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[Merged] Ask Me About Working For Canada Post

Deal Fanatic
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Feb 1, 2008
5026 posts
1789 upvotes
Niagara Falls, ON
RuralMailGuy wrote: What does that mean?
parcel delivers are way down so those estimated numbers will be adjusted which means less pay.
Jr. Member
May 19, 2020
133 posts
128 upvotes
That kinda sucks, hopefully fuel prices don't skyrocket again as we prob won't get any extra compensation for that.
Deal Addict
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Jan 18, 2005
1950 posts
355 upvotes
mikebc wrote: For terms? They don't release data. Anecdotally I hear 90% quit in 6 months, not sure how accurate that is since they started babying them. 5 years ago it was rare for me to see one of my trainees 6 months later, now I see recent ones around all the time. Usually aimlessly milling around the station as a surplus for the day. I think three of my dozens (hundreds?) of trainees have made it to 5 years. Since covid (where we weren't training as often) all my younglings have passed and all are still with the Corp.

BUT we don't have any terms capable of doing a full walk and management doesn't seem concerned about it. That'll translate into a generation of reliefs and full timers incapable of doing a full walk as well. I guess that's someone else's problem. It's actually the standard now where two terms cover one route for the day. So you get one term who's a pro at sorting and another who's pro at flyers and flagging. Probably one does all the walking and the other likes CMBs. They always seem to choose their friend so I imagine they develop a prep routine. This isn't producing well rounded carriers, nor are they learning the speed they need to move at to finish in 8 (or 7, or 6). They're still coming back after 4-6 hours -- for 1.5 sections. Sweet summer child(s), you're **** for Christmas.
You sound no better than management you're the problem not the solution. The training is the shits, the routes us terms get are the shits, we get routes with 3x times mail, we try but people like you and ruthless management no wonder why we give it up. We see the people like you getting a extra 10 bucks a hour, with their premium route shitting on us, who have to sort an unfamiliar route every day, get micro managed by the supervisors, little to no help no wonder why we give it up.

Stop treating new hires like seasoned veterans. You're part of the problem not the solution, it's not just the management.
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Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Feb 1, 2008
5026 posts
1789 upvotes
Niagara Falls, ON
magical wrote: You're part of the problem not the solution, it's not just the management.
When I cover routes I tell route holder up front, 85% of the wage, 85% of the effort🤣.

Best is when business CMBs aren't labeled and pull sheets/board aren't updated.

"..... Oh yeah I just pile those ones over here"

I got this job during COVID lockdown so still grateful buy WTF Pouting Face
Banned
Mar 31, 2022
160 posts
76 upvotes
Mike's absolutely correct. Mail is down, flyers are down, parcels are down and we have sequenced mail (most places).
The job is actually easier than it was with most of us started and we didn't get coddled or help and it made us better carriers.

Current system is a disaster for the future of Canada Post.
Sr. Member
Jan 13, 2013
940 posts
691 upvotes
Vancouver
magical wrote: You sound no better than management you're the problem not the solution. The training is the shits, the routes us terms get are the shits, we get routes with 3x times mail, we try but people like you and ruthless management no wonder why we give it up. We see the people like you getting a extra 10 bucks a hour, with their premium route shitting on us, who have to sort an unfamiliar route every day, get micro managed by the supervisors, little to no help no wonder why we give it up.

Stop treating new hires like seasoned veterans. You're part of the problem not the solution, it's not just the management.
The wage descrepancy does factor in. It sucks and it does effect the output. Although I'd like to see how many jobs out there allow new, inexperienced hires more prone to mistakes to get the same wage as an efficient employee of 30+ years.

But that doesn't change the fact that every term before you also had the worse routes and the most mail. But you know what we didn't get? Help. At all. Like, I mean, never. If you ever brought mail back, even after a long day on a brand new route (without sequenced mail) you would get called into the office and questioned if you were LC material. It didn't take long to sink or swim after a couple of those.

We didn't get PDs and requests for time off usually meant losing your assignment; in five years as a term I took exactly 2 weeks of holidays after which time I had to report to the furthest depot in the zone (a hair under 40km away).

And this hand-holding isn't just for terms, there's been 2 FTers with 2+ years experience come into my row on new walks. Both got a section off for a week, with one needing 3 weeks of help before finishing it herself. Two years!

I'm not saying we should have been treated that poorly but it undeniably made us better LCs for it. I guess we'll never know if throwing a full wage at these same people would push them to being better workers, but I'd bet against it.
Sr. Member
Mar 7, 2012
542 posts
387 upvotes
Can somebody point me in the right direction to where I can fine the details of any medical coverage we have (or don't) when traveling out of country?
Deal Addict
Jun 25, 2010
2046 posts
1661 upvotes
SantaCruz wrote: Can somebody point me in the right direction to where I can fine the details of any medical coverage we have (or don't) when traveling out of country?
Your best bet is to call canadalife . PS we do have out of country coverage.
“There are the people who don’t know, and the people who don’t know that they don’t know”- Treva84
Sr. Member
Mar 7, 2012
542 posts
387 upvotes
Of course we don't. You mean to tell me that Canada Post cheaped out? I don't believe it!
Deal Addict
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Jan 18, 2005
1950 posts
355 upvotes
I just got written up for working 24 hours in 2 days, cutting off the 2nd day after 12 hours with no supervisor to tell me what to do. I have had no formal training. No documented procedures, and lies and misinformation from supervisors. It's no wonder why no one stays to work in this mess.

It's a micro manged hell hole... I'm fighting for the new hires now, and I don't care if they let me go. It's not worth the mental stress and my well being.
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Deal Addict
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Jan 18, 2005
1950 posts
355 upvotes
Neverwrong wrote: Mike's absolutely correct. Mail is down, flyers are down, parcels are down and we have sequenced mail (most places).
The job is actually easier than it was with most of us started and we didn't get coddled or help and it made us better carriers.

Current system is a disaster for the future of Canada Post.
Where I work no sequenced mail, no classroom training just feed you to the sharks.
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Deal Addict
May 22, 2015
3306 posts
3848 upvotes
Gonna call bullshit on this. So you have no VOP? Are you an rsmc? If you didn't get trained then the union will stand up for you but there's no way outside of gross incompetence that an urban carrier would get on a call list without training or a VOP.

This changes nothing about what you quoted from me though. Everyone here is or was a term, most of us served 2-4 years as a term. Unicorn routes are few and far between under the new route measurement system, few if any of us have a consistent 5 hour route, if those even exist anymore. We finish quickly because expectations were clear when we started and those who couldn't meet those expectations were fired or quit on their own. In all our cases, that meant consistently finishing any route thrown at us in 8-9 hours. Getting 12 hours to finish a route was unheard of 5-10 years ago, we would be written up too. I'm sorry you're having a hard time and if it's because of poor or no training then it's within your rights to demand retraining. We are talking about people with 1-2 years experience being where you're at right now regarding the difficulty you're having. You're obviously new, they are not, our expectations of them are much higher.
Deal Addict
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Jan 18, 2005
1950 posts
355 upvotes
I was hired as a letter carrier, then they shafted me to an inside assistant job, I should have been more clear about that, I never received any classroom training, hell I never even found out how to adjust the satchel properly till I got changed to the inside assist and saw the poster showing how it's done onhe wall.

I work at 5am, deliver bins of mail to individual stations, about sixty of them, then ulines and large stuffz with two people that takes till about 7am, then I sort whateve is necessary, then after that I might get to take out one sectiction ofna route.

I dont know where you are but our training solely consisted of following someone and learning that way, all their short cuts to beat the system, but as to documented procedures, nothing.. it's a mess and they feed you to the sharks. As to what a VOP is I don't even know what that is..,. I never even got an orientation with the union, that never happened, it's a shit show....
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Deal Addict
May 22, 2015
3306 posts
3848 upvotes
VOP is drivers training and licensing. If you don't have it you're not allowed to drive and you should be refusing anything motorized until you've taken that course. You need to talk to the union dude. It sounds like you're performing PO4, LCA and LC duties on one shift, which is not allowed. I'm still unclear of what your current designation is, but any inside duties in a non-PT depot are considered group 1 work. Sorting and delivery is group 2 work. Unless you're injured and on modification, you can't do both in one day.

Are you on an assignment to one station that you show up to everyday or are you waiting for daily calls at home? Is this only happening at one station or all the stations in your catchment? How long have you been working and how many shifts a week are you getting?

You need to tell both management and the union that you never received classroom training. You also need to get the union to have those letters pulled off your file.
Deal Fanatic
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Feb 1, 2008
5026 posts
1789 upvotes
Niagara Falls, ON
Tell me about how you had to deliver mail up hills both ways in the winter with no shoes Face With Stuck-out Tongue And Winking Eye
Newbie
Oct 25, 2017
78 posts
70 upvotes
hyperactiveme wrote: Tell me about how you had to deliver mail up hills both ways in the winter with no shoes Face With Stuck-out Tongue And Winking Eye
Lol. I remember being sent out as a temp covering 3 different splits,each of them a flyer split. Good times.
Sr. Member
Mar 7, 2012
542 posts
387 upvotes
mikebc wrote: It sounds like you're performing PO4, LCA and LC duties on one shift, which is not allowed. I'm still unclear of what your current designation is, but any inside duties in a non-PT depot are considered group 1 work. Sorting and delivery is group 2 work. Unless you're injured and on modification, you can't do both in one day.

I did city wide OT last week and when I got there, there was an inside person taking out the other section of the route. Apparently she is an inside worker, but was an LC just before and got injured. So she can no longer do a route and owns the inside position. However, she is allowed to take OT that includes sections of routes (though she wasn't capable of doing routes?). Apparently she does this daily and she gets thrown into the same mix as the LC's and picks with her seniority. She also is allowed to do inside OT, which LC's can't do unless they exhaust the inside worker's OT list. I couldn't quite piece together how this is allowed. When I asked the person telling me, he was like "yeah, none of us know and management just says that it's a special circumstance." I'd be furious if an inside worker could dip from both OT pools at their whim, but I couldn't.. with no explanation as to why. What am I missing here?


jonesyjones wrote: Lol. I remember being sent out as a temp covering 3 different splits,each of them a flyer split. Good times.
It's interesting to me that the terminology seems to differ from station to station or region to region. Nobody at my station ever calls it "splits." Though I've read several people calling it that on here.
Sr. Member
Jan 13, 2013
940 posts
691 upvotes
Vancouver
SantaCruz wrote: It's interesting to me that the terminology seems to differ from station to station or region to region. Nobody at my station ever calls it "splits." Though I've read several people calling it that on here.
Pieces and sections. I've never heard splits anywhere other than here.
Sr. Member
Jul 6, 2017
653 posts
699 upvotes
Trying to get outsid…
Splits are the actual time-valued delivery portions.
Sections are your flyer days.
Inside Assistant is a Group 2 position that is inside work and typically involves portioning out the admail to the routes, cleaning up and storing equipment, sorting routes and mail delivery as needed.
This position can be used for an accommodation for an injured letter carrier. In this case the owner of the position (if healthy) is moved to Relief Letter Carrier and the injured worker can take the position while recovering. If the injury allows for light duties the carrier can ease back into delivery work in this role.
Deal Guru
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Jan 30, 2006
14641 posts
3364 upvotes
Vancouver
Masks back on at our station for 3 weeks. Question: what does Canada post know regarding mask wearing that other agencies don’t? Eg PNE, liquor board etc

Brutal in my opinion.

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