Delivery accuracy and proper scanning

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Lou Sklenarik, Western Area VP, Merged Branch 86.
Lou Sklenarik

Brothers & Sisters,

Amazon is developing its own infrastructure, buying up warehouses all over America and have developed their own delivery fleet. At a time of uncertainty one thing that remains certain is that our role in all the communities and neighborhoods across America is still a vital one and we are still the most trusted federal agency with the American people.

To maintain our jobs and remain an integral part of the economy, more than ever we need to now step up, and provide top notch service. It is vital that regulars on routes maintain their routes, keep them marked as accurately as possible, so that their T6 counterparts and the substitute City Carrier Assistants can deliver the route with the same accuracy. Take the time to properly read the mail, secure mailbox lids tight on a rainy day and take all the mail to the door when you have a parcel for a customer and ring the bell. The language in the M41 requires us to go to the customer’s door.

M-41 Section 322.31 reads:

For any parcel that does not fit into the customer’s mailbox or parcel locker (when available), an attempt to deliver must be made to the customer’s door.

Provide great customer service. Handing that particular customer their package with all their mail for the day goes a long way with them. Stay relevant by having a good relationship with your customers. It also serves a dual purpose. It adds authorized street time to our routes that may be less burdened with the recent decline of Amazon packages.

If the customer is not home and there is a safe location to leave the parcel, bag the parcel and protect it as much as possible if there is a hint of poor weather. It is vital that you handle the parcel carefully. Don’t throw it at the door or out of the truck. In today society’s everyone has a cell phone camera or a ring camera at their front door.

Scan all your parcels properly. In the office, if the customer is on hold, properly scan it “on hold” and endorse the package. Scan the parcels at the time of delivery. It’s important to remember that scanning is live and customers get notifications on various pieces of technology that not only shows the package has been delivered but where exactly it was left. At the front door, with an individual, at the garage so on and so forth. It’s imperative that we do not scan improper information. Due to pressure from higher ups, local management may ask you to stop the clock at the end of the day and scan the parcel “no access”. Do not do that. Ask your supervisor if you can go back out to finish your assigned duties for the day. If the answer is no tell the supervisor he needs to scan the parcel. I highly recommend that when we clear at the registry cage, we log off our scanners making it difficult for management to just grab anybody’s scanner to stop the clock so that they don’t have to answer to the higher-ups as to why they couldn’t get everything delivered. The problem is, we as carriers, have to answer to our customers out on the route why a package was scanned “no access” the night before. Refer them to your postmaster. Notify your stewards as well. Not only is management falsifying data they are taking away needed street time that was earned when they decided to accept that package into their unit that particular delivery day.

Remember it is up to us to protect the routes, provide quality and efficient service. It is the part we can control and to remain the most trusted federal agency the government has. If we do the right things we will persevere, after all we have been around longer than the constitution itself.

I hope you and your beloved families stay safe and well.

In Unionism,
Lou Sklenarik, Western Area VP
Merged Branch 86

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