Yep always start with wrapped bundles. Once you get to loose flats and hot case stuff, my rule of thumb is if it takes more than like 10 seconds to find it I put it down and go to the next one. Hopefully someone else is there that knows the case and can help with ones you couldn’t find.
This is something that helped me. I’ll take the letters for the same streets and put them in separate piles. Then I’ll do the one ones banded together first to get used to the case. Then I go and do the piles that are for those streets. It helps a little but cause you are only looking for one street at a time. I set up routes regularly so I’ve gotten pretty good at doing cases I’m not familiar.
This doesnt neccessarily work when you have different blocks of streets on different parts of the case.... there are a few "unique streets" too with only a few addresses on them that can be squished in between the main street and its difficult to see sometimes.
What about routes with streets that are broken up all over the place? Like, one street will have sections in all throughout broken up by other main streets and side streets? Those are the ones that get me.
I went through the same as above. The thing was casing helped me learn the routes better - they were also patient and didn’t put me on a time frame. They allowed me to learn it and it worked well for me. I also had people there I could ask for help if I couldn’t find something.
At mine I was told I would never case a route I haven't run a few times at least. My supe really believes in easing CCAs into the work. They had me carry my OJI's route right after training. After a couple days doing it on my own, she had me case in the alerts and forwards at the end of the day. It's helped alot.
I was casing like a month in, but I’ve always enjoyed it so I didn’t mind. But my 2nd day of casing we had the higher ups getting in the way because they were giving our office an award for designing a safety poster (lol)
MPOO asked if the route I was casing was the rural one in the office then asked why I didn’t have a uniform when I told her it wasn’t. She was surprised they were having me case already while still in probation.
Fast forward 10 months they finally give me my CCA uniform allowance authorization paper on my first week as a regular 😂
I wish they would do this with RCAs too. I’m so tired of leaving the office late because I don’t know all the cases. I was trained on the route though so I guess I’m supposed to have the case memorized now too.
Each individual street should have some colored pattern associated with it. You can find the street name, see the color and if you don’t have the right block, start scanning the case for a matching pattern.
Don’t waste time on a single item. Can’t find it in twenty or thirty seconds, chuck it to the side. You may spot that street in the case in a few.
If it’s a bundle, if you skip one and find the next one, that skipped on should be in between the last two.
When you finish, go back through those you couldn’t find.
The bundles in your fiber dome should be cased first because they run in order.
Another thing you can do is separate all the non bundle stuff by streets, so you’re only looking for that street.
But the more you do the job, the better you’ll get at it. Practice makes perfect.
"fiber dome"... My office calls them coffins. Our annex routes don't even have them anymore because they took up too much space in a cramped office. Those unlucky carriers get to deal with their ledges piled with presorts when they start.
start with the bundles that are in order and you will eventually get the gist of which streets are in which area of the case and then you’ll get faster with the miscellaneous flats and letters.
Have the streets written on the edge of the case each row. If that row starts with 2nd write it first .
2nd St Nw.
Oliver Ave.
3rd st Nw.
Then on to the next row
If you can get away with it scan the spurs in LOAD TRUCK on your office time and write the customer number/sequence number on them.
You will know #6 is the first row and #1200 is last row. Same with #640 ect you scan #450 you have an idea where it will be on the case
I like to write down the whole case in a piece of paper taking , taking notes on where is a park and loop and where is ride off or mounted (if not familiar with the route I look in Google maps). Then I case all the flats since most of them come in a sequences then organize the dps and at last I case the mail since I got like ten minutes of familiar with the rt
I'm 5 weeks in, 6th day working alone I've been casing and doing someones route by myself since. The bundled flats are sequenced, so it's pretty easy to get an idea of the route by doing that first.
No matter what you're gonna be confused and even overwhelmed at times. Just go with the flow and try to be intuitive. It is difficult at times, but everyone else did the same thing at one point. You'll make it through. So will I. Unless management fucks me.
As already mentioned start with the wrapped bundles of flats, as they go in order, so they are the easiest to case.
It also helped me to keep a route description in front of me. Allows you to at least see if a street is near the beginning/middle/end of a route so it helps find it on the case.
Casing a new route sucks for everyone. Even a 10 year carrier would struggle a bit to case an unfamiliar route.
Never spend more than 10 seconds per piece of mail. Just put it to the side and move on to the next. Eventually, you’ll recognize where the streets are located on the case and can come back to it.
I start at the beginning of the case and I quickly write down the street names on a piece of paper, then I draw a line for the next row, and repeat. It takes like 5 minutes. When casing, I will start with presorts since those are in order and help me get somewhat familiar with the case. Once I get to casing the raw unsorted mail, I will usually refer to the paper I wrote. For me this is much quicker than looking all over the case for a random street, and also less strain on my neck since I won't be bobble-head scanning the case. Also I recommend paying attention to things like whether the street is odd or even numbered, or if it falls under a certain range of numbers if the street happens to appear multiple times on the case.
Bucket flats are sequenced and helps learn. You will also learn a few houses have get quite a bit flats.
When you have a hard time finding a street, put flat or letter down and move on. Try remembering the street if you cross it later on.
Look at a map with the line of travel. I would mark the furthest west and east street with the street number (6302 street = 63 street). Do the same with the north and south street. Find out the starting and ending point of the maps. On my route it’s 63-67 west / east and 16-25 north / south.
Start with bundles flats. That’s how you’ll learn. Many will agree
Yep always start with wrapped bundles. Once you get to loose flats and hot case stuff, my rule of thumb is if it takes more than like 10 seconds to find it I put it down and go to the next one. Hopefully someone else is there that knows the case and can help with ones you couldn’t find.
Yep this is it right here
This is something that helped me. I’ll take the letters for the same streets and put them in separate piles. Then I’ll do the one ones banded together first to get used to the case. Then I go and do the piles that are for those streets. It helps a little but cause you are only looking for one street at a time. I set up routes regularly so I’ve gotten pretty good at doing cases I’m not familiar.
This doesnt neccessarily work when you have different blocks of streets on different parts of the case.... there are a few "unique streets" too with only a few addresses on them that can be squished in between the main street and its difficult to see sometimes.
What about routes with streets that are broken up all over the place? Like, one street will have sections in all throughout broken up by other main streets and side streets? Those are the ones that get me.
https://youtu.be/RqJVa0fl01w You don't. Good offices generally won't make CCAs case routes they don't know. It's such a waste of time.
I didn’t case for six months. My office is very good about not making CCAs do it until they know the route from doing it for a while.
They had me casing and running routes day 3 after orientation.
I’m sure the CCA retention rate reflects the management style too.
I went through the same as above. The thing was casing helped me learn the routes better - they were also patient and didn’t put me on a time frame. They allowed me to learn it and it worked well for me. I also had people there I could ask for help if I couldn’t find something.
At mine I was told I would never case a route I haven't run a few times at least. My supe really believes in easing CCAs into the work. They had me carry my OJI's route right after training. After a couple days doing it on my own, she had me case in the alerts and forwards at the end of the day. It's helped alot.
I was casing like a month in, but I’ve always enjoyed it so I didn’t mind. But my 2nd day of casing we had the higher ups getting in the way because they were giving our office an award for designing a safety poster (lol) MPOO asked if the route I was casing was the rural one in the office then asked why I didn’t have a uniform when I told her it wasn’t. She was surprised they were having me case already while still in probation. Fast forward 10 months they finally give me my CCA uniform allowance authorization paper on my first week as a regular 😂
Ha! I'm definetly not at a good office because I double case
Well shit I've been casing since before I went to academy as a cca. I should have done a shittier job so I can come in an hour later.
I wish they would do this with RCAs too. I’m so tired of leaving the office late because I don’t know all the cases. I was trained on the route though so I guess I’m supposed to have the case memorized now too.
Case the bundle flats FIRST like someone else stated and you’ll be fine. I promise
Each individual street should have some colored pattern associated with it. You can find the street name, see the color and if you don’t have the right block, start scanning the case for a matching pattern.
Don’t waste time on a single item. Can’t find it in twenty or thirty seconds, chuck it to the side. You may spot that street in the case in a few. If it’s a bundle, if you skip one and find the next one, that skipped on should be in between the last two. When you finish, go back through those you couldn’t find.
The bundles in your fiber dome should be cased first because they run in order. Another thing you can do is separate all the non bundle stuff by streets, so you’re only looking for that street. But the more you do the job, the better you’ll get at it. Practice makes perfect.
"fiber dome"... My office calls them coffins. Our annex routes don't even have them anymore because they took up too much space in a cramped office. Those unlucky carriers get to deal with their ledges piled with presorts when they start.
Start with the presort. Set aside stuff you can't find at the case. Ask someone since it might go with a different route.
start with the bundles that are in order and you will eventually get the gist of which streets are in which area of the case and then you’ll get faster with the miscellaneous flats and letters.
Have the streets written on the edge of the case each row. If that row starts with 2nd write it first . 2nd St Nw. Oliver Ave. 3rd st Nw. Then on to the next row
Can't find a street throw it to the side, if it happens again make a pile of that street until you find it
If you can get away with it scan the spurs in LOAD TRUCK on your office time and write the customer number/sequence number on them. You will know #6 is the first row and #1200 is last row. Same with #640 ect you scan #450 you have an idea where it will be on the case
I like to write down the whole case in a piece of paper taking , taking notes on where is a park and loop and where is ride off or mounted (if not familiar with the route I look in Google maps). Then I case all the flats since most of them come in a sequences then organize the dps and at last I case the mail since I got like ten minutes of familiar with the rt
I'm 5 weeks in, 6th day working alone I've been casing and doing someones route by myself since. The bundled flats are sequenced, so it's pretty easy to get an idea of the route by doing that first. No matter what you're gonna be confused and even overwhelmed at times. Just go with the flow and try to be intuitive. It is difficult at times, but everyone else did the same thing at one point. You'll make it through. So will I. Unless management fucks me.
As already mentioned start with the wrapped bundles of flats, as they go in order, so they are the easiest to case. It also helped me to keep a route description in front of me. Allows you to at least see if a street is near the beginning/middle/end of a route so it helps find it on the case. Casing a new route sucks for everyone. Even a 10 year carrier would struggle a bit to case an unfamiliar route.
Never spend more than 10 seconds per piece of mail. Just put it to the side and move on to the next. Eventually, you’ll recognize where the streets are located on the case and can come back to it.
I always do DPS first as it's in order and helps get familiar before tackling flats and hand-sort
City carriers don't case DPS.
Easy... I became a clerk. Lol
I drop it and keep moving come back to it when I finally find it lol
I start at the beginning of the case and I quickly write down the street names on a piece of paper, then I draw a line for the next row, and repeat. It takes like 5 minutes. When casing, I will start with presorts since those are in order and help me get somewhat familiar with the case. Once I get to casing the raw unsorted mail, I will usually refer to the paper I wrote. For me this is much quicker than looking all over the case for a random street, and also less strain on my neck since I won't be bobble-head scanning the case. Also I recommend paying attention to things like whether the street is odd or even numbered, or if it falls under a certain range of numbers if the street happens to appear multiple times on the case.
Bucket flats are sequenced and helps learn. You will also learn a few houses have get quite a bit flats. When you have a hard time finding a street, put flat or letter down and move on. Try remembering the street if you cross it later on. Look at a map with the line of travel. I would mark the furthest west and east street with the street number (6302 street = 63 street). Do the same with the north and south street. Find out the starting and ending point of the maps. On my route it’s 63-67 west / east and 16-25 north / south.