6/29/17 “I was invited on a ride along with USPS to learn how hard these city letter carriers work to deliver your mail in this BRUTAL heat! Did you know these trucks don’t have AC??”
EL PASO, Texas (CBS4) — One person who never quits when it gets a little toasty outside is your local mail carrier. Postal carriers work long hours, sometimes walk far distances or get in and out of the car hundreds of times a day.
A letter carrier’s job requirement is literally to be driving around — outside — all day — in a car — with no air conditioning.
CBS4 met one USPS city letter carrier who takes the heat like a champ. Michael Duran said despite the occasional triple-digit temperatures, he has absolutely loved the past 19 years delivering mail in El Paso.
Source: Easiest way to make your mailman happy in triple-digit temps? Offer cold water | KDBC
now you know why PMG Megan Brennen faked an IOD within the first 6 months as a letter carrier…………..to be inside in the air conditioned summer and the heating in winter. boy, do we have one smart cookie in the wheelhouse of the Titanic!
I’m sure Rolando will fight for us now after seeing this and get us good vehicles with A.C.. Oh wait….. he doesn’t care so never mind. As long as he gets his 6% raise each year he’s happy and “working for the carriers “. Sure Fred. Sure.
And I’m retired from the Postal Service and just gave you another lousy contract agreement after taking a whole year and you won’t be able to vote me out in next years officer elections because I control the vote counting.
They don’t care and they still won’t give us a c but nice story
not if you vote NO dummy!
And we got the same contract as other craft employees?…so unfair!!!
I can’t believe the guy has a cakewalk mounted rte that actually allows someone to sit in the back. Our routes are so inundated with parcels we do 2 trips now. I wish I had room in the truck, it would be like a 1/2 day
Wow Fred Rolando acts like the NALC is a progressive union. This a joke of a union from sorry 1% raises, give backs, carriers skipping lunches and 10 minute breaks because of fear on management. The time has come to vote everyone of these loser officers out from the national union president and to the local shop stewards. If not hopefully we will go private and get a new union and we be allowed to strike!
Vote for Noble and the Clean Sweep Team!
with all this, the mail handlers, clerks, letter carriers, rural carriers union’s have said in my last 30.5 years is that you are not worth more than a 1% yearly raise? all different contracts,all different expiration date, and all these jokers can produce is a crummy 1%…….now if you think this is all random and not by design…….then I have a bridge in Brooklyn, NY to sell you. I truly hate this govt agency, but like in tort law I assign the blame 50% postal mismanagement and 50% cumbag, do nothing, company unions. would you like to no what I really think about these bastards? out in anothe 1.5 years for a total of 32 years in Uncle Joe Stalin’s Gulag! compare these crummy postal company unions with real unions in New York City and you will find out just how bad you have been screwed over.
My LLV is nice and cool–in January through march
I cannot believe how this guy delivers mail. He fingers mail between stops and even is looking at his mail BEFORE HE COMES TO A COMPLETE STOP! Yea, it’s summer and it’a hot in Texas, but what if some kid comes running out like they all do and he’s LOOKING AT THE MAIL BEFORE HE COMES TO A COMPLETE STOP? Never, ever touch or look at the mail before stopping. We can take the heat, but can we take the results of being unprofessional?
Rule #1 of postal employment : nobody cares.
Rule #2 : read #1 again.
its hot in the truck, but, much worse for walking rts.!
I did my share of both over 32 years. Walking routes just wear the body out, like my first two routes pre-DPS and lower volume days. There were days I’d have to weigh my satchel on my foot route with no vehicle at all to make sure they didn’t weigh over 35 pounds. For those still on walking routes with no LLV’s, and I imagine there are still quite a few, if you hurt yourself and management or the OWCP can prove you were overloaded, you will not get workmen’s comp. Even at 35 pounds for a swing, it was impossible to stand up straight, and I refused to carry mail in the crook of my elbow back then because it wore lots of carrier’s elbows out and you couldn’t defend yourself if a mean dog attacked. As far as heat, there was no room for even a small bottle you could fill with ice. I’d drink like a fish whenever I got to lunch or went into a business that had a fountain, and occasionally a customer would give me a glass of water, but it wasn’t enough. I overheated once, and was sick for three days.
Mounted routes can be brutal too, but you can carry a water jug, split your swings, and the flat volume and letters aren’t as heavy as they used to be. Parcels are ridiculous, but that’s par for the course.
I’m retired now but I always took it as an insult for a supervisor or the PM to act “concerned” about us and giving their usual idiotic safety talks. We’d tell them on a 100 degree day it would be a good day to do a street observation, and in winter when it was around zero or worse that it would be another great chance to redo our M-39’s but nobody on the inside was about to get out there. Fun days.
I agree. I’ll drive all day in a truck.
Try actually walking in the heat.
Try walking on icy steps. Try playing hide and seek with
all the dogs whose property we enter.
Much respect for our brothers in the SW.
We walk for days back here in the NE for no reason.
Other then to get a PDI for slipping on a icy step.
Driving an LLV no matter what the temperature is a real pleasure. The fan in the truck makes a hell of a racket. Though just blows hot air. The reporter should be invited to take a day long ride in a postal officials lime. Then they would learn of hardships. They would experience a really tough day in the life of the rich and lazy! And they could hear stories how the low life slaves are screwing them.
And they actually, seriously wonder why so many CCA’s quit. I was close 32 years ago, I stuck around for the pension, now likely to be effectively stripped. Admittedly I made the mother of all mistakes, expecting someone else to take care of me.
Where is OSHA? If it is 100 outside it is 120 inside… where is the UNION safety people?
In managements pocket!!!
That carrier should be writing up for fingering the mail while vehicle is moving .
Angel, you must be a manager and therefore ignorant of what it takes to deliver mail. Every carrier fingers the mail. Regardless of what the rules are, it would add several hours to a long route if one didn’t do it.
By the way, correct English is “written up.”
I did this work for 32+ years. It’s nice to have somebody go out with a city carrier or a rural carrier who has to use an LLV in the heat to get an idea of what we deal or dealt with every day. I also recommend somebody go along in bitter cold weather or storms with lots of lightning or hail, too.
A fellow carrier and friend of mine took an oven thermometer on his route on a hot day, and our two routes were similar in that they were primarily mounted routes with little shade to utilize. On the back loading deck, the temperature was 130 degrees!! The floor gets so hot you can burn your fingers if you touch it, and the paint from the steering wheel peels off in your hands. Plus, at least in my truck, it blew hot air through the vents. The tiny little dashboard fans are nearly worthless. They break down, just blow the hot air that settles between the dash and windshield in your face, and are louder than hell.
We drink like fish, but you are always parched. You get dehydration headaches that are almost as painful as a migraine, heat strokes and sometimes carriers die, especially if they aren’t acclimated to the weather.
That is the secret to how we handle the heat. Air conditioning would be nice to cool the trucks down, and the new fleet may have them, but it’s not really practical because you have to have your window down and door open (not on busy streets) to access the mailboxes, and that means the A/C won’t do much good.
We adjust to the warmer weather over the spring months, and here in Arkansas, the humidity is lethal. By the time summer is in full swing though, we’ve adapted somewhat and can handle the heat better than others do, and that applies to all outdoor workers. My advice to non-postal readers is this: if you offer water, don’t be offended if we turn it down because we already have jugs of it on board. Also, our workload is getting heavier with the increased parcel business, so if your carrier gets a bit grumpy, don’t take it personally. They are fighting atrocious heat and tempers can get hot, too. In fact, those who walk more stay a bit cooler because of shade and the occasional breeze. But that’s the life, and has been since there were mail carriers.
I don’t doubt it a bit. And hot asphalt is an oven. I’m sure there are days hotter than 135 degrees in those LLV’s, and in winter, my door would freeze open and I’d have to drive with it open and froze my cojones off. I was always glad I wasn’t carrying in the upper midwest or northeast, or the Rockies for that matter. Arkansas gets snow, but not a lot of it although it can get mighty damn cold. How letter carriers do it in the snow belt or during a nor’easter beats me, although cities have ordinances for keeping sidewalks and walkways clear. I grew up in Iowa, and there on the Minnesota line you got your share of blizzards and bitter cold. I would not have been a carrier in that part of the world unless I had no choice.
Ha! 100, I once used a laser to check the floor of the truck and it was 135 on a 90 day, this was in NJ not the So. West. The worst part is the idiots that designed those garbage trucks put the exhaust pipe to run right underneath the seat. Plus it’s all aluminum and that conducts heat instead of helping to block it. I used to pour when it just got really bad an entire Qt. of water on the floor to try and cool things down, it would totally evaporate in a little over 10 min. I know that the PO wants to burn people out so they don’t reach the age of retirement (except for the management gods) but doing it this way is just plain abuse. When you get the new trucks someday just make sure the tailpipe is not on the drivers side, OK? Is that to much to ask? Use common sense. Thanks…………M
Try doing walking routes in waste deep snow and -20 degrees. Lot worse than driving in 100 degrees.
Sorry, I was out in blizzards and hurricanes (no admin and I stayed out, they wanted to discipline me for that day, I dared them to), that you can prepare for. Crawl inside your oven for a few hours and let me know the best way to handle it.
OSHA, in Phoenix, ordered the PO to put the AC units back into the tractors from which they were removed. Factory equipment, mind you.
You work for an evil organization. Full stop.
Walking routes are much easier than driving!!!
Can tell you live somewhere that doesn’t get temps below 0 4 to 5 months out of the year and can snow 6 months out of the year if you think walking is easier than driving.