Awe..I know what you go thru. I don't know much about rural mail carriers, but I do know a lot about big city mail carriers.Originally Posted by spudsmom
I wish everyone could spend a day with their mail carrier, from the beginning of the day (around 5:30 am) to when it gets done. Especially a small office like mine, where we sort our own mail into a case in order of delivery, then pull it down and load into our PRIVATE cars, no LLV's for us. Then we take it around for delivery. There is a reason we drive on the right hand side of the car, so we are able to reach the mail box from the car. I would pick a day for a rider to be one like we had last week. Snow so deep that I had to plow my way with my car up the street, after putting on my own chains, and getting out at every box so we didn't take out a mailbox by trying to get close to it. Walking up the cul-de-sacs and so forth. Not to mention the day I broke a chain, that's probably a day a rider would not have wanted to be with me.With the Christmas Crush and the weather, I added AT Least 2 hours to my route every day. Yes, I do get paid by the hour...but only for a certain # of hours. Rural carriers work by evaluated time, so I certain amount of time to get the job done and the rest is my own time. Though I would love to just say "OK my time is up, I'm going home now" I am obligated to get the mail delivered to the BEST of my ability. So if I get paid for 8 hours and it takes me 10....I get paid for 8. I understand...I had no idea what a mail carriers job was all about until I became one. Now I HAVE walked many a mile in those shoes.
I think if anyone saw a main mail room that is located in a big city, they would be thankful they got mail at all. Especially on the time frame. There is someone at the main post offices 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Including sundays. I have only seen the Portland mail room and I would compare it to half the size of a football field, with rows and rows and rows of mail racks, with at least 10 shelves on every rack completely filled with mail. I can't do that math on that one. Seeing it is mind boggling. It just blows my mind that I can mail out something today (Netflix) and it will arrive tomorrow. THAT'S AMAZING. The mail system does work, sure it has it's downfalls but so does everything else. However it's something that EVERYONE relies on, so a few bad apples ruins the whole pie. It doesn't seem fair, especially from where you are coming from.
I would like to add that on a Sunday the post office came to our rescue. Or should I say a cats. Someone dropped a cat in one of those blue mail boxes and we got a call on it. Within 20 minutes we had someone from the postoffice down there (ON A SUNDAY) with keys to open up box and get kitty out.
