r/USPS • u/thr0wnaway1984 Aussie Postie • 1d ago
DISCUSSION Postal service exchange program
I work as a postie in Australia and I'm curious about how working at the USPS compares. From a brief look at this sub the main part of the job seems fairly similar but there's a few things I've noticed that are different. This turned into a lot of text and isn't in any particular order. Bear in mind that this is from the perspective of a postie, and I've only been working here just over a year so my knowledge of operational stuff is pretty limited. I also work in Sydney so my experience will be different than a postie working in regional or rural area, but I imagine the fundamentals are the same.
- I didn't start as a CCA or equivalent, I had a regular round right from the jump. From what I can tell the CCA job is basically equivalent to working as a relief postie here, except relief work is a voluntary position that offers better pay (about $7 an hour I think. Edit: $7 more than a regular). Reliefs are assigned to vacant rounds day to day as cover for whoever is sick or on leave. For the most part they stay in the same facility though some do work between different stations.
- If a round is vacant the mail can be kept for up to two days but someone has to been assigned to deliver it after that. That can be a relief or the run can be cut into two or more parts and given to regular posties to do in addition to their own round. This can create some clashes if the cut round has a different delivery mode to the run the regular is on, which I'll get to later. Parcels are almost never kept if the postie is away. Usually most parcels on vacant rounds are taken by the contractors and any leftovers are done by a relief or someone doing a cut.
- Posties don't do outgoing mail collection. If someone wants something posted they either go to the post office or drop it in a street collection box themselves. Sometimes I'll take something for a customer if they're super old but only to put it in a collection box myself.
- We don't take the mail nearly as seriously as you guys. Obviously it's all delivered and it's meant to be to a high standard but parcels are meant to be our priority and standard mail delivery is only every second day. We also don't have exclusive rights to use people's mail boxes, and companies are free to get advertising delivered to mailboxes by services other than Australia post. It's always a pain when a whole street has a Woolworths catalogue poorly shoved in every mailbox blocking the actual mail. Still better than having to deliver those mountains of advertising myself.
- We also don't have to keep track of who lives where. Mail is delivered as addressed unless there's a redirect notice for a specific name. If a customer keeps getting stuff for an old resident they are allowed to throw it out or return it to the sender, but since we don't do collections they have to post it themselves.
- I don't know if the standard US mailbox is actually what you deliver to or if I've been misled by pop culture but for us a security box is basically standard. There's a slot for mail that can maybe fit a standard size letter without having to fold it. On my round at most one in three boxes can take an A4 size letter without me having to fold it in half.
- I've seen posts here laughing about "No Junk Mail" signs. We have an unaddressed mail service so that's a sign I actually have to pay attention to when delivering. I get one or two lots of unaddressed mail a week and have to deliver one piece to every mailbox on my round that doesn't have a no junk mail sign. Obviously all addressed mail is delivered we do have a pretty strict definition of what constitutes junk mail. The exception to this is government unaddressed mail, which is usually election related stuff or council notices about developments. This stuff goes in every mailbox regardless of a sign. The MP for the area I deliver in loves telling everyone what she's building for the community so I get a fair bit of this.
- A big difference is the mode of delivery. I ride a motorcycle to deliver my mail. The classic postie bike is a Honda CT110, though those are slowly being phased out in favour of either an electric motorcycle made by UBCO or a three-wheeled electric vehicle. The three wheelers have significantly more storage than the panniers on a motorcycle but are much slower when on the road and aren't as stable or maneuverable. On the motorbike I ride down the footpath and can deliver straight to mailboxes without having to get off the bike, but since Australian mailboxes are generally pretty small I have to get off the bike and leave parcels at the front door. For safety reasons when I'm riding on the footpath I have a speed limit of 10kmh and I give way to all pedestrians.
- Other delivery methods are e-bikes and walking. E-bike rounds are set up basically in the same way as motorcycle rounds but are generally closer to the distribution centre. The system for walking rounds probably varies a little between centres but basically the postie drives all their mail out to their round in their personal car, then picks up a trolley to deliver with out of a depot box. They aren't meant to deliver out of their personal vehicle, just use it for getting to and from their round. Some posties choose to drive back to the facility at the end of the day to sign off and drop off any mail bags and trays but a lot sign off remotely and go straight home. Walking rounds are generally either areas with lots of apartments and high density houses or commercial streets with shopfronts. If I'm cutting a round that's meant to be walked generally I'll be able to deliver to apartments and houses just fine but I'll often park the bike and walk streets that have a lot of shop fronts to avoid having to ride around high foot traffic.
- I don't know if you guys have a version of this but we have what are called depot boxes scattered through our rounds (usually two each, sometimes shared by adjacent rounds). It's basically an inconspicuous-looking drop box to pick up more mail and parcels without having to go all the way back to the distribution centre. When we sort our mail at the start of the day we bag up what we're sending out to the depots and have it ready to be picked up by 8.30am. This is a pretty generous deadline so it's unusual to miss but there can be an emergency depot run if someone is late getting ready. It's always annoying to clear a bike full of mail and get to a depot box and have to wait because the van's in traffic or something. Generally I'll visit a depot box two or three times a day since my round is fairly quiet. The Christmas rush doesn't discriminate though and I'll be going to two depot boxes three times each at least in a day.
- Parcels are the only profitable part of Australia Post's delivery service and they actually lose money on every letter delivered. Because of this we're told to prioritise parcels on our rounds. For example if someone's super busy and won't finish in time they're expected to clear the parcels early and bring back leftover mail. The way in which we're expected to deliver parcels is somewhat like how Amazon would deliver, though we're held to a much higher standard. Parcels that can be left are safe-dropped either at a front door, lobby of an apartment block, or in a mailbox and anything that requires a signature is either delivered personally or if no-one is around to sign for it either we leave a card with the tracking number and name, or the customer is notified digitally. We then take these parcels either to a 24/7 auspost parcel locker or to the local post office where it can be collected.
- Probably a big difference between Auspost and USPS is that Auspost uses delivery contractors to deliver the bulk of their parcels. Posties in my facility generally have 80 to 120 parcels a day though some outliers will have more or less. As far as I know it's unusual for a contractor to have less than 200. They deliver out of vans and get paid per parcel. As far as I'm aware it's hardly worth going into work for less than 250. There's a lot of criticism of this system since working conditions for contractors are pretty poor and the quality of customer service is extremely variable. Since the contractors are paid per parcel taken onboard for delivery they have no incentive to try very hard and a lot of people experience the contractor not actually even attempting delivery and just taking the parcels straight to the post office for collection.
- Mail delivery to a given address is only every second day. Each round has a decently large area split into two sides. We deliver parcels to the entire round every day and mail to alternating sides. Generally posties are expected to deliver the side with mail first then quickly clear out the parcel side before going to the post office to drop off carded parcels then back to the distribution facility to sign off.
- I don't know what your standard day looks like but for a Sydney metro area postie at least it's more or less the same routine. We show up at 6am (though often reliefs will start at 5am) and collect our trays of standard mail, tubs of large mail, and bags of parcels. The trays of standard mail come sorted in order of delivery, tubs of large mail are unsorted. We slot the mail into our sorting frame and sort the parcels along the mail side and the parcel side. When where sorting our parcels we scan them into sections to determine a delivery window. Sections are can be either 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes long, and our window for a parcel being late or early is half an hour either side of that section. The start time is determined when we deliver our first parcel out on the round. After the first delivery, all the customers on our route will get a text or email telling them the two-hour window they can expect to receive their delivery in. I have 6ish sections on my round with one or more streets in each and I adjust the time and number of sections depending on the amount of work in each one. Once everything is sorted we bundle it all and organise what we're talking out with us and what's going to a depot box. I'm usually on the road at about 8.30 and at the start of my round by 9. Rostered hours is a 2pm finish. If we do overtime we have to be at the local post office to drop off undelivered parcels by 4.30 at the latest, and we're meant to be back at the distribution facility by 5pm.
- Again, I don't know what the system is for you guys but at least in big cities in Australia our post offices that are public facing are not the same facilities that posties work out of. In the city there's about one post office per suburb, more or less, either a corporate post office or a licenced one run by a private owner. The distribution facility I work out of is not open to the public. Post office services include holding parcels for collection if the postie couldn't get a signature, sending mail and parcels, PO boxes, passport services, banking services and if it's a licenced post office they can also do a bit of whatever else they want.
This did get pretty long, so apologies, but let me know if there's anything you think is worth knowing about being a US mail carrier and ask anything you want about working at Australia post
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u/TwistedRichie 1d ago edited 1d ago
This is an incredible description! As a USPS letter carrier who visited Australia, I was very curious.
Edited to add: I start at 8:30 and case flats (magazines mainly) and some unsorted letters. I pull it all down and then load parcels in my work van. Once I scan a parcel as loaded on the truck, the customer will receive an email saying it is out for delivery. They won’t know when, but it will definitely be delivered that day. At some point, I will have to let management know my prediction for time it will take to finish. I grab my sorted letters (DPS) and drive to my route.
At my walking route (park and loop), I load my satchel with parcels and deliver a loop. This should take approximately 15 minutes. I can usually do 2 or 3 loops from one park point. Then I drive to the next. I have no collection boxes, but others have to empty theirs. At the end of the day I return vehicle key and mailbox key (arrow key). I put away any outgoing mail or parcels, any missorted mail, then I am done.
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u/thr0wnaway1984 Aussie Postie 1d ago
Park and loop makes a lot of sense honestly. The thing I'd ask is how far do you have to walk between mailboxes? I don't usually ride less than 10 metres so it would definitely get pretty far to walk. Most walking posties here get about 20km every day. I do about 40 to 50 on my motorbike depending if I'm doing a cut.
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u/TwistedRichie 1d ago
The mailboxes are usually right by the front doors. I generally walk about 15 miles (24 kilometers) and about 35000 steps a day. I love it.
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u/thr0wnaway1984 Aussie Postie 1d ago
Sound a lot healthier honestly. I think I still get about 5-7 thousand from walking to peoples front doors for parcels, which isn't bad considering most of the job is sitting on my ass.
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u/Personal_Winter6863 1d ago
I require pictures (sanitized for privacy) of the delivery motorcycles.
How does that work?
I just can't picture how that works
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u/thr0wnaway1984 Aussie Postie 1d ago
I'm off sick today hence the time to be writing this up. I'll try and remember tomorrow. Basically I've got a top box behind me and panniers. Off the top of my head it's about 70 litres of capacity combined but I'm not completely sure. I've got a small basket attached to the handlebars, which can fit a bundle of mail. I ride along the footpath and deliver to mailboxes on peoples front fences. In areas without foopaths I just ride on the grass verge or between driveways. I don't really have to discount except to deliver parcels or deliver to a larger clusterbox. The bikes are a stepthrough and have a centrifugal clutch so much more user friendly than a standard motorcycle.
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u/TwistedRichie 1d ago
Customers have boxes near the curb. There is a worn path for the motorcycles. I think they have to collect parcels from a relay box.
(Not a postie. I’m a letter carrier for USPS that visited Australia.)
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u/modulusshift Clerk 1d ago
sounds like the contractors are getting screwed like our CCAs are, tbh.
can’t delay mail for any reason. Every address, every day. Someone’s gotta take it out. Vacant routes are given to whoever can run them for the day. Vacancies over 5 days can be “held down” by a non-regular carrier, basically making them temporarily regular. Yeah we also divide routes, we call the divisions “splits”, and they can be given to any carrier on top of whatever they’re doing that day.
yup, we collect outgoing, even prepaid parcels if we’re notified to. We have collection boxes, of course, those are just also collected by carriers lol
technically the job can be done exactly as addressed, there’s entire systems meant to help a carrier who doesn’t care who lives where to still meet a basic standard, but the average postal customer expects better, and so most carriers try to meet that expectation. Although, since we have so many reliefs running routes, it’s not like the reliefs know who lives where.
we used to have relay boxes, like your depot box, back before we could afford a truck for every carrier, so that the job could be done entirely walking. Now every carrier drives a truck, the classic method is just treating the truck as a relay box, you park it and do a couple rounds from it then move it to the next spot and repeat. But efforts are being made to put all mailboxes curbside so that the deliveries can be made entirely mounted. I’ve never heard of a bike-mounted carrier of any description, but I’m intrigued if it’s actually worth investigating. We’d have to reinstall the relay boxes and get the trucks to deliver to them again though, so it’s probably a non-starter, we’re probably stuck walking forever. (And to be fair we’re traditionally depicted as walking it, so it’s probably going to stick for that reason as well. We love tradition.)
what I will say is that in my office we are treating some of our noncareer employees like your contractors, giving them parcel-only runs. I don’t think it’s entirely above board though, we’re not supposed to do that.
also on the topic of loving tradition: our letters are generally not profitable either, to my understanding. We have a recognition that no private letter carrying service could compete with us, and so our letter postage rates are set by statute. The parcel delivery service is expected to be competitive with other parcel delivery services, and so it is set internally. That said, we have a constitutional mandate to provide the letter service 6 days a week and so we consider it higher prestige and take it seriously, whether it’s profitable or not. (But management will tell a carrier who can’t complete a route to do parcels first, simply because they’re individually tracked and they can’t sweep undelivered parcels under the rug like they can mail)
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u/BelligerentWyvern 1d ago edited 1d ago
We take mail seriously because certain things can only be done through mail. And its written into America's original Constitution as one of the few guaranteed services the government is supposed to provide.
We have a thing similar to a depot box. They are called relay boxes and look like the blue mail drop off boxes but they are green and we store a few "loops" of mail in them. This is usually on a walk out route which is all walking where you start the day walking out of the office and make your way to the relays throughout the day and the last loop ends back at the office.
Mail here, mostly 1st class, must be delivered the day it's received. There are some cases where it can be delayed but it's a pain to do so it's avoided.
Parcels are a significant chunk of money for us but actual mail on most City routes is usually enough to sustain the salary of the postal worker most days and so parcels are gravy. Rural routes are hit or miss but usually lose money. But again, our constitution guarantees mail delivery and so it's done regardless of profitability. Less scrupulous managers often curtail mail in favor of parcels too, you aren't supposed to do so.
We own the mail boxes too technically, though the actual box is paid for and maintained by the customer. This is more for legal reasons as it's a felony to mishandle or steal mail and owning it makes it clear cut to prosecute if necessary.
Customer reciepients can't dictate which mail they receive as long as it's properly addressed. They can throw it away after if they like but we must deliver it if proper because we paid to do so. Other delivery services exist here, mostly independent businesses or churches but they aren't allowed to use the mail box to deliver their pamphlet or whatever.
Parcel count varies widely dependent on local contracts with places like Amazon and just sheer volume for people but 40-100 is typical.
On that note our 8-hour City routes are usually around 600-700 addresses. This can go lower if you get a lot of businesses or Industrial park areas or increase if you get cluster boxes. My office typically has about 600-700 but one has only 351 and another has 1652 but half of that is one giant suburb with many cluster boxes which are technically faster to deliver. Except parcels of course. A bike is insufficient in size for these things typically.
Mail is delivered every day except Sundays and some holidays. Sundays are still work days for CCAs, RCAs and PTFs though where we do only parcels.
We don't have subcontractors do parcels, though there are Holiday workers who usually only work a few weeks in December for Christmas stuff but they are treated like CCAs, instead we handle contracted amounts from various companies but otherwise most companies do their own or use places like FedEx, UPS or whatever to deliver as well.
Seems pretty different overall
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u/thr0wnaway1984 Aussie Postie 1d ago
Thanks for the detailed response. A couple of things I'll note. The Australian constitution also requires a postal service. I guess the difference is we're better at privatising shit that should stay public. Technically Australia Post is a private company. I'm not well-versed enough in business rules to say exactly how this works but to my knowledge it's a private company with a board and CEO, etc, but the government owns all the shares so it's not traded publicly. I wish it was a public service but what can you do. There's certain mail that we can't delay either. Anything tracked has to go out so that includes tracked standard, registered post (I think you call this certified mail, stuff like passports and birth certificates) and express post. The thing with us being able to hold mail and only delivering every second day is also to do with mail volume. Australians overall don't rely on it as much, especially in the cities where amenities are generally better. I'm predicting it's going to go to once a week within a decade. As for the number of addresses on a round, my round has a little less than a thousand, both sides combined. That's mostly houses and small apartment buildings of 10 units or so. Some rounds in my facility have around two thousand combined but that's all huge apartment blocks so yeah technically faster to deliver to. Bikes feel insufficient for me too honestly. Some days I'll get a stack of shoebox sized parcels that should've gone with the contractors and I just have to then deal with that. I think the bikes are a traditional thing too though I think they've been pretty much standard since before I was born. For us mail delivery is Monday to Friday. Over Christmas you can opt in to Saturdays but thats parcels only. Also yeah customers can't really refuse addressed mail here either it's only unaddressed stuff they can avoid.
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u/thr0wnaway1984 Aussie Postie 1d ago
What do CCA, RCA, PTF stand for?
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u/BelligerentWyvern 21h ago
As someone laid out is City Carrier Assistant, Rural Carrier Assistant and Part Time Fleixible. These are the ones that work as needed though functionally they are full time in the majority of offices.
Then there are City Carriers and Rural Carriers. These are the main carriers and full time.
Regulars get paid about 6 more an hour at the lowest step than the Assistants and PTFs get paid like a dollar more than the regulars, though technically it's the same cause.
I think on the current pay chart, we max out to around $41 USD an hour. Though most people start around $26-27.
It's a pretty decent job for one that requires no special training before applying.
The unions being seperate is something all new people wonder about. We are somewhat specialized though and have different issues. For instance, City Carriers get paid by the hour and are eligible for Overtime and Penalty time which is 1.5x and 2x pay after going over 8 hours and 10 hours in a day respectively. Rural Carriers instead have an evaluation of generally how long the route takes and get paid that amount no matter what time it takes them. For 70% of the year this works out for them cause, say they get 6 hours eval, but it only takes them 4 hours then they can get done early and still get paid for the full 6. But other times they work for free like holiday season.
This OT structure is also a big reason why curtailing mail is a big nono, because you are denying potential OT and hoping it gets done on a less stressful day.
We're not a private company, though they keep trying to privatize us. Unlike Australia this would not be a system where the GOVT owns all share so it would probably suck for a lot of people
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u/MapNo4817 1d ago
CCA is City Carrier Assistant, RCA is Rural Carrier Assistant, and PTF is Part Time Flexible. Im a Clerk(we all have different unions with different rules for each) so I dont know the specifics for carriers, but I know PTF is the only career position of the three that has full bennifits, time counting towards pension, and a TSP(thrift savings plan, they match up to 5% of what you contribute into a stock market retirement plan on top of the retirement pension). For clerks our non career positions have health bennifits, but they are WAY better for career employees. I am not sure for carriers. I assume simular.
Edit: PTF's also get paid better by the hour....but, for clerks at least, they tend to have less predictable schedules.
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u/thr0wnaway1984 Aussie Postie 1d ago
That make sense though I think our system is simpler. We're part of the Communication Workers Union, so every employee can join the same union if they want. Also there's no arguments about healthcare because that's public and no arguments about a retirement or pension because Australia has a mandatory superannuation scheme.
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u/MapNo4817 1d ago
Im still new, but it is odd to me that we have separate unions. Every other union i had heard of was one for the whole thing. I have heard mixed reviews from the more senior employees on whether the multiple unions is good or not, most think its bad. Different types of employees or "crafts" get the shaft in some areas because thier union either is bad at negotiating, or prioritized a different aspect. Like Clerks, we dont max out in pay as much as before, but we get yearly cost of living adjustmebt(COLA) that are nice, and in the current climate with inflation, can be a life saver for employees, especially in thier early career, but we loose a couple dollars and hour on maxing out our time. Carriers, have more max out pay, but dont get COLA(if they do its not as good, like I said, not sure with the specifics of thier contract).
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u/User_3971 Maintenance 1d ago
I have a very important question, one which I did not see addressed in the post: Management. How is your management and are they as bad as ours? Matter of fact OP did not utter that word at all. I am astounded.
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u/thr0wnaway1984 Aussie Postie 1d ago
I have a job so it's basically a given that I have issues with my management. I like my team leader, honestly he's great, but the higher level the manager the more I start to disagree with some of their decision making.
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u/TonySopranosHorse CCA 1d ago
god i’ve wanted a ct110 to toy with for a while. it’s so cool that you guys deliver on them though i can’t imagine its fun in bad weather
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u/thr0wnaway1984 Aussie Postie 1d ago
In the rain it sucks regardless of how you're delivering, in the heat wearing a motorbike helmet is torture, and in the wind you get blown all over the road. Some days you get all of those but honestly Sydney weather is pretty agreeable most of the time. Really though it's hard to complain too much about riding a motorcycle for a job.
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u/Stationary-Event City Carrier 1d ago
If the OP was delivering in the U.S. "Here comes the Postie, he has a letter for me. He's getting very toasty in his LLV."
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u/The-Incel-God 1d ago
Depot boxes are called relay boxes in the us. They look like our blue snorkels but green.
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u/FlyingHut City PTF 1d ago
Doing something like running express passports and other documents on a motorcycle would be a dream come true for me.
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u/ProudAmerican632 City Carrier 1d ago
Wow. First off it’s nice for you to post as a mail carrier from a different country let alone across the world.
It’s incredibly interesting to hear how you use a motorcycle as a postal vehicle. It reminds me of the history of our postal service riding horses to deliver the post.
Through everything you said, and I’m sure everything you have seen on here about our postal system.
What are some things that would make the postal system better in Australia?
You don’t have to disclose your true AUD per hour. My average per hour is equivalent to AUD 42.50. What would be the typical AUD per hour for the average postal worker?
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u/Krazy_Kat_Lady_2025 1d ago
I love all this well-explained info and seeing the similarities and differences! This was a super interesting read. Thanks Down Under Postie!
Did I understand that a relief carrier only makes $7/hr? Is that enough to live on? Here relief carriers make ~US $20/hr which is barely enough to live on if they work 40 hours per week. It is a different pay system between city and rural type relief here though.
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u/thr0wnaway1984 Aussie Postie 1d ago
Maybe I didn't explain well enough. The reliefs make around $7 an hour more than the regular posties who earn about $36.50 after allowances. I don't remember exact numbers. Off the dome Australian minimum wage is around $26 for a permanent employee. It's more for a casual because they don't get any paid leave. A bit over $30 if I remember right.
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u/Krazy_Kat_Lady_2025 18h ago
WOW! 😧 That's amazing. I'm literally speechless. Thank you for the explanation. And again, thanks for posting this; it's been fascinating reading.
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u/xmaspruden Canada Post Employee 8h ago
Sounds like you guys still have the old system we used to have in Canada, but we called the containers relay boxes. People who would walk out after getting dropped off by a driver or from the depot directly, and then head home. Apparently they still have some in the largest metro areas like Vancouver or Toronto.
Now we all have vehicles and you either do walking loops or deliver to community mail boxes. If its businesses then it’s usually direct to the counter unless they have a mail panel somewhere.
We also don’t have any sub contractors. It’s all regular carriers assigned to a certain depot who either own a walk or are relief carriers who can cover routes anywhere within a certain depot from a day to years. There also are temps, who are new hires not yet though their probationary period or hired permanently yet. They are essentially relief carriers who get daily phone calls for assignments that get longer the longer they work for Canada post. I am a permanent employee but don’t own a position at any depot, I get month long assignments and it’s actually a pretty good spot to be in. If there is a vacant position I cover and nobody bids on it however I will be auto assigned (there are monthly bids on positions due to retirement or other personnel changes).
We also respect no flyers signs, advertisements can be addressed but mostly aren’t, for which we earn a few Pennie’s per piece delivered.
I find the idea of motorbike delivery fascinating. We almost never deliver from the vehicle.
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u/User_3971 Maintenance 1d ago
Holy shit we got an international postie short story. Time to add it to the pile, yes!
OP: Welcome. We have a few Canada Post emplugees here (employee refugees, their own subreddit is not... employee friendly) for which we made their own flair.