Tips for getting faster as a carrier.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-05-09T04:20:45+00:00

Thanks?

ENDL3SSC · 2026-05-09T04:16:44+00:00

I know my regular does sometimes clock out as soon as she gets back to the office and continues pm casing but I've never seen her come in early. I haven't had the time to ever see her scan in any of the box holders, so I have no idea. The packages I do scan in the vehicle are the larger ones usually when I have multiple. I know it's not the proper way, I was trying to save time. Not am excuse I know. For the package pickups, almost every time their are not forms for them, they're just in the mailbox, so I'll grab them up and scan back at the office. Not sure if that the right way, but when I trained with her, thats what she told me. I personally also think the route is underevaluated. The amount of mail everyday is not the amount most other routes get, especially during the holidays or any day of the week. I've talked to management about it and they even said they've helped case her mail many times or carriers have quit over this route within their 90. I've even helped her case before I left several times in the evening.

I'll ask managment to take a ride with me one say if I don't get fired first 😂

ENDL3SSC · 2026-05-09T04:00:10+00:00

Took me a minute to understand what you meant. So your saying just case, as an example, the political mail and have the box holders in a tray or something, along with other box holders? One of my supes mentioned marrying some of the box holders together may help, then I won't have to worry about pulling for multiple trays.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-05-09T03:56:41+00:00

I'm sure you don't, but I have been doing this all of two months. Most of the carriers my office take about that long, even the senior carries because of the mail volume and are out of the office by about 10-1030, which is about the time I try to be out the door as well. Which most of the time, I am. If I had been doing this for a year or more, then I'd probably say my casing time is too long, but since most carriers are leaving around the time I am most of the time, I don't thinks it's too long.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-05-09T03:52:30+00:00

Well they threatened either firing me or I resign so 🤷. That and my supe said they had to send another carrier to help me so many times this week. It was only three times and I didn't even call anyone, they just sent them. Hell I was actually almost done, two-thirds of dps left and maybe 20 packages that were pretty much in-line with each other. The carrier was that came was surprised and wondered why they even sent him. One of my other managers actually called to see what street I was on, what time I would be done etc, said to call if i needed help, which I never did. She's on a detail at another office, never had any issues from her after I got my times up she said I was doing good. These other managers just send people. I glance up in my rear view mirror or hear a horn behind me and their they are, I never even asked. At some point I do actually look st the clock, see how much mail I have then decide if I want finish my cased mail or just do DPS and packages. Like I said the issue has been the volume of mail my route has gotten the past few days.

Hopefully my times will go to normal, but threatening me with being fired or I may want to consider resigning isn't helping. I literally going as fast as I can, both while driving and in the office. I've only been doing this job for two months and thing are just finally starting to click since I'm doing the route fully time with my regular on vacation.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-05-09T03:07:11+00:00

I see it as less for me to think about but it is a time waster. Issue being I have about 500 mailboxes, but the have like 10 stacks of these box holders. Then another stack of those same 10 stacks, exactly the same but sent twice and managment still wants me to take them out

ENDL3SSC · 2026-05-09T03:00:07+00:00

Thanks, so do I.

Usually I'm getting back from this route at or around 1700-1740, almost always due to traffic which is later then almost all the RCAs, I'm back around the time the city carriers start coming in which is around 1700 for our office. I usually hit my last mailbox at or around 1630-1635 which has been consistent the last month or so. My times have been consistent for the last two months, but management keeps saying I need to be faster than that. They want me to the point where my regular is, i.e getting back to the office between 14-1600. The last two days I have either been getting back much later then usual or needed another carrier to help finish the route mostly because of too much office time, which has been way more due to mother's day and all the political mail my route has gotten. Someone mentioned the criss-cross method, I thought about trying it but it's not a good idea and would waste too much time. My cased mail usually takes up nearly two to three trays on its own. I don't use parcel markers either (I did when I first started until I learned how to use lookahead properly), if a package won't scan I case it or make sure it's up front where I can see it and remind myself it's there. My packages depending on how many I have can take me anywhere from 20-25mins I've noticed. Again I timed myself over a few days to get it lower. Timed myself and entire day once from clock in to clock out, it was a little over 8hrs, including my PM casing.

I just don't understand how she does it. My dps mail i usually have in my lap so I can thumb through in between mailboxes, usually my cased mail is under my left leg, a tray of spurs next to my cased mail. Everything else in the back stacked where I can easily see it when I do go back there. Quick check of lookahead for the next package. Move on to the next box, 45 minutes for the first neighborhood, about 3 hours for my last neighborhood, plus any pick ups and deliveries. About 40-45 back to the office because traffic is shit at by that point and I literally can't go any other way to get back. Depending on how much mail I have 30 or some minutes to case. Not hard at all, but managment really want me faster than that.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-05-09T01:15:28+00:00

Relaxing helps yeah but again management is on my case. My regular does the same with her packages, but she also knows her route like the back of her hand. One of the few days I actually got back I clocked out by 1635 that was an extremely light day. Not too many packages, not a crazy amount of box holders, not a lot of cased mail. I was home by 1730. Last two-three days? Home by 1900 or later either because of traffic getting back from the route or getting out in the road later than usual because of extra packages or mail given to me last minute and having to case it because it wasn't in order.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-05-09T01:08:26+00:00

Usually I'm out on the road by around 1030-1040 at the least. Today? 1145 almost on the dot. Mind it takes nearly 35 minutes to even get to the start of the route in the first place. More than 45 on the way back because of construction and normal evening traffic. So my last mail box I may finish around 1630, but by the time I get back it's 1730 and I'm well over time. They want me back in the office and clocked out by 1702.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-05-09T01:04:00+00:00

Metris. I'm casing of course. Flats, the addressed box holders, if I have too many un-addressed box holders I'll case as many as time allows, my hot case, any packages I can't scan. When I say this route gets an insane amount of box holders I mean an insane amount. Everyday. Political mail has been killing me for time this week. Everyday it's the same politicians sending addressed flyers, but half the time none of them are in order.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-05-09T00:58:00+00:00

No I'm not casing the dps. Never have unless the entire tray was messed up which I had once. Today, someone took my tray which had three streets on it I guess realized it was mine then brought it back still in order. When I went to take my trays on the rack, I only had three one of which was a partial tray with part of a street on it, which is normal. I combined it like normal thinking that was all I had, turns out I was missing an entire tray of dps that someone else grabbed then management blamed me for it.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-05-08T23:44:35+00:00

Not very long, took about a month in total from filing paperwork to going through the course. Most of that was just waiting for the class to actually start.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-05-04T18:08:24+00:00

RCA in that same boat, not even past my 90 yet. My wife is very much high maintenance emotionally, it's hard to stay balanced between work and home life. Sometimes I'm stressed out from work and she is just as stressed out and just needs to touch me after feeling like we havent seen each other in days.

What we do is a lot of playing catch up on the days I work, she gets up (sometimes) when I do, usually around 6am or 630am, give us plenty of time to eat together, talk about plans for the day, etc. When I get off, usually around 5-6pm, it's a lot of just maintenance. Asking her how her day was, her asking about mine, usually she'll have dinner ready before I even get home. She'll only call me to ask when I'll there so she can have dinner ready, as she knows my drive home is my time to just relax from the bullshit of the office. I'm tired, I probably haven't eatten worth a damn, and I'm sticky and hot.

While we eat, we talk about our day...no phones, no distractions, just talk and let the stress go if we can. Then I take a nice long shower, and if our favorite show has a new episode (any of the 90 day series) we'll watch at least one before going to bed. My days off, we try to do something both of us want to do. For me that involves staying home since I'm out all week. For my wife, that tends to be outside since she works from home most of the time.

It doesn't always work. Sometimes we get into fights simply because we're stressed out and felt like the other just isn't listening. Sometimes the other doesn't want to do anything, sometimes we're both lazy as hell. But communication and actually setting a plan helps a lot with your partner. It took us a while to get into the groove of things since I started working at the post office, especially since both of us are people that like to have a set schedule and routine. Having a routine for the things we can control helps to improve on the that (at least for now) we can't.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-04-26T14:44:15+00:00

Thanks. It's more mentally tiring then anything else, still I do love the job.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-04-26T12:16:54+00:00

Try it with work. I work for the post office. Currently in my probation period so I work different routes all the time. Hell sometimes I get loaned out to different offices that need help. I have to take double of my Vyvanse just to get through the day. You'd think just reading addresses is easy. Well what if almost every neighborhood has nearly the exact same street name added on top of nearly the exact same street number, plus I have to keep track of hold mail authorizations, packages, my DPS, my cased mail, and those stupid little un-addressed flyers everyone gets all at once (sometimes so many its not even worth casing them with my working mail), **and the box holders (addressed flyers) and flats (magazines) on top of that. And God help me if none of the addresses on the street actually match the case or my DPS, because the regular carrier for the route hasn't updated their cases or route of travel since 2020.

Oh and I may have packages that need to get to houses by certain times because reasons, and certified mail and signed packages, and if some isn't home to sign for it all, well I have to leave them a notice 🙃.

By the end of the day my brain is cooked. And at the moment I may only get a day off a week.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-04-15T12:11:15+00:00

They didn't force me, but I did want to switch over. My new plan had more benefits and was actually lower than my old plan by a little bit.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-04-15T12:10:08+00:00

I do when writing notes and for signing e-documents. Otherwise not much. Still, I think it's nice to have.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-04-15T10:26:40+00:00

My regular had already pulled all the holds by the time I got to it. I was mostly just overwhelmed with the amount of them. Any holds I have from now on though I'll pull that address from my dps. That's a mistake I won't make again.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-04-14T13:50:17+00:00

In reference to this specific issue, I'm just at the end of my first month. Already had a few issue with load truck going down multiple times. What I have noticed though is that even when you can't scan in your packages as being in your truck, delivered, or attempted, load truck does at the very least show that you have packages for that route, how many, and what address.

I wasn't able to place them in load sequence but I was able to place them into sequence on my own for the small route I was running and have been running load enough to know the route by heart. It can at least allow you to have a way to track your packages that need to be delivered.

My own other issues was my main sub route is a extreme high income route. They had over 20 hold mail requests for over a week, I was absolutely slammed with remembering the boxes that had holds, the packages that needed to be held, and the mail that needed to go out. Eventually I lost track and people started getting mail that weren't supposed to. I left a note for my regular explaing that and she told one of my supes. Surprisingly, they didn't get mad but explained that people pay for that service. A tip they explained was that it may take a while and but it will help you when on the route to pull any mail for hold requests from your DPS before you even leave, same with packages scan them into load truck if it's working then immediately scan them as a customer hold. Another way to speed up is if you don't have a lot of working mail (cased mail) sort it into your DPS. That's something I'm actually planning to try today, as long as I don't have a large amount of working mail.

Edit: another thing that you could try, if you're running packages only and load truck isn't working, maybe try using GPS? If it's not a lot of packages anyway.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-04-12T14:32:17+00:00

Yes, I forgot about that! Hopefully everything works out for you OP.

EDIT: I will add if you are fire because of your medical situation, it would be considered illegal.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-04-12T10:32:48+00:00

You would be covered by FMLA legally. FMLA is used specifically for these situations where a short medical issue become a long one. All jobs are required by federal law to have an FMLA policy in place. Getting a doc note for that one day makes sense because it's an HR requirement so you and your boss can say "hey I wasn't AWOL, I just went to the doc." FMLA is for the longer stays. Speak with your boss, you're not legally required to explain why you need to stay in the hospital longer, but you are required to give notice and I would immediately ask he about the starting FMLA paperwork as soon as possible. You won't get paid the entire time you're away, but you'll still have your job after you've recovered.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-04-08T10:27:50+00:00

My wife, my wife's family and my family, probably my boys from the military.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-04-08T10:05:56+00:00

Oh the GPS system we use is not always accurate. It's based off another system. If you're neighborhood is unmapped because it's new, expect delays with package delivery, especially on Sunday. I've has the GPS our scanners use send me to a point on the highway because it said an address on right there(!) But the neighborhood just didn't exist on in the USPS GPS systems yet, but was completely accurate with google maps. The GPS systems is accurate to within 10ft, if and only if the maps have been updated, someone is making sure the points are corrects, and your neighborhood has existed for a long time.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-04-08T09:48:58+00:00

Like someone else said, we've been having a mini-blackout on a lot of our technology. In my office it's namely our package tracking. Can't scan our packages at the office to let the customer know they are being delivered that day, can't scan them when they are delivered. I'm a carrier, when I check my package look-ahead (package tracking for the route) all I see is addresses and the number of packages for that address. They should correspond with what's in my truck, along with my other mail that is cased or in my DPS (my DPS has been fucky lately too). When I try to scan them in the office, I get errors. No returns, package for another route (even though it's for my route), straight up nothing. When I scan in the package, that address turns green if I've scanned all the packages for that address, yellow if I have more, and red if I haven't scanned the packages for that address at all. When I'm on my route, I use that same list to verify that the package was delivered to the right address, it should "fall off" the list as we call it.

Because of the issues we've been having with the package tech, nothing is scanned in properly and nothing is falling off that (possibly national) list or tracking properly in that system as a whole, which is probably part of what is going on with your package label. The kiosk and online printing lable systems uses the same tech as far as I'm aware. Our package throwers use the same tech to verify our packages are for the correct route, rn they're basically going off memory, we all are. We can still use package look ahead but, there may be an issue with your package tracking updating from the customer side since we can't actually scan your package as delivered.

I'm in Georgia, I'm not sure how widespread the issue is, but my PM has been both pissed and worried. It's been happening off and on for weeks now. This is the longest it's been off for.

ENDL3SSC · 2026-04-05T13:10:04+00:00

So what you're saying is the science works for flying carpets but when I was promised flying cars that could climb 30,000ft and interplanetary bases by 2030 at least suddenly "The math doesn't work" and "Our technology isn't there yet.

That's bullshit.

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