What does a rural carrier associate do?
A rural carrier associate specializes in picking up and delivering mail or parcels within a particular rural area. They are primarily responsible for ensuring that clients will receive the correct packages on time. Aside from this, they must also coordinate with logistics managers, abide by the traffics laws and regulations, communicate with clients and acquire their signature upon a transaction, and monitor the company vehicle by conducting maintenance checks. Furthermore, a rural carrier associate must maintain an accurate record of all deliveries, even the missed and attempted ones.
Rural carrier associate responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real rural carrier associate resumes:
- Manage problems, conduct RCA investigations and deliver completed documentation.
- Map appropriate routes using GPS and standard maps.
- Complete forms, coding memorization, address memorization.
- Skil at memorization, orderliness, and time management
- Provide customers with postal information on policies and procedures regarding USPS responsibilities.
- Provide professional interaction and friendly enthusiasm with USPS customers to establish total customer satisfaction are implemented.
- Skil at memorization, orderliness, and time management
Rural carrier associate skills and personality traits
We calculated that 20% of Rural Carrier Associates are proficient in Delivery Sequence, RCA, and Customer Service.
We break down the percentage of Rural Carrier Associates that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Delivery Sequence, 20%
Arranged and compiled customers mail into delivery sequence.
- RCA, 19%
Attended bid openings for prospective construction projects and prepared/drafted construction contracts in accordance with RCA policies/procedures.
- Customer Service, 17%
Maintain timely delivery of mail and packages to follow proper procedures for express/certified/1stClass/etc while focusing on providing exceptional customer service.
- Mail Security, 10%
Collect monies for stamps, records daily report, and provides mail security at all times.
- Postal Service, 6%
Served as a professional representative of the postal service by accurately/efficiently sorting and distributing mail to customers.
- Mail Delivery, 4%
Coordinate dispatching of 20 mail delivery trucks for afternoon distribution and shipping in an approximately 20,000 city population.
Most rural carrier associates use their skills in "delivery sequence," "rca," and "customer service" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential rural carrier associate responsibilities here:
Customer-service skills. The most essential soft skill for a rural carrier associate to carry out their responsibilities is customer-service skills. This skill is important for the role because "postal service workers, particularly clerks, regularly interact with customers." Additionally, a rural carrier associate resume shows how their duties depend on customer-service skills: "operated motor vehicles time management skills long-term customer relationships efficient manner efficient routes verbal communication skills polite demeanor"
Physical strength. Another essential skill to perform rural carrier associate duties is physical strength. Rural carrier associates responsibilities require that "postal service workers must be able to lift heavy mail bags and parcels without injuring themselves." Rural carrier associates also use physical strength in their role according to a real resume snippet: "mail delivery accomplishments safe delivery of mail, customer satisfaction skills used communication, math, strength, motor skills memory"
The three companies that hire the most rural carrier associates are:
- U.S. Bank5 rural carrier associates jobs
- Trilogy Health Services4 rural carrier associates jobs
- NORTH2 rural carrier associates jobs
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Compare different rural carrier associates
Rural carrier associate vs. Postman
The postal service is an essential part of a community, and running this service falls on the shoulders of delivery and mail sorters. The sorter's responsibility is to categorize incoming mail received by the postal service to specific destination groups and have it delivered. The delivery and mail sorter's duties are to deliver all mail and packages to the correct address in the fastest time possible. This position requires efficient sorting skills and flexible delivery service to accomplish. The delivery and mail sorter must have high organizational skills and handle multiple workloads inside the postal service.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a rural carrier associate are more likely to require skills like "rca," "customer service," "mail security," and "postal service." On the other hand, a job as a postman requires skills like "rest api," "restful web," "sql server," and "git hub." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Postmen tend to reach higher levels of education than rural carrier associates. In fact, postmen are 7.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.3% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Rural carrier associate vs. Mail opener
Each career also uses different skills, according to real rural carrier associate resumes. While rural carrier associate responsibilities can utilize skills like "delivery sequence," "rca," "customer service," and "mail security," mail openers use skills like "customer procedures," "opex," "customer specifications," and "data entry."
Mail openers earn similar levels of education than rural carrier associates in general. They're 3.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.3% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Rural carrier associate vs. Delivery and mail sorter
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, rural carrier associates are more likely to have skills like "rca," "mail security," "postal service," and "necessary paperwork." But a delivery and mail sorter is more likely to have skills like "front desk," "manual labor," "straight truck," and "mail handling."
Delivery and mail sorters earn the best pay in the transportation industry, where they command an average salary of $25,642. Rural carrier associates earn the highest pay from the government industry, with an average salary of $62,373.When it comes to education, delivery and mail sorters tend to earn similar degree levels compared to rural carrier associates. In fact, they're 3.3% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.3% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Rural carrier associate vs. Mail distributor
Types of rural carrier associate
Updated January 8, 2025
