Almanac Life: A day in the life of a postie

 

Postal Delivery Officer Nick Kossatch in front of his EDV trike

 

A day in the life of a postie – Tuesday, March 24, 2026

Gladstone, Queensland

Don’t panic because of EDV trike telematics

 

As an Australia Post EDV trike postie, you feel daily anticipation.

 

That is comparable on what to expect on a weekly basis as a Port Adelaide Power supporter.

 

This week is a great week following Port’s win against the Bombers last Sunday.

 

In technical terms, I’m a Postal Delivery Officer who zips and zaps out of traffic much like Zak Butters weaves his way out of congestion!

 

There’s much to being a postie.

 

Most believe it’s a cruisy, cushy gig.

 

That it is, but and it’s a significant but, there’s the KPI’s of telematics and the ETA of when parcels are to be delivered to customers.

 

Indirectly the war in the Middle East is to be blamed.

 

Rising fuel prices likely boost online shopping.

 

And Gladstone isn’t synonymous with big retail outlets.

 

‘Gladdy’ or ‘Happy Rock’ is high-vis central and an industrial town with hills galore and the ancient 600-metre Mt Larcom to the west overlooks the Port city.

 

That’s the only connection that Gladstone has with Port Adelaide!

 

Speaking of hills, there are many sloping roads, streets, courts, crescents, boulevards and lanes.

 

As the term was mentioned at the start of this piece, telematics is a KPI element where riders are required to basically keep their EDV trikes level on sloping terrain.

 

Should a rider go too quickly—though this is challenging due to the tightly packed bundles at the front and back—whether ascending or descending a hill, an alarm will sound as a telematics breach. It goes ‘ping’.

 

Too many ‘pings’ and it’s a visit to the boss’s office next morning.

 

Unless you are driving recklessly, up and down roads and hitting different terrains as hard as Jason Horne-Francis hits packs, our boss understands the perils of telematic challenges in Gladstone.

 

Then there’s the ‘Estimated Time of Arrival’ of a parcel.

 

The Dave Faulkner’s of Gladstone Gurus may not be expecting a 9.30am ETA of a parcel delivery but it’s an important aspect of postal work.

 

Just like the Middle Eastern war having an indirect effect on increased parcel loads for us posties, telematics is indirectly proportional to an accurate ETA

 

Port Adelaide Power’s midfield is proportional to it either winning games or losing them. As I have found out these past two weeks.

 

How many sections a postie puts into his or her scanner does depend on how many parcels and mail volume at task.

 

A section can be either, 15 minutes, or 30, or 45 or one hour.

 

The first three figures allow riders a half-hour buffer on either side of the section time.

 

One hour gives no leeway and that’s much like a Ross Lyon press conference after a St Kilda loss.

 

Some (no, most) would argue Ross ‘The Boss’ has no leeway at all!

 

So, in summary and with both KPI elements explained – us posties began the day at 6am.

 

We place the machine-sorted mail out into street number slots and then the unsorted mail and second-class larger mail.

 

That’s part of the Aust Post game-plan.

 

We then place parcels into where they should go.

 

Obviously the mini-bar fridge-sized parcels are forced into the slots or placed aside and that’s when muscle memory ‘kicks’ in.

 

Next step is redirections just to make sure one isn’t sending a letter to Mr Butters when in fact he is living (and staying!) at Alberton in Adelaide!

 

A yellow label with a new address covers the previous address that a Gladstone resident has relocated to.

 

Posties scan all parcels and then record the number of sections they load into the scanner.

 

It’s now the bundling stage.

 

The favourite part. Said no one ever!

 

We bundle mail with parcels, some boxes, round, soft, long – all types within reason otherwise they’re sent to the contractors.

 

The bundles are then numbered and just like a head count during a footy game that Essendon supporters have so far done on the opposition, these are packed in numerical order into the EDV’s.

 

Again, depending on parcel and mail volumes, we generally head out the depot by 9am – ish.

 

Some posties have a 30-minute lunch before they head out in what is usually breakfast time!

 

I have lunch out on the road, funnily enough at around noon.

 

Days often feel longer when we must deal with householder chores or junk mail that frequently comes our way.

 

Just like a Saints supporter longing for a premiership, delivering Domino Pizza, Aussie Broadband or such like is a tedious task especially when we are required to dismount from our postie vehicles and by foot, avoiding oddly placed pot plants, or cars parked in front of mailboxes, so that the telematics alarm isn’t triggered!

 

This process is usually completed here in Gladstone more often than riding right up to the mailbox that is strategically placed half-way up an inclined or sloping driveway.

 

Any parcels that needed the customer to sign for it but they’re not home are carded to the nearest post office.

 

This is good in theory but having parcels that belong to a resident who lives closer to the Parcel Locker at the Kirkwood Shopping Complex don’t necessarily go there.

 

They go to the Kin Kora Post Office on Mellefont Street, 6km away.

 

And vice-versa to the dismay of the postie.

 

That is why customers are encouraged to sign up on our free Aust Post app.

 

Logic would be restored then but all in good time.

 

Just ask the Essendon faithful!

 

By day’s end, which could be as early as the official knock-off time of 1.51pm, which is never, we are back – in staggered finishing times – at the depot by 3.30-ish on average.

 

So that is it – all in a package – the day in the life of a postie.

 

 

 

More from Nick Kossatch (KOSSYPOWERMAN) can be read Here.

 

 

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