Ask a Mailman (City Letter Carrier) anything

1237 Questions

Last Answer on February 18, 2022

Why would a "government official" (or someone driving a gov't use only vehicle) be following my mailman on his route?

Asked by JP almost 11 years ago

Supervisors or Postal Inspectors sometimes monitor carrier activities while they are delivering mail. Approximately 1x per year, a supervisor will spend much of the day going around your route with you and filling out a P Form 3999 (which describes the time and activities a route takes to complete). Sometimes they will be in a Gov't use vehicle or sometimes they can ride along in the delivery vehicle. Postal Inspectors have a law enforcement function so they may watch a carrier activities if they suspect something illegal. I have seen postal inspectors at the PO where I work just a couple of times in my many years of employment. When we are followed during the day by a supervisor, it's just a bit of annoyance and know it's part of their job. As long as the letter carrier is doing their job properly there is nothing to worry about.

571 Votes

Does your mail still get delivered if the carrier is on vacation?

Asked by Cliff over 9 years ago

Cliff, mail gets delivered if a letter carrier is on vacation. There is usually a replacement letter carrier who will cover the route of the regular letter carrier who is on vacation. If there isn't enough staffing available, the route which the regular carrier is on vacation from my be split between other letter carriers. For this reason your mail should still be delivered but possibly at a very different time than the regular letter carrier does.

571 Votes

what do i do with mail that was delivered to the po box irent but isnt addressed to me?

Asked by po box over 10 years ago

If you have received incorrect mail in your PO Box, you can do a few things. You can write on the envelope, "addressee unknown" and push it back through the PO Box so it lands on the floor or leave it in an outgoing mail collection box. Either way, the PO Box clerk should see that it doesn't belong to you after you have written on it and either forward it or return it to the sender. You could probably also keep the mail but that may not be ethical especially if it was important mail. I'm sure many PO Boxes get closed and the renter doesn't leave forwarding instructions.

570 Votes

Thank you so much for a speedy answer. Thank you for answering all these questions! One other question I would have is, what do you do when a house does not have a mailbox?

Asked by Dee over 9 years ago

My pleasure to answer yours and others questions, Dee! It's easy to respond quickly as I don't get an overwhelming number of questions. I also don't like to have a backlog of emails either. Anyhow, to answer your question the correct thing to do is to not deliver the mail and have it returned to the sender with the endorsement "No Mail Receptacle". I don't come across this situation very often. I sometimes fill in on another route and there is one house with no mailbox. I just rubber band the mail and leave it on their bench by a front door. I think if it was on my postal route I'd request the customer install a mailbox to have mail delivery service.

570 Votes

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If I was to put mail in the outside mailbox at post office on a Sunday buy the box said mon-fri 5 does that mean it won't be picked up until Monday at 5? When can I expect it to be delivered

Asked by lynnie about 10 years ago

It depends on where your letter is being mailed to. I think nationwide most letters reach their destination in 2-3 days, but probably no sooner than that. The mailbox you deposited the letter into said collection is m-f at 5PM. That means that as long as the letter was deposited prior to box posted time, your letter will be dispatched that day for processing and transport. It's possible that the letter was collected before 5PM on Monday but that would be a decision made locally by the post office. If it was collected early someone would still have to go to empty the collection box at or after the posted time.

569 Votes

Hi, Dave. I just accept a CCA position in Manhattan district in New York City. Do I need to drive the 2 ton postal van? Even though I have my driver's license for more than 10 years. I've never driven a car this size. Especially in a city like NY

Asked by David over 10 years ago

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!

569 Votes

So a friend put something in my mailbox thinking I would get it, (she puts like books and things), is it possible that if she put a bag in there that the mailman would have taken it out? Just curious and hoping it wasn't a thief... Thanks!

Asked by Caitlynn over 10 years ago

It's possible that either things happened. It may depend on where you live, but actually having things from mailboxes where I work is quite rare. As far as a letter carrier taking it out of the mailbox, I can't really say. Some letter carriers are strict and say nothing can be in the mailbox except US Mail. If they take it out I'm not sure what they'd be doing with it. I am not really sure how you'd find out. I doubt the PO would be of much help. As much as I don't like things left in mailboxes that aren't US mail, if I can clearly see it's not outgoing mail, I'll usually just leave it and put the mail in the box. I have to stress that I can predict the actions of other letter carriers. I've seen too many who don't care and can be vindictive toward customer which I don't understand.

569 Votes

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Mailman (City Letter Carrier)

Ask me anything!

What do YOU do?

Why would a "government official" (or someone driving a gov't use only vehicle) be following my mailman on his route?

Does your mail still get delivered if the carrier is on vacation?

what do i do with mail that was delivered to the po box irent but isnt addressed to me?

Thank you so much for a speedy answer. Thank you for answering all these questions! One other question I would have is, what do you do when a house does not have a mailbox?

Also on Jobstr...

If I was to put mail in the outside mailbox at post office on a Sunday buy the box said mon-fri 5 does that mean it won't be picked up until Monday at 5? When can I expect it to be delivered

Hi, Dave. I just accept a CCA position in Manhattan district in New York City. Do I need to drive the 2 ton postal van? Even though I have my driver's license for more than 10 years. I've never driven a car this size. Especially in a city like NY

So a friend put something in my mailbox thinking I would get it, (she puts like books and things), is it possible that if she put a bag in there that the mailman would have taken it out? Just curious and hoping it wasn't a thief... Thanks!

Mailman (City Letter Carrier)

Ask me anything!

What do YOU do?

Why would a "government official" (or someone driving a gov't use only vehicle) be following my mailman on his route?

Does your mail still get delivered if the carrier is on vacation?

what do i do with mail that was delivered to the po box irent but isnt addressed to me?

Thank you so much for a speedy answer. Thank you for answering all these questions! One other question I would have is, what do you do when a house does not have a mailbox?

Also on Jobstr...

If I was to put mail in the outside mailbox at post office on a Sunday buy the box said mon-fri 5 does that mean it won't be picked up until Monday at 5? When can I expect it to be delivered

Hi, Dave. I just accept a CCA position in Manhattan district in New York City. Do I need to drive the 2 ton postal van? Even though I have my driver's license for more than 10 years. I've never driven a car this size. Especially in a city like NY

So a friend put something in my mailbox thinking I would get it, (she puts like books and things), is it possible that if she put a bag in there that the mailman would have taken it out? Just curious and hoping it wasn't a thief... Thanks!

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