Six Lodi letter carriers each drive a million miles
Six Lodi letter carriers recently joined the “Million Mile” club after at least three decades of providing quality postal service to the Lodi Community.
Yashpal Athwal, Linda Salazar, Joyce Nelson, Richard Snyder, Teresa Elich and Gary Hamby have each driven more than 1 million accident-free miles during the course of their careers.
Athwal has been working at the Lodi Post Office for 30 years and currently resides in Stockton.
Both Salazar and Nelson have been working at the Lodi post office for 33 years and are residents of Lodi.
Snyder, a resident of Lodi, Elich, a resident of Galt and Hamby, a resident of Stockton have been working for the post office for 32 years, and all six of them have been letter carriers through out their entire postal careers.
Together, the six have nearly 200 years of accident-free driving.
They were recognized and awarded for their accomplishments during a ceremony held Thursday at 7:30 a.m. in the Lodi Post Office.
According Meiko Patton, communications programs Specialist for the Sacramento & Sierra Coastal District of the United States Postal Service, said they were able to reach this milestone by driving defensively and expecting the unexpected.
They also maintained a safe distance of one car length for every 10 miles per hour between them and the car in front of them and practiced courtesy, used turn signals and obeyed all laws, Patton said.
The six letter carriers kept their options open and prepared a what-to-do strategy for when they are cut off and turned off all mobile devices to avoid distractions.
“Safe driving is no accident,” said Lodi Postmaster Sukhdev Dhami. “It is an honor to recognize and reward these employees for the safe way in which they care not only for the sanctity of the mail, but in the way they drive.”
Postal Service drivers are among the safest in the world, and the achievement of driving, in this case over six million miles, for a combined total of 192 years, all accident-free is truly remarkable, Patton said.
The Million Mile Award is a lifetime enrollment, and is given to drivers who have accumulated one million miles of driving without being involved in a preventable motor vehicle accident.
According to the National Safety Council, it takes approximately 30 years to accumulate one million miles.
The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.