US Post Office

I have not seen this employer mentioned much on this forum, so I'll try to do my best to shed some light on what it's like to work here.

The USPS is nothing but P&DC work. First and last mile contracts mean that anything outside of a particular radius of a DC is contracted out.

Shifts are called tours. There are 3 tours per day. Tour 1 is night shift which starts at 23:00 hours, tour 2 is day shift which starts at 0600 hours, and tour 3 is the afternoon shift which starts at 14:00. Tour 1 is designed to bring mail to the stations, tour 3 is designed to pick up mail from the stations and tour 2 is designed to move empty equipment around.

There are 3 types of runs you can bid on for each tour. A regular run has a 8 hour day, 5 day a week work schedule with back to back off days. A regular run also goes to the same places at the same times, every day.

Next up is a bobber run. A work schedule for a bobber run can vary from 3 to 5 days a week. Some of these runs are only scheduled for 32 hours a week. Bobber runs work a regular runs off days. So if you're on a bobber, you would do my run on my runs off days. There is an advantage of a shorter work week, which I'll explain later.

Next up is a nifty run. Nifty runs are just like regular runs, only with a shorter work week.

Overtime:

Time and a half for hours work over 40 a week or 8 hrs a day. Double time for hours worked over 48 a week and/or 10 hours a day. Here's where having a bobber or nifty run comes in handy. If your run is scheduled for 32 hours a week, you get time and a half after 32 hours and double time over 40 hours.

Overtime is not seniority based, but regular employees are favored over casual PSE's. Overtime is based on a rotation. If they work the top drivers in seniority first, they have to rotate to the bottom drivers next week. This reduces double time.

Hourly rate starts at $18.56/hour, and you get a .75 cent raise every 6 months until you cap out at around $30/hour.

There are also other pay incentives. You have night differential if you work between 1800 and 0600, which adds $1.25/hr to $1.90/hr depending on your pay level. If your run is scheduled for the weekend, you get 'double Sunday premium'. Sunday premium adds 25% of your hourly wage, and double Sunday means you get the premium on Saturday as well.

Equipment is OK, at best. Not the best trucks and trailers in the world, but not the worst either. The equipment is old, and shows its age.

You also get Paid Time Off, or PTO. PTO comes in 2 forms. Sick leave and annual leave. You have a cap of 440 hours annual leave, but there's no limit to how much sick leave you can have.

If anyone has any questions about what it's like to work here, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer.

 

One more thing I forgot to mention about overtime:

Its not required. If you want to work overtime as a regular employee, you have to sign a Overtime Desired List, or ODL. Drivers that you're on a rotation with are drivers on the ODL, who have the same off days you do.

 

You must have caught someone on a bad day. I have no issues getting along with everyone here.

 

I'm the wrong person to complain too.

 

New hires are PSE's, or Postal Support Employees. It's no different from any other union shop. You start off as a casual worker and work your way up. Nobody gives you benefits to start off with anymore. Not even Teamsters.