Highway Contract Routes — Contract Delivery Service - USPS.com

1 General Contract Administration
11 Purpose
12 Definitions
This handbook establishes national policy and procedures for the operation
and administration of Contract Delivery Service (CDS). This policy requires
continuous close coordination among managers of various operations
(including Mail Processing, Delivery Operations, and Surface Transportation
Category Management Center (CMC) in matters pertaining to CDS.
121 Contract Delivery Service
A Contract Delivery Service route is a contract agreement between the
Postal Service and a private individual or firm for the delivery of and
collection of mail from homes and businesses. The services provided by the
CDS carrier are similar to those provided by postal rural letter carriers,
including delivery of mail and the sale of postal services. The supplier,
depending on the contract requirements, performs specified duties such as
casing mail; selling stamps, Certified Mail, Collect on Delivery (COD),
Priority Mail Express, Registered Mail, Standard Post, merchandise
returns, or money orders; picking up mail from collection boxes; and markup
and forwarding of mail.
A route may be operated personally by the supplier (owner-operator) or the
supplier may elect to hire employees. If the supplier’s hired employees are
used regularly, they must be paid the wages and fringe benefits in
accordance with the Service Contract Act and the current wage
determination attached to the contract. Also, the supplier is responsible for
training its hired employees in accordance with the standardized training
programs established by the Postal Service for CDS.
122 Contracting Officer
The Contracting Officer (CO) is a Postal Service employee specifically
delegated authority to enter into contracts on behalf of the Postal Service.
The Contracting Officer for CDS is the Area Manager, Transportation
Contracts, or his delegated representative.
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