Just happened to look out while my mail was being delivered, and it was done by a woman driving a standard PO truck, but she was wearing an orange t shirt and blue jeans.
Our regular carrier is a woman (a different person) but she’s always in a light blue uniform – sometimes pants, sometimes shorts. And I occasionally see other carriers (no doubt filling in due to vacations/sickness/regular days off) both men and women, but all wearing the same type of uniform.
So … does the Post Office just call up regular temp agencies when they run out of people?
Back in the Jurassic, I had a summer job carrying mail. It was routine for the Post Office to hire substitutes. It couldn’t be just a one-day temp job, though, because there were all sorts of procedures to go through and a driving test.
A quick Google shows that part-time carrier jobs are widely advertised today. That would make far more sense than temp positions.
I believe city carriers have to wear uniforms, rural carriers don’t. Perhaps an RCA was filling in. Although I don’t know the specifics of their contracts and what’s allowed as far as crossover.
(A couple years ago, I had a side gig as an ARC, basically delivering Amazon packages on the weekend and holidays. I was also called quite a bit to fill in on rural routes during the week, although this wasn’t technically allowed by contract. I don’t think I would have ever been allowed to fill in on a city route.)
Years ago when I had a problem with my mail carrier, my local postmaster [del]told me[/del] lamented that there was little he could do because many carriers, including mine, were subcontractors. He suggested I get a box at the post office.
Well, this is your basic suburb, so I don’t know which rules apply. But given every other carrier I’ve seen has been in uniform, I guess that’s the rule.
I’m not complaining about the job done – hey, the mail got into the box, and it was all addressed to the right house, so 10/10. It was just the bright orange shirt caught my eye and made me wonder.
I think typically, rural routes aren’t necessarily “rural.” They’re the routes where carriers can deliver mail to boxes right from their truck, regardless of whether they’re in a suburb or actually out in the country. City routes are the ones which are walked.
This town is a hybrid, then. The carriers drive around in trucks, but they have to stop the truck and walk up to on-the-house boxes at each stop. I wonder how often they have to replace the starters on those trucks?
“They” (Post office? Town people? I’m not sure which) passed a ruling a few years back that all new-built houses AND (supposedly) each house that gets bought by someone new can only get delivery to street side boxes. (I say supposedly because I can point to a half dozen houses on my own street where this rule wasn’t followed.)
Every year or so the Post Master sends out a nicely worded letter encouraging everyone for the sake of efficiency and gas savings to put in a street box. We’re just crossing our fingers they’ll never make it mandatory.
Though I’m sure regulations have changed significantly I once held a summer job as a college student as a mail carrier in 1974.
My job title was “Casual Carrier”, a part time position which exempted me from having to purchase a full uniform. I was required to purchase either a postman’s cap or pith helmet which I had to wear when on my route. It was strongly suggested that I wear a blue shirt similar to a postman’s. This suggestion may have been a local issue as looking like a mailman was somewhat safer when working in the parts of town where my routes were. Some of the postal areas I worked in were very low income/higher crime areas. The postman got a safe pass in those neighborhoods because he delivered the welfare checks.
I also signed a permission slip which allowed me to use my car for a per diem bonus. However, this made my car a “official” mail vehicle and gave the USPS the right to seize and search my car without notice.
I had a run in with a cop who thought I was going door-to-door as a solicitor.
He asked me what I was doing.
Being a very smart ass kid I said, “delivering”.
He asked if I had a permit to which I replied, “no”.
He then told me he could place me under arrest.
I told him that, by federal law, he had to post a guard at my 69 Chevy Nova until the US Postal Service could secure it. (that really is a law. Postal vehicles cannot be abandoned with mail in them. Local authorities are required to keep them secure)
I cited that law to him and explained my rank and situation. He didn’t appreciate my attitude and told me that I should have explained myself in the first place. Fun times.
and now in new subdivisions you don’t get your mailbox at your house. They have boxes that have 12 or so slots in them for 12 houses. They are called cluster mailboxes. I don’t know when they started that but it’s not real new.
And on a related note, a elderly friend of mine, 89 and not really sure on his feet, contacted the local post office. They relocated his mailbox from across the busy 2 lane road, to about 10 ft from his front door, the box is now on his driveway. I guess they adjust the mail persons route to accommodate this. I have nothing but praise for our local mail carriers. We get lots of amazon deliveries, most seem to be usps. I do leave a card and cash gift every Christmas. They aren’t exactly overpaid.
During our driver’s test, we were told that the rules of precedence meant that federal vehicles - including our own cars when on duty - had right-of-way over any local vehicles, even ambulances. We were also told that if we tried to pull rank we would be strung up by our thumbs, or some similarly colorful phrase.
Young people should note that when we delivered mail from our car to streetside boxes we had to drive with traffic, not against it. That meant that we sat on the passenger side of the front bench seat and toed the gas pedal with our left foot as we inched down the road. Don’t ask me what happened if you had a stick shift. It strikes me now as insanely dangerous and physically improbable, but it was absolutely standard in the early 70s.
Our mail carrier is a very nice lady–we moved back to this area after being gone for 9 years and she still remembered us. And the Xmas cookies I gave her before we moved.
She uses her car, does her own taxes and hires temp help when things get hectic (and, I suppose, does their taxes). No uniform.
I’ve seen temp carriers in civvies in both NY and LA. One place I lived the mail was consistently late and we complained–the explanation given was that our route was handled by a rotating cast of temps.
I did this in 1970. My title was Summer Substitute - Carrier, and no one even suggested I wear a uniform or blue shirt. All our routes were close to the post office so I never drove and never put any mail in my car. So I never took a road test.
I did get issued mace for dogs which I used.
That’s weird. I live in an apartment complex, about as far from the street as the apartments go. Consequently, I virtually NEVER find myself on foot on the street in front of my complex. I drive to my garage and walk to my front door (that’s if I’m coming home. If I’m going out, I walk to my garage, get in my car, and drive to my destination). I DO walk to the manager’s office once a month with my rent check, but I can’t imagine the letter carrier being happy to try to fit a month’s worth of (mostly third-class) mail into my box.