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w w w .in sid e H A L T O N .co m | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, D e c e m b e r 2 , 2 0 1 6 | 14 Postal carrier delivers last parcel - after 45 years by Nathan Howes Oakville Beaver Staff The biggest constant in the maildelivery business has been adaptation -- something Carol Swanson did for 45 years. The long-time Oakville Canada Post delivery agent distributed her last parcel recendy after more than four decades of serving customers. In honour of Swanson' s service, a celebratory event was held Tuesday (Nov 29) at the Oakville Delivery Depot. "I feel honoured I was able to come into work every day and enjoy my job. I feel very blessed," said Swanson. "The greatest thing about working here is you can just be yourself. You don't have to worry It' s a very supportive group of people. We've all known each other a really long time." Swanson began her Canada Post career in the human resources department in high school, thanks to help from her uncle, who was a HR manager with the Crown corporation. The Oakville woman eventually took a position as a delivery agent -- letter carrier -- because she is an outdoor enthusiast who enjoys walking, meeting new people and Carol Swanson a long-time Canada Post Employee and Oakville parcel carrier is calling it a career and retiring after 45 years. Friends and colleague's gathered at the Oakville Delievery Depot to wish her well. | Jayson Mills photo being independent, Swanson said. "Your real job is on the street. If you don't like the weather or you don't like being on the street, (it' s not the job for you)," said Swanson."There were some really cool people I met on every route I've been on. You don't talk to everybody, but you have a little cluster of buddies." When she was first hired, there were few female employees at Canada Post -- in fact, Swanson, originally from Kitchener, Ont., was among the first group to join the company She noted it happened during a time of an equality shift for females in the workplace across Canada. "That was in the very late '60s, early '70s. When (Canada Post) was going to hire five postal clerks in Kitchener, I was one of the five that was being hired," said Swanson. When she began, delivering mail was giving people physical packages such as a letter, telephone bill or magazine, but now, most everything has gone paperless. "It' s not about delivering that letter anymore. It' s about getting that parcel to the person who has already received an email about getting it," said Swanson. "Everything now is all about the Internet, social media and getting that parcel quickly Before, it was about giving that telephone bill to people and saying, `Hello, how are you?' and people would give you a drink of water." Swanson was handling her routes on foot, at first, going door-to-door to deliver mail and parcels before community mailboxes (CMB) were first installed in parts of Oakville 25 years ago, she said. Two years ago, mail distribution in town was completely converted to CMBs as a cost-effective measure. With the surge in online shopping, the switch "totally makes sense," Swanson said. "When you come home from work, you can have it there. It' s safe. Nobody is going to take it," said Swanson of CMBs. Elaine Garrett, a supervisor who worked with Swanson for about seven years, noted the Speers Road delivery depot processes 8,000 parcels daily (not including regular mail), while Canada Post distributes more than 1 million packages country-wide each day. Each delivery agent disperses 150 225 parcels on their day-to-day route. "As much as we have a digital world, this part of it is done by humans, putting (parcels) into a truck and taking it to that person," said Garrett. Being a delivery agent is a "highlevel, multi-tasking job" that varies in workload, Swanson added. "The day you have 150 parcels you can't become overwhelmed. You just get out there and you do the job. The Internet shopping has gone crazy, though," said Swanson. see Staying on p.21