DRIVING FOR DOLLARS

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You will need a trained accountant to keep the books, compute taxes, and deal with employee compensation and other paperwork. Kids can't miss school and you will need an extra approved vehicle to serve as a substitute when a main bus is in the shop. And you must keep school buses in safe and reliable working condition.

You can perform routine service such as oil changes yourself, but you need a skilled, well-equipped and reliable truck mechanic/tow-truck operator who will make road calls immediately. You can pay yourself for any of the work you can do yourself—but don't undertake more than you are capable of. If you fail to fill contract requirements, you not only deprive children of their education, you may be asking for a lawsuit.

Warning: If you are a country newcomer and are seen as stealing a job from a neighbor or if you underbid a long-time contract-holder, you may gain enemies. So, do some political investigating first.

Postal Delivery Routes

Rural routes are driven by salaried post office employees. On under-25 mile routes, they may use government vehicles; for longer routes (typically 50 miles or under), drivers receive a salary plus a mileage allowance for use of their own vehicle. You get these jobs by taking competitive general-knowledge exams and serving as a substitute driver for a while. It may take years of now-and-then substituting. Rural route drivers are eligible for government benefits including a retirement pension.

Highway contract routes, often called star routes, are driven by independent contractors who needn't take an exam, but must submit the lowest bid, then buy and maintain their own vehicles. They receive only limited benefits above salary and mileage allowance. It's not all driving, either way you do it. Route drivers have to sort their mail, putting it into cubicles in the Post Office before going on the road.

Once out, they are required to post mail for customers and to hand-deliver packages that are too large to fit in the mailbox. And the work is six-days a week, federal holidays excepted. Most work from 8 A.M. to 2 P.M. at $10/hour, but the pay, the time required, and miles driven vary.

Enquire at your post office for dates of rural route driver exams and for information on bidding for highway contract routes. Though the P.O. is laying off office workers as they automate, there will always be a demand for good route drivers.

Like school bus routes, many star routes are considered by the community as the property of long established families. For instance, one route in my town has been in the same farming family for four generations (mail was originally delivered on horseback). Anyone who underbids this family will have a route to drive—and several enemies.

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