Any mail carriers here?

Any mail carriers here?
Currently and ARC in the process of transferring to RCA but my supervisor has been allowing me to carry routes because we're so short staffed, I've run 4 or 5 mail routes now, all blind with no OJI with the carrier or sub on record.

 

Fedex courier, but I didn't understand a word of that

 

Reminded me of an old, old joke...

 

What's that like? I did OJI (On the job instruction) with a few city carriers and I felt like a courier (just based on what I've seen) we had a sprinter van and a driver, I would jump out and deliver packages, very quick system (the carrier said we finished his route over an hour quicker than normal).



ARC= associate rural carrier, basically we're hired to deliver only packages on sundays and holidays, we can (per contract) be called in on saturdays if needed)
RCA= rural carrier associate, substitute mail carriers, technically a part time job (Almost all the RCA's at my office have averaged 50+ hrs/week over the past 6 months, I've put in almost 36 hours since saturday and I didn't work yesterday)
Sub on record= A RCA who is assigned to a particular route as the backup mail carrier (Usually assigned to 2-3 routes, before you become the sub on record you complete at least 3 days of training with the full time assigned carrier of that route)
Running a route bling= No training on that route, in extreme cases it means you don't have directions at all, you simply GPS to the first address and figure the route out from there.

 

It's not bad, but it's certainly not for everyone. I definitely know what it's like to be thrown on a route without an training or knowledge of the area. And we don't have gps unless you use your smartphone, we map out our routes if you don't know the area.

Fortunately I have my own route area now, and I know the area very well.

What you explained we call "runners," one guy drives and the other runs the package to the door. Typically only done during the holiday season in my station.

 

Also our route areas are much larger area wise than yours, obviously, so I imagine things are a bit different.

 

I find it challenging and kind of fun to run the routes blind, I moved to the area just over 3 months ago so almost every route is a learning adventure, delivery definitely isn't for everyone.
I like my job but my biggest issue with it is when we do both mail and parcels at the same time (like a regular RCA or full time carrier does) it's difficult to balance them both, I could run my routes very quickly if I were allowed to deliver all the mail and then go back and do packages.

The only time we use runners are when we train people and they work on sundays, some carriers are trying to change that but I don't think it'll happen.

How big are y'alls routes? The longest rural mail route that I know of around here is almost 80 miles, 15 minute drive from the office to the first stop, they threw me on that route 2 weeks ago and I only completed 1/3rd of it by 7PM.

 

Well my route is 20 minutes from the station and I average about 200 miles every day. But one route in our station starts 45 minutes from the station and covers 300+ miles each day. The route runs in 5 different counties I believe.

 

Holy cow, those have to be long days.

 

Well we aren't delivering to every single resident so it depends on the density of the area. I work 8 hour days, the 300+ mile route is an 11 hour day, just a lot of driving in a low populated area.