13 Things Your Mail Carrier Won’t Tell You

[luv]

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/...l-you-2445111/

1. Maybe your dog won’t bite you. But in 2009, 2,863 of us were bitten, an average of nine bites per delivery day. That’s why I wince when your Doberman comes flying out the door.

2. Remember this on Valentine’s Day: It takes our machines longer to read addresses on red envelopes (especially if they’re written in colored ink).

3. Why stand in line? At usps.com, you can buy stamps, place a hold on your mail, change your address, and apply for passports. We even offer free package pickup and free flat-rate envelopes and boxes, all delivered right to your doorstep.

4. Media Mail is a bargain, but most of you don’t know to ask for it. Sending ten pounds of books from New York City to San Francisco through Media Mail costs $5.89, compared with $16.77 for Parcel Post. Besides books, use it to send magazines, manuscripts, DVDs, and CDs; just don’t include anything else in the package.

5. We don’t get a penny of your tax dollars. Really. The sale of postage, products, and services at our 36,000 retail locations, and on our website, covers all of the post office's operating expenses.

6. UPS and FedEx charge you $10 or more for messing up an address. Us? Not a cent.

7. Paychecks, personal cards, letters—anything that looks like good news—I put those on top. Utility and credit card bills? They go under everything else.

8. Sorry if I seem like I’m in a hurry, but I’m under the gun: Our supervisors tell us when to leave, how many pieces of mail to deliver, and when we should aim to be back. Then some of us scan bar codes in mailboxes along our route so they can monitor our progress.

9. Yes, we do have to buy our own stamps, but a lot of us carry them for customers who need them. If we don’t charge you, that’s because we like you.

10. Use a ballpoint pen. Ink from those felt tips runs in the rain.

11. Please dress properly when you come to the door. A towel wrapped around you doesn’t cut it. And we definitely don’t want to see you in your underwear!

12. We serve 150 million addresses six days a week, so we’re often in the right place at the right time. We pull people out of burning cars, catch burglars in the act, and call 911 to report traffic accidents, dead bodies, and more.

13. Most of us don’t mind if you pull up to our trucks while we’re delivering and ask for your mail a little early. But please get out of your car and come get it. Don’t just put your hand out your window and wait for me to bring it to you.

"We don’t get a penny of your tax dollars. Really. The sale of postage, products, and services at our 36,000 retail locations, and on our website, covers all of the post office's operating expenses."

This is true. The post office is one of the (if not the only) government agencies that is 100% self-sufficient. They do not get tax dollars or money from the government. Whenever postage goes up, it's typically because the cost of technology used, gas, cost of benefits, or wages have gone up.

Anyway, I just thought I would share this. I know my dad has told me several of these, but I didn't know if everyone was aware.

[Mr. Flopnuts]

I live outside of a small town near Springfield. The roads were terrible out here during this snow storm. Mail was delivered every day, which surprised me. They may get every holiday imaginable to man off, but I get my mail and get it early every other day. Packages are brought to my door, the service I receive down here is the best I've ever had for the postal service. I have zero complaints. It's been a nice change.

[Mr. Flopnuts]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

I ship items for work at least weekly that are non-regular shape. I can ship USPS for around $5, I had to use UPS around Christmas for the same items and it was $17 each.

In this case, USPS ftw and most of my clients receive their stuff next or 2nd day.

That's another thing. I get stuff from Seattle in 3 days. That's a helluva lot faster than UPS or fed ex.

[luv]

Originally Posted by kstater

I hate the Post Office here. Don't know where "going postal" came from. Sumbitches are open from 9-430. Oh, and they're closed for lunch from 1130-1230. So I have to take time off work if I ever need to go to the post office.

Small towns must suck. Springfield's not all that big, but we have four post offices, and several mail type stores. If you don't make it to the post office (which are generally open on Saturdays, too (here at least), then you can usually drop stuff off at one of the stores, which tend to be open a little later. If it's after 4:30 or 5:00, it just may not make it on that days rounds, so it won't technically be mailed out until the following day.

[KCUnited]

I had a Cable Guy situation with my mail carrier a few years ago after giving him a decent bottle of booze as a holiday gift. Guy kept leaving notes in my mailbox and would slide bootlegged movies on DVD under my door. When I tried to give them back to him he got all upset. Next I started noticing things weren't showing up in my mailbox, including my US passport and birth certificate. Luckily I moved (for differing reasons) a short time later.

Mail carrier can **** your shit up real good. Now I just wave with the occasional hello.

[luv]

Originally Posted by Mr. Flopnuts

I live outside of a small town near Springfield. The roads were terrible out here during this snow storm. Mail was delivered every day, which surprised me. They may get every holiday imaginable to man off, but I get my mail and get it early every other day. Packages are brought to my door, the service I receive down here is the best I've ever had for the postal service. I have zero complaints. It's been a nice change.

Maybe that's it. Maybe we're just friendlier and more outgoing than other places.

[Brock]

Originally Posted by luv

$45,760/year

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/newre...eply&p=7405821



Sounds pretty average to me.

What a joke. Factor in the benefits and get back to us.

[Mr. Flopnuts]

Originally Posted by luv

Maybe that's it. Maybe we're just friendlier and more outgoing than other places.

Heh, my wife is still adjusting to it. She is not used to complete strangers coming up to us in grocery stores and starting conversations.

[Bowser]

"He's pretty much liquored up and pissed off by the time he makes it all the way out to your place...."

[Mr. Flopnuts]

Originally Posted by KCUnited

I had a Cable Guy situation with my mail carrier a few years ago after giving him a decent bottle of booze as a holiday gift. Guy kept leaving notes in my mailbox and would slide bootlegged movies on DVD under my door. When I tried to give them back to him he got all upset. Next I started noticing things weren't showing up in my mailbox, including my US passport and birth certificate. Luckily I moved (for differing reasons) a short time later.

Mail carrier can **** your shit up real good. Now I just wave with the occasional hello.

Seriously?

[luv]

Originally Posted by KCUnited

I had a Cable Guy situation with my mail carrier a few years ago after giving him a decent bottle of booze as a holiday gift. Guy kept leaving notes in my mailbox and would slide bootlegged movies on DVD under my door. When I tried to give them back to him he got all upset. Next I started noticing things weren't showing up in my mailbox, including my US passport and birth certificate. Luckily I moved (for differing reasons) a short time later.

Mail carrier can **** your shit up real good. Now I just wave with the occasional hello.

Dad tends to bring home gift cards, homemade candy/chocolate, or lottery tickets. I tend to have different carriers out here where I live, since I'm considered rural (just outside city limits). I didn't give anything this year. Typically, I get a card and put $5-10 in it.

[KCUnited]

Originally Posted by Mr. Flopnuts

Seriously?

Of course I could never prove it. It started off with things like my monthly student loan bill, I knew the date it was due, so when I didn't receive it I would call them and they would confirm it was mailed out. I would chalk it up to misplacement on my part.

Once the passport and bc didn't show up, it was tracked to the Union Station PO. When I contacted them they told me to contact my mail carrier and ask if he'd seen it (no joke, they gave me his number), lol, that's when I knew.

[luv]

Originally Posted by Brock

What a joke. Factor in the benefits and get back to us.

I'll let you do that, since you're the one trying to prove that point.

Annual physicals are required for the job, plus they are outside in the elements, as well as around dogs. If construction workers don't get good benefits, they need to take that up with the local chapter of their union.

[KCUnited]

Originally Posted by luv

Dad tends to bring home gift cards, homemade candy/chocolate, or lottery tickets. I tend to have different carriers out here where I live, since I'm considered rural (just outside city limits). I didn't give anything this year. Typically, I get a card and put $5-10 in it.

I went with the booze because he'd mentioned in a casual conversation that he enjoyed a Tom Collins every now and again. Seemed logical, my old man always gifted our mailman.

[Bowser]

My brother-in-law is a carrier. He's got enough seniority to have a driving route, and makes a good deal more than that 48K a year number. He's never met a stranger, and thus literally knows every one of his customers. You should see the bounty he brings home from the customers during the holidays.

It's a suck job not because of dealing with shitty weather and conditions from time to time, but from within. It's a production job, so it's all about numbers. If you do your route really fast one day, but not so the next day for whatever reason, you have to answer as to why you were ****ing off on day 2, because on paper you were. Every job deals with stuff like that, so I don't necessarily feel bad for him, but crap like that just makes you shake your head.

[luv]

Originally Posted by Bowser

My brother-in-law is a carrier. He's got enough seniority to have a driving route, and makes a good deal more than that 48K a year number. He's never met a stranger, and thus literally knows every one of his customers. You should see the bounty he brings home from the customers during the holidays.

It's a suck job not because of dealing with shitty weather and conditions from time to time, but from within. It's a production job, so it's all about numbers. If you do your route really fast one day, but not so the next day for whatever reason, you have to answer as to why you were ****ing off on day 2, because on paper you were. Every job deals with stuff like that, so I don't necessarily feel bad for him, but crap like that just makes you shake your head.

Dad makes out a little better than that average, but usually only when he's working a lot of overtime.