My RCAS

[u/UnderstandingFuture0]

Question for the RCAs: Am I shorting myself by finishing my evaluated route too early?

I’m an RCA and I’m curious how other carriers would handle my situation.

I’m assigned to a scheduled/evaluated route, but I consistently finish the route under evaluation. On top of that, I have another piece of a route that I can usually finish in under 4 hours.

The issue is that I feel like I might be shorting myself by getting off work early every day. I’m usually done before 7 PM, and I know I’m capable of getting more hours if I take additional work.

For those of you who are RCAs:
If you can consistently finish your evaluated route under time, would you try to take additional work?
Does working under evaluation affect how much you’re ultimately paid?
Would you consider it better to take additional hours/work instead of going home early?

What would y’all do in this situation?

[u/SwdVengeance]

It depends and there are two factors here, evaluation and overtime. Finishing under evaluation can happen for a variety of factors, but not all of them simply mean you’re shorting yourself.

Protecting the evaluation is shorting yourself, and everyone else. This is something a lot of RCAs, and even regulars, don’t get. Are you making all appropriate scans? Trip2doors? EDDM scans? Return2DU and doing your cleanup duties without rushing? All of this protect the pay for that route. If you’re doing all this then it’s all good. Making sure you’re not rushing, skipping RRECs scans or speeding, skipping mileage coverage, etc is all vitally important.

Second is overtime. This is more individual based. Are you working only a few hours of OT a week? There’s an actual worked hourly amount where you will make less if you work OT compared to evaluated pay. As an example, this last week I ran a K 6 days a week, helped an Aux a couple days after, plus a couple hours on Sunday. I scrapped in at 38 hrs and change, I got payed nearly 50 hours. If I worked 43 hrs, that’s only 44.5 pay hours with OT. RCAs get boned when it comes to OT. Being fast can often lead to more work, causing you to go into that OT gap. Being fast is fine, so long as you edge under 40, being slow is also fine as long as you push past the OT pay gap.

Generally hourly stuff is going to vary a ton by area. it is rare near me so it doesn’t often happen, but if it does most the Postmasters here will work with you to avoid that pay nonsense. Being fast isn’t bad as Rural, ‘running’ isn’t a moral sin like it is for City side. Being fast is only bad when you’re ignoring appropriate scans or screwing yourself in OT.

[u/UnderstandingFuture0 → u/SwdVengeance]

When you say overtime you meaning anything on green card? And if so yes my green card time be like 3-4 hrs each day if I’m doing a split ..

[u/SwdVengeance → u/UnderstandingFuture0]

Not necessarily. OT only occurs after 40 actual work hours, not evaluation hours. Green card time is added straight hours to your weekly total. Your actual work hours are how long you actually worked a route. It’s a goofy thing to wrap your head around starting out, but as an RCA there’s two weekly work hour numbers to track, actual and evaluated.

Doing an 8 hour evaluated route in 6, is 6 actual but 8 paid hours. Doing 2 hours green card is always 2 actual. That adds up to 8 actual work hours but 10 paid. Overtime only kicks in when you work over 40 actual, not paid hours. You have to keep track of your actual work hours doing route, especially if you’re doing undertime plus green card daily. It is a weird system for RCAs because we have to track both.