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plode

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Posts posted by plode

  1. Posted

    I understand what you are saying about the averages.  But does that not work in your favor as well 50% of the time.  Like today, there was almost no mail that came and it came very early - so I would imagine the carrier did not work anywhere near as hard as normal.  There is always the option to quit if you don't like your job or its pay.

     

    Just because you got little to no mail doesn't mean it was a light day for the entire route.  Today was pretty average mail volume IMO. 

    Some days it could work to our advantage, I don't deny that...but more often than not it doesn't.  Today I worked from 7:30AM till 3:15pm, on a route evaluated at 7.45 hours.  The post office uses hundreths to measure time, so this is just a tad less then 7 and a half hours.  So I was roughly about 15 minutes over the evaluated time today- 15 minutes I didn't get paid for.  Not complaining, just saying...all of that time adds up over the course of a year. 

     

    I like the job, I just wish we got paid by the hour like the city carriers do.  I essentially didn't get paid for over 40+ hours around Christmas time.  But it's another way the post office "cuts" its costs. 

     

    I'm not a slow carrier either.  I often finish the routes in less time then the regular carriers do.  Plus, I try to get done as quickly as possible...I don't think anyone would like sitting in a mail truck for 6 hours with no air conditioning when it's 92 degrees out :lol:

  2. Posted

    Waaaaah! I have to work hard.

    It's not a matter of working hard...I don't mind hard work...it's how we're paid.  If I don't get the route completed in the "evaluated time" I don't get paid for a minute more than that time.  It sucks big time when its christmas time, and you work for 14 hours and only get paid for 7.5.  

    City carriers- the guys you see walking in uniforms get paid by the hour...if it takes them 14 hours, they get paid for 14.  Not so much for us rural carriers. 

     

    Are you freakin kidding?  If you don't like it quit and get another job.  Those package are saving your sorry ass and the postal service.  The USPS is a dinosaur and should be shut down.  All it delivers is junk mail and bills - the latter could be done electronically.  The deal with the last mile for FedEx and UPS was to increase volume and defray costs.  If it was not a good deal it would not happen.

     

    BTW this story is just another example of everything that is wrong with government.  What business raises their prices in a hope to increase volume?  Everything I studied in college and grad school taught you have an inverse price volume curve.  If you want more of something, your charge less for it - NOT more!!!!

     

    If all we deliver is junk mail and bills...and packages are the only thing "saving my sorry ass"...then why are there days where there is so much mail that I cannot fit it all into the mail sorting case- the same case that has been used for 20+ years?  Junk mail or not, someone is paying the postage.  

    I don't disagree that their plan of raising prices to increase volume is idiotic. 

     

    Usps is terrible. I have occasionally received packages 3-7 days after delivery confirmation said delivered.

    This is a problem with employees....the only way for it to get marked as delivered is someone scanning it, and selecting delivered...and hitting OK...

     

    Liar. That would imply delivery confirmation actually updates in something resembling a timely fashion.

     

    I get my usps stuff. I've had less problems from them over the years than ups or fed ex. With all of them it all really comes down to where you live and who covers your route.

    Bingo...

     

    USPS sucks so bad it is not funny.  I swear there are days where my carrier works from home ;)   Not that long ago I was waiting for a package and got an email it had been delivered.  Went to the mailbox, searched by the front door and garage and found nothing.  Three hours later I was out cutting the grass and it shows up.  I ask WFT?  She tells me that she logs it all as delivered when she leaves the post office not when it actually gets delivered.  I would fire her ass if she worked for me.

    Again, this is a problem with employees scanning stuff, and selecting "Delivered" on the scanner before they leave the office.  It's them being lazy.  The only scans we are supposed to do before we leave the office is an "advo scan", which we do for the Red Plum advertisements, any packages that come in for people who have their mail being temporarily held, and one that marks the packages for our route as "out for delivery" in which we have to also enter the mileage on the postal truck into the scanner.  That's what is called a depart to route scan. 

     

    If people did their jobs as they are supposed to...people wouldn't have half the complaints they do with USPS. 

  3. Posted

    Any recommendations on a mobile antenna for that rig that will allow both UHF/VHF and HF? I'm still a bit confused about antennas.

    Do you plan to wire it through the car or just use a magnetic mount when necessary?

     

    You'll need separate antennas for VHF and HF.   You can get a combo VHF/UHF antenna.

     

    I use a mag mount VHF/UHF antenna on my car.  I should have just drilled the car for a NMO mount antenna when I first decided to outfit it with a radio...but since the mag mount has already scratched the car all up, I'm just going to leave it.  

     

    I'm going to use one of the little tarheel antennas for HF on my truck.  It's a fairly "big"(not tall, it's thick), so it would be too unsightly for me to put it on my car. 

  4. Posted

    They should really jack the rates up on Fedex and UPS...they dump so many packages off to USPS for final delivery.  Look at a lot of your Amazon packages for example, you'll see both USPS and UPS barcode's on them. 

     

    I work for USPS as a subsitute rural carrier, and I'm tired of having to deliver so many packages.  If all I had to deliver was mail, and not get out of the truck 100 times a day, life would be good.  I could even deal with ~10.  But it's usually upwards of about 50 that do not fit into mailboxes every day.  Plus about another 50 that fit into mailboxes.  With as many rules as we have, it's a PITA to deliver a package that doesn't fit in the box.  First we have to place markers into the mail for every package so we even remember its there(most routes I substitute on have between 500-650 houses that we deliver to).  Then when we get to the address, we have to pull up, curb the wheels, put the truck in park, shut it off, set the parking brake, take our seat belt off, get the correct package out of the back, scan it, then you realize the barcode is messed up and you have to punch the 20 digits in manually.   We're supposed to lock the truck up as well. Then walk the package to the front door, ring the door bell and run back to the truck, repeating what we did above, but backwards.  And we often get "watched" by any number of administrative people.  Supervisors, postmasters, postal inspectors, safety people, the instructors from the driving school...I've only been doing it since October and I've already caught supervisors and the postmaster lurking around on my route trying to watch me.  I asked other carriers...they do it to them all.  When I see them trying to watch, I'll park the truck and eat my lunch :lol:.

     

    It might not seem like it takes that long, but around Christmas time, one day I had 326 packages to deliver, in addition to the mail. Figure each package that doesn't fit in the mailbox takes me on average about a minute to deliver. That was a 14 hour day..  And a note about that too, rural carriers don't get paid by the hour, we get paid by the route evaluation.  USPS says the route should take 7 hours...and it takes you 8, you get paid for 7.  If it takes you 6, you get paid 7(it rarely works this way).  I had numerous 12 hour days on a 7.5 hour route around Christmas time. 

  5. Posted

    But that dam Paul left us.... I'm closer to AC and use R&R in Somers Point or Tony in Lacey...they are no Paul but since he left for free ground I had no choice. Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

     

    R&R will not do anything that has to do anything with a "black scary rifle".  I tried giving him my business but he was unwilling to have a PSA blem lower shipped to him/transfer it to me.  Since it's a gunsmith, I asked if he would pin/weld the muzzle brake, he was also unwilling to do this. 

  6. Posted

    (I work for USPS)...Unless its a small post office and the clerks know the name of the company, and what P.O. Box they are, it'll likely come back to you marked as insufficient address.  Before we went through this delivery unit optmization the post office I was working out of had probably close to 1000 P.O. Boxes.  I also highly doubt they will tell you what their street address is. 

     

    They may have a way to search their computer to see what P.O. Box they are at...I know they have a way to determine when payment is due to renew the P.O. box rental. 

  7. Posted

    It's always been mustard for me.  Lately its been honey mustard(in the past I mostly used yellow mustard).  I've been putting it on everything, actually. 

     

    I like sauerkraut when I'm getting hot dogs from a vendor at the beach(or when in Florida, they have them outside of the Home Depot stores).

     

    I like chili on them occasionally too.  The chili dogs from Skyline chili(not in NJ) are really good too.

  9. Posted

    That was my point, there is a separate line to each caliper or drum and don't they come from a pair of master cylinders so if one fails you still have half the braking system?

    I thought you meant that there were two lines to each caliper :lol:

     

    Its still Stain LESS,  it will corrode. just takes longer.  Many years ago I had the same thing happen coming to a light, hit the brakes and the pedal hit the floor.  Good thing EBrake still worked.  Corroded brake line blew out.

     

    A lot longer, depending on the grade of stainless.  They would likely outlast the service life of the vehicle, which IMO is important when it comes to safety. 

     

    My car will lock up the rear wheels if I yank the parking brake.  I know, because I've done it.  Subaru WRX (which is all wheel drive). 

     

    I had a line blow out on my old F150(the line that fed the rear axle block) right after I got off the parkway where I was doing 70mph.  I remember it well because it was the night of my high school graduation, and it blew right as I was backing into a parking spot. 

  10. Posted

    I did not think that was possible on modern cars.  I always thought there were two sets of lines and cylinders so you would only lose 1/2 the brakes in such an event.  Glad you are ok.

     

    Wrong.  Still only a single line to each caliper/drum. 

     

    What amazes me is that car manufacturers aren't making something that is very important safety wise, out of a better material that will be resistant to corrosion...like stainless steel...

  11. Posted

    Most people do not even know anyone who had to use a gun to defend their lives. Despite the fear mongering of the gun industry to increase their profits, life is not as dangerous as they would like us to believe. 

     

    Go on the Defensive Carry forum...they have a huge thread of people who have had to use their CC guns.  There's actually a poll on there:

    • Never had to draw or fire

      787  72.33%

    • Draw only

      225  20.68%

    • Draw and fire

      76  6.99%

  15. Posted

    I've head a lot of towns say they will not enforce stupid laws which is good. But the state can always call in a state police task force or homeland security or some stupid shit to get their point across. Time will tell.

     

     

    Sent from my iPad 2 using T2 Pro

     

    And what do they bring when they come around with their task force?  AR's with 30 round magazines, and Sig P229's with 15 round magazines.   If that isn't hypocritical I don't know what is.  

  16. Posted

    I guess they did it the other way :) -

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf-DGKUNffI

     

    Bingo.  I used to work for the TSA, I did this many of times for many reasons.  Mainly, because people zip tied their bags shut, or used a non-TSA lock, and it was quicker and less hassle to just use the pen trick then to track down the person for the keys or combination for their lock. 

     

    And yes, the TSA is only a US agency.  What is OK here in the US doesn't apply once you leave our borders. 

     

     

    I've had several inspections by TSA...usually when I have safety shoes or tool (or both) in my checked luggage.  The best was when I did some compliance and audit work at an Army Shoot House then wore the same shoes through the TSA inspection line a couple hours later.  Some kind of residue on my shoes (gunpowder maybe???) set their sensors off and you should have seen the swarm of fat guys and homely women swooping down on me. 

     

    Yes, gunpowder residue will do it.  I've had cops come through that use their range bags as their carry on bag...bad idea.  Don't know why they swooped down on you, it's a pretty common occurance- especially with golf shoes- think about what they put on the grass to make it nice and green :lol:

    Even right on their website: Golf Gear –Before flying, clean off clubs and golf shoes to prevent triggering baggage screening equipment. Also, remember to pack clubs in a travel bag.

  18. Posted

    When NJSP takes 3-4 months to issue P2P's...and a neighboring township takes 2 weeks... I'm not going to lie, I have thought about "moving" to my friends house in the neighboring township, just so I don't have to wait for 4 months for P2P's. 

     

    I have not "moved" though.  An address verification such as an officer knocking on the door would catch me...although I'm not sure what difference that would make really...I'm still going through the same background check no matter my location in NJ. 

  24. Posted

    I was going to, but unfortunately my grandmother passed last week and her funeral was today.  Didn't get back home until 8:00.  Never would have made it up there in time. 

    And to top that...We can't Fox Sports 2.  Comcast said it's not available for our area.  Fox bumped supercross on Fox Sports 1 for a UFC preliminary fight.  So pissed I cannot even watch it!

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