The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

To The Eagle:

I am a retired postal worker. I have a lot of experience and knowledge concerning the white mail truck you have seen delivering mail in our area lately.

I performed maintenance on these trucks and drove them for many miles. I was also a certified driving examiner/instructor for the postal service on these and other vehicles.

These trucks were designed to last a very long time, hence their name, long life vehicle. They are constructed of light weight aluminum and were designed with only city delivery in mind.

City delivery consists primarily of flat, paved roads that are wider than rural roads. There are few if any hills as a rule and not many log trucks and RVs racing by to share the road with.

We live in a rural area with steep hills, sharp curves, narrow roads with deep culverts on each side, highway SR 4 with 55 mph speed limit with big rigs speeding by all day.

The postal service has made a decision to not allow rural mail carriers to use their own vehicles as in the past. This is in an effort to save a little money.

Saving money is a good idea for any business, but not at the expense of safety to the operator and the public on the road.

This vehicle is too light, too under powered, too wide and has way too many blind spots to be safe for rural delivery.

I ask the town council and county commissioners to contact the postal service and seek cooperation to remedy this unsafe condition before the inevitable accident happens.

I should mention how poorly these vehicles handle in wind and snow as well. This vehicle does not belong in a rural area and will prove itself unsafe for our county terrain.

Paul Schreiber, Cathlamet