Forms and Logs

📄 USPS Forms & Logs for City Carrier Assistants

Documentation accuracy is essential for CCAs. This page explains the key forms for requesting assistance, reporting hazards, tracking performance, and protecting your work time.

📋 Key Forms You'll Use at the Station

PS Form 3996 — Carrier Auxiliary Control

Purpose: Requesting overtime or auxiliary help when you won't complete your assignment in time.
Timing: Submit before leaving the office if help is anticipated.
Availability: Request from your supervisor; not publicly downloadable.
Recommendation: Note your reasons and request copies for your personal records.

PS Form 1571 — Undelivered Mail Report

Use: Reporting mail curtailment or items you were unable to deliver that day.
Significance: Protects carriers from blame for undelivered items.
Access: Request from your supervisor; not publicly available online.

PS Form 1838-C — Carrier's Count of Mail

Function: Documents mail volume, office time, and street time during route inspections.
A training resource is available as a fillable PDF.

PS Form 4565 — Vehicle Repair Tag

Purpose: Reporting a defect on your vehicle — anything you find wrong with it, from a wiper blade to brakes that don't feel right.
Timing: When you find it — on your inspection before you pull out, or out on the street — and turn the tag in to your supervisor.
Reference: Handbook M-41, §842.

PS Form 1767 — Report of Hazard

Purpose: Reporting an unsafe condition or practice — a dangerous spot on the route, an aggressive animal, an unsafe way of doing the work.
Not the form for a vehicle defect — that's the 4565 above. A vehicle can be unsafe enough to be worth a hazard report too, but the repair itself is the tag's job.
Publicly downloadable as a PDF.

✅ Publicly Available USPS Forms

PS Form 3971: Requesting annual or sick leave.
PS Form 3849: Left-at-door notice for failed delivery attempts.
PS Form 1260: Manual time recording when electronic clocking is unavailable.

🧾 Training Logs & Personal Records

A fillable Letter Carrier Daily Log template helps you track clock rings, break times, forms submitted, delays, and unusual occurrences.

📚 Related Pages

Final Tip

When in doubt, write it down. A 3996 before you leave, a 1571 for curtailed mail, a 4565 for anything wrong with the vehicle, and a 1767 for a hazard create a paper trail that protects your time, your route, and your safety.