You know, we think of the mail as just something that
"is." It arrives in our mailbox every day and we don't really think much
about how it got there. And I guess we assume that everybody pretty much gets their
mail the same way. We used to know our mailman, but it seems that it now changes so
often, I don't make an effort to know who it is any more.
Today in a Swap Bot discussion someone mentioned that her
mailman had tried to deliver a small parcel and when the woman wasn't home, he left a note
that she could pick it up at the post office.
But then he saw me walking in town... so he turned his bike, got some speed to catch me and gave me the package so I didn't have to pick it up myself tomorrow..
Everyone agreed this was a special mailman, but many were confused
about delivery on a bike. I assumed this was a small village. But it turns out
it has a population of 90,000 (bigger than Davis).
I don't get it... what is so odd about a mail man on a bike? asked
the woman who posted the first message. I checked her profile and discovered she was
from Belgium.
All mail mans do their work by bike. Only very large packages that won't fit on the bike are being delivered with a small postal truck.
Looking at that photo, I wonder how many trips they make back to the
post office to refill their boxes. Then she asked how we got OUR mail. I guess it
never occurred to me that mail was delivered in many different ways. I just never thought
about it. Someone from Berlin uploaded pictures of the mail bikes in Berlin.
Someone else wrote that in Mexico they use either bikes or
motorbikes. Someone from Latvia wrote, "our mailman has a small car not truck,
and they stop, get out, deliver, drive a bit... I think I have seen them sometimes doing
it together (maybe a relative helping or so), so one is at wheel and other runs out to
deliver. Our mailman comes from a town 8 km away and no nice biking road between those
towns."
Another woman wrote "I live in the rural area in TN and mail
people use their own vehicles, and stop at my mailbox out front by the road, if it is a
package he always brings it to the door, he is pretty awesome, leaves a bag of goldfish
crackers for my grandson every once in awhile."
When I was growing up, the mail was sorted at the main post office
and put into boxes to be delivered to big metal boxes around the city. They looked
like mail boxes, but had no slot for inserting mail. The mailman then loaded his bag
with his first load of mail at the post office and took public transportation to where he
started his route. He walked the route and when he finished the first batch, he was
at one of those collection boxes where he picked up the next batch and walked some more.
He did it once a day, and twice or three times a day during Christmas time.
Now all the mail for the mailman's route goes onto
a small truck. The mailman parks the truck about a block from our house. He then
gets out and walks the route, down one side of the street, around the two cul de sacs and
back up the other side of the street and back into the truck again to move to his next
parking spot. (We have occasionally had a female mail carrier, but most of the time it's a
man.)
When I did a search for this picture, I found lots of other US mail
truck designs, some smaller, some larger. Some are designed so that the mail can be
delivered without the driver leaving the truck--these are for communities that have mail
boxes right on the street. The mailman has to walk up our driveway to the front door
of our house in order to deliver our mail. It never occurred to me how far he has to
walk besides the streets that he walks, because almost everyone on this block (and
probably all of his blocks) have long driveways.
Someone else wrote, "The postal service is pushing to have
communal mailbox areas at the front of a neighborhood (that is already often the case in
apartment complexes). It would be more efficient for them but I love having my mail
delivered right to my house." Me too, though I have not heard that discussed
for here. Seems strange that it's not, since this is the "city of
bicycles" and with a terrain so flat it would be a simple thing.
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| Day 61: A nice way to start the day, with a beautiful sunrise |
3 comments:
In our city, mail is delivered in trucks (like the one you pictured). Each household has a mailbox on a post by the street. If there's a package too big for the box, the carrier brings it to put on the front porch. In our neighborhood, the yards are not very big, and the houses aren't too far from the street. It would be tough walking for a carrier - much of Chattanooga is very hilly. Apartment complexes, like you mentioned, have the central banks of boxes.
They walk the mail in San Francisco, which is pretty darn hilly!
At my old house, the mailman had a truck and usually parked at the end of the block and walked to the houses on the block -- unless we were receiving a very large package. The newer letter carriers, most of whom I have never seen, are sloppy; we had to report one who threw the package of mail on the porch because she didn't want to climb the steps.
They never rang the bell when they needed a signature -- and I was always there, mind you. The automated phone to request delivery doesn't work very well. [Sigh.]
Here in the Tower, we have a mail room and keys for our own boxes. That which doesn't fit stays with Security, which either phones me or brings it directly to my apartment. Sometimes they bring it in while I'm at dinner. If it isn't too heavy. Security is super polite.
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