Posted on 06/26/2025 7:22:01 AM PDT by DallasBiff
With deliveries of things too big for the box going by the door, post men are always pretty hybrid. Drive drive drive walk drive walk drive drive.
And the humvees should have had AC too. That was stupid. It’s not like they’re new experimental expensive technology.
I was a mailman for awhile back in the early 60’s in a suburb bordering Chicago. 7 mile routes pulling a golf cart and two leather pouches full of mail which had to be replenished periodically from relay boxes. A good 6 hour hike everyday. Ruined my feet for the rest of my life and now I have two collapsed ankles to prove it. Weather was everywhere from perfectly comfortable, to rain, brutal heat or equally brutal cold. Builds character....althougb I largely missed out on that one.😎 But I was only 22.
How about a vehicle with AC? The Senate wanted to sell what few USPS had gotten at auction and then pocket the funds, vehicles congress made them buy in the first place, simply because they plugged into electric chargers.
Carriers are walking up to 18 miles a day on routes in all environments. There’s still over 100,000 vehicles with no AC being used by carriers (and even having AC, that only is effective if the carriers have enough time to cool down the vehicle before their next leg... which most don’t as any stationary event of ten minutes or more gets reported.)
Bottles of water - I mean, I’d go through 1.5 gallons in a service day, those gas stations with beer caves were my favorite comfort stop as I could actually cool down a little in the chilled room before resuming the route. Doing that up to 6 days a week in weather up to 120 degrees...
By the by, that’s not the post office’s motto, that was a tribute that an architect added to a building. Might as well be true - but add in riots, gang warfare, train derailments, forest fires, mudslides...
Yes, access to free water in the stations.
Not so useful when you run out on the street; when I got done with my routes, I’d take water to carriers I’d see on the street on my way home. New employees are the worst - they think a 6 pack of water bottles is enough, or their little Igloo cooler will keep that water cool.
I never personally needed the bottles of water that people would leave in mailboxes for carriers (often starting out frozen but just cool when I got to their boxes), but I always took them to give to another carrier.
Sorry, but why did merely walking ruin your feet and ankles? We are told walking is good for you.
I think my foot structure was predisposed. That’s what the podiatrists tell me. Getting older, endless miles of running/walking, sports, military and dumb luck didn’t help either. AFO’s both feet.
Well, he had to deliver only ‘Male’.
That is a life-threating burden.
Should have had some ‘Female’ in the delivery mix, to balance things.
The high that day about 4pm at 94 degrees and less than 50% humidity. Not much to kill someone unless they were well on their way by then.
I recall when a kid my grand mother made the mail man drink a glass of cool water on hot and humid days pre bottled of water days.
Days when people cared about others.
Worked to death?
They probably wouldn’t have to be charged every night. Most routes probably aren’t more than 50 miles, these days their ranges are inline with ICE engines, so 250 to 400 miles. Of course taking only a small chunk of the charge each day also means you could just wall outlet charge them, easy to trickle in an eighth of the charge overnight.
PO next to where I work had some sort of fire situation last year. Never found out the details just a LOT of trucks. Fires happen.
I have had two engine fires myself. They are easily put out. EV fires can be a very big deal.
And once upon a time engine fires were a very big deal. But we still adopted gas engines. And before then steam engines, which could not only have massive fires but could straight up explode. Technology always runs on a curve. And of course we never bother to notice how often nothing happens. There’s millions of EVs out there not catching fire every day.
electrolyte powder and water, and not dehydrating yourself with alcohol or caffeinated drinks when off work.
so sad to hear that apparently this man and others mentioned in comments didnt prepare well for the weather of their job OR stop along the way and get proper liquids to stay hydrated, OR just stop and get themself help!
The few times I had heat exhaustion/dehydration it wasn’t sudden, I could feel I wasn’t ok in advance.
The heat is only one factor. Another is the heavy bag of mail and/or all the heavy lifting. Then, all the overtime hours.
OSHA COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL
MANY PEOPLE ARE OUT IN THE HEAT....
EVERYONE HAS A DIFFERENT HEALTH PROFILE-—HEAT OR NO HEAT
A/C IN A VEHICLE THAT HAS THE DOORS OPEN IS INSANITY
We used to catch hell from Dad if we left a room & left the light on. STILL USE THAT RULE-—NOW 85
No it’s not. It can still cool the vehicle down. Not as much, not as efficiently. But when the desert is in full murder mode every degree matters.
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