They must have completely eliminated that. That’s not the case now.
Oh, I don’t know… the current Postmaster General is full of unrealistic expectations.
I think that Mike meant the elimination of walking routes, but that is just a guess.
Obviously walking routes still exist in urban areas, but in any areas that are suburban or rural, every letter carrier has his/her own government vehicle for delivery purposes, or in very rural areas, they might use their own vehicle.
Postal workers in a small town in Central California I travelled to recently walk to deliver the mail. I can’t remember when there were walking routes anywhere I’ve lived in the last 50 years.
In my suburban NJ development, the letter carrier drives a postal vehicle to a central location within the development, parks on the street, and then walks thru the development to deliver the mail.
1 Like
I have a friend whose father was a chemist. When this friend’s father was in his late 30s, he became so ill.that he was hospitalized. The doctor told his patient he had to get out of the chem lab. My friend’s father went to work for the post office as a mail carrier on a walking route. He delivered the mail door-to-door in all kinds of weather. He finally retired from the post office and lived into his late 80s. He wouldn’t have lived past 40 had he stayed with the chem lab.
I can’t verify whether this is still true, but my apartment in the late '70s, which was in a semi-suburban area, was still served by walking routes.
I guess my area in NJ is more rural than suburban (we are only ~10 miles from New Brunswick, but many corn and soybean fields still intersperse the housing developments, and there are two adjacent state parks), and the letter carriers drive from house to house in their old Grumman-made vehicles. It’s so quiet around here that I always know when my mail has been delivered because of the engine noise as they accelerate from house to house.
Cherry Hill, where I am, is a suburb of Philadelphia, and is 14 miles east of there. We’re pretty well built out, with a population of 79,000.
yes there are still walking routes. most offices have both walking and mounted, or a mixture of both on the same route.
No. Impossible to eliminate walking routes - especially in cities. Walking routes are still a major part of the USPS delivery system.
The USPS use to put in place some real insane rules for their workers. There’s a reason for that phrase (Going Postal ). Many of those old unrealistic rules have changed. I do agree that there are rules on how fast you need to deliver, but they are NOT unreasonable.
We have some friends that will buy a car and finance it for the longest term possible. Then they do the barest minimum of maintenance required to keep the car running. And these are well educated people who are doing it intentionally.
Somehow this math makes them think they are keeping their car expenses as low as possible. Too bad about the interest charges and long term, needless wear on the car…
1 Like
I pay the mechanic shop to replace the car battery when needed. Aside from all the potential electronic issues involved, I can’t safely physically lift most car batteries.
For those with the physical ability and know how to change out a battery, sure, DIY and save money. For those of us who cannot, expect to pay the shop for labor time and inventory price mark up to cover costs of running the business.
Interest costs today, and for the past few years, have been practically nil.
2 Likes
I have a friend who is a mail carrier. His route includes a large shopping mall, delivering to all the stores inside. One winter he got laryngitis and couldn’t speak but continued to work. He noticed that he was getting done with his route by 2:00-2:30 PM instead of his usual 4:30 or so. He said he had no idea now much time he had been spending chatting for a couple minutes at each store during his route.