The Postal Service pays necessary travel expenses (transportation, lodging, and per diem) in accordance with Handbook F-15, Travel and Relocation, to compensate employees for costs directly related to authorized off-site training and development activities. To request reimbursement of regular and local travel expenses, employees must use the Postal Service’s eTravel system (https://blue.usps.gov/accounting/travel/etravel.htm) to submit expense reports. eTravel can be accessed directly online or through the Postal Service’s travelhelp website at https://blue.usps.gov/travelhelp.
Employees must select “Travel for Training” as the purpose of travel when completing the expense report.
During extended training sessions, employees may make one or more intermediate weekend return trips to their permanent duty station in accordance with the following rule:
Each employee who is scheduled to take a course lasting more than 3 weeks receives weekend travel scheduling information.
Managers are permitted to authorize a weekend return trip only to the employee’s permanent duty station or to a pre-authorized, approved location.
In accordance with Handbook F-15, Travel and Relocation, the Postal Service will pay the round-trip fare of the employee’s spouse to travel to the employee’s training site instead of the employee taking an intermediate trip home.
When available and adequate, Postal Service facilities are to be used for Postal Service training. If they are not available, training facility managers should consider using available facilities of other government agencies, including the military service. Based on local availability of a training site, training facility managers have the authority to assign students during training to either lodging that the Postal Service owns or leases or to commercial lodging.
The Postal Service pays approved expenses for tuition, fees, books, and supplies for authorized training (see 740).
The Postal Service charges to the employee’s home office time that the employee lost from work or training because of any injuries that the employee suffered during resident Postal Service training.
