June 26, 2023
The Postal Service wants employees to know that there are ethics rules to consider before accepting work with highway contract route or contract delivery service contractors.

A highway contract route, or HCR, is a mail transportation contract. A contract delivery service, or CDS, is a mail delivery service.

USPS employees may not hold, or bid on, an HCR or CDS, but they may work for such a contractor — with limits:

• A postal employee may not work for an HCR or CDS contractor during their postal work hours, or if doing so will otherwise interfere with their postal responsibilities.

• A postal employee may not manage an HCR or CDS contract if the employee’s spouse holds an interest in, or works under, the contract.

Employees must seek prior approval from the Ethics and Legal Compliance team at ethics.help@usps.gov before accepting employment with an HCR or CDS contractor.

Source: USPS