Mark Doiron

If I were to tell you that you should press the CAPS LOCK key, you wouldn't thank me because it was so difficult to type while holding the SHIFT key, would you? Welcome to the forum, but it is a little easier on the eyes when you don't use all caps. :-)

JayhawkJeep

CAOKKIE

Rural is “Where the hoot owls fuck the chickens.”

Crap I clicked the wrong thread.

oic.....it's only for the rural areas. I wonder how far out is considered rural...???

08postal

OKAY! HERE ARE A FEW PICS OF THE NEW RHD! BUT HERE IS SOME INFORMATION ON RURAL CARRIERS. NUMBERS FROM OUR UNION, THERE ARE OVER 100,000 FULL TIME RURAL CARRIERS IN THE USA. ABOUT 45,000 PART TIME SUBSTITUTE CARRIERS. ABOUT 85% USE THERE OWN VEHICLES, WHICH WE ARE PAID EQUITPMENT MAINTENANCE ALLOWANCE. MINE IS ABOUT $31.00 PER DAY. MOST ARE IN RURAL AREAS, BUT MANY ARE RIGHT IN TOWN DUE TO RAPID URBAN GROWTH. WE ARE NOT PAID BY THE HOUR, BUT A DAILY EVALUATION BASED ON A 2 TO 4 WEEK MAIL COUNT DONE ONCE A YEAR. SO I GET PAID THE SAME AMOUNT, NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES TO DO MY ROUTE. HENSE, RURAL CARRIERS HAVE A TENDANCY TO WORK VERY FAST AND EFFICIENTLY. AND, MOST OF THE LLV'S BEING TAKEN OFF CITY ROUTES ARE BEING USED FOR PARTS, AS MOST OF THEM ARE 15 TO 25 YEARS OLD, AND AS THEY HAVE CHEVY S-10 RUNNING GEAR, MOST ARE REAL PILES OF CRAP!

toymaster

Ok other than the shouting and Dave thinking he lives in city . My quesiton is why did a dealer have a RHD just sitting on the lot??? I can see them special ordering one for this task but what in the world other reason would a dealer order a RHD? Is the daeler that the whole rural carrier gang shops?

derfc

So, did the NALC foot the bill or what?

Seriously, my father was a Postie... retired after 30+ years of delivering mail on the complete opposite coast from you (Florida) & then went on to write the local Union newsletter for the next 20 years after that! Your JKU looks downright luxurious compared to some of the DJs that he had to truck around in!

Congrats!

USAF_GroundRat

I saw a couple of RHD's on the lot when I bought mine back in Dec '06... of course I am in R-Kansas...

thrshr01

Used for parts? That's not HQ approved! LOL, which VMF is that? I received over 100 vehicles from the North East to designate to RRs here in the South Pacific. They were painted outside (looks great) but if you look at the under carriage the wrong way, rust just fell off But we got em up to par with our fleet now and they need to run another 10-15 years as the projected date of replacing these vehicles isn't till 2023
The LLV's lifespan is supposed to be 20 years. So let's do some math here: The first batch went out on the streets in 1987 and it's now 2010 = 23 years! I'd say we've done a pretty good job keeping them on the road, safely delivering mail!

I must agree that the RR carriers are more efficient in what they do. All carriers should be paid the same way. That'll weed out all the slackers.

08postal

Hey guys! Sorry about the caps lock, don't mean to shout, just too lazy to shut it off.
No, the NALC has nothing to do with it, as the Rurals belong to the NRLCA. But, our union contract has an agreement to pay any rural carrier a $1000.00 incentive if you buy a NEW rhd vehicle. Once the pay this incentive, they agree to not assign any llv to your route for three years. If they won't pay you they have 60 days to get you an llv. There are no plans for llv's in my office. Plus they seem to only put them on low mileage (25 miles or less) routes in the Seattle District.
Thanks for the interest and responses!
If you want to see alot of rhd's on the lot, Go to POSTALPETE.COM

08postal

I have gone through 3 DJ5's over the past 15 years until I bought a new 2008 rhd Wrangler. Even suffered with those crappy 1979 DJ5G's (2 of them) with that lousy Audi 2 ltr 4 cylinder engines.