Mail Carrier Recognized for Years of Service

By Michele Robertson

Area mail carrier Stephen Austin was recently added to the United States Postal Service (USPS) Million Mile Club. Admittance to this club requires either 30 years of service to the USPS or a million miles of safe driving for the USPS.

Austin’s calculations for his total number of miles driven in his 30-year tenure as a mail carrier in Carlsbad are over 800,000 miles; he also walks eight miles a day.

“It is an impressive accomplishment because it requires a great amount of commitment. It means he drove a million miles or 30 years of driving without any accidents,” said his supervisor, Carolina Ibarra. “I think his biggest challenge on the route is probably how many people wanna talk to him and running the risk of falling behind on the route,” she added.

Austin is a class of 1982 Carlsbad High School graduate and a United States Air Force veteran. He has three children and four grandchildren. He started working when he was 15 at Hobo Joe’s (now Denny’s), and in his lifetime, he’s visited 50 countries and all 50 states. He started his career with USPS in 1995 and worked until 2000 without taking a day off.

The daily aspect of being a mail carrier involves visiting the same address every day. Austin explains that’s how people get to know their mail carrier.

He said being a mail carrier has shown him a lot about humanity. He gets to watch generations of families grow, seeing kids go from childhood to adulthood. “It teaches you to be humble and have humility, and to be fair to all people,” he said.

He’s seen a lot in his lifetime, much from his military service and life experiences, but also on the job as a mail carrier. On his routes, he found people deceased, dealt with rude and nice people, and had to fend off dogs attacking him.

“One of the hardest parts is when people on the route pass away. I see people on my route that I graduated with that are still here,” he said, then reminisced about those who have passed.

“I’m there every day, whether or not you have mail; I pass by daily,” Austin said. Mail gets delivered regardless of the weather or time of day. People may receive packages earlier in the day than expected, or it may take until well into the evening before mail and packages are delivered.

Austin explained that delivery time depends on the volume of parcels to deliver, whether everyone scheduled can make it to work, and whether all vehicles are operational. Most of the working vehicles in Carlsbad are from the 1990s and lack heat or air conditioning.

Some of Austin’s favorite things about being a mail carrier include when it snows downtown near the Halagueno Arts Park and how peaceful it looks, along with watching the leaves blow in the wind along his walking route by the river.

“People take for granted the river here; other communities don’t have what we have with our river,” he said.

“I appreciate small towns,” Austin said. “There’s no rioting like in the big cities; some neighborhoods are worse than others, but each has its own character.”

Austin said he doesn’t have to worry about late-night deliveries and safety in this community; people offer to help and bring out bottles of water and snacks.

Routes are not without their hazards, though, as Austin recently had to fight off some pitbulls. He said that wasn’t the first time he’s had to do that. An animal lover by nature, he sees the good and bad sides of pets while delivering mail.

With a few more years left before he retires, Austin will be seen walking most of his mail route each and every day. He thinks about what type of mailman he wants to have when he retires and strives to be that every day.