Your tax dollars are paying a Florida mailman who drove his federal truck at nearly three times the legal limit Tuesday night.
The police pulled Eliezer Valcourt over after local residents reported him for reckless driving.
But the police were floored when this Florida mailman pulled out a toothbrush during his DUI test.
Nearly Three Times the Legal Limit in a Government Truck
Fort Lauderdale police got the call around 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Drivers were reporting a marked U.S. Postal Service truck stopped dead in the road, driver screaming as he moved through traffic.
When officers arrived, Valcourt nearly hit one of them with the truck.
https://twitter.com/ArrestsSfl/status/2107969998488478070?s=20
Officers found him visibly impaired – unsteady, eyes unfocused, speech thick, breath reeking of alcohol.
Then came the field sobriety test.
Valcourt reached into his pocket, pulled out a toothbrush, and started brushing his teeth on the side of the road.
It didn't work.
The DUI officer clocked seven of eight possible clues during the walk-and-turn exercise, and Valcourt nearly fell at the end.
Police say his blood alcohol content came in at nearly three times the legal limit.
He told police he'd been working since 9 a.m. and was almost done with his route.
He denied drinking.
A man blowing nearly three times the legal limit – denied drinking.
Valcourt was booked on two DUI-related charges, posted bond, and is currently suspended from his routes.
The USPS told reporters it's "aware of the allegation."
Here Is What the Union Contract Says Happens Next
You're probably thinking Valcourt is done.
Any private-sector driver who blows three times the limit in a company vehicle is fired the same afternoon.
USPS doesn't work that way.
Under the binding arbitration rules built into the postal workers' union contract, USPS is legally required to find Valcourt alternative work – even after a DUI conviction suspends his license.
A USPS regional spokesman explained the policy plainly: "The postal service has to follow our labor agreement which includes binding arbitration that the postal service has to find them work."
Sometimes that means a desk job at another branch.
Sometimes it means USPS literally installs a standalone curbside mailbox so the carrier can walk the route on foot instead of driving it.
Either way, they stay on the payroll.
Either way, you keep paying them.
This is not a hypothetical.
A Porter County, Indiana mail carrier was caught drunk on duty, kept her job, then blew a .336 the second time – falling out of her moving truck into the road.
A Chicago carrier with a suspended license drove his federal mail truck on Christmas Eve, crashed into a parked car, and failed the sobriety test on the spot.
The USPS statement after that incident: "This type of alleged behavior within the Postal Service is not tolerated."
Except it is.
Tolerated is precisely the word for a system where a carrier can get a DUI, keep her job, get a second DUI on the same route, and still require due process before termination.
Valcourt pulls down somewhere between $57,500 and $72,000 a year in base salary – plus federal health insurance, a retirement plan, and paid federal holidays – all covered by American ratepayers and postal revenue.
He drove his route drunk, nearly hit a cop, brushed his teeth during the sobriety test, and told police he hadn't been drinking.
The union contract says that's not enough to show him the door.
Somewhere in Fort Lauderdale right now, there's a concrete slab with his name on it.
Sources:
- WSVN Staff, "USPS Driver Arrested for DUI in Fort Lauderdale," WSVN 7News, October 7, 2026.
- Fort Lauderdale Police Department, arrest report via The Independent, October 7, 2026.
- Brian Sperry (USPS Regional Spokesman), "Postal Service Defends Policy for Workers with DUI," KSL News, archived.
- Fox 59 Staff, "USPS Mail Carrier Arrested for Second On-Duty DUI," Fox 59, archived.
- CBS Chicago Staff, "Postal Worker Charged with DUI After Crashing Mail Truck on Christmas Eve," CBS News Chicago, archived.
- "USPS Mail Carrier Salary Structure 2026," Campus Cyber Cafe, 2026.
