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 have no idea why a letter carrier would do that without proper notice to you and how would the other resident have a key to that mailbox since you have it? Do you have a key to the correct mailbox or a newer mailbox with your correct address. I am a bit confused about your question. Is the mail for the different townhome now being delivered to the mailbox where your mail originally went? I'd recommend contacting the post office from where your mail is delivered or go to usps.com to email them with your question or call: 1-800-275-8777. They will probably contact your local post office to get some type of info as to why this happened. I'm not sure a property manager at the the townhome complex could help but it wouldn't hurt to ask.
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Now you're speaking my language Patty. This is exactly how I deliver much of my postal route. The mailboxes where I deliver mail are at the door as opposed to at the street. If the mailboxes are at the street, the letter carrier can usually remain in their vehicle and go house to house. That is called a mounted or curbside delivery method. When the houses aren't too far apart and are on both sides of the street, I'll park at the end of a block, walk down one side delivering the mail, cross over to the other side and return to my vehicle after delivering both sides of the street. That is called a relay. From the same parking spot, I can sometimes deliver up to 3 relays of mail. The method described is called the 'park and loop' method. It is efficient because you can often cross lawns without having to continuously walk to the street and move the vehicle. The relays on the route I deliver range in length from 14-28 houses.
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Asking me and other letter carriers will likely get you 2 different answers. I think it's great to get the smartpost and surePost parcels to deliver alongside our regular mail. I view it as more business for the USPS, my employer. If my employer can get more business that would hopefully translate as better for the workers. I don't find it an annoyance whatsoever and know it's part of my job. If the volume of parcels gets too high I would possibly take longer to complete my route which translates into overtime pay which would be beneficial. The volume of parcels that I deliver is not overwhelming except around the holiday season. Amazon uses the USPS as well as other delivery companies to complete their delivery fulfillment. There are some coworkers who don't want to do any extra work and complain about everything so the extra parcels would annoy them. I feel they are close-minded and lazy. In so many cases I don't see the importance of US Mail nowadays with regards to financial statements and bills. That has been able to be done electronically for so many years now. Parcels are what our business should be happy to be delivering. Don't ever feel bad about ordering too much online. I know I wouldn't.
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Hello CP2015, I'm not sure what POCs are but I'll guess and say those are the amt of possible deliveries you have each day which sounds like a lot to me. It isn't easy to work outside in the summer when the sun is pounding down on you. While I prefer the heat vs the extreme cold, the summer can be taxing on your body. I'd recommend wearing a wide-brimmed hat to keep the sun off your eyes, face, and neck. I also recommend drinking as much water as you can even before you get thirsty. It sweats off of you pretty quickly so the more you stay hydrated the better you should feel. In terms of actually burning, I suppose you could apply sunscreen liberally with an SPF of 40+. Stay safe and thanks for writing.
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I'm not sure why you have recently started getting standard mail addressed to a tenant from 5 years ago. It's possible that name and address was on somebody's mailing list which was then sold to other companies/organizations. One option is to put the mail back in the mailstream or mailbox and write "person doesn't live here" on the envelope. A conscientious letter carrier would make note of it and only deliver mail addressed to you (the current tenant). Another option is to just discard/recycle the unwanted mail. Most standard mail doesn't get returned to the sender if unwanted by the recipient. We put it into a big recycle bin at work and I think it gets shipped off to a processing or recycling facility. The rate a mailer pays for standard mail usually doesn't include any type of address or return service to notify them of outdated names on their mailing lists.
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I don't know what at you mean by a commercial mailbox, but generally the mail should be delivered as it's addressed unless their is a valid change of address order filed with the USPS. I have never come across that request or situation but I probably wouldn't follow those instructions, though another letter carrier may. We generally don't like special requests like that because we aren't supposed to honor them and who knows if a replacement carrier would do that when the regular carrier is not working. I like to keep thing a simple and straightforward and that seems to work well.
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I think there's an excellent chance that he will receive a letter if you adress it to the post office in the city where that letter carrier works, saying "Attention: (Letter Carrier ______)" on the top line of the address. Either the clerk or the supervisor/postmaster that handles internal mail should give the letter to the letter carrier. It's possible that an office my frown on having personal mail sent to a letter carrier in an office but I don't think it should be an issue as long as it's not a frequent occurrence. I've never come across this situation so I can't say for sure it will work, but I think it should. Thank you for your question.
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