There was an article written in the Roanoke Times this week about rural carriers delivering from the right side while reaching across to the left to use the steering wheel and brake/gas controls. The reporter contacted me a couple of months ago asking if he could post on my message boards to solicit opinions from rural carriers. I told him he could post his questions, and he did, and he got a lot of opinions, but no one wanted their name to be used in the article. In the article he finally ended up flagging a rural carrier down on the side of the road because he encountered a lot of resistance from Postmasters and rural carriers. See the article here
There were a couple of statements from some very uninformed leaders of Postmaster Associations, and some very vague language from a USPS spokesperson. It finally came down to the USPS being ok with it IF rural carriers deemed it safe! We all know it is an accepted practice, it has been done for years, so why wont the USPS own it? Why wont they release accident reports concerning RHD vs LHD? Why are we discouraged from talking about, and why do we feel we will suffer repercussions if we do?
It is sad to think that our employer will not come out and say, yes, thousands of rural carrier deliver mail like that and they do a good job! Instead the practice is left in the murky world of double speak, half truths, and some outright denial that it even happens. They have thrown ALL of the responsibility on rural carriers saying it is only allowed IF rural carriers deem it to be safe.. In my experience when someone avoids talking about an issue, that means they think there is something wrong with it, or that others will think there is something wrong with it! So back to my original question? Does the USPS condone it or not?
