Going postal

I’m sure of all the jobs in the world working for various postal services is one of the most demanding and hardest. The unofficial slogan of the USPS is either “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” or “Don’t piss me off and I won’t starting shooting random people with my high powered rifle”. Regardless postmen (and women) are some of the first people awake in the morning.

Rather like the sausage analogy, and who doesn’t love a tasty sausages? But if someone tells you what parts of the animal actually goes into a sausage (unless you are American) you will probably never eat one again. The post office is like a big yellow sausage (La poste logo is mainly yellow). It was one of those services that worked so well than you paid no attention to it. But if you knew the hard work that goes in you would probably be happy to pay more the stamp.

In the words of Jon Stewart "It is no surprise that the post office is struggling. It is an insane business model. Someone comes to your house, takes something you've written, and brings it to a person that you want them to give it to anywhere in the country for like 50 cents." Seriously think about that for a minute.

I’m presuming that in an attempt to save money La Poste has decided to take someone that work and try to get rid of some of the middlemen and in the process completely fucking it up.

Courchevel used to have a good system. A large lorry would deliver all the post to Courchevel 1850’s post office in the morning were it was sorted and delivered by various vans. Post would regularly arrive in my mailbox between 10.30 and 2.30 and because the postwoman was local, she knew who I was and on several occasions had delivered parcels to me while I’ve been walking around the resort.

Now all the mail is delivered to Moutiers where it is sorted and sent out by complete unknowns in vans to all the surrounding villages including Courchevel. I don’t think I can remember a day this winter when the post has arrived before 3pm.
This is quite strange as, from what I understand, postmen are only paid until 2.30pm. So in order to finish their round they have to do it on their own time. Would you do that in your own jobs? No.
Now I’ve just found out that quite a bit of my post since Christmas has not been delivered at all and is sitting down in Moutiers. As no avis des passages (while you were out) have been left so I have no idea (without looking at my order history) how much stuff is waiting down there.
So now I have to take a 1 hour round trip in order to fill in the gaps of the French postal bureaucracy. I guess I should leave my high powered rifle at home…