Leaders in Tilton are asking Congress to figure out what’s wrong with their post office.
The mayor says letters keep getting delivered to the wrong place, and the complaints are racking up. He says he’s tried everything else, from trying to work with their local office, to contacting the postmaster at the regional office in Danville.
But a few letters getting mixed up isn’t what’s worrying him the most. Mayor David Phillips speaks to us in an empty board room, but it wasn’t empty last night. People came out to complain about their mail service. One man said his was delivered a bit late.
“He just got a letter yesterday dated August the 14th. And he just got it home yesterday so it’s been sitting somewhere at the wrong house.”
And when Phillips opens the city hall mailbox, he’s a little skeptical himself– after the police department’s mail was delivered to a house down the road.
“City hall is brick, and got a sign out that says ‘Village of Tilton City Hall’ in front of it, but the mail’s a block away from it.”
On top of that, he says the carriers may as well be incognito.
“You’re getting mail carriers that have no uniforms on, they’re carrying mail bags that you don’t recognize that bag, that you don’t know who they are.” Read more
I agree 100 % I am a rural carrier sub there is no accountability for delivering mail hold mail that don’t go out to the customer when the hold card says the customer has to call and ask where is my mail at . I can say sometimes I am embarrassed to say I work for the post office love my job just hate that they come up with positions that make no sense because another carrier didn’t have a sub they made up a stupid position called a PTF . So as a sub for 7 years I get no benefits no sick leave no vacation time and when the lazy regular carriers call in we have to do our work plus split other routes . They go by seniority instead of performance it’s a bunch of crap . Maybe I should just do sucky work like them hell nothing ever happens to them oh wait and you have a carrier (rural) who is timed by his wife so he does his route in under 2 hours and has had many complaints by his customers and his speed there are kids his reply they don’t pay me to go slow a d the kids better stay out of the street .shaking my head.Sad sad sad all ok until a kid gets hit …… sincerely a very sad rural sub.
I’m glad to find this web site. I just hope unlike postalreporter.com it doesn’t become infested with idiotic trolls who use those posting boards for their political crap instead of focusing on the USPS.
As for this article, all postal employees know what’s going on, but the management isn’t doing any talking. It’s the scourge of terrible mismanagement focusing on times and totally discarding accuracy, reliability or accountability for misdelivered mail. They have hired thousands of “city carrier assistances” or CCA’s for short who are started at lower wages, next to no benefits, and no job security until they eventually get routes of their own due to retirement or the very occasional disabled or transferred regular carrier. It can and does take years to convert to regular status in many offices, but before the CCA program was started, new carriers were fully permanent employees with all the benefits therein after 90 days probation. CCA’s have that same probation but are subject to removal after each year, sent home for one week, and “rehired” for another year. The NALC is helpless or at least refuses to do anything about it.
Thus, you get carriers who are being bullied to carry far more each day than is smart, forcing them to literally run sometimes, carry parts of two or more routes besides the one they’re assigned to, and horribly abused by many in management for failing to “make numbers” that are literally impossible to produce. Since wages are nothing special, many say “the Hell with this harassment and having to work in every weather condition.” Thus you get a large turnover and a half price work force that doesn’t even get an iota of training in the importance of accurate dependable service because they’re afraid.
Veteran carriers do not have to deal with this. We clean up the mess and get blamed for the mistakes on days we’re off or on vacation. Don’t expect straight answers from management. They are obsessed with performance bonuses and think only of false numbers to help pad their greedy pockets at years’ end, taking financial credit for the back breaking labor their craft people do while they play around with tons of useless paperwork. The best thing to do as a civilian is through media and your legislators. We are forbidden by law to do so, but you can help yourself and us.