US Post Office

[THBatMan8]

Excellent thread @THBatMan8! I looked into this, and it seems to me you have to live near a large city in order to be hired as a driver for USPS. Their trucks seem to only run out of the BMC's. Sadly, many of us live in the boonies. I'm almost 200 miles from both Madison and MPLS.

I have two questions:

Did you have to take the postal test for this job? With all that coding recognition and speed sorting and other things that have nothing to do with driving?

Does military time count toward retirement time for the USPS (or any federal job)? I'd heard that if you did four years in the military, you'd only have to do 16 in a federal job to collect a 20 year pension? Any truth to that?

Otherwise welcome to the forum, and thank you for being literate!

You don't have to take a postal test, parse. You will take an assessment though, and the purpose of that is to put you in a craft that best suits your abilities. You will learn the trades of the craft during the training. I forgot to mention that you have to score higher than 80% on the assessment to be placed as a tractor trailer operator though. The concept of the assessment is similar to the ASVAB.

Yes, military time does count towards retirement. That's what I meant by doubling down. Many drivers here are vets, and some are still active.

Thanks for the welcome.

 

[THBatMan8]

Even if you wind up in the median during a blizzard??
I think I feel a cold coming on...ahem!...ahem!

As long as you're on the clock, you get paid. Here you get paid by the hour and not by the mile or load, so if you're stuck in a median, you'll get paid to wait for a tow truck.

Last winter I got stuck at an off ramp. I waited 4 hrs for a tow truck. All on the clock.

Heck, last night I had to wait 2 hrs for a trailer, because I was driving an auxiliary run and our spare trailers were at the Hub. I got 2 hrs on the clock for sitting in the break room watching Pawn Stars.

 

[THBatMan8]

They pay overtime.

Yes.

Time and a half for more than 8 hours a day and/or 40 hours a week, and double time after 10 hrs a day and/or 48 hours a week.

 

[THBatMan8]

I looked into this myself and you hafta have a stellar MVR to get on board.
And I mean stellar (not even a parking ticket).
You hafta be as sinless as God himself to qualify there.
I dunno anybody that's been driving for any length of time that fills that bill.
It's a rare bird that drives for 13 or 14 years w/o a single blotch on their record.
I have one speeding ticket as well as a 2-week suspension for a logbook violation
that I let go to long before paying the fine.
That effectively puts me out of the running for these guys.
In addition, if you live in the snowbelt you're going to run even if theres a blizzard going on. As long as the roads are open yer going. That'll turn an 8 hour shift into
16 hrs in no time. Be prepared to layover somewhere if that happens.

Yes, this employer has the strictest standards I have ever seen, but for a reason. You're a federal employee here, so your record does have to be stellar. Very few drivers qualify to work here, and that's how the union wants it. When your average driver makes 80k+ a year, you want to have the best drivers on the road. Not only that, due to the small number of drivers here, its a close nit group. You're treated like an extended family member. You know you have a good job when Walmart drivers will quit at the drop of a hat to work there. And I'm serious, half of our drivers are from Wally World.

 

[Sinister]

You don't have to take a postal test, parse. You will take an assessment though, and the purpose of that is to put you in a craft that best suits your abilities. You will learn the trades of the craft during the training.

Yes, military time does count towards retirement. That's what I meant by doubling down.

Thanks for the welcome.

Excellent, thanks.

Kinda makes me wish I'd have sucked up living in a large city instead of buying the little piece of boonies I got now!

My dad always mentioned (read: YELLED LOUDLY...) to get a postal driving job. Sometimes....it pays to listen to your parents.

 

[8978]

Interesting reading. Thanks there BatMan

 

[THBatMan8]

Postal driving jobs are hard to get, but very easy work. Your dad was right. I would recommend this employer to anyone looking for a career instead of just a job, as many of the P/DC outfits are.

This is a lay down of how tour 1 station runs are structured. I will use my run as an example.

For starters, you don't pre or post trip the equipment here. Mechanics do that for you on a daily basis. The mentality here is that you're here to transport mail, and not play mechanic.

You start the day at 0200 at the DC to get the truck and trailer, and your station keys. You have until 0220 to depart.

Your first stop is at the MPA at 0245. Here, you load up your priority mail for your 2 stops (my run in particular goes to 2 stations per trip whereas others go to 1). You depart at 0300. 15 minutes is plenty time to load.

You arrive at the first station at 0330 to unload the dispatch. You depart at 0350.

0405-0425: unload dispatch at 2nd station.

0505-0645: arrive back to the DC for the DPS mail for the same 2 stations you were just at. You take your lunch break in this time as well.

0710-0730: unload dispatch at 1st station, same station as the priority dispatch.

0745-0805: unload dispatch at 2nd station and load empty equipment.

0820-0840: return to the first station and load empty equipment.

0900-0920: head out to another station to load empty equipment.

0950-1030: back to the DC to drop the trailer, fuel the truck and end the tour.

Here's a map of my run:



From left to right, the red pins represent:

1) MPA
2) DC
3) Station 1
4) Station 2

The purple pin represents the 3rd station on the empty equipment sweep.

In a nutshell, every tour 1 run is structured like this, except each run goes to different stations. None of our runs venture that far from the I-465 belt.

 

[Sinister]

Did it take you long to get used to those Vampire hours?

 

[THBatMan8]

Not at all. I've always preferred vampire hours.

 

[Duck]

Not at all. I've always preferred vampire hours.

Me too.

I just got home from 10 days on the road, and found this sitting on my computer desk:

 

[krelithous]

Me too.

I just got home from 10 days on the road, and found this sitting on my computer desk:

View attachment 9002

Ducks in his Halloween costume

 

[CBarnes302]

Nothing like bumping a few year old thread, but I just stumbled upon this for the driver requirements. As far as the driving record goes, when you stated no suspensions, is that the last 3 years, or do they want a lifetime check on that as well?

 

[ironpony]

Heh, your opportunity to "go postal!"