I live in an apartment with a small mailbox in the lobby. The LC (letter carrier) has to leave his truck to deliver the mail. Of course, it is warm in our lobby and mailroom so he probably doesn't mind.
I include my buzzer code in my address. If a parcel or oversized envelope arrives, the letter carrier will do one of two things. If he is busy, he will buzz up and tell me it is here. If he is not busy, he delivers it to the apartment. Generally, there is someone home when he comes. He has a third option - carding - which he uses as a last resort.
Mail service has been hit and miss this year. There have been 29 scheduled delivery days. We have had seven days with no delivery. On days when we do get delivery, it has been as late as 9:30 in the evening. I hesitate to call this service.
I have a very good friend who has been a letter carrier for 33 years. He loves his job. He regularly works double shifts when offered - and they are offered several times a week. Why so many shifts of O.T. According to him, LC's do not have to give notice when they are taking a vacation day. All they have to do is notify management prior to the start of their shift. That makes it difficult to schedule a replacement (from a small pool of part timers) and almost insures that someone gets O.T.
Another problem is abuse by LC's. According to my friend, they are rarely held accountable for anything. If there are enough complaints, they are offered another route. There is no discipline as management does not want to deal with grievances.
Two weeks ago, my friend was talking about a LC who worked in his area for mail sorting. Apparently, she has a habit of taking all day to sort her mail. When he is coming back from his first shift, she is going out to deliver her mail - on overtime. My friend complained to his supervisor as she was not doing her job and adding to everyone else's workload. He complained three times. No action taken. He then went to the department manager. Again, no action. He was told to go do his job and "not make waves".
If this is the kind of management at Canada Post, no wonder we are in trouble.
In spite of all this, my experiences with letter carriers has always been good (with one exception). I think the system is broken and no one wants to fix it.
zW2Ig~~60_7.JPG "brandeentertainment"){kind=avatar}
