Sometime in the next few months, letter carriers in your office will be introduced to the letter carrier Edit Book. The Edit Book is part of a new process to report errors or omissions on letter carrier routes in regard to the listing of points of call (POCs) and other information on 038 forms (the outside inventory). 

Replaces 040 Cards

The Edit Book is based on the system used in the United States, and will replace the existing 040 cards.

The new process was piloted in Winnipeg in 2008 in relation to Canada Post’s Modern Post (Postal Transformation) initiative. Part of that initiative involves mechanized sequencing of letter mail to point of delivery.

Despite the propaganda that you may hear from Canada Post, you won’t like mechanized sequencing very much when it comes to your route.

Accurate 038s More Important with Mechanized Sequencing

But it’s very important – especially with mechanized sequencing – to have the 038 forms accurately reflect the outside part of your route. In most depots, the 040 card system has not worked well because the Supervisor has not made the corrections.

The Edit Book consists of 3 sections:

1.      The Cover Sheet

2.      The Route Detail Data Sheet, listing all of the data from the 038 form

3.      The Address Update Form.

With the new process, the letter carrier fills out the Cover Sheet each week, whether or not there is a problem. If points of call are missing or the information about them is wrong, he/ she makes a note on the Route Detail Data Sheet. 

Supervisor Must Collect Edit Book Every Week

The supervisor must collect the Edit Books each week, on a designated day of the week. The supervisor should return the Edit Book to the letter carrier after two days, with amended Route Detail Sheets showing the corrections.  More complicated problems may take a few more days to correct. 

Then letter carrier checks the Route Detail Data Sheet to verify that the problem(s) has been corrected.

Supervisor Must Provide Corrections to Carrier

The Edit Book has been consulted on at the national level. In general, CUPW believes that it will work better than the existing 040 process, because the new approach requires the Supervisor to report back to the letter carrier. 

The initial rollout will start in August 2009 and continue. Canada Post says that it intends to roll the Edit Book out to all depots by the 3^rd quarter of 2011. This will ensure that the Edit Book is in place prior to the implementation of mechanized sequencing. 

Though CUPW is not in favour of mechanized sequencing, it is encouraging Locals to support the Edit Book initiative. However:

• Local consultation must take place prior to starting the Edit Book process in any depot, and the Local should be involved in the rollout process
• Existing 038 problems must be corrected. The employer is more interested in making sure that their database provides for the existence of each point of call, so that mail can be sequenced to each address. But it is important for letter carriers that information about the pacing, receptacles, gates, doors, steps, etc. is correct so that the proper time values are applied. 
• Letter carriers must be given the time to fill out the documents while at work rather than on their own time.
• Every letter carrier is not a route measurement expert, and it is the employer’s responsibility to establish correct 038s. The basic responsibility of the letter carrier is to identify changes on the route, and to indicate where he/ she believes the 038 data is incorrect. It is the Supervisor’s job to verify the exact distances, etc. Letter carriers do not have the time or equipment to do a thorough analysis. However, the more information that the letter carrier provides, the better the result may be.  He/ she may have to check the employer’s data if he/ she feels that the employer’s version is not correct.

The National Union is investigating the issue of time values for this work.

For the Edit Book process to work, it is important that locals and members insist that the Supervisors respond and that updates are done within the time frames specified in the process. Letter carriers should insist that they receive copies of the reports showing that adjustments have actually been made to their routes.

Your CUPW Local Office has additional information on the Edit Book initiative.