He’s got a gripe with his letter carrier

I’ll bargain most people believe the Post Office is obligated to deliver mail to your mailbox. Not true. Apparently in Arlington Heights it is up to the letter carrier to decide if he/she wants to. And if they choose not to, there is nothing the Postmaster can do about it, or so they tell me.

I live on the north side of Hintz Road, where the right lane heading west is blocked for road construction. The mail truck can’t get directly in front of my mailbox. It can, however, pull into the right lane in front of my 24-foot wide, unobstructed driveway entrance, out of the flow of traffic. And the carrier can exit the vehicle on the curb side and walk literally 5 paces to my mailbox.

But alas, that is too much. She has told her supervisors it too dangerous for her to leave the truck. So she doesn’t have to deliver my mail. The relief carrier will gladly deliver my mail, but she only gets to my house every eight days. So the Postmaster wants me to spend a half-hour each day to drive to the Post Office. The fact that both me and my wife work doesn’t matter.

The Groot waste collectors have no problem collecting my garbage twice a week, and both UPS and Fed-Ex drivers deliver to me. I suppose if they told their bosses they wouldn’t do their jobs, they run the risk of getting fired. But not our postal civil servants. Apparently, you can’t force them to do their jobs, only request they do them.

I suppose the famous words, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” should also include, “but only if they feel like it.”

Ken Glassman

Arlington Heights