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 cards that need to be submitted so that mail can be received at rural mailboxes, but I'm also not familiar with rural route procedures in general. I don't see why mail that has a valid address regardless of the name of the resident/business which is on the mail wouldn't be delivered unless the recipient refuses it. I have no authority as a city letter carrier to decide who qualifies to receive mail. I deliver mail to an address unless it's a previous resident or an unknown name which the current resident doesn't know or want to accept. It's very normal to have someone run a business from their home. I think it was proper of you to check with your local PO to ask about this but I wouldn't have thought you would receive the answer you did. If you wanted to, you could tape a small note inside of your mailbox saying "accepting mail for (name of business)". That would remove any doubt in the mind of a rural carrier whether or not the business name is valid at your address. To answer the first part of your q, I hope the postal worker wasn't drunk, just giving you wrong info.
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Mail from California to Georgia which was mailed on Friday should take about 3-4 days to be delivered. If the address is correct but lacking the apt. # it is possible the letter carrier will return the item to the sender marked "insufficient address". If the letter carrier knows where the letter should be delivered to, they normally will deliver it properly. It usually won't be sitting at your local PO and would be hard to find even if it were. I'd say be patient and hopefully it will show up by Wednesday.
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HI Jack, that is an interesting question you pose. Since I'm pretty easy going and can filter out a lot of the garbage spewed out by some co-workers and their disruptive personalities and the sometimes incompetent management, the biggest pain to me is winter weather. As warm as I can dress for the severe cold, there are occasions where my extremities just get too cold too handle it and I haven't found, or don't use, the best gloves or shoes to insulate me properly. I think if that were figured out, there isn't too much of a pain in this job. Believe me, many other letter carriers would disagree with me and can be very petty and complain about things that I feel are insignificant. Apprx 75% of the day I'm out of the office delivering mail, listening to podcasts and getting exercise by walking. I'm getting paid a fair salary with good benefits and a high level of job security. Regarding my weather comment, there are usually just a few days per year that the weather is unbearably cold. I'm not sure how I would do in much colder climates than in NY (on Long Island). All things considered, I could be doing a lot worse for a job. Thanks for your question.
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Jessica, yes I have a very dry sense of humor and since you don’t know me it’s important I put LOL. If I didn’t you may have been a bit taken aback by the comment. Either of the reasons given by the fill-in guy could be valid but you think it may be another reason. I think eventually that you will find out by whether or not he starts delivering to your house again. Sometimes if we have too much to deliver, the supervisor will take away part of our route and give it to a substitute letter carrier or for another regular carrier as overtime.
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Dee, that just happened to me today. I was given part of another route to deliver, but along with the mail on the other route which I was suposed to deliver was additional mail that wasn't part of my extra assignment. Not knowing if I was approved to deliver that additional mail, I called the delivery supervisor at the Post Office and asked for further guidance. She said to go ahead and deliver it and that wouldn't be an issue with me taking longer than I was supposed to. Basically, just call the post office and ask for the delivery supervisor. When they send you out to deliver mail, your supervisor should give you the office phone number to call if there are any questions. It's pretty common for me to call the PO and vice versa if we have questions. I would hope your supervisors are just as receptive as it is part of their job to assist you with anything you may not be sure of. I also have the cell #'s of some of my co-workers who I'll call/text if I have a question they might know the answer to.
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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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I don't know if there is a way to do this for sure. We generally frown upon this at the PO as it takes time for the letter carrier to gather up the mail for someone before leaving for delivery. The reason is that in many offices the mail is automated so the carrier doesn't have your mail easily accessible. It may be in trays that the carrier doesn't access until they leave for delivery. The only way to do this is to go to the retail counter and ask the sales and service associate if you could get your mail. They may flat out say that they don't do this. I have rarely been asked to get a person's mail while still at the PO so I think we don't even allow it at our office, Basically, what I'm saying is that it can't hurt to try but don't be surprised if the answer is no.
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