WNY mailman gets special award

With more than three decades of mail delivery experience in West New York, letter carrier Joseph Piazza was recognized at a special ceremony at the Main Post Office on Jan. 26 for passing a significant safety milestone.
The NSC’s Million Mile Award is presented to professional drivers for operating a motor vehicle on the job for more than one million miles without a preventable accident.
“Reaching this unique milestone requires an unwavering attention to safety,” said U.S. Postal Service Northern New Jersey District Manager Steven Hernandez. “This honor is recognized as the nation’s highest award for professional safe driving.”
As a West New York letter carrier, Piazza’s daily routine includes navigating the streets of the densely-populated 1.3 square mile Hudson County community with a two ton postal van delivering parcels and doing mail collections.
To put Piazza’s accomplishment in perspective, you would have to travel around the earth 40.1 times to cover one million miles.
“We are very proud of Joe’s safe driving record and his commitment to serving our customers here in West New York,” said Postmaster Milca Mendez. The postmaster also baked and artfully decorated a cake to recognize Piazza that resembled a scale model of the carrier’s two-ton postal delivery van.
Painstaking details to accuracy of the cake included: working headlights, postal logos, tires, rear view mirrors, and even the vehicle number of Piazza’s actual two-ton van.
The cake was cut while Piazza was surrounded by his West New York postal colleagues, union officials, and senior postal managers. U.S. Postal Service Northern New Jersey District Post Office Operations Manager Michael Rizzolo presented Mr. Piazza with the National Safety Council’s (NSC) prestigious Million Mile Safe Driving Award.
In addition to Ms. Mendez, Mr. Hernandez, and Mr. Rizzolo, among the other officials recognizing the safety conscious West New York carrier were: USPS Northern NJ District Marketing Manager/A Mariset Arroyo, USPS Northern NJ District Safety Manager James Pruim, USPS Northern NJ District Safety Specialist Stephen Cannon, Hoboken Postmaster Arthur Tate, Union City Postmaster Emad Attaalla, National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Region 15 National Business Agent Larry Cirelli, NALC Branch 38 Executive Vice President Michael O’Neill, and NALC Branch 38