Postal Training

I got to attend my first day of postal training at the Southwest Maryland Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC). I found it interesting. I found out that the U.S. Postal Service delivers 60% of the total mail mailed in the world. It deliver 65 million packages and letters a day! Because of this, it is one of the largest employers in the United States (no surprise there when you think how labor intensive the business is even with automation). The service continues to automate as much as possible to cut costs but it is still very labor intensive. You'll still need people to deliver the mail, attach zip codes when the sender forgets them, figure out a person's address when the writing isn't terribly legible (like that written by a doctor), sort large or unusual shaped packages like tubes, or re-package something when the package breaks during automated handling.

The first part of the training was where we found out where we fit in the picture. After that, we learned how the Postal Service is structured i.e. Headquarters, district office, branch office, and finally associate office (your local Post Office). Then, we learned about permanent and non-permanent positions. In the class, we had both types of employees. We also learned about some the services the service offers its employees as well as promotional opportunities. I was surprised to find out a starting line supervisor at the Post Office could make $70,000! Hm, I might want to think about becoming a supervisor there in time if I decide to stay there. We also got to do a tour of the two facilites they have at the center. The center is one of only two centers in the U.S. which does regular mail operations and bulk mail (i.e. what is commonly known as junk mail) operations. Both operations are huge. The bulk mail operation center alone occupied the space of FIVE football fields. I remembering looking down at a corridor there and thinking that it reminded of the cavernous warehouse in the first Indian Jones movie where they store the ark of the covenant at the end of the movie. It was HUGE.

Overall, I found the training interesting and look forward to more. Tomorrow, I'll get to learn about safety. The day after that, I'll finish my training at the center and prepare to go to their vehicles center where I'll get to learn how to drive a postal delivery truck. I found out I'll have to take a test on driving one of those. Hopefully, they're not that hard to drive. Lastly, I'll spend three days learning the rural carrier job. Rural Carrier Associates are something of mini-Post Offices. We're expected to sort and deliver mail, sell stamps, and pick-up packages.

I still don't know if this is what God wants me to do with my life but for now, it looks like the direction he's pointing in. We'll see. If nothing else, it will be interesting working for the Post Office as a substitute mailman.