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Day in the life of a rural mail carrier

Under sage and other brush all through the long days, it’s wearing me out and I am tired of the job.” — said Charles Nolin, pony mail carrier of the late 1800’s.Those words, penned by John S. McClintock, author of Black Hills: Accurate History and Facts Related by One of the Early Day Pioneers, quoted … Read more

Unrestrained Florida Postal Carriers May Now Drive With Unbelted Abandon

On May 22, 2015, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed SB160 into law, heralding in the most dramatic reforms this state has seen in decades. Well, not decades, perhaps. Days would be a better description; heralding in the most dramatic reforms this state has seen in days. The signing of SB160 means that a rural letter … Read more

USPS must bargain with rural letter carriers over cyber breach, NLRB says

The NRLCA contends that former Postmaster General Pat Donahoe deliberately kept Postal Service employees in the dark about the cyber breach. The delayed notice, it said, made it impossible for employees to immediately safeguard their personal information. The Postal Service admitted in November that at least two months earlier, hackers had accessed more than 800,000 … Read more

Rural mail carrier retires after nearly 50 years

JoAnn Lombardi, 81, stepped out of her white Subaru Outback one morning last week on Routt County Road 29 right next to a row of mailboxes right where Trout Creek tumbles out of the foothills of the Flat Tops mountain range. The longtime rural mail carrier handed rancher Bernard Knott an “If it fits, it … Read more

Rural mail carrier has been making her rounds for 47 years

Steamboat Springs — JoAnn Lombardi, 81, stepped out of her white Subaru Outback one morning last week on Routt County Road 29 right next to a row of mailboxes right where Trout Creek tumbles out of the foothills of the Flat Tops mountain range. The longtime rural mail carrier handed rancher Bernard Knott an “If … Read more

Rural mail carrier says losing leg doesn’t slow her down

What some might struggle to do with two legs, Anita Fee can do with one. Working with the U.S. Post Office in the north part of Okaloosa County for nearly 14 years, Fee has been stationed in various positions, but her favorite has been mail carrier. After years of filling in when called, she was … Read more

NRLCA, APWU, and USPS go to court over who sorts the mail

Early last fall, the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) filed a labor grievance against the Postal Service concerning who separates and sorts the mail brought back to the post office by rural carriers.  Now the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association (NRLCA) has filed a lawsuit against the Postal Service and the APWU over the issue. … Read more

Rural letter carrier writes book of experiences

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor a bear or other crazy experiences has kept Jesse Lee Hatfield from delivering the mail — they just motivated him to write a book. “I love being a rural mail carrier,” Hatfield said. The 55-year-old lives in Conway, but he has delivered mail for 23 years for the Greenbrier Post … Read more

IG: USPS spends far more on city mail carriers than rural carriers

The Postal Service is paying significantly more in costs to supervise city mail carriers than it does for rural carriers, says a Dec. 2 USPS inspector general report. For every 100 employees, supervisory costs – including salary and benefits – for city carriers were about $440,000 on average in fiscal 2013, the report (pdf) says. The supervisory costs of … Read more

Rural mail carrier not stuck in the past

  It’s a Saturday and the start of the weekend for most people. Not Clay Myer. He headed for the post office on Chestnut Street soon after daybreak to sort 3,000 pieces of mail and stack it in his Toyota pickup with a camper cover on the back. By 10:30 a.m., the truck — front … Read more