Pros
DO NOT DO IT IT IS NOT WORTH IT. The pay is pretty good. The health insurance is decent at best and affordable for singles(USPS). Dental is only preventative coverage, and no one seems to know anything about vision.Union is a benefit only if you can acually reach your rep. The job is not rocket science but is high pressure and tends to be very stressful for new carriers.
Cons
There is no work to home life balance. You are basically on call from 6a until 3p. So there is no guarantee you will work and you probably won't be able to keep a second job unless it is a nightshift. Management only cares about metrics, not carriers or customers. The LLV(mail truck) is extremely outdated and has a ton of blindspots, increasing the likelyhood of accidents. Training is poor at best, in relation to what you will actually be doing, although it does vary by office. (Fair warning RCA Academy is usually a nice distance away. In my case was about 100mi/day for 4 days and you will not be reimbursed mileage, although they say you will.) Dog attacks are real most people don't control their pets. Small children always dart towards the LLV and often are unsupervised. People have actually die trying to do this job. Cars don't care that you are actually at work and want to go home to your family. As a rural carrier you are paid by evaluated route time, after your training period has expired. So realistically if your route is evaluated at 8 hrs and it takes you 10hrs you are only paid 8.
