“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
Although the United States Postal service has never actually had an official motto, I doubt any other would be more appropriate.
I spent my afternoon Wednesday working at the Norwich Post Office.
“We have been and continue to be the most publicly trusted government agency,” said Norwich Post Master Sharon Harris.
Sharon explained that in a number of government surveys to the public, people consistently said they held more faith in the Postal Service than any other service agency.
The Norwich Post Office is the largest in the area, delivering, on average, 35,000 pieces of mail daily to 7,700 different locations.
The breadth of its domain expands from halfway between North Norwich and Sherburne to the Halfway House towards Oxford and up to County Rt. 8 over Polkville Hill.
“The safety of our employees and the security of the mail are our two highest priorities,” said Sharon. She went on to explain that the protection of private information, such as banking numbers, social security numbers and tax information was even more important today because of an increasing identity theft problem. “We deliver the mail and equally as important we protect people’s confidential information,” Harris said.
I began my morning traveling the regularly-beaten mail carrier path with Chad Robinson. Chad has been a mail carrier for four and a half years, often acting as a temporary fill in for the local area. “I’ve worked in Oneonta, Syracuse, and a lot of other places,” said Robinson.
Before leaving on our morning rounds Chad gave me the trademark carrier mail bag (which I was told doubles as a canine protection device) and a can of dog mace. The mace is supposed to keep aggressive dogs from attacking mail carriers and the spray is colored bright orange to mark the dog so authorities can later locate it.
I watched Chad deliver for the first couple of blocks before trying my own hand at the job. Like a professional card player, Chad has excellent dexterity rifling through the mail. He separated letters and magazines into several groups depending on which finger held what place. “You get used to it. The first couple weeks can be really tough, but you get used to it,” he said. I delivered mail at roughly one quarter the pace Chad did.
Another aspect of the job is being able to walk, quickly, while in the process of all this. After holding two or three bundles of mail with one arm along with a should strap bag filled to capacity, you start to feel the burn. Everything is basically done with one glove-covered hand. It reminded me of a waiter carefully carrying someone’s meal, except for several blocks.
After completing the morning route with Chad, I returned to the post office and got to see how things get done at the service window. I worked with two postal veterans, Patrick Laughlin who has been with the agency 29 years and Dennis Ferguson, who’s had 27 years of service. Pat ran the window constantly and whenever there were more than two people in line, he would page Dennis to come aid him at the counter. When he wasn’t at the window, Dennis was in the back sorting mail or doing any one of a number of other jobs. “There is always something that needs to get done,” said Dennis.
“As long as you stay on top of things, it all runs smoothly,” warned Pat.
Working the window at the post office is a serious matter and I could not have performed the job efficiently without days of practice and training. To get an idea, I decided to keep track of every single customer and need that Pat and Dennis served in just five minutes.
In five minutes at the Post Office window, 12 customers were served, seven packages weighed, measure and mailed, nine letters mailed, 261 stamps sold, two money orders printed and there was one window pickup from a local PO box holder.
The trickling of customers never stopped while I was there and the longest moment of pause lasted maybe a minute or two.
“Today is a slow day,” said Pat. “We are usually busier in the afternoon.”
“Its not that busy in the middle of the month. The first and end of the month are the worst,” said Sharon.
Pat showed me a few things on the computer including how long it would take a package to reach Hawaii. For a first class letter 2 to 3 weeks (41 cents), for a priority letter (about $4) 5 business days, and for an express letter (about $16) 2 days. It made me feel like I had taken my postal system for granted.