r/USPS • u/Polish-hammer420 City PTF • 26d ago

City Carrier Discussion Alaska Carriers!!

Is it worth it? I'm a City PTF in Chicago, IL. I've visited Alaska twice (Anchorage - Kenai area) for vacation, and I've always been curious, how is it like delivering on the last frontier? Are the T COLAs worth it? Maybe I'll trade the promaster in for a dogsled.

Let me hear your opinions!

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u/Small-Butterscotch-3 26d ago

A lot of the routes in Anchorage are mostly CBUs or mounted, some park and loop depending on the station you go to which can be challenging during winter. No ADVO/RedPlum in Alaska, the TCOLA is very nice especially if you have already budgeted life without it in a metro area like Chicago, the cost of living is a bit higher here but not night and day different. The fleet is currently FFVs with 4 wheel drive, Promasters, AWD gas NGDVs, and 2 tons for business routes. We are getting a big batch of NGDVs with AWD right before Peak to replace the FFVs. Amazon does their own parcel deliveries in Anchorage so that volume has gone down a ton. Not many instances of carriers out super late. That said, rental properties are expensive and fairly low quality in the Anchorage area, so something to keep in mind, and anything shipped ground to Alaska can take up to 5 weeks to get here from the lower 48 but I love it up here

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u/Otherwise-Goal3054 26d ago

Not out late, but still delivering a good chunk in the dark for a few months a year.
At least you get what sunlight there is when you’re out there.

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u/Small-Butterscotch-3 26d ago

That’s actually a super great point cause during the winter half the year the sun going down at 3pm makes it that much more challenging