The Mail Carrier

    “Uh-oh! Here comes the mail carrier. Let me hurry up and go inside. Oh shucks! I dropped my keys.

Oh yes, there are many customers who do this or something like it, when they see a mail carrier coming to deliver them their mail.  I used to always wonder, “Why do customers hurry to go inside?”  Customers can be sitting on the porch reading a book, and it’s very nice outside. You hear the mailbox slam shut five or six homes away, and you look up and he’s on his way. “I’ll just go inside for a minute.”

I’m telling you, it cracks me up! The mail carrier is only there to deliver your mail and/or packages. It’s our job.  We’re not there for anything else. I think there’s this notion that “maybe he’ll know where I live if I speak to him” or “I might see him at the grocery store or bank, and he might remember me.” A lot of customers hurry to go inside and lock their door, only to wait a couple of minutes until the mail carrier has left; then they retrieve the mail.

“Why is it that when we come, customers all run?"  Okay, not everyone, but most customers do it. I really think it’s embedded in a customer's mind that they should go inside, so the mail carrier can do his job. I can only speak on what I see, and what customers (mainly students) have told me.  Students say it’s a habit they saw their parents do when growing up at home. Their parents never told them not to talk to the mail carrier, but it’s just an old habit or old saying that most mail carriers don’t speak, and most are mean.

I’m here to tell you: That isn’t true. Most mail carriers want to deliver the mail, go home, and enjoy their life.

You see, while most of America is working or sleeping, your home or apartment can go through some pretty interesting transitions in a five-or six-hour period of the day.  Customers must realize that, their everyday mail carrier can be their eyes and ears while they're away.

Homeowners can schedule a roof to be replaced, new windows or porches installed, a new fence, whatever! These things are going on every day.  Customers need to know that sometimes, things are not done the way they think they are, all the time.

On the flip side, the very same mail carrier you run from sometimes has been fingerprinted and background-checked. Mail carriers can’t have any felonies on their record if they want to hold and keep a job at the Postal Service. I really wonder how many customers even know this. Postal employees wear uniforms (and MUST HAVE a badge with a picture), drive a marked vehicle, and can’t have two or more moving violations on their DMV record, but customers continue to run from the mail carrier, who brings themimportant, sealed information daily.