No one said anything about dealing with angry turkeys!

http://www.startribune.com/pos...l-service/468250633/

ROCKY RIVER, Ohio — Postal carriers say a rafter of aggressive wild turkeys have prevented them from delivering mail to more than two dozen homes in a Cleveland suburb.

Cleveland.com reports residents on a number of streets in Rocky River have had to pick up their mail at the post office because the turkeys have created unsafe conditions for carriers to deliver to their homes.

Rocky River Mayor Pam Bobst said the problem has persisted for the last three weeks. She said city ordinances don't allow for the turkeys to be eradicated.

The city has instead sent letters to people asking them to stop putting out bird feed in the hope the turkeys will go elsewhere.

A U.S. Postal Service spokesman says some carriers have been pecked but none have been injured.

quote:

Originally posted by SevenPlusOne:
f you're route is taking you an extra 5 seconds per delivery, you have 1200 deliveries ... that's a good 2-3 hours

Your math is a little bit off. Five seconds for each of 1,200 deliveries adds up to one hour and forty minutes, not two or three hours.

If I've told you once, I've told you FORTY MILLION TIMES: don't exaggerate!

Where's Orguss? I want to hear what he's got to say.

They are probably all out with the flu...GIVE THEM A BREAK!

Just make sure you wash your hands after opening your mail.

Disgruntled postal workers were granted mental health days. I have been dealing with substitute USPS drivers and my mail has been delayed for several days. The mail however that goes to my Post office box has shown no such disruption. A big part of the problem here locally is that they are not staffed to handle the Amazon workload.

There's been a rash in our area of not getting mail delivered. Turns out the postal workers only work a set number of hours. When time is up, they go back, park and go home. The next day the seem to start from the beginning of the route, not where they left off.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by SevenPlusOne:
f you're route is taking you an extra 5 seconds per delivery, you have 1200 deliveries ... that's a good 2-3 hours

Your math is a little bit off. Five seconds for each of 1,200 deliveries adds up to one hour and forty minutes, not two or three hours.

If I've told you once, I've told you FORTY MILLION TIMES: don't exaggerate!

You edited my statement... It's not simple arithmetic. But I did jumble up (because I edited my post) what I was trying to say. It's 5 seconds per delivery, plus all the other BS from the weather etc. If I case up a route, that isn't mine, it will take me longer than my own route, then split it route up...so I leave 1 1/2 hours late, I can't make up that time, especially in snow.
My route takes me about an hour longer, simply because I have a third bundle.

It's a much harder job than it was 20-30 years ago, the old guys agree.

quote:

Originally posted by Icabod:
There's been a rash in our area of not getting mail delivered. Turns out the postal workers only work a set number of hours. When time is up, they go back, park and go home. The next day the seem to start from the beginning of the route, not where they left off.

They can't make you work past 12 hours... but, unless there's a safety reason, someone should be fired.

quote:

Originally posted by SevenPlusOne:

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by SevenPlusOne:
f you're route is taking you an extra 5 seconds per delivery, you have 1200 deliveries ... that's a good 2-3 hours

Your math is a little bit off. Five seconds for each of 1,200 deliveries adds up to one hour and forty minutes, not two or three hours.

If I've told you once, I've told you FORTY MILLION TIMES: don't exaggerate!

You edited my statement... It's not simple arithmetic. But I did jumble up (because I edited my post) what I was trying to say. It's 5 seconds per delivery, plus all the other BS from the weather etc. If I case up a route, that isn't mine, it will take me longer than my own route, then split it route up...so I leave 1 1/2 hours late, I can't make up that time, especially in snow.
My route takes me about an hour longer, simply because I have a third bundle.

It's a much harder job than it was 20-30 years ago, the old guys agree.

I'm sure the volume of Amazon isn't make the job any easier.

I remember as a kid, our mailman would sometimes stop and chat before heading to the next box. Year was 1998 or so. He said that he made $72k that year, worked 6 days a week, lots of OT. He would just park his truck in the park, smoke cigarettes and take a 2 hour lunch every day.

Years later I spoke to him again and he said they put these barcodes on certain mailboxes to track the progress and status of the carriers so they couldn't get away with milking the clock anymore. He transferred not long after that.

Weird guy. Ended up bending my buddy's college diploma in order to fit it into the mailbox instead of giving him the courtesy of walking it up 20 feet to his house. If this were every house, I would understand the time crunch but how many people on the route were receiving their college diplomas that day?

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Originally posted by Edmond:
I'm sure the volume of Amazon isn't make the job any easier.

Especially this around here, though we don't have the snow issue. About two years ago, Amazon in this area switched from UPS to USPS for most packages. My wife orders lots of stuff from Amazon, including 120 lbs of dog food per month. When our delivery is too big for the mail box, the carrier has to drive up our 100 yard driveway and leave the packages/mail at our garage door. I'd say she comes up to the house about half the time.
 

...those aluminum bodied LLV's (Long Life Vehicle) simply don't have the weight or power to move along iced and snowed in roads!

Thus, with the USPS Vehicle Maintenance Facility being supplied with bottom dollar retread's to go on these LLV's, these trucks do good to get out of some Postal Facilities driveways.

Most Carriers pack their LLV's from front to back with mail and packages (Teeter Totter Inversion Tables, cases of toilet paper, and anything else Amazon sales) and they are off to their routes for delivery. Some have to make return trips to pickup second loads of packages.

Then, throw in some of the shittiest driveways that are made of mud, sleet, and snow and these trucks just sit and spin.

These LLV's are knocking on 25 to thirty years old and frequently run hot and quit, those recaps come apart, swell out and bust, and simply don't last like a normal tire, then throw in the electrical issues with batteries and starters from the constant "on and off" from making deliveries when they leave the vehicle unattended.

The routes consist of 20 to 120 miles and these "good" carriers consistently do their jobs! But, when a semi-truck can't get to the Postal Facility to deliver some parts of the mail, or an airport is snowed in, shit happens!

Our days start out (from being in the towing business) by going to change out flats and do jump starts for one 60 truck facility and then on to tows from the ones that break down as they leave out on their routes, and end about 7 or 8 P.M. when the last truck drops due to mechanical issues...that is when two other Post Offices aren't calling about their LLV's!

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Originally posted by wolfe 21:
Where's Orguss? I want to hear what he's got to say.

I've driven through flooded streets, but I don't have to deal with snow so I don't know what other offices enact for those weather conditions.

As for the post about wild turkeys preventing carriers from delivering mail, I fucking hate wild turkeys. You can't run 'em over so you have to wait for them to take their sweet time crossing the road and they're everywhere around here.

quote:

Originally posted by SevenPlusOne:
They can't make you work past 12 hours... but, unless there's a safety reason, someone should be fired.

I worked a 15 hour shift once and almost had it extended to 18 hours, but another carrier was forced to work those three extra hours.

I'm lucky I guess. I have a very good deliveryman in my complex. Has intercepted a few packages that were going to be sent back due to incorrect address on label. Earned him a case of his favorite beer at Christmas.

Only problem is, he takes too many days off. Then we get a sub who can't find his ass with both hands.

quote:

The city has instead sent letters to people asking them to stop putting out bird feed in the hope the turkeys will go elsewhere.

That's the most genius part of the article. People can't receive mail so the bureaucrats send a letter. Brilliant!

quote:

Originally posted by SevenPlusOne:

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by SevenPlusOne:
f you're route is taking you an extra 5 seconds per delivery, you have 1200 deliveries ... that's a good 2-3 hours

Your math is a little bit off. Five seconds for each of 1,200 deliveries adds up to one hour and forty minutes, not two or three hours.

If I've told you once, I've told you FORTY MILLION TIMES: don't exaggerate!

You edited my statement

Yes, I did, for the sake of brevity. Here's what I edited out and replaced by the ellipsis: "instead of the 300 that you might of had back 20 years ago," That's it. That's the total amount of editing I did -- go back and compare with your original post. Now, how does that editing change anything?

1,200 deliveries, slowed by five seconds each, is still one hour and forty minutes, total. Not two or three hours.

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Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Whatever Happened to "Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Snow?"

Union?

Hurricane, Irma took the power out to out main PO, so for over a week we had no postal delivery.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
1,200 deliveries, slowed by five seconds each, is still one hour and forty minutes, total. Not two or three hours.

It takes about 3 hours to do a route with 600 stops on it with no parcel delivery for even the fastest carrier in my town. Add in the 200 parcels on average that a carrier handles and that stretches to about 6-8 hours. Sundays, when it's purely Amazon parcel delivery, it would take me about five hours to do 80 stops. But that's because the Sunday delivery routes for each carrier spans multiple regular mail routes. For someone to have to do 1200 stops is mind-boggling but I don't have that experience so I can't speak to whether that's a thing or not. I'd imagine it would take damned near 10 hours on the road to do that kind of route.

Orguss...

...and other carriers. If there is a vehicle blocking the boxes, are you permitted to skip those boxes or do you need to get out of the truck and still make the delivery?

I asked about that once and was told to get out and deliver on foot, but I know some other carriers I worked with wouldn't. Carriers have warning cards that can be placed on the cars or in the mailboxes requesting the owners be respectful of the space needed to access the box.

Saturday, I was making a delivery and some fucktard decided it would be cool to park his truck on a one-lane road with a sharp drop-off on one side. I was like, "well, fuck that and fuck you," and marked the package I was bringing the customer as undeliverable.

quote:

.and other carriers. If there is a vehicle blocking the boxes, are you permitted to skip those boxes or do you need to get out of the truck and still make the delivery?

As a mail recipient, I just do not get the mail and am left to figure it out. Twenty years ago, the carriers used to leave notes in the box. No more, at least in my area. If the box is blocked the mail is held at the post office until the box is cleared.