by Kirk Baiz 1st Senior Vice President

MIARAP does not mean we agreed to DOIS

One of the most common urban myths in the Postal Service, uttered daily by postal supervisors everywhere, is the false allegation that when the NALC bargained the MIARAP (Modified Interim Alternate Route Adjustment Process), it also accepted DOIS numbers as a whole, including projected data. You may also have seen or heard this from letter carriers that do not understand the difference. This is not true. I will explain the difference.

In 1985, the USPS created DSIS, a computer program. In 1998, the USPS implemented a sub-program within DSIS to estimate each carrier’s daily time. That program, POST, processed the volume count/estimate from PCRS, the casing speed of the carrier from the last count and inspection and an estimate of the time needed for some line items. The program then gave a projected leave and return time. Later, the USPS replaced DSIS with DOIS, which has a capability similar to POST within DSIS.

DOIS stands for Delivery Operations Information System. DOIS also contains many data reports used for a variety of operations reviews. DOIS in and of itself does not mean Data Originated In Sh*t. even though it seems that way whenever a supervisor waves the DOIS flag. DOIS is merely an information system that some numbers geek who probably never delivered a letter decided to use as a projection tool.

DOIS time projections are rife with inaccuracies. The formula used to make the projections is simple, but it is also insufficient and inappropriate. The calculations are subject to incorrect base and daily inputs. Basically, the DOIS Formula is cased letters divided by 18; plus cased flats divided by 8; plus total cased letters and flats divided by 70; multiplied by Percent to Standard; plus fixed office time equals projected office time. Add to that projected street time that starts with a base time from an adjustment that has usually not been validated with a post adjustment evaluation. The obvious problems with DOIS projections, or unfiltered DOIS, include, but aren’t limited to, inaccurate volume entries, inaccurate work hour transfers, inaccurate fixed office times, inappropriate use of percent to standard, inaccurate base data, failure to consider all office and street variables and not all TACS functions transfer to DOIS. The Postal Service, on a national level, has accepted the limitations on DOIS. In the October, 2007 Postal Record, Director of City Delivery Dale Hart discussed the national settlement on DOIS. To borrow from Brother Hart’s key theme, DOIS projections cannot determine workload. The basis of such theme is from the following (among others) sections of the national settlement: 1)“(DOIS) is a management tool for estimating a carrier’s daily workload;” and 2) “DOIS projections are not the sole determinant of a carrier’s leaving or return time, or daily workload.” Relative to item 1, a normal definition of the word estimate is 1. an approximate calculation; 2. a written statement indicating the likely price that will be charged for specified work; 3. a judgment or appraisal. In other words, DOIS data, like any other data, has all the potential in the world to be abused and misapplied when placed in the wrong hands. Some supervisors open the computer, pull unfiltered data from their special place, and then attempts to set your leaving time or return time based on that daily data regardless of any current adjustment or review data on your route. Other supervisors blindly apply whatever message has been handed down by higher level management to apply on a daily basis, once again, regardless of any current legitimate adjustment or review data on your route.

The difference in the MIARAP is that information taken from DOIS is then combed through by union representatives for inconsistencies and anomalies, which are then removed from the average applied for the evaluation. In MIARAP, we also get an opportunity to increase the amount of fixed office time, move time from street to office or vice-versa. We sometimes get to fix where carriers have been performing street functions on office time, or where daily required duties may have not been previously credited to the route. All of these fixes are based on getting the input from the regular carrier on the route to discover these problems in order to correct them. The other factor is that the carrier is doing what needs to be done not just telling us what it would take if it was done right. In MIARAP the union representatives, with the help and along with the regular carrier, have an opportunity to achieve a fair and accurate route adjustment that reflects a workload for the regular carrier of as close to eight hours daily as possible.

After adjustment you should be provided what the adjusted (base) office and street time for your route is. A route review (evaluation) then follows to validate such adjusted (base) data. Again, understand that even after such actions we are getting phone calls about supervisors that, even after adjustment and review, are attempting to hold carriers to daily numbers that have nothing to do with the route evaluation and adjustment. Hold to what you know your leaving time to be. Do not be intimidated into running, skipping breaks or lunches, or taking other unsafe actions to get the route done. At the end of the day, is it your responsibility to do what’s right and safe for you.

I related a story a while back about a scorpion that came upon a stream, and asked a frog to carry him on his back across the stream. The frog told the scorpion, “I can’t do that, you’re a scorpion, you’ll sting me and I’ll die.” The scorpion reassured the frog, “I won’t sting you because if I do, I’ll die too.” The frog, thinking that was a logical response, took the scorpion on his back and started across the stream. Midway across, the scorpion stung the frog. The frog cried out “Why did you do that, now we’ll both die?” To which the scorpion responded, “I’m a scorpion, it’s what I do.” Over the years I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve explained management’s actions by saying, “they’re scorpions, it’s what they do.” Now when you hear me say that during a station visit or in response to your question, you’ll know why. There is no logic to their actions; it’s just what they do.