MailmanDave
17 Years Experience
Long Island, NY
Male, 43
I am a City Letter Carrier for the US Postal Service in NY. I've been a city letter carrier for over 17 years and it is the best job I've ever had. I mostly work 5 days per week (sometimes includes a Saturday) and often have the opportunity for overtime, which is usually voluntary. The route I deliver has about 350 homes and I walk to each of their doors to deliver the mail. Please keep in mind that I don't have authority to speak for the USPS, so all opinions are solely mine, not my employer.
They really shouldn't be taking your mail into their unit or house or apt if you don't shared the same living space with them and they aren't responsible about giving it to you. It may not be easy but you could politely ask the landlord and girlfriend and son to maybe leave your mail in the box or slip it under your door if that's accessible or appropriate. I agree it's not good for you to need to be concerned if someone is taking your mail and giving it to you at their convenience. I know it's not the answer you'd like to hear, but a PO Box rental would solve this issue. The drawback is that it costs money and is probably less convenient than getting mail at your residence. The USPS would probably not get involved in separating out your mail and putting in to a different mail receptacle unless the unit was officially designated an apt for mail receiving purposes. I don't know how one would go about doing this or the complexity of it. We have a database of authorized addresses that we go by to deliver the mail and if there aren't multiple units designated in the same dwelling, all of the mail would normally be put together.
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The main reasons for a mail route to change for a city carrier is because a route/assignment has come up for bid (Another carrier has retired/transferred/bid to another route) and one carrier decides to bid for the available route so they'd leave their current route. That is the most common reason. It's possible you could have the same carrier for many years or a route may be so large or undesirable that it's like a revolving door as to who delivers your mail. One other reason for a new carrier is if the office restructures the routes and different streets go to different letter carriers. Where I work I've only seen this a couple of times in 15 years. This would be more common if there was a lot of new construction in a town. Assignments or routes are awarded to the carrier with the highest seniority who desire it. That is how the bidding system works. Thanks for submitting your question.
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Yes, I've heard of nothing to the contrary and I know that many of the younger letter carriers have tattoos and piercings.
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Definitely. It's never been an issue as far as I know to take a bathroom break as needed even if it means leaving the street you are delivering mail on to go use a lavatory at a public business. That's what I usually do. I'll leave my route and go to a gas station or the public library that are near my route as needed. It doesn't have to be an emergency.
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I am not too familiar with the outgoing mail gray business boxes. Was it inside a business that was on your run? It's not against any laws to mail a letter from an outgoing business gray box. As long as there is sufficient postage on the letter I don't see why you can't mail that from anywhere. It should be no problem at all. I just wouldn't know the schedule as to when the mail was picked up. If the letter carrier had already taken the mail for the day from the business gray box, it will likely get picked up the following delivery day.
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They might. If you are on a rural delivery route, I believe it is part of the carrier's job to mail items for the customers (at the customer's expense, of course) and deliver them stamps if they request them and pay for it. If you live on a city delivery route, it's probably up to the individual carrier if they will fulfill your request or not. I believe you can purchase stamps online and they'll be sent to you or there is an option for stamps by mail. In the latter option, you fill out a form and enclose a check and the USPS will deliver your stamps in a couple of days. I don't see any of those options used too often where I deliver mail but I can't speak for other post offices.
Try this URL:
https://store.usps.com/store/
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I'll tell you what I do in this situation (which is common) but I can't say what each carrier will do and I'm sure it also varies by location. We deliver many parcels that won't fit into a mailbox. I bring the item to the front door of the house and leave it on the side of the door. I rarely ring a door bell since I don't need to see anybody to give the mail to. I also work in a neighborhood where mail/package theft is close to non-existent. If you live an apartment building or an area where mail can't just be left near a front door then the letter carrier might leave a PS 3849 Delivery Notice/Reminder/Receipt to notify the recipient that we have mail for you to retrieve from the PO or allow you to authorize delivery and leave mail at a specified location.
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