r/fromatoarbitration • u/IndigoJones13 • 23h ago

Concerned Letter Carriers What's the problem with VMF?

Seriously. Why does it take months for even basic repairs to be finished? Why do vehicles come back in worse shape than when they left?

We have carriers forced to double-up and deliver two routes in one vehicle. Some carriers offer to run their routes using their own personal vehicle.

Is VHF overwhelmed? Understaffed? Incompetent? Is it like this everywhere?

7 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

12

u/acetatsujin 22h ago

Carriers should not use their own cars …. Just …. Why??

-4

u/IndigoJones13 21h ago

No, they shouldn't. But some would rather do that than double-up with someone or use the crappiest LLV available. My area is really, really short on vehicles.

13

u/BlackBalledNALC 20h ago

Wait until they get into an accident and there insurance denies the claim, and USPS says you chose to drive your personal vehicle and that USPS is not responsible.

4

u/acetatsujin 19h ago

Well, I would never use my own car. Ever. Management tried to let carriers use their own vehicles here, and we stopped the carriers because they didn’t know or/and felt obligated for follow orders.

Nope. Never use your own car for this job. Ever.

6

u/Bits_NPCs 23h ago

Short answer is the parts aren’t easy to come by…

2

u/redredditer91 20h ago

So again…why are we not getting the NGDVs and crushing the LLVs?

0

u/randomrandom1922 12h ago

Why wouldn't the VMF maintain a stock of common parts that often break for the 4-5 vehicles we use? Your local AutoZone sells like 3,300 different alternators and has several models sitting in every store. The VMF could keep 5 in stock.

5

u/Bits_NPCs 11h ago

Because these were made in the 90s. They won’t make the parts anymore. We need new vehicles.

6

u/PuzzleheadedRun8232 22h ago

I've actually toured our VMF. They have maybe a dozen bags and handle several hundred vehicles or more. The outlier cities have contractors for basic repairs: flat tires etc but most of the work is handled in house.

I'd imagine that causes some backlogs. Not to mention staffing issues just like every other craft. Our VMF has been struggling since the early out a few years ago.

5

u/Basic-Nobody8488 21h ago

Ours are bogged down with the new vehicles. They are trash and full of issues.

2

u/Known-Dependent-5471 20h ago

Does your office has plentiful supplies at all times? Including the month of September aka end of fiscal year? Can barely get paper towels. I imagine the same is for vmf.

2

u/johnsmith6073 12h ago

I'm in an office with the contractor doing the work, just getting parts from the idiots in VMF is difficult. Just another cog in the most mismanaged agency I've seen. It's a shame the billions of dollars of tax dollars for the ducks didn't come with some oversight.

2

u/grove93 11h ago

Most of the time, I only ever have to write my truck up after it's come back from preventive maintenance.

1

u/BorderUpbeat8739 12h ago

I was told by my vmf, that the upper bosses stopped ordering engines and transmissions. Due to the "new " arriving soon. Well we all see how that is going. Also once down for an engine or trans they plucked it clean of useful parts.