Postal carriers taking the Census?

[prwhite]

Your tax $$ at work— according to the Federal Register, the U.S. Census Bureau proposes a proof of concept study on the use of USPS Carriers as Census Bureau enumerators for a 2018 Census Test.

This possibility has been proposed several times by members of Congress, as well as other advisory & oversight bodies, in response to rising operational costs, and the need for familiarity with local addresses.

The rationale for this study is to test and observe the feasibility of the use of Postal Carriers as enumerators in the context of a Census Test. The potential long-term advantages include:

• Leveraging local USPS knowledge to pinpoint the best time for a household interview,
• Increasing the pool of enumerators without hiring additional staff, and
• Providing a more flexible landscape for how and when no-response follow-up interviews should be conducted.

The Census Bureau plans to conduct a pilot that will involve approximately 40 Postal Carriers operating out of two ZIP Codes, 02760 located in North Attleboro, MA, and 02888 located in Warwick, RI.

 

[gordo]

Overtime pay! Whoopee!

 

[MailGuru]

Leveraging local USPS knowledge to pinpoint the best time for a household interview,

Mmmmm, now, how would a guy (or gal) driving around in a mail delivery vehicle, placing mail in my mail box out by the curb, know the best time to catch me for a household interview?
Sounds kind of creepy to me.

Increasing the pool of enumerators without hiring additional staff

So, the US Postal Service is going to do this for free? They are not going to charge the Government anything for this service?

Providing a more flexible landscape for how and when no-response follow-up interviews should be conducted.

Sounds like typical corporate project speak. What the h_ll is a "flexible landscape"?

The Census Bureau plans to conduct a pilot that will involve approximately 40 Postal Carriers operating out of two ZIP Codes, 02760 located in North Attleboro, MA, and 02888 located in Warwick, RI.

Too small of a test sample to produce any meaningful results. 2 zip codes out of the existing 45,000 zips? 40 carriers out of the 300,000 that work for them?
Kind of like saying "All Indians walk in a single file, at least the one I saw did"

IMHO, they need to spend more time figuring out how to do their current job profitably, before taking on any more responsibilities. But, that's just me.