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.
I don't think we should refuse delivery for that but I can't say for sure what we are allowed to do. As long as I felt that the door was secure enough and the dog wouldn't get out I would make the delivery. When you say you've never received a notice, do you mean you have never been told that the dog is an issue? I'm not sure what kind of notice you mean. Maybe the letter carrier refused mail delivery and never said the dog was an issue. I have a few places where I deliver to very loud barking dogs but I have never really had to refuse delivery due to this. It is often stressed by postal management to be very careful near dogs so I can understand if a letter carrier is apprehensive about it, but I can't say what they should do in the situation you described.
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I am going to have to pass on answering this question with any authority because I don't know the union contract when it comes to this subject. It's also possible that a local agreement governs what is done. It makes sense to me that an unassigned regular can hold down a vacant route until it is put up for bid. They also shouldn't be bumped off that route unless it's the non-scheduled day for that route. In that situation the comp person would usually do the route on the day they are supposed to. If there is no available routes to do on a comp persons group of 5 routes there is usually another route for them to cover. The above is just based on what I've seen done at the PO where I work. I can't even say that my info is accurate. We usually treat hold downs to mean that the carrier holding it down has many of the rights as the regular carrier on the route, but not necessarily all. This is where it gets confusing to me about bumping rights.
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It depends on what other job/career options you may have and how they compare with the USPS. I have somewhat of a bias because I enjoy working here and it has been a great career. I do realize, however, that being a CCA isn't easy and it's a non-career position and only pays moderately to begin (currently $16.06/hr). Regarding the USPS financial situation, I don't think that should impact your choice. The USPS isn't going away anytime soon. While I'm sure it's losing plenty of $$ often there is still as much work as I can remember. There will likely be changes that happen years from now but I don't know what they'd look like. I've never seen a layoff or RIF since I've been employed by the USPS. Good luck to you Hobbz whichever job/career path you choose.
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I can't say for sure why the drastic difference in the time your mail is delivered. If it's the same letter carrier who is coming at different times I can see a couple of hours difference but your description is up to 5.5 hrs difference. Normally the mail is sorted before we start delivering. Any mail which we pick up during the day as outgoing mail doesn't need to be separated. We just bring it back and give it to a dispatch clerk. At times we are shorthanded at the USPS so that results in us doing additional assignments possibly before delivering our own routes. This could be up to a couple of hours but that doesn't seem to be the norm where I work. Please remember that I can't speak for what happens at other postal facilities. One further comment is that we are supposed to deliver the mail in a specific route order. If your letter carrier doesn't do that it could result in different delivery times. The holiday season for cards isn't as busy as it used to be. We now deliver a significant quantity of parcels which could also take up time.
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Congratulations on being hired as a CCA. I wear black shoes that have the SR/USA tag required by the USPS. These can be purchased using your uniform allowance which you may not receive for several months after being hired and passing probation. The brands I use are New Balance and Rocky. I've never had a problem with their comfort, just that I usually have to replace them every 6 months or so due to the amount of walking I do daily. If you don't have a uniform allowance I'd say to wear whatever is comfortable to you like an athletic shoe. Don't wear anything fancy because it will inevitably get dirty in no time.
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I don't know why that would be. I don't have any involvement in how the mail is transported and processed and I also don't know the operations at your local post office. Where I work most of the mail that comes into the building on any given day goes out the same day or the next day. Some of the reason for this is that much of our catalogs and magazines come to our PO via FSS trays. These are trays of flats (the more official name for catalogs and magazines) where the items are all sorted in delivery order and ready to be delivered without any additional sorting. FSS mail gets delivered the same day they arrive at a local PO. Not all POs receive FSS mail so it's possible that flats are curtailed for one or two days a week. I am just speculating and don't really know if that is what happens. As an aside, actual magazines (like Time, People, TV Guide, local newspapers) are considered Periodicals Class mail and should be delivered the same day that they arrive at your local PO. FSS stands for Flats Sequencing System.
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If I were in motion, I'd safely pull over, put on my four-way flashers, and then get out to investigate. It's possible that my gas cap is hanging out the side of the LLV, the back gate isn't secure, or maybe I'm dragging something. It could also be something that I haven't thought of. If the motorist is still around I'd ask them what they are pointing out. If it seemed to be some type of phony diversion tactic, I'd try to get far away from the motorist pointing and then investigate safely.
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