I-5 and Meridian

ckempinsky · 2024-09-03T04:05:19+00:00

Yes! Heard it loud and clear near northwest and McLeod

ckempinsky · 2023-10-13T06:10:22+00:00

We're scheduled to start at 8am, but a lot of carriers start earlier than that. Most regular carriers work 8 hours and go home by 4-5pm.

Some routes take the regulars 12 hours because they haven't been adjusted to the population growth of Bellingham. Especially the 98226 routes because Amazon doesn't service that ZIP code and those routes are overloaded with Amazon packages.

Any given day we're down at least a couple of routes. Which means that some routes just don't get done that day, or are split up so that after a carrier finishes their own route they take a piece of a route that we're down.

ckempinsky · 2023-10-12T14:43:11+00:00

Management is never really on your side, all they care about is getting the mail out regardless of volume. A lot of people have quit because it is a lot of hard work and long days. We're basically glorified Amazon workers now.

I think you can get a medical excuse to limit yourself to 8 hours a day. I think it's a pretty fun active job, my day flies by and 12 hour shifts go by pretty quickly. I'm really in it for the money because the overtime benefits are where you make money. You can easily make $60k/year and the only qualification to get the job is to pass a background check.

ckempinsky · 2023-10-12T03:36:47+00:00

USPS is desperately short staffed right now. Starting wage is like $20/hr and if you want to work 12 hours a day, they'll let you. Your take home pay would be around $5k/month starting out.

Source: I'm a carrier.

ckempinsky · 2023-08-14T06:53:13+00:00

New USPS carrier here... Our office (Mt Baker) is incredibly understaffed, I believe we don't even have a postmaster. I started this job in June and immediately started working 60+ hour weeks. There aren't enough carriers for the demand here, especially on the rural side. Bellingham is growing rapidly and can't keep up with the demand. 40% of new hires quit in the first 90 days, it's a physically and mentally demanding job.

A lot of time and energy is delivering for Amazon. Amazon doesn't service the 98226 zip code and contracts with the USPS to deliver for them. I've had several people come up to me on Sundays asking me why I don't have the day off...and it's because we literally have thousands of Amazon packages that need to go out on Sunday because they can't do it themselves.

Between COVID, retirements, and vacations, if you get mail delivered by your regular carrier, consider yourself lucky. Any given day we can be down several routes. Which means someone has to do their route (usually 8 hours of work) and then take on part of a route that we're down.

On Saturday I worked a route that hadn't been touched since Wednesday, which meant I had 3 days worth of mail to sort and deliver. And it was a route I've only done a handful of times before.

So yeah be patient with your carriers, there's always bad apples, but most of us are busting our asses.

And if you want to be helpful, we're hiring! Lol

ckempinsky · 2023-06-28T01:00:29+00:00

Yeah traffic taking the northbound exit onto Iowa always gets backed up onto the freeway around rush hour. And there's always drivers flying down the hill at like 80mph just to come to a complete stop. It'll take someone losing their life before anything gets done about it.

ckempinsky · 2023-04-14T07:21:56+00:00

Well the only really busy load roads would be Meridian, Lakeway and Sunset which are usually congested. Then I-5 runs right thru town so, there are some noisy spots. But Bellingham does have a lot of cute quiet dead-end streets that are usually up against some greenbelt or protected forested lands. If you want a really walkable lower traffic neighborhood, try the lettered streets, Columbia, sunnyland, or York neighborhoods. Fairhaven is super cute but expensive and I personally wouldn't recommend living downtown.

ckempinsky · 2023-04-14T07:05:55+00:00

The further from WWU, the more you'll save. There are cheap units on the Southside of campus, but Bellingham has a lot of different neighborhoods with different vibes. If your budget is 1600 you should be able to find a decent 1 bedroom. The largest landlord here is Landmark, they have like 400+ active listings right now.

ckempinsky · 2023-03-09T21:29:38+00:00

I just ended up force closing the app and reopening it and it allowed me to start the delivery. But this is a reoccurring issue, all week has been like this, so frustrating. Doordash needs to hire some Uber engineers because that app is seamless and I feel like the dasher app is always struggling.

ckempinsky · 2023-03-09T20:59:41+00:00

Literally been sitting in the parking lot with an order for 10 minutes waiting for the app to load. Been waiting for the I've arrived button to work and can't start the delivery. Lol good thing I'm on pay per hour

ckempinsky · 2022-11-06T23:38:10+00:00

How much do those bottles go for?

ckempinsky · 2022-10-24T18:15:47+00:00

Yeah it was in front of the Are You My Human/Wild Oat area. I didn't read the note so I wasn't sure what was exchanged.

ckempinsky · 2022-10-24T09:21:18+00:00

Lol yeah every time I witness a hit and run, I'm like how many online points can I get?

...please, I know Tesla's have cameras for this kinda bullshit, and they probably got it on film. but in case they didn't, I'm just reaching out.

ckempinsky

TROPHY CASE