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 anything about who opens first class letters deemed suspicious by the USPSIS and the difficulty in obtaining a search warrant to do so. I'm guessing it's not something my local PO gets too involved in. I would think if the item is deemed harmless that it would continue on to be delivered to the recipient. I've never had any dealings with the USPSIS with regards to intercepting or seizing any mail that I deliver. We don't seem them too often at the postal facility where I work.
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John, I would say it breaks a code of confidentiality that we are expected to maintain as letter carriers. We are rarely reminded of this but I'm pretty sure we shouldn't give out that information. As to whether it's illegal or not I can't comment on that. In the past I have given out little bits of information about some neighbors to others but it's rare and I shouldn't have done that. I do realize that some neighbors are friends with each other and others aren't. It's always better to be on the safe side as a letter carrier not to give out information about anyone else. One can't get in trouble that way. On another note, I rarely would comment to a customer as to what I'm delivering them when I see them. For example,I wouldn't say "your phone bill is here or looks like your wife was ordering from Kohl's again". As much as those comments may seem benign I try to be mostly professional when speaking with customers.
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Congratulations on being hired as a CCA for the USPS. I can't say for sure that it's true that you won't get a day off. From what I've seen, the CCAs where I work often work 7 days a week but it seems after a couple of weeks they are given a day off. I don't know if there are any rules that you must be given a day off after working a certain amount of consecutive days. It may depend on the staffing level of your facility. I hope that you have chosen to join the NALC. Whether you have or not, a shop steward may have a better answer than I've given you on whether or not you are required to work unlimited days in a row. I'm also on a Facebook group for postal workers. One is NALC and the other is Postal Maniacs. If you join them, you could post this same question and get answers from actual CCAs. Good luck to you. Please work safely and deliver the mail accurately. Sunday delivery usually consists of Amazon.com package delivery, not regular mail.
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I don't know anything about the particulars in how you get to your route and any rules associated with that. I guess you have a walkout route which means there is no vehicle for you to use and you get your mail from relay boxes around the city. How is it possible that you can't walk to your route but you are unable to walk to deliver your route? I assume it is because of your age. I agree that one mile is a bit of a long way just to get to your delivery route. For the average person it takes about 18-20 minutes to walk one mile. Since I don't know any rules that discuss the method of transportation to get to your route, I'd refer you to a shop steward or the NALC regional office that covers your area. They may know more but don't count on it. There are just some scenarios not covered in our joint USPS/NALC handbooks or manuals. I don't know if there is some request for accommodation that could be made based on your physical condition.
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That certainly sounds fishy, especially with mail of a similar name to your Dad, and also nearby addresses. I suppose you could alert local law enforcement or USPS Postal Inspection Service but have no idea what their response would be. If mail arrives at your address with dad's name a little bit "off", he could open it and if it's anything like an unpaid bill he could either do nothing about or call the creditor and say that it's not him.
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I can answer your question in two parts. The first question you have is about whether or not mail can be forwarded to an address out of state even if the person isn't living in a residence in that state. Mail can be forwarded anywhere that the USPS delivers to as long as there is a proper change of addresss authorization/request submitted to the USPS. The easiest way to do this is at USPS.com .
As far as affecting and medical benefits and tax issues, I'm not qualified to give you an official answer. It probably depends on the source of the medical benefits. Some state public health assistance programs like Medicaid may require the recipient to live in that state. It doesn't necessarily mean their mail can't go somewhere else. I don't know about tax issues either. It shouldn't matter when filing a federal tax return, but I'm not sure about different state tax laws. There are probably 50 different answers to that.
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Sure you can. I don't see any reason why you couldn't do this. It's important to clearly write the letter carrier's name or "mailman" or something that makes it known it is for them. Postage shouldn't be necessary. I sometimes get notes asking me to hold the mail for them if they are on vacation and going away. This is a free service which is offered.
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