Clear the damn box...

[ArcticChicken]

Like so

[CrappyToHelp]

Like so

picture

That's a thing? That's so weird. Our postmen walk. I learned something today.

[dalesys]

That's a thing? That's so weird. Our postmen walk. I learned something today.

Land's End to John o' Groats *is* walking distance, unlike Key West to Nome.

[mhkohne]

That's a thing? That's so weird. Our postmen walk. I learned something today.

Much of america is low density rural or suburban, where it's only a few houses per mile - on foot a postman would be unable to serve any useful number of houses.

In cities and higher density towns, they go on foot justfine.

Also, OP = original poster (person who started the thread)

[Mytical]

Aethian you have a thankless job, have to brave elements nobody should be subjected to, and get all the flack for things that you have no control over. Like mail not arriving (like you personally took and hid that piece of mail instead of .. I don't know .. the other person not mailing it yet... naw that would be CRAZY.

So, thank you for what you do. Hope you stay warm (not to hot or cold), dry, and only meet the friendly playful dogs.

[FenigDurak]

Mail isn't being picked up, no activity at the house IE tall grass or no marks in snow, items needing signatures never being picked up.

If it's mail not being picked up the carrier will hold at the case for 10 days. If after 10 days the mail still hasn't been picked up the address is marked vacant and all mail goes back. Some carriers start this after 1 week and some will wait till the box is full.

That may explain why we have had a different carrier the last two years. The last guy seemed to have a habit of marking the house vacant once a month regardless of the previous day's mail being gone, the lawn groomed and my car in the driveway.

Our new carrier is fantastic. We chat. I make him cookies. Both he and the UPS guy teased me about having a shopping addiction last May/June. Lots of packages that were all wedding presents.

[Geek King]

That's a thing? That's so weird. Our postmen walk. I learned something today.

Heh, I've heard the longest US mail route is 187 miles. That's a little bit long to walk.

There's a reason the joke goes, "An American thinks 100 years is a long time. An Englishman thinks 100 miles is a long way." We've got a lot of empty space to get across, outside the cities.

[KatherineB]

Our posties ride these:

[roxtar]

Heh, I've heard the longest US mail route is 187 miles. That's a little bit long to walk.

There's a reason the joke goes, "An American thinks 100 years is a long time. An Englishman thinks 100 miles is a long way." We've got a lot of empty space to get across, outside the cities.

The same thing applies to euros who think americans are uncultured for only speaking 1 language.
they don't understand that driving from Glasgow to Ankara is shorter than going from DC to LA.

[Aethian]

That may explain why we have had a different carrier the last two years.

Not really. I was starting to wonder about some posts here but I think I now get the misunderstanding.

Carriers are NOT fired from their routes. Unlike what I think people think. The route is set up by a computer. The bids for a route are placed by seniority on carriers that want said route. That carrier will stay on that route until they retire or place a bid on another route.

Once every 1-3 years ALL the routes in a certain set of zip codes will go under a two week count. Every piece of mail is counted, the carriers are ridden with and times at each stop, all is looked at under a fine toothed comb. At the end of those two weeks all the collected data is placed into the computer. Up to a program the routes are either left alone or altered. As long as at least one original stop is the same the carrier keeps their route although may be delivering something completely new.

For one day a week you have a technical carrier run the route. That's what I do, I'm the sixth day person for five routes. If however the regular carrier or the technical carrier can't run the route you have either another un-assigned regular or a part timer that runs the route.

Now for some of you who complain up and down that OMG this person does this sooo stupidly don't they KNOW they are supposed to do XYZ? Well that's fault from when the USPS was still the pony express. If the regular doesn't give off all info then anyone covering their route can't do it as well as them. So if you come across one of these unfamiliar faces please don't berate them they may know nothing of the unsaid intricate details. Sometimes this is unknown malice and sometimes it's because it's become second nature to the regular or technical and something they just do and not think another wouldn't know.

[Aethian]

That's a thing? That's so weird. Our postmen walk. I learned something today.

One of my five routes is a complete walking route. Two are a mix between walking and mounted. The other two is one all residential and the other is a mix of business and residential.

My shortest route is my walking route...six miles of walking/stair climbing. The drive from office, checkpoints, and back to office is 18 miles. 312 stops.

My longest route is 42 miles round trip. 12 of the is to and from the route. So why is driving 30 miles and delivering to 651 boxes...weird?

BTW not all of your posties walk. You most likely just have never seen their trucks because like my brothers and sisters...my cousins across the pond are practically invisible.

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

Lol, the 100 years & 100 miles quote reminds me of having to go to the Airport in St Paul to pick up some technicians from Germany back when I was working in Green Bay. They were asking are we there yet, how much longer will it be, etc, and we hadn't even gotten back to Wisconsin. Was kind of funny, we started getting close to Eau Claire and they were all happy, thinking we were close to our destination, and I'm like "Um, guys, we still have another four hours of driving left."

[sstabeler]

BTW not all of your posties walk. You most likely just have never seen their trucks because like my brothers and sisters...my cousins across the pond are practically invisible.

What I have generally seen is the postie drives to a group of houses, then walks to the individual houses.

[sms001]

What I have generally seen is the postie drives to a group of houses, then walks to the individual houses.

That's what ours does here. I imagine that the routes withing walking distance of the PO itself are pretty few.

As a side note, I didn't figure out what those locked up green 'mailboxes' were for until my late twenties. Seemed pretty obvious in retrospect.

And Aethian, while you're giving us the ins-and-outs of carrying here, I have a question. Are there a lot of people who leave their mail in their mailboxes? I just got new neighbors a few months ago. They get quite a bit of mail - and fun mail too: packages and obvious personal letters, not just junk mail and bills. But they don't empty their box for days sometimes! They work offset hours, but are both home everyday. Just seems odd to me to not check the mailbox every day, but maybe there are more like them and it's not so strange?

[bhskittykatt]

And Aethian, while you're giving us the ins-and-outs of carrying here, I have a question. Are there a lot of people who leave their mail in their mailboxes? .... Just seems odd to me to not check the mailbox every day, but maybe there are more like them and it's not so strange?

Man, I pick up the mail like once a week. (I have a locking mailbox in a cluster of boxes, so it's not like I'm worried about mail theft.)