FAIR OAKS, CA — Imagine the equivalent of driving coast-to-coast 334 times without ever leaving the city limits, and more amazingly doing it safely under hazardous road conditions, gridlock, rural terrain, and inattentive drivers.
For seven Fair Oaks letter carriers, logging over a million miles safely was just part of their appointed rounds. As a result of their achievement, they will be honored by the U.S. Postal Service at a Million Mile Club awards ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, 9:00 a.m., at the Fair Oaks Post Office, 7862 Winding Way Fair Oaks, CA 95628.
Million Mile Club Drivers to be Honored:
Flanigan, Bruce
Martin, Michael
Craig, Jerry
Nguyen, Te
Sager, Stephen
Bundy, Robert (Bob)
McDowell, Douglas
What makes the million-mile achievement so astonishing is the fact that all the drivers never experienced a single preventable accident in over 30 years of driving, not even a fender-bender.
“Our Postal Service drivers are among the safest in the world,” said Sacramento District Manager Barbara Plunkett. “The remarkable achievement of our seven Fair Oaks drivers demonstrates how postal employees continue to deliver on the promise of delivering their best every day with care, courtesy and the concern for the safety of others.”
Each driver will be presented with a jacket and a plaque from the National Safety Council and automatic membership in the prestigious National Safety Council “Million Mile Club.” The million-mile award is a lifetime enrollment, and it 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.
A common denominator, or trait, that the drivers share is defensive driving. They attribute their accident-free driving to being constantly alert for dangers, anticipating the actions of other drivers, paying attention to their surroundings, looking ahead, checking mirrors, following the rules of the road, and giving themselves enough time to react in a safe manner.
The Postal Service has one of the largest vehicle fleets in the world. Its drivers face hazardous road conditions, congestion, gridlock, city and rural terrain and careless drivers on a daily basis.
MEDIA ALERT: For photo and interviews, please contact Kevin Dowkes at 916-967-1001.
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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation — 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office™ Boxes. The Postal Service™ receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com®, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, Oxford Strategic Consulting ranked the U.S. Postal Service number one in overall service performance of the posts in the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.
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