Average postal worker:
Training material says to make sure the package arrives undamaged.
Management says the package just needs to arrive, and you better hit metrics or you’re out on your ass.
Blame the shipper. I see stuff come through the hubs that are mostly automated and I’m surprised it’s made it as far as it has given the flimsy, half-taped boxes. I’ve seen stuff with Christmas wrapping, thinking it’s going to make it all the way through lots of handling and sliding around and high speed belts and weather. I’ve seen people ship some kind of document or paperwork that’s smaller than the label we put on them. So much perishables sent in coolers with water ice that leak all over everything else when they tips over because that’s cheaper than paying for a proper boxing with dry ice. Heavy objects in the thinnest cardboard that falls out when it gets ripped from the weight because hey, they’re going to reuse that cheap box they have rather than buy a whole other heavy cardboard box just for shipping elsewhere. 20 years of this, I could go on.
So yes, workers through the chain get pushed to not care about the thousands of things they’ll see in an hour because it’s got to move NOW and that’s wrong, but if the shipper made sure it was prepared for all that (and millions make it with just abuse showing on the outside because they were protected) then there would be less damage.
