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.
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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It's odd for someone to say "it's on the truck" when the tracking seems very non-specific and sounds like it hasn't been updated. 8 days is too long for a certified letter to reach you unless the item was missorted en route and was either misdelivered or is sitting at a PO and nothing is being done with it. I don't know what to tell you to do except to wait a few more days. After that, you could contact the sender and say you never received the letter though they would have the same information as the online tracking.
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I can't quote the statute that says it is illegal for the letter carrier to discuss with others the fact that your sister was in jail, however it is entirely inappropriate and probably against postal regulations re: sanctity and confidentiality of the mail. I see mail going to/from prison while delivering the mail but never say a word to anybody about it. I'm not sure if you want to discuss it with your letter carrier to tell him how wrong it was to say anything to anybody. I also don't know it it would go anywhere if you complained to the USPS about his behavior. Legally, you may also need proof or witnesses if in fact it is illegal what the letter carrier divulged to others. I know I'd be very upset if I found out my letter carrier was talking about things they should be confidential about, but not sure what avenue I would take to resolve it.
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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 don't know the policy on this as I've never thought to put someone's mail on hold without their authorization. I suppose this could come about if their mailbox was full and the carrier couldn't deliver any more mail to that address. In that case maybe a letter carrier would hold any future mail at the PO for a certain amount of time and then possibly return that mail to the sender with the endorsements "mailbox full". A letter carrier can also hold the mail at the PO if your mailbox is inaccessible due to snow. They will usually deliver all of the accumulated mail within a couple of days of the mailbox becoming accessible. We had that situation occur at our PO this past winter when snow prevented some of the driving (mounted) route carriers from being able to drive up to a mailbox without getting out of their LLV.
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I've never heard of your pay getting docked for not delivering mail on time. I think only Express Mail (aka Priority Mail Express) does have a delivery time guarantee and the sender can request a refund if that commitment isn't met. We can get disciplined at our office (letter of warning/suspension/termination) if we fail to deliver a time guarantee mail item, but I've rarely ever heard of anyone getting anything beyond a warning for this. This type of mail is a premium service so we must give it our utmost attention and care. Good luck in orientation. Here is just a life lesson in general: Don't believe everything you hear. I'm a big skeptic in so much I hear at work unless a reliable source. I actually might annoy people because I believe so little at times.
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