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5. Initiate a strong, continuous campaign to increase noon collections.

6. Redesign collection boxes.

7. Reduce the frequency of Saturday collections in the downtown

area.

Route inspection

1. Completely reorganize the carrier foreman organization and improve methods, policies, and procedures.

2. Immediately staff the group with sufficient personnel to bring inspections up to date.

Motor vehicles

1. Completely replace the present truck fleet.

2. Purchase the necessary modern shop equipment required to service new trucks.

3. Decentralize truck storage and operation and build a new garage building of proper size and design.

Truck dock

1. Make a vigorous effort to improve parking and traffic regulations. Sorting

1. Thoroughly investigate the recommendations made by Remington Rand and appropriate sufficient money to prove their recommendations.

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(b) Small business and stores; mixed industrial and residential;

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! Not estimated. No attempt was made to estimate these savings, since recommendations are concerned with intangibles or improved utilization of existing facilities and methods. The amount of savings is dependent upon the degree of application of the recommendations.

NOTE. In addition, there is an estimated savings of $1,400,000 by changing the sorting scheme and equip

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1. When the assignment was received to study the collection and delivery operations, the Trundle Engineering Co. immediately received many offers of assistance and cooperation. These came from all levels-employees, unions, officials, and retired employees. All were eager to make suggestions for economy and these were, in general, unselfish and helpful.

2. As engineers started to make on-the-spot observations with carriers, the public reaction was very favorable. They had read of the

study in the newspapers and when they saw an engineer with a carrier, they stopped him and told of the courtesy and cooperation they had received from the carrier.

3. It was surprising then, as the study progressed, to find that the morale of post-office employees was low. Dissatisfaction was evidenced at all levels and although the problem of industrial relations was not a basic part of the study, it was considered that it was contributing to inefficiency and observations on the problem are included herein. Findings

1. Absenteeism is high and there is uniform agreement among supervisors that the high rate contributes seriously to inefficiency. This is to be expected since part-time employees must be used to fill in and they are seldom qualified for the job to which they are assigned.

2. A number of employees interviewed volunteered that they held other jobs in addition to their post-office assignment. This is not considered conducive to good performance on either job and certainly nullifies the mental and physical benefits which are supposed to result from a 40-hour work week.

3. Employees are permitted 10 days per year sick leave and analysis showed that 84 percent of the sick-leave hours were used up by the carriers last year.

4. A further break-down of sick-leave hours showed that 33 percent of the carriers used more than the 10 days allowed; this in spite of the fact that there is huge backlog of accumulated sick leave from past years:

Number of carriers: Hours of sick leave used | Number of carriers: Hours of sick leave used 128___

208_

37..

14.

6.

80-100

1.

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592

594

694

737

5. At present, doctor's certificates are required only if an employee is a habitual offender and the postmaster deems it wise to check.

Here

6. Employees are permitted 15 days' annual leave per year. Last year the carriers used 83 percent of the allowed annual leave. again, the backlog of accumulated leave is very large.

7. Last year the leave-without-pay hours of the carriers was 17 percent of the total carrier hours.

8. With the large amount of sick leave and annual leave used, the high amount of leave without pay, the large number of routes using auxiliary rather than regular carriers, and the lack of route inspection over the past years, it can be seen that there are a very large number of employees working for the Post Office who are not regular employees and who are not well trained. Disciplinary control of all this auxiliary help is not good, or possible, and has a detrimental effect on regular employees. From a social standpoint, part-time employees are certainly not an asset.

9. Supervisors have practically given up any attempt to maintain discipline because of many conditions:

(a) Lack of route inspection makes schedules virtually useless. (b) Failure to meet schedules or make deliveries is so prevalent that it is disregarded.

(c) When routes have been authorized, equipment is not available to establish the routes.

(d) It is stated that attempts to enforce regulations on patrons, which would relieve the load, have been rebuffed by Washinton or post-office officials. A number of special privileges are given patrons which add to the carrier load. Over a number of years the attitude has been built up that if you do not do what the patron wants, he will complain to his political representative or the Department at Washington and you will be overridden, so do what you are asked.

(e) It was stated that disciplinary action was lax because of fear of being accused of racial prejudice and difficulty in making disciplinary action stick.

10. There is inadequate training of supervision and they are not working effectively. Much of this can be attributed to

(a) Lack of any training for supervisors, either in handling of their job or the handling of personnel, for example:

1. Some supervisors who were trying to secure efficient operations and maintain discipline completely nullified their efforts by the manner used. Employees were severely reprimanded in front of others, and often in insulting words and tones. This was not viciousness, but rather lack of understanding of proper methods. As a result, some supervisors who are trying are not respected by employees.

2. Supervisors spend an excessive amount of time on detail work and little time on planning employees' activities or working out better methods. If everyone in a supervisory capacity was prohibited from using a typewriter, this alone would prove beneficial.

11. There is excessive talk at all levels about key positions being gained by politics rather than merit. A great deal of this concerns internal rather than national politics, but is so prevalent as to be detrimental.

12. There is no personnel director, as such. There is a personnel department, but from all that could be learned, its duties are primarily statistical rather than the positive aspects of personnel administration and relations.

13. The employee-rating system is basically a demerit system. The incentive is negative rather than positive. For example, Postal Service Rating System, revised June 1, 1947, lists eight pages of offenses which result in demerits, but only one-half page of actions which can result in merit,

14. Promotions are practically automatic and depend upon length of service and not doing anything bad. For example, a city carrier in grade 1 is eligible for promotion to grade 2 if his rating is "good" or "excellent" and his net demerits are less than 400. The rating of "fair" or "unsatisfactory" is subject to so much review and verification that a supervisor hesitates to drop below "good" in rating an employee.

15. The policy of on-the-job supervision of carriers seems to be either prohibited or discouraged. Carrier supervision, therefore, is limited to office time and time-card checks. The latter does not mean much, since inspections are so far behind that schedules have no control value.

16. There is no legal assistance on the part of the post office available to mounted carriers who are charged with traffic violations. There has been a recent wave of ticketing for double parking in

Cleveland, and drivers frequently must do so in order to collect or relay mail. They must appear in court without adequate representation. If a driver is involved in an accident, the decision as to responsibility rests in Washington, and if the driver is judged to blame he must pay the cost of repairing the truck.

17. Supervisors have very little to help them judge the effectiveness of their operations. Reports are of a statistical rather than a control

nature.

Recommendations

1. Establish sounder and more equitable personnel policies and procedures covering:

(a) Compensation.
(b) Selection.

(c) Promotion.

(d) Training (job, supervisory, and administrative).

2. Establish a control over absenteeism, sick leave and leave without pay. Habitual offenders or those who have abused privileges should be identified and corrective action taken.

3. Tighten supervisory and administrative control of personnel at all levels.

4. Immediately initiate an educational program for post-office employees to improve morale. Particular emphasis should be placed on "promotion in the post office is gained by merit and merit alone." Other cities

1. The basic policies and procedure affecting personnel are the same in all cities visited. However, the morale at Cincinnati and Detroit seemed considerably better than at Cleveland. Morale at Buffalo was low.

2. Detroit is attempting to train supervisors and personnel and should be commended for their efforts.

FOOT CARRIERS

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

1. Foot carriers arrive at the post office to which they are assigned at approximately 6:30 a. m. They receive their mail, which then has to be sorted in accordance with the routes they cover. This sorting operation is called casing and definite regulations are set up as to the method to be used. Carriers usually finish their casing between 8 and 8:30 a. m. and are then ready to start on their routes.

2. After leaving the post office they travel to their routes, by foot if the route starts within a one-half mile radius, or by public transportation if the start of the route is beyond a one-half mile radius.

3. Carriers cannot normally carry all the mail for the first delivery so after casing they bag the excess and load it on a truck which relays it to them on their routes.

4. There are three different types of routes in Cleveland. These are two-trip, three-trip, and four-trip. The two-trip route makes a large delivery in the morning and a small delivery in the afternoon. The three-trip route requires two deliveries in the morning and one in the afternoon. The four-trip route requires two deliveries in the morning and two in the afternoon.

5. The carriers clock in in the morning, clock out when they start their first trip, and clock in when they return from their first trip. If the route is a two-trip route, they clock out when they have finished their office work and do not clock in again until they have finished their lunch and mail is available for casing. On a three- or four-trip route the carrier, after clocking in upon returning from the first trip, clocks out when he starts the second trip and then handles the lunch period in the same manner as the two-trip carrier.

Findings

DOWNTOWN OFFICE BUILDINGS

1. There are 76 four-trip routes and 2 three-trip routes for delivery to downtown office buildings.

2. Carriers whose routes start at a point less than one-half mile from the post office are expected to walk to and from their routes.

3. Carriers whose routes start at a point beyond the one-half mile radius are furnished passes good on either streetcars or busses. These passes cost $1.50 per week and if the carrier wishes to use the pass when off duty, he may do so by contributing 60 cents toward its cost. It is understood that this is a local arrangement in Cleveland.

4. The average transit time of the carriers serving downtown office buildings is 1.9 hours per day. This includes those within the outside the one-balf mile radius. This means that approximately $160 per day is paid in wages for travel time for this group.

5. The carriers whose routes start outside the one-half mile radius spend their time approximately as follows:

In office (casing, marking up, receipts, etc.)..

In transit__.

Delivering mail

Percent

40

30

30

6. The average time required for delivery when working an office building is less than one minute per stop.

7. A number of business concerns are quite anxious to receive their morning delivery as soon as they open their office, which is sooner than the carrier can deliver it in many cases. This has led to the following

practice:

(a) Relay mail is dumped from sacks on the lobby floor and patrons scramble for their own particular bundle. If the people choosing this method are not present at the time, the mail is left lying on the lobby floor until picked up by them.

NOTE. The carrier and post office are relieved of responsibility by a letter from the individual patron.

8. Regulations state:

At the larger offices, deliveries should be restricted to not more than four daily in strictly business sections.

The policy of the Department, however, appears to be that four trips per day in downtown office buildings is a requirement.

9. Most of the downtown office-building routes are scheduled for four trips per day. Frequently, only three trips per day are made. 10. Regulations state:

All business houses not usually open at the time of carrier delivery should be equipped with door slots or mail receptacles of sufficient size to permit proper delivery; otherwise, the mail will be held for the next scheduled trip of the carrier.

73932-48-3

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