Ask a Mailman (City Letter Carrier) anything

1237 Questions

Last Answer on February 18, 2022

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 over 9 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.

434 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 almost 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.

434 Votes

this isn't a trivia question but kind of sounds like one do you know what island in the US it would take up to three weeks to receive mail from in oregon

Asked by Megan over 9 years ago

I don't know the answer to this though not much surprises me regarding the USPS. While most mail is delivered domestically within about 4 days, I suppose there a reason some exceptions where it takes much longer. You can post this question again with the answer (if you know it) or email me privately daveabbey at aol dot com.

432 Votes

If you could change anything about your uniform what would it be??

Asked by Lulu over 8 years ago

I'm generally satisfied with the uniforms that we wear at the USPS and they haven't changed much since I've been working there. The only issue that I have with our uniforms that I can think of is that they are difficult to keep clean. I wear a satchel over my shoulder and carry mail in my arms so the shirt tends to get very dirty. The shoulder strap makes a mark on the uniform shirt where it rests. I admit that I don't wash the shirts as often as I should but they are hard to keep looking crisp nonetheless. I like the fact that we wear uniforms so there isn't much to think about wearing each day to work except the layering to keep me warm in the winter. Thank you for your question.

432 Votes

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The volume that he takes seems a bit unethical & he has been known to take coupons for free items, B1G1, $10 off a $10 purchase, get the items in bulk then resells them on Craigslist or Ebay. Extra benefit for USPS?

Asked by CaliDad over 9 years ago

I don't think there's any benefit for the USPS at all. I just think he's benefiting himself and it does seem unethical to me. It doesn't sound legal to take home any mail even though it's nondeliverable, nonreturnable, or excess advertisements. I just am not familiar with anybody enforcing it if it is illegal. On a similar note, there is a promotional pen company that sends out sample pens to potential customers. Sometimes the company has moved and the mail isn't forwardable. I'll take the pen out of the envelope and put the envelope into the NOVM (no obvious value mail) receptacle which each PO has. Again, it may not be legal, but I don't see the issue in taking it for personal use.

432 Votes

Is there a reason why we should be getting our magazines and catalogs all on one day and usually the weekend?

Asked by Mary over 9 years ago

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.

432 Votes

Can I hide a po box from a mailman I know whose route is not in my zip code or neighborhood? Can any mailman look up the address or po box of any person in the city he delivers mail? Are knowing things like this not restricted to people in his route?

Asked by Angie over 9 years ago

I don't know about this. I have never been interested or been asked to find out if a particular person owns a PO Box. I would say that we can't look up in a database to see if a person owns a PO Box.I do have access to the actual PO Boxes where I work and can see from the labels at the clerk side of the PO Box who the current renter of the PO Box is, but don't know of any internal database that I'd have access to. Anybody can go online (general Google search) to search for the address where a person lives and that may yield a result, but it wouldn't likely result in any PO Box info.

431 Votes

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Mailman (City Letter Carrier)

Ask me anything!

What do YOU do?

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

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?

this isn't a trivia question but kind of sounds like one do you know what island in the US it would take up to three weeks to receive mail from in oregon

If you could change anything about your uniform what would it be??

Also on Jobstr...

The volume that he takes seems a bit unethical & he has been known to take coupons for free items, B1G1, $10 off a $10 purchase, get the items in bulk then resells them on Craigslist or Ebay. Extra benefit for USPS?

Is there a reason why we should be getting our magazines and catalogs all on one day and usually the weekend?

Can I hide a po box from a mailman I know whose route is not in my zip code or neighborhood? Can any mailman look up the address or po box of any person in the city he delivers mail? Are knowing things like this not restricted to people in his route?

Mailman (City Letter Carrier)

Ask me anything!

What do YOU do?

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

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?

this isn't a trivia question but kind of sounds like one do you know what island in the US it would take up to three weeks to receive mail from in oregon

If you could change anything about your uniform what would it be??

Also on Jobstr...

The volume that he takes seems a bit unethical & he has been known to take coupons for free items, B1G1, $10 off a $10 purchase, get the items in bulk then resells them on Craigslist or Ebay. Extra benefit for USPS?

Is there a reason why we should be getting our magazines and catalogs all on one day and usually the weekend?

Can I hide a po box from a mailman I know whose route is not in my zip code or neighborhood? Can any mailman look up the address or po box of any person in the city he delivers mail? Are knowing things like this not restricted to people in his route?

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