According to the website Governing.com, Texas employees 1.5 postal workers per 1000 residents. 26 other states have a higher number ranging from 2.0 – 2.6 postal workers per 1000 residents, and only a small handful of states have the same or fewer than Texas, but for this article, we’re just going to focus on Texas and the 26 states higher than 2.0.
Fact: Texas has 268,597 square miles. The other 26 states (including Alaska) average just 71,113 square miles. This means that Texas postal employees have to cover 3.77 more square miles than those other states that have more postal employees per 1000.
Fact: Texas has 0.15 postal employees per square mile. The other 26 states have an average of 0.54. This means that Texas has 3.6 times fewer postal employees per square mile than the other 26 states.
Fact: Texas postal employees cover 3.7 times more square miles with 3.6 times fewer employees than the other 26 states.
So, in case you haven’t heard this before, Texas is kind of big. You can drive 18 hours and still be in Texas.
Postal employees in Texas have to cover a lot of ground to do their jobs. One lady who is a letter carrier in Richardson, TX told me that she walked 23 miles in a single day. That’s 3 miles short of a marathon. And as if covering that kind of ground isn’t enough, these folks are lifting and carrying around bags and packages weighing up to 70 pounds (or more) all day long. In the summer time, it’s miserable. The average temperature in a Texas summer is between 90 and 100+ degrees every day. So, add heat exhaustion to heavy lifting and long distance walking of over 3 times more square miles than the other 26 states.
Another point: the employee per square mile data almost certainly takes into account the fact that there is so much open and relatively unpopulated land in Texas. A person can drive hundreds of miles and never see anything but cattle and open fields. Since most cows don’t get a lot of mail, there’s not much reason to have postal employees in those areas. So, let’s take Denton and Collin counties. These counties have a combined 1839 square miles. In this area, based on published data, there should be about 2500 postal employees, which comes to about 1.3 postal employees per square mile. Now that’s more like it. The Mail Carriers in Denton and Collin Counties are mostly rural route carriers. Rural carriers have a very hard job, just like city carriers and there are plenty of those letter carriers in Denton and Collin Counties as well. But let’s not leave out the other groups: Mail Handlers – hard job. Clerks – hard job. These Denton county and Collin county postal employees are busting it every day to make sure the rest of us get our mail. And they’re getting hurt at alarming rates.
In 2016, the US Postal Service had an injury and illness rate of just over 7%, which really couldn’t be farther from the truth. Why? Because that data doesn’t include DENIED CASES. Postal employees are being hurt at work and going to doctors who don’t have the slightest clue or desire to do the work that it takes to get an OWCP injury claim accepted. So the cases are getting denied at a staggering pace, causing postal employees to lose time and money along the way. Based on that 7% number, 178 Denton and Collin county postal employees would have been injured and had their OWCP injury claims accepted in 2016, but based on my experience and all of my interactions with federal employees, especially postal employees, nationwide, that number is much much much higher.
Most rooms that I’m in have more than half the room telling me that they’ve been hurt at work. In some places, it’s at least 80% of the room. NOT 7%. So, that would mean that 1200 or more postal employees would have been injured and either decided not to go through OWCP because it was too difficult, or they went to a doctor who got their OWCP injury claim denied. WE HAVE TO TAKE BETTER CARE OF OUR INJURED FEDERAL EMPLOYEES.
United States Postal Service employees in Denton County and Collin County have 3 places they can go to get excellent, expert care for their OWCP federal workers compensation injuries. DOL / OWCP injury doctors with Federal Injury Centers in Denton and Collin Counties are located in Denton, Frisco, and McKinney, TX. Our OWCP injury doctors specialize in getting OWCP injury claims approved by the Department of Labor. We will also help federal employees who have gone to other doctors previously and got their DOL/OWCP injury claims denied.
We can help you with your denied OWCP work injury claims. Postal employees in Texas are covering 3 times more ground with 3 times fewer people for the area. They carry heavy loads and walk long distances in sometimes terribly hot temperatures. Their heavy jobs are causing them to be injured at very high rates, but their OWCP injury claims are being denied at equally high rates. Federal Injury Centers is trying to fix that particular problem in Denton and Collin counties.
If you live or work in Denton, Sanger, Krum, Corinth, Lake Dallas, Lewisville, Little Elm, Flower Mound, Frisco, The Colony, McKinney, Princeton, Allen, Plano, or any of the other surrounding towns in Denton and Collin Counties, please give us a call. We want to help you get the care you deserve. Don’t get your OWCP injury claim denied by going to untrained or uncaring or unwilling doctors. Call us instead. Get help. Get better. Get all of your OWCP work injury benefits in the process.