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 how this works in all offices, but I can tell you what happens in the office where I deliver mail in Long Island, NY. This may not be a nationwide policy. When a letter carrier (usually an unassigned regular or CCA) opts, or holds down, an assignment they get that assignments day off. Our office has mostly rotating days off so that won't change. What may change is the "days off" group that carrier falls into. This is usually a low impact issue when a carrier opts for a group since almost all of us have rotating days off. Only 2 assignments at the PO where I work has 2 assignments with fixed days off (Saturday). The remaining 40 (approximately) assignments have rotating days off. Thank you for the question.
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As I'm writing this reply on April 12, I'm pretty sure that the mail has been delivered on stonesboro rd in ft Washington, MD by now for April 8. ???? This q and a isn't for USPS customer service or any real-time questions. I mostly answer questions about being a letter carrier and possibly make suggestions if someone has a customer service problem that doesn't need immediate attention. With regards to your question, I think that only your local PO would know when and if mail was delivered to your street.
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Lisa, in my experience your mail should be processed normally so you need not worry. I don't often collect mail from the blue boxes as part of my assignment but if I saw regular mail in the Express Priority Blue Box I'd just put it with other outgoing mail in my postal vehicle and it'd be treated normally. I've never heard of outgoing mail being delayed by this. Thank you for your question.
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I don't know the answer to this question but I would generally think we can't do profiling based on what we see and then refer that to the USPSIS. There may be a branch of the USPS that does legally do such observation and data collecting but I know nothing about it nor have ever been approached about being involved in such activity. What you're asking about seems somewhat discriminatory so I would likely never want to be involved in any type of racial profiling.
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I admit it's odd that you haven't received mail in your PO Box for a couple of weeks. One reaction is that maybe there has been no mail for you, but if you've had overflows in the past I guess that scenario is unlikely. Furthermore, I don't even know what happens in a PO Box mail overflow situation. I thought you just may have to pick up the overflow mail from a retail sales and service associate during the retail counter hours but I'm not sure. Has any person or organization you normally receive mail from contacted you to say an item addressed to you has been returned to them? Is there any specific mail you haven't received that you were expecting to receive? In short, since the PO has confirmed that your PO Box is open I don't know why you haven't received any mail in 2.5 weeks. One idea I had was to mail a letter to your own PO Box. It should arrive there in about 2 days if mailed somehwat locally.
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Not often. I deliver the same route each day, so I pretty much know when residents move in or out. I deliver mail in an upper middle class community and there aren't many rentals and most houses are occupied. If mail begins to accumulate for awhile and I don't see any activity at the house and the grounds start to look more unkempt I may suspect a house is vacant. When most people move, they submit a change of address/forwarding order. This also gives me an indication that if I don't see a new residents name that the house could be vacant. At present, about 1% of the houses on my route are considered vacant and don't receive mail delivery. I'm sure in many other communities that aren't as well off economically there could be more vacant homes.
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I don't think that the letter carrier should be giving the mail to the woman who moved out just because he knows her personally. If the woman didn't put in a proper change of address request with the USPS, then it is appropriate for the mail to be returned to sender with an endorsement by the USPS saying "unable to forward" or "moved, left no address". I wouldn't get involved with anyone's mail based on my relationship of knowing them. Fortunately, it's rare that I'm ever asked to do anything that is questionable regarding the mail. As far as your question goes, I don't know that the mailman is allowed to do what he is doing, but it doesn't seem right.
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