on schedule, and red, which means he or she is running late.
“It’s a real quick snapshot,” said Stricklan.
The Delivery Management System (DMS) also is available at other Post Offices across the nation, part of an initiative to establish Local Operations Centers (LOCs) that use USPS technology more efficiently.
In Layton, DMS helps support carriers on their routes. “When you see someone struggling … you can go out and identify what issue that carrier is having,” said Stricklan.
The technology benefits customers too. The up-to-the-minute GPS and scanning data that feed DMS can be used to help customers who contact USPS to check on the status of a delivery.
“You can tell them where their package is on the route and approximately when the carrier is likely to deliver it,” said Stricklan.
source: USPS News Link
Should a carrier deviate from his or her designated geographic zone during street delivery, an alert is sent to the supervisor in an email or text message. The DMS will display an icon to indicate the location and timeliness of each carrier. As illustrated below, a red circle indicates the carrier is more than 15 minutes behind schedule, a yellow square indicates the carrier is fewer than 15 minutes behind schedule, and a green diamond indicates the carrier is either on time or ahead of their scheduled delivery time.
Video: USPS GPS device (panic button) transmits letter carriers location to supervisors every minute
USPS To Monitor Carriers street delivery thru Geo-Fence Technology (GPS) starting September 30th
USPS deployment of over 260,000 Mobile Delivery Devices (MDD) nears completion
Thank god I’m retired..I feel for my fellow carriers..lot has changed,..not worth wren 4 p.o anymore..
If they really want to help carriers, how about answering the telephone when they call in from the street! Better yet how about handling dog matters the same day or having the necessary tools (dog warning cards, forwarding stickers, etc.) available. This is nothing more than a “hopeful gotcha” program. I am afraid mgmt might now have to pay more ot because we will have the proof. How about a tracking system on mgmt’s hind end to watch what they do! Bring it on – we are professionals!
Carriers should covertly keep their scanners in a Faraday bag between scanning points.
I just love it. Anything that can show that im running late helps me to ask for more time. Remember… We are hourly workers who work at our own pace. Luckily my pace is fine. Now please assign me a daily supervisor to walk with me all year long until im retired to verify my delivery ability. If they got a problem then they have to prove im not doing right… And with my route and Cleveland weather…hahaha im good… Have a great career guys and gals.
As a former carrier this type of technology would’nt have bothered me a bit. Why? because I did the job that I was expected to do. Management sets standards and employees are expected to follow those standards whether they have cameras on them or not.
Oh really now? So I suppose it is going to be ok with you when they show up at your front door to install cameras inside your home and attach a tracking device to your car.
Is this the device that carriers will carry with the “panic button” ? If so then this device is a two edge sword.
More crap to mete out favoritism; their buddies get to sit on their asses and take long lunches while the rest of us are held to a different standard, as usual. Base miles don’t mean shit either when you eat lunch with your buds across town and it takes 20 minutes to get there.
translation: you go out and harass the carrier. Look to see if you can find something petty that they might be doing wrong so you can threaten to fire then. Follow them around so that they know who is in charge.
Management NEVER does anything to help a carrier.
dont buy this BS
Just like all the other gadgets…
Nothing gained. Just a waste of money!
Tell me I am running late….I will bring the whole route back, take sick leave, then let’s see how late it’s going to be! Idiots !!
just look at her smile!!! it’s the coyote watching the hen house. She can’t wait to fire a carrier!!!!
Right,so they can figure out why your struggling.BS,we all know it’s just another tool to harass carriers. Who’s tracking bosses that are out shopping or plowing driveways in wintertime?
Go ahead…track my day! 😛 😛 😛 🙂 🙂 🙂
time to retire!
Next step, predator drones will stay near so that a bad carrier will be disciplined. A hell fire missile will see that the carrier is faster. The stupidvisors should be watched also. When a stupidvisor won’t answer the phone, alarms will go off. when a stupidvisor falls asleep, they will receive a shock. Though, when a stupidvisor is bad they will receive a bonus, not a hell fire missle!
Uh, “help the carriers”? My ass. This is a tool for harassment pure and simple. Management is hell bent on micromanaging carriers down to the last second of the day, while they in the meantime fuck up everything they put their hands on, have 204-B’s in supposedly properly staffed offices that shouldn’t need one, destroyed our private information with the worst cyber breach and reaction anywhere, and STILL want to lower delivery standards.
Make no mistake, and don’t consider this post sour grapes from an old tired carrier: management hates customers. They consider you, the customer, a royal pain in the ass. They hate having to answer the phone, come to the service window or anything that makes them have to work a little bit. They couldn’t care less where your mail gets delivered, if it indeed gets delivered, and their only concern is that they don’t want to hear about it. 204-B’s, or fill in supervisors are routinely used to do the work full time supervisors aren’t getting done. Nothing is done to those managers who fuck off all day – they just pull a craft employee who is usually a snitch, suck up or related to someone in management in their city or a nearby town.
The fact they want to shut down plants and make your mail even later is a clear example of what they think of your input. New carriers are not trained how to forward mail, how to properly return mail that can’t be delivered or forwarded (most CCA’s do not know the difference and are not trained how to do this important function), or even try not to put mail in a box that has a ‘Vacant” card in it. Management just wants them to run, run, run, and when we older carriers retire, they’ll be staffed with half asses who can go fast enough to eliminate routes and positions, and, as an added bonus, mishandle your mail in ways you never thought imaginable. These newbies deliver mail on the wrong streets, sometimes the wrong side of the street, or several boxes off, screwing up mail for blocks at a time, and never hear about it. That’s the new Postal Service. You may think your old grump mailman is bad, but trust me, you ain’t seen nothing yet. It stands to reason: piss poor management and unions who couldn’t care less about CCA’s and other new positions in craft are creating this nightmare. I hate to say that against my union (NALC), but they are hanging out CCA’s to dry, too. Sad.
Exactly on all counts.
I’m a clerk. When my office had those cell phones; what a POS those were; one the supervisors sat at the computer all day, “Why’s he here? Why’s she there?” Once, a battery died in the cell phone and the supervisor called the carrier and asked where she was. She went ‘off the grid’, so to speak. All we here now is management telling the carriers, “Eight hours, eight hours.” Some bring whole loops back.
It would be nice to think that after all of these years postal management would start to actually use the technology at their disposal for the good of all, employee, management, and most importantly customers. Unfortunately in my 28 years with the USPS I have very rarely seen that happen. Machines are used and the employees are used to assist the machines, not the other way around. The end result is that the customer receives a service that is less than it should be. It is possible for the USPS to improve but it must decide that it wants to create a culture that is for the betterment of all. I’ll be waiting…..
hey you got a whole bunch of red dots..really looks like you’re concerned about the so called issues your carriers are having..keep smiling cause you have less work to do!
Software updates to this will soon be able to tell if an employee is actually in need of sick leave.
Other upcoming updates will actually diagnose illness and be able to disapprove a 3971
Priorities Are All Crossed Up, Of Course Making Money Overides Servicing The Customers Besides All The Mail The Postal Service Deals With Has Been Pre Paid So It Becomes An Obstacle Rather Than A Product, Keep IT Coming…Service Vs Business/ Material vs Spirituality
no more hippies for carriers.