How to Fill Out USPS PS Form 1840: Carrier Delivery Route Summary

To fill out PS Form 1840, the Carrier Delivery Route Summary of Count and Inspection, you consolidate the daily PS Form 1838 entries from the count week into totals and averages on the front, then use the reverse to document any territory being added to or taken from the route, along with the office and street time values that go with those transfers. Handbook M-39 governs every line, and the form has to be shared with the carrier on a set schedule before the consultation meeting where adjustments are discussed.

What You Need Before You Start

Every number on the 1840 comes from source documents gathered during the count and inspection period, which runs six consecutive delivery days for one-trip routes or five consecutive days (excluding Saturday) for two-trip routes and one-trip routes with abbreviated or no Saturday delivery.¹ Before filling in a blank 1840, pull together:

The PS Forms 1838 for each day of the inspection, which record mail volumes, office time, and street time.
The PS Form 1838-C, the carrier’s own worksheet showing mail piece counts and office time entries by day.²
Clock rings and payroll records to verify actual clock-in and clock-out times against the 1838 entries.
Mail volume measurements — linear measurements or piece counts of letters, flats, and parcels for each day.

Organize the paperwork day by day so the numbers track cleanly from source to summary. Discrepancies between the 1838s and the final 1840 are a common trigger for grievances.³

Filling Out the Front

M-39 Section 241.1 describes the front of the form as the place for “consolidating and completing the evaluation of data recorded on Forms 1838 of the count and inspection period.”³ Each day of the week gets its own column, and every category of time from the 1838s carries across.

Office Time and Street Time

Office time covers casing mail, administrative work, and preparation inside the facility. Street time covers travel to and from the route and time at delivery points. Enter the daily figure for each, then compute the total and average lines at the bottom. Those averages are what the route is ultimately measured against for the eight-hour standard.

Only time recorded by the regular carrier counts toward the average. If a replacement or T-6 carrier technician worked the route on any day, bracket that day’s entries so they are excluded from the totals in Columns A through E.³ Failing to bracket a replacement’s day is the single most common error, and it distorts the average in either direction.

Fixed Office Time Minimums

Certain office tasks carry minimum allowances that cannot be reduced even if the carrier finished faster on a given day:

Vehicle inspection: 3 minutes minimum.
Morning personal needs (retrieving a coat, rain gear, and the like): 5 minutes.
Withdrawing mail from distribution cases, trays, sacks, or hampers: 5 minutes minimum.

Total minimum fixed office time is 33 minutes per day, or 43 minutes if the route includes an office break. Five of those minutes are allocated for afternoon tasks upon return from the street, leaving 28 or 38 minutes in the morning.⁴ The minimums are a floor. If the carrier actually spent more time on a task, use the actual time.

Allied Time

Allied time is street time spent on something other than direct delivery of letters and flats, and each type gets its own line. Recurring allied time includes loading and unloading the vehicle, travel to and from the route, relay time (restocking a satchel from a vehicle or relay box), parcel and accountable deliveries, breaks, and customer contact. Non-recurring allied time covers backtracking to a missed delivery, management-directed interruptions, and waiting time caused by circumstances outside the carrier’s control.⁵

Examiner’s Comments and Analysis

The front also contains space for the route examiner’s comments and an analysis of office work functions and time recordings. Use it to flag anything that made a day unrepresentative: inefficient casing setups, unusual backtracking, weather or operational conditions that skewed the numbers.

Filling Out the Reverse

The reverse is where the actual adjustment takes shape. Once the front-side averages tell you the route is out of balance, the reverse documents what territory moves and where it goes.⁶ For each transferred segment, record:

Whether the entry is a relief (“R”) or an addition (“A”) to the route.
Street name and address range, with beginning and ending addresses.
The ZIP+4 sector/segment for the transferred territory.
The route number the territory is going to or coming from.
The number of possible deliveries in the segment.
The office and street time values associated with the segment.

Also enter the evaluated office and street times selected as the baseline for the adjustment, the adjusted allied time entries (for example, old versus new relay points), the base street time from the prior adjustment, the reason the current evaluated street time was chosen, whether the carrier takes a break in the office or on the street, and the method used to transfer office time.⁷

Any time disallowances go here too. If management reduced the carrier’s street time based on alleged improper practices or abnormal conditions, the basis has to be documented on the reverse.⁸ A disallowance without a written basis is one of the things the carrier can note on the form during consultation.

Calculating Office Time for Transferred Territory

When territory shifts between routes, you need an office time value to attach to the transferred deliveries. M-39 Section 243.316 provides three methods, and the character of the route determines which fits:

For a route with reasonably similar deliveries, divide the average office time from the 1840 by the total number of possible deliveries, then multiply that per-delivery figure by the number of deliveries being transferred.
Under the percentage method, divide the average office time for the count week by the average total time to get an office-time percentage factor, then apply it to the transferred segment.
When mail was counted by ZIP+4 sector/segment during the inspection, the actual piece count for each segment determines the office time allowance for the transfer.

Transfers must move whole sector/segment units. You cannot split a segment.⁹ Show the chosen method and the math on the reverse so the carrier can check the calculation.

Sharing the Form Before the Consultation

The 1840 doesn’t get handed to the carrier as a finished document. M-39 sets a schedule for advance copies. Management must furnish:

Completed copies of the PS Forms 1838 at least five calendar days before the consultation.
A completed copy of the front of the 1840 — totals, averages, day-of-inspection data, examiner’s comments, and the analysis of office work functions — at least one day before the meeting.
A partially completed reverse side, including any time disallowances and related comments, at least one day in advance.⁸

The advance copies give the carrier time to compare the summary against their own records and spot discrepancies before sitting down.

At the Consultation

The consultation is where the carrier’s input goes onto the form. The carrier has the right to comment, to state agreement or disagreement with the proposed adjustments, and to explain their reasons. Management records all of it on the 1840.⁸

If a street time disallowance is on the form without any basis documented on the reverse, the carrier can note the absence of documentation by writing a notation on the form, initialing it, and dating it. One point that catches people off guard: management cannot require the carrier to sign anything at the consultation. Comments go on the form; a signature acknowledging the meeting is not mandatory.

Deadlines That Constrain the Paperwork

All route adjustments must be placed into effect within 52 calendar days of the completion of the mail count.⁹ This is a hard requirement. The count period should be selected by working backward from the deadline so there is time for consolidation, consultation, and implementation.

No major scheme changes can take place between November 15 and January 1 because of the holiday mail surge. Exceptions require district manager approval, and the local union has to be notified promptly if one is granted.⁹

What the Evaluated Time Triggers

The averages you compute on the front determine what the reverse has to accomplish. If the route consistently runs over eight hours on most days of the week, management must provide permanent relief by transferring workload to another route.⁶ Temporary relief through auxiliary assistance or authorized overtime can cover heavy days but does not substitute for a permanent adjustment when the route is structurally overburdened.

If the route evaluates under eight hours, management adds territory by realigning delivery boundaries within the unit. That realignment can reduce or eliminate an existing auxiliary route, shrink another regular route to auxiliary status, or eliminate a route.⁹

Where to Get a Blank Form

PS Form 1840 is an internal USPS document distributed through the Postal Service’s internal forms system. Some NALC branch websites host downloadable PDF versions for reference. The form is not typically available on the public-facing USPS.com site, so a carrier who wants a copy for review outside of work should check with a local branch or shop steward.

1
From A To Arbitration. Mail Counts and Route Inspections Under Chapter 2 of the M-39
2
National Association of Letter Carriers. Contract Talk – Q-and-A on Route Count and Inspections
3
National Association of Letter Carriers. Contract Talk – Route Inspections, Part 3
4
National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 40. Time Allowances for Carrier Office Work
5
National Association of Letter Carriers. A Guide for Using COR
6
National Association of Letter Carriers. The Postal Record – March 2026
7
National Association of Letter Carriers. Contract Talk – Reading PS Form 1840 Reverse
8
National Association of Letter Carriers. NALC Route Protection Program
9
United States Postal Service. Handbook M-39 – Management of Delivery Services