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1 comment from readers

Cdiver
06 July 2010 at 19:14

Instead of rate increases, USPS can eliminate millions of dollars of waste caused by lost worker time when mail carriers take unauthorized cigarette breaks and other time off at apartment complexes, where they use their influence to obtain keys to gated and locked private facilities, such as recreation rooms and swimming pools.

Here is a complaint recently submitted to USPS online:

On June 11, 2010 hold mail was requested by me to end June 16, 2010,and I arranged to be at home all day on June 16, 2010 to receive the volume of mail expected to exceed the capacity of my mailbox.

On June 16, 2010 at about 1:45 p.m. as I left my apartment I saw the regular mail carrier for my address driving away from the mail box cluster where my mailbox is located but when I opened it there was no mail at all. The mail carrier was at the next cluster and when I walked to that one and asked where my hold mail was he reached to his left without needing to look, picked up a folded 8 ½ X 11 printed sheet, removed 4 pieces of mail from the fold, and handed it to me. He kept the sheet of paper and didn’t mention my hold mail but when I did he said “You got a lot of mail!”

His tone of voice, facial expression, and body language conveyed annoyance and resentment.

I replied that I stayed home to receive all that mail and asked him why he didn’t bring it but he refused to answer.

About 15 minutes later I was at the recreation center of the apartment complex when I saw the same mail carrier with a large quantity of mail under his arm open the locked swimming pool gate with a key attached to a chain with all of his other keys, then unlock the recreation room door with that key and enter. There was no one in the room and it is not the address for any postal customer. He emerged several minutes later and left the way he came in, again with his own key unlocking the pool gate to exit. The key is not needed to access any mailbox on the property.

This complaint, which includes photographic evidence of the mail carrier at the recreation center with a large quantity of mail, seeks an end to willful misconduct by this USPS employee who:

Violated postal rules by knowingly and deliberately failing to deliver hold mail after the hold ended. He knew all about the volume of mail which had accumulated and there were no events or conditions preventing delivery of the mail.

Violated postal rules by knowingly and deliberately confiscating mail in his possession in the USPS vehicle instead of delivering it to my mailbox, handing it over to me in person only after I asked for it. Again, there were no events or conditions preventing delivery of the mail.

Violated postal rules by carrying mail into a building which is not the home or business address of a postal customer.

Clearly, one reason FedEx and United Parcel Service are beating USPS is that they don't coddle employees who engage in such frolics.