I wonder where the mailman goes

[Alpo]

We just had a tornado warning. In effect for an hour. The alert that came over my phone said that if you were in a vehicle you needed to park and get off the street.

 

At about that time I was looking to see if the mail had come, so my mind was on the mailman in his little truck. And FedEx and UPS and other people that drive for a living.

 

When something like that happens, I wonder what they are supposed to do? Haul butt back to the post office? Find a convenience store and pull in the parking lot and go inside?

 

You suppose that is covered in employee training?

[Cat Brules]

They probably ignore the instruction and keep a weather eye out.

 

CB

[Perro Del Diablo]

I worked for post office couple years. My supervisor told me to continue delivering mail. Usually they will go to store until passed then at end of shift have to write notice why it took extra time than allotted for day. I got an extra hour one day because of police chase that ended on my route and I had to wait till they were done.

[Alpo]

34 minutes ago, Perro Del Diablo said:

took extra time than allotted for day.

I wonder how much time is allotted to deliver the mail?

 

I've seen the truck driving down the road at 8 in the morning, and occasionally my mail doesn't show up until 8 at night.

 

Other times it gets here before noon. Confusing.

[Perro Del Diablo]

23 minutes ago, Alpo said:

I wonder how much time is allotted to deliver the mail?

 

I've seen the truck driving down the road at 8 in the morning, and occasionally my mail doesn't show up until 8 at night.

 

Other times it gets here before noon. Confusing.

It’s determined by volume of mail measured by foot to sort per route. The route has about 1 min per delivery plus travel time to start point back to station at end and about 1 minute per stop in between. Time to walk it is measured by an auditor walking with you timing each action no matter how small. Any deviation caused by outside normal has be reported to add time. If a route goes into overtime by estimate in morning by volume of mail the some times a supervisor will have mailman to hand off say 30 minutes worth of delivery to someone who is under for day. I was given an hour or more and told was 30 minutes then got chewed out for taking too long.

[Colorado Coffinmaker]

 

The Emergency Services people never go outside to see where the thing is headed.  Or even if it's on the ground.  National Weather Service says "there's a Tornado at Such and Such" and Emergency Services pull the cord.  I would venture the Postal Delivery folks simply look around and keep right on delivering their route.

[Alpo]

It got real dark, and REAL rainy, for about 35 minutes yesterday about 3 in the afternoon. Then it lightened up a bit, but it rained for another hour.

 

The warning said it was supposed to be nine miles north of the coast, and since I'm only about a mile north I wasn't really worried.

[Utah Bob #35998]

Neither snow, nor rain, nor twisters.....

 

[Perro Del Diablo]

45 minutes ago, Colorado Coffinmaker said:

 

The Emergency Services people never go outside to see where the thing is headed.  Or even if it's on the ground.  National Weather Service says "there's a Tornado at Such and Such" and Emergency Services pull the cord.  I would venture the Postal Delivery folks simply look around and keep right on delivering their route.

too true unless on ground headed straight for you management position is keep going.

[Texas Lizard]

1 hour ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

Neither snow, nor rain, nor twisters.....

 

Just a flat tire...Will slow them down....

 

Texas Lizard

[Doc X]

21 hours ago, Colorado Coffinmaker said:

The Emergency Services people never go outside to see where the thing is headed.

 

Not always true. I was a volunteer firefighter for 15 years and spent a lot of time sitting in a truck at various pre-selected locations around our territory "tornado spotting." We had protocols on when to deploy spotters depending on storm location and direction of travel. You ain't lived until you're sitting at night in a tanker holding 1200 gallons of water (think 8 pounds per gallon) and the wind is rocking it …. bad! National Weather Service training for night tornado spotting, "Observe for flashes as the funnel breaks power lines." LOTS OF LAUGHS!

[Sedalia Dave]

To be honest this is what I thought when I read the topic.

 

 

[Doc X]

5 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

To be honest this is what I thought when I read the topic.

 

 

 

Hiding from a twister in there would be like the fellow on Jurassic Park that hid from a T-Rex in one.

 

[Ramblin Gambler]

21 hours ago, Texas Lizard said:

Just a flat tire...Will slow them down....

 

Texas Lizard

 

And a holiday.  That'll stop em dead in their tracks. 

 

Actually, that used to be true, but I'm not sure it is anymore.  I regularly get stuff in my mailbox on sundays.  So either they're working 7 days a week now or other carriers are using the boxes. 

 

[Cyrus Cassidy #45437]

I live in an area known for extreme weather.  We had a hail storm a few years ago that threw basketball-sized hail stones into a neighborhood -- it destroyed millions of dollars worth of cars and houses.  Residential roofs were caved in, and sometimes when the stones fell at an angle they went through windows, bounced off the floor, and traveled through walls like cannonballs.  

 

That was the worst one in the 19 years I've been here, but we typically have 8-10 extreme weather events per year.  Homeowner's insurance isn't cheap here, and neither is comprehensive coverage for cars.  

 

But when I was a cop in the city here, we were expected to be out and about in those extreme weather events.  Oftentimes we could park the cruiser under an overpass, and we would change our dispatching protocols to emergency, in-progress incidents only ("cold" cases like identity theft, and other non-emergencies like dog barking complaints didn't get dispatched).  

 

The problem was we were so understaffed, we didn't even have enough cops to cover the in-progress emergencies.  Dial 911 in my city and tell the dispatcher there are five gang members with guns breaking down your front door, and there is a good chance there are exactly ZERO cops available citywide to respond.  You're going to have to wait.  And I hated being the first one to free up for those, because that meant I was charging in to those emergencies by myself (and that very problem contributes to cops having a higher-than-average use of force -- by yourself and outnumbered, you darn well better apply force sooner and in greater amounts than you could if the city would bother to staff you correctly.  If we were adequately staffed, cops could use less force less often.  But in those circumstances, failure to do so means you're not going home alive).  

 

So, those cruisers were out and about in the extreme weather, and every one of them looks like they were on Normandy beach.  

[Muleshoe Bill SASS #67022]

I was a City letter carrier for 35 years. There is a distinction to be made, there are Rural Carriers and City Carriers.  The ways routes for the two crafts are calculated are very different. City Carriers -  We do not get to haul back to the post office in inclement weather, we have to keep delivering the mail.  Every year several letter carriers die from heat and some get frost bite badly enough to loos fingers, noses ear parts.  As Diablo pointed out. The USPS has supervisors trained to go on a route with Carriers and monitor and record every motion, every minute of their day. Each hour is recorded in hundredths or 6 second blocks. You get 2 ten minute breaks a day and a 30 minute lunch calculated from delivery last made at a designated lunch location to the next delivery made. Carriers have been disciplined and fired for extending break or lunch periods.  About the only reason a City Carrier can safely leave the route is at the command of a law enforcement person, or the USPS management. If confronted with a tornado immediately near you, you can go seek shelter but you first have to protect the Mail entrusted to you. Now a-days with all the computers, the computer tells supervisors how long the route should take and if the route is under 8 hours, deliveries are added from routes without a scheduled carrier or one that is going to be over in delivery time. This leads to a lot of clusterscrewups.  People on routes they have no clue, which street they are on or where mailboxes are, who lives in a house or who has moved. Machines sort nearly 90% of the mail now into delivery sequence and Carriers are on the street 7 to 12 hours a day.  I retired 8 years ago and miss my old route and patrons from my last route.  Still see some around town and we talk....

 

[Ramblin Gambler]

5 hours ago, Muleshoe Bill SASS #67022 said:

About the only reason a City Carrier can safely leave the route is at the command of a law enforcement person,

 

Can local law enforcement command postal carriers to do anything?  I thought they were federal agents and technically higher in the pecking order. 

 

[Muleshoe Bill SASS #67022]

12 hours ago, Ramblin Gambler said:

 

Can local law enforcement command postal carriers to do anything?  I thought they were federal agents and technically higher in the pecking order. 

 

Letter Carriers are employees of the Postal Service and not "federal agents" in a legal sense. Carriers are considered federal employees though. A law enforcement officer giving a lawful instruction can direct a letter carrier to "do not go down that street" in an instance where law enforcement has blocked a street off.  Law enforcement can direct a carrier to not cross a flooded road crossing etc.  Carriers interestingly enough may not give a LEO information about where someone lives, for instance, "Where does Joe Schmoe live?".  We can answer a question such as, "Where is 123 Peach Street?"  When confronted with a LEO asking for personal information about patrons, our instructions are to notify Management. Management may then instruct us to answer, or they contact Postal Inspectors who then either contact LEOs or come out and conduct their interface with LEO and Carrier. Several years ago a Carrier answered some personal questions from a LEO,  about who got mail at that house, what kind of mail and so on. As a result of that event, the USPS removed  that Carrier from employment.  Under no circumstances may a Carrier answer a question from the general public about where someone lives, or who lives in that house. Nor may we give mail to anyone who drives up and asks for their mail on the street.  Some Carriers do, and they if caught, pay the price. Sanctity of the Mail is a serious and real thing.

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

Around here everyone pretty much ignores tornado warnings unless you see one.

JHC