The day starts early,
ends late, for postman
Angelo Buffone, a Eugene
mailman, has been with the
postal service for 10 years He
carries his load on his shoulders
and begins the day at 7 a m.
Buffone works the Universi
ty’s south side, carrying roughly
2500 pieces of mail and
between 25-30 parcels a day.
Once he finishes casing and
loading his mail, he clocks out
and doesn’t see the post office
until after making as many as
777 deliveries. He describes his
route as a “combination res
idential and business area,’’
which means he covers in
dividual homes and 36 apart
ment complexes Most of the
mail goes to University students
Buffone says he enjoys the
job, partly because "it is really
interesting to get out and meet
people," and partly because a
job with the postal service
means steady employment that
pays well — for those who can
get one
If recent turnouts for clerk
and carrier exams at Portland s
Main Post Office are any in
dication, people who want a job
like Buffone’s will need time and
patience
More than 18,000 people are
listed as potential qualifiers for
approximately 400 openings on
the Portland Post Office
register, which is in the process
of being updated due to re
tirements, deaths and in com
pliance with a three year review
policy, j
"The register holds as many
names as possible,” explains
Ron Palaoro, a city letter carrier
for Portland’s Main Branch. He
says the postal system requires
updating to replace vacancies
and to provide management
with names of people who have
successfully passed an entry
level exam.
The exam tests memorization
ability — like matching pairs of
addresses and matching
numbers and streets The tests
last 90 minutes and require a
minimum score of 70 to gain
entry onto the register. Disabled
veterans have priority followed
by high-point veterans and then
the public, says Palaoro
In Eugene, postal service
personnel assistant Marlene
Kuenher says taking the exam is
one step toward landing steady
employment
“Once you get in through the
entry level test," Kuehner says,
“there are a lot of career op
portunities." Starting pay tor
clerk carriers is $9.72.
She cites examples of people
eventually becoming postmas
ters of Oakridge and Bellingh
am, Washington after working
through the rank-and-file sys
tem Management level per
sonnel all have risen through
the stages of inter-postal system
promotion and are rarely
recruited from private industry,
according to Palaoro.
But if a carrier transfers to
another area, he takes the risk
of starting over, says Phil Cain, a
Eugene carrier substitute who
recently left Fort Worth, Texas,
where he held a full-time carrier
job for nine years
Cain says he is now number
22 on the Eugene substitute list
and will probably sub for two
years before landing a regular
full-time route Substitutes are
guaranteed 20 hours of work
per week; full-time carriers are
guaranteed 40 hours per week
Buffone says the postal sys
tem should give out more in
centive awards to workers
because, “the people here put
in a good hour’s work for a good
day's pay "
Buffone, one of 140 carriers in
Eugene, received an initiative
award over the Christmas
holidays as a result of good re
sponse from customers along
his route
The public has a misconcep
tion of postal letter carriers and
their jobs, he says The bad
image the postal service has
received recently is the result of
misleading information, such as
a recent television program that
showed carriers casing their
mail at the rate of one letter
every 10-15 seconds
Buffone calls that a ‘ negative
portrayal" because it "creates
images of postal workers taking
life easy.”
Palaoro says many people
have asked him if employees
receive "benefit packages, free
postage and take advantage of
postal hikes to offset their salary
increases.”
Another misconception in
volves the postman's sup
possed aversion to dogs and
sometimes the job does entail a
run-in with hostile canines
"I’ve been bitten five times,"
says Buffone. adding that dogs
don’t bother him. “Now I carry a
bag of bones with me and they
are waiting You learn to face up
to a mean dog and they’ll
usually back down."
Phil Cain, a substitute mall carrier in Eugene, is shown here
making his afternoon rounds. Potential postal workers must pass a
90 minute exam testing memorization and other skills before they
are considered for the $9.72 an hour starting pay as a mail clerk
carrier.
a
11 i
Postal workers make hundreds of deliveries a day — often starting
at 7 in the morning.
Story by Tim Leonard
Photos by Bob Baker