Postal Service: Shovel Your Sidewalks To Make Sure You Get Your Mail
CHICAGO (CBS) -- If you haven't received any mail since the blizzard, you might need to shovel your sidewalk.
This weekend really tested the Postal Service creed, but Chicago district spokesman Mark Reynolds said letter carriers can handle the snow (and rain, rain and heat and gloom of night).
"It's Chicago. We know that the side streets are the last ones to get attention, so it depends on whether or not we're able to get our mail vehicles down the street," he said. "They're pros. They know how to handle the weather. They just need a little bit of help from our customers."
Podcast
That help should be in the form of clearing snow from sidewalks and walkways leading to your mailbox.
"We really want to make sure that their stairs are clear, that their handrails are secure, because they're going to lean on the handrails, and if the handrails are loose, they can't really lean on them. It's not going to give the support people need getting up and down those stairs," he said. "Either way, a slip or a fall could be very, very devastating to a letter carrier, and could potentially result in you not getting your mail for a couple of days, until it gets cleared up."
Reynolds said, if carriers don't feel they can safely deliver mail to an address due to snow or ice, they are allowed to skip that location until conditions improve.
"If they don't feel that they can make a delivery, because it's too treacherous, then they have the right to not go there that day, and wait until it gets cleared up," he said.
