Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor little yappy ankle-biting dogs will stop mail carriers
Dan Brawner
April 17, 2007
I’ve always thought there was something mysterious about how the US Postal Service works. It’s not so hard to understand how an email can get from New York City to Los Angeles in two seconds. But how in the world can a Mother’s Day card travel from the south side of Chicago to Tortilla Flats, Arizona in just three days?
I’ve long wished I could peek through one of those little mailbox doors and see what’s really going on inside the post office. Recently, I had the occasion to do some work at the post office in Mount Vernon, Iowa, population 3,900. During that week, they processed over 42,000 letters, not including packages and “flats”–magazines and large pieces of advertising mail. You’d think during federal income tax deadline week, the little office would be frantic with activity. Yet it seemed eerily quiet and orderly.
Arvin Parrott has been Mount Vernon’s postmaster since 1997 and has spent 38 or his 57 years working for the postal service. He assures me there is a daily flurry of activity in the early morning hours before they open for business. The back of the office is filled with an odd assortment of state-of-the-art computerized equipment, what looks like heavy duty shopping carts and World War II-vintage furniture. Parrott is responsible for keeping the office and the computers humming, stopping occasionally to answer the phone and talk a neighboring office through some technical crisis.
With 700,000 employees, the US Postal Service is the third largest employer in the country, behind the Defense Department and Wal-Mart. It has a fleet of 260,000 vehicles. Every time, gas prices go up one cent, the postal service spends an extra $8 million. Every year, they deliver 212 billion pieces of mail to 144 million addresses, regardless of how remote they may be. According to the postal service Web site, 14 percent of the US population moves every year, requiring 45 million address changes.
You know what the main customer complaint is?” Parrott asks, grinning. “They want their mail delivered the same time every day.” He quickly concedes that this is not a completely irrational request. Pet owners want to know when to lock up their dogs, the bane of every mail carrier.
Hey, John!” Parrott shouts, “When you were carrying, how many times you get bit?” John Goodlove, longtime postal employee and former Mount Vernon high school record holder in the discus, shrugs. “About a half dozen times, I guess. Most dachshunds. Little yappy dogs.”
Every dog bites,” Parrott tells me with a mock warning. “That’s how they eat.”
America’s first postage stamp was issued in 1847. It cost five cents and had a range of only 300 miles. On May 14, the cost of a first class stamp will go up two cents to 41 cents. Even though the postal service is a branch of the federal government, it receives no tax dollars. So how do they do it? It’s a mystery.
I’ve long wished I could peek through one of those little mailbox doors and see what’s really going on inside the post office. Recently, I had the occasion to do some work at the post office in Mount Vernon, Iowa, population 3,900. During that week, they processed over 42,000 letters, not including packages and “flats”–magazines and large pieces of advertising mail. You’d think during federal income tax deadline week, the little office would be frantic with activity. Yet it seemed eerily quiet and orderly.
Arvin Parrott has been Mount Vernon’s postmaster since 1997 and has spent 38 or his 57 years working for the postal service. He assures me there is a daily flurry of activity in the early morning hours before they open for business. The back of the office is filled with an odd assortment of state-of-the-art computerized equipment, what looks like heavy duty shopping carts and World War II-vintage furniture. Parrott is responsible for keeping the office and the computers humming, stopping occasionally to answer the phone and talk a neighboring office through some technical crisis.
With 700,000 employees, the US Postal Service is the third largest employer in the country, behind the Defense Department and Wal-Mart. It has a fleet of 260,000 vehicles. Every time, gas prices go up one cent, the postal service spends an extra $8 million. Every year, they deliver 212 billion pieces of mail to 144 million addresses, regardless of how remote they may be. According to the postal service Web site, 14 percent of the US population moves every year, requiring 45 million address changes.
You know what the main customer complaint is?” Parrott asks, grinning. “They want their mail delivered the same time every day.” He quickly concedes that this is not a completely irrational request. Pet owners want to know when to lock up their dogs, the bane of every mail carrier.
Hey, John!” Parrott shouts, “When you were carrying, how many times you get bit?” John Goodlove, longtime postal employee and former Mount Vernon high school record holder in the discus, shrugs. “About a half dozen times, I guess. Most dachshunds. Little yappy dogs.”
Every dog bites,” Parrott tells me with a mock warning. “That’s how they eat.”
America’s first postage stamp was issued in 1847. It cost five cents and had a range of only 300 miles. On May 14, the cost of a first class stamp will go up two cents to 41 cents. Even though the postal service is a branch of the federal government, it receives no tax dollars. So how do they do it? It’s a mystery.