Mods, read the above comment carefully. There are similar comments elsewhere on this forum.

I am NOT a current employee, however I have been employed by DOS in the past and have traveled to Posts with pay diffs. The way it works is that the employee draws the appropriate special pays for the day(s) s/he is in that country. I can’t speak to the intricacies of whether or not they’re prorated (IE, you’re in the country from midnight till 4AM when your flight departs, do you draw a full day or some portion thereof; does it matter if you don’t clear that country’s airspace until 1AM the morning after your flight takes off; etc), but that’s probably available online. My sense is that prorated would be logical. For what that’s probably not worth…

As for OT, generally the rule is that FS Specialists are entitled to O/T when they’re actually working beyond 8 hrs in a given day, but there are special provisions for folks on shift work and other special schedules. Considering the amount of travel time that couriers spend I would be very surprised if there’s not some sort of provision for couriers, ’cause it would seem reasonable to say that when a courier is traveling s/he is ‘working’ the whole time. I can’t see that working for the budget.

As a candidate myself, my operating presumption is that the bulk of additional pay is going to come from per diem, to which you’re entitled every day that you’re traveling. Not going to try to go into those intricacies even though I know them pretty well, you can do a Google search for the JTR (Joint Travel Regs) and look it up.

Good luck!

Next Couriers will class up 17Sept18.

Hello, I am a vet that used to handle information for the USN and National Archive. I am aware of the delicate hiring process and have read many promising replies. Does anyone here know when the courier career will be posted open again? any best guesses? for instance i know the state troopers open their arms every 2-3 years.

If you’re on the register, then you’ll either get called/ emailed for a class, or you’ll time out and have to re-apply. All of that information should have been provided to you.