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 know at all about the requirements for what vehicles are allowed for delivering US Mail. We use Postal-owned vehicles where I work. When I was first hired we sometimes used our own vehicles for mail delivery and didn't know of any requirements. We were only doing park and loop and foot routes with our own vehicles. The rural route carriers had privately owned right hand drive vehicles for mail delivery. I would recommend looking at the website or contacting the NRLCA, the National Rural Letter Carriers Association. I know that city carriers (which I am) would sign a CDOA which was a Carrier Drive Out Agreement that would stipulate what is required and what the compensation would be for using your own vehicle.
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As far as I know you are allowed to. I know some carriers who have portable radios or just use their PED to play music. As far as a cell phone goes, I'm pretty sure you can use it as long as it is hands free. I have a route where I walk most of the day and I listen to podcasts on my iPhone. I have one earphone in and leave the other ear free. I think it's inappropriate and a bit unsafe to have both ears covered while delivering on foot or driving. The outside noise is important to hear if a car is coming or a customer that may need your attention. From time to time, there may be a safety talk or notice at work about the use of personal electronic devices but it doesn't seem too strict or maybe just not enforced. I don't like seeing my colleagues have both ears covered while delivering mail, but I'm not a supervisor so I don't address this issue.
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I don't think so. The request has never been made of me but generally once mail has been delivered it would seem to be in the possession of the recipient even if they haven't actually retrieved the item from their mailbox. I've also never heard of anybody else having this requested so my advice for the future is be careful what you mail because it is almost definitely a one-way trip.
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Susie, I won't be able to answer this question as I don't know anything about eReassign. There may be minimum times where you have to stay at a certain work location before being approved to another work location more of your preference. As for who to ask, I could say your union representative or HRSSC, but they may not know either. My guess, and all this is would be a guess, would be one year at a current location before being able to be reassigned.
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Hotel Employee
Can you give guests room upgrades at your sole discretion?
CPR Trainer
Is it possible to perform CPR on animals?
Investment Banker
Did you experience the notorious 100-hour work weeks?
Will, I am not a rural carrier so I'm not sure how much my tips would help because as city carriers, we are paid for whatever time we work. There is almost an incentive not to work as quickly, but I think most city carrier's give a fair shake and not try to make their day longer. At least I don't do that because I enjoy my free time. My main tip would try to be very organized both in the office and on the route. Work efficiently, but safely, especially when driving. I load my parcels in the order of delivery or close to it. Being more organized does initially take more time, but you should come back with a pretty empty truck not having forgotten anything to deliver. Do you case your DPS letter size mail? If not, you can take it to the street and go through it as you deliver and not waste time in the PO casing it. City Letter carriers generally don't see the DPS letter mail until we finger through it at the delivery point. Along the route and in the office, try not to waste time talking to too many people.
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If it was a blank envelope with cash in it, I have no idea how it can be retrieved. I know this doesn't help you, but I'd have just left the item in the box if I saw no postage and no address on it. The letter carrier probably put it in the outgoing mail which is usually sent to a processing facility. There'd be no way to trace it back to your mother's address. To answer your question, I'd surmise that the envelope containing the cash is gone forever.
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Congratulations on being offered and accepting the CCA position. I don't know what you'd be required to drive in Manhattan. In our office all carriers are trained on the LLV and on the 2-ton postal truck, but I haven't driven the latter in years and would be reluctant to if asked due to my lack of familiarity with it and I, too, don't like the size of it. In Manhattan I don't like to drive at all. It is so congested and some streets are pretty narrow. Besides the 2-ton I don't see too many other postal vehicles driven in Manhattan. Many CCAs work on Sunday's delivering Amazon parcels which requires driving. You may ask at orientation about this or if you felt comfortable you could ask a letter carrier that you might see delivering in Manhattan the same question which you posted here. Always wear your seatbelt and good luck David!
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