Ask a Mailman (City Letter Carrier) anything

1237 Questions

Last Answer on February 18, 2022

Are mail carriers allowed to take mail truck home everyday during their route? Curious because my neighbor does this daily and usually in his truck for a bit like 10-15 min then goes in his house for 20-30 min. Then leaves.

Asked by Anna over 9 years ago

I believe it's allowed for a letter carrier to take home the mail vehicle to your own residence as long as it's within a reasonable distance of where you deliver the mail, I delivered mail to a letter carrier's home who delivered mail on a nearby route. He'd bring his vehicle home daily (I could set my watch by him) and eat lunch. Our normal lunch break is 30 minutes and that includes the time it takes to get to and from your postal route. If the carrier was there for more than 30 minutes, that may not be appropriate but I can't really speak for anything that I don't personally know since the rules are so often enforced arbitrarily.

437 Votes

Newly hired CCA. Orientation next week. Will I be drug tested further? How often will I be tested?

Asked by Dee about 9 years ago

Dee, it has been so many years since I was hired so I can't say for sure what the drug testing policy is. I can, however, give you my experience. As far as I've ever heard or seen, you are drug tested once and that is pre-hiring. I have never heard of a random drug test being administered to letter carriers during their career. I'll just state the obvious and say keep clean and you'll have nothing to be concerned about. Good luck to you in your job/career with USPS.

436 Votes

Hi I wanted to know, if I placed a letter with just a name and no stamp into someone's mailbox would the mailman take it, or leave it?

Asked by Gina kennard over 9 years ago

I think many letter carriers would just leave it because they may notice right away that there is no address on it or stamp. I can't speak for all letter carriers because there are many of us who don't pay attention and just take what's in the mailbox as outgoing mail. I don't think this good for them to do but some of my co-workers are clueless or are possibly paying attention to their smart phone vs. paying attention to the task at hand. To be honest, the mailbox should only be used for US Mail. My advice would be to not leave this letter in someone's mailbox to guard against the above scenario happening. To sum up my answer in one word: maybe.

435 Votes

I share a large mailbox with a neighbor who never gets his mail. He is not at home often. I have been advised to throw out his junk mail. I don't think that is legal, nor my responsibility. What can I do without starting an incident. He's nice!

Asked by Meela over 9 years ago

I wouldn't get too involved with this if I were you. I mean you wouldn't get in trouble as far as I know but you are correct in saying it's not your responsibility. Who advised you to throw out his junk mail? I would never do that as a USPS employee. No mail is junk to me. A mailer is paying my employer to deliver a service (mail) and I deliver it all. There are certain classes of mail which are non-forwardable and get a better speed of service, but it's all mail. I think the way I'd handle it is one of two ways. The first suggestion is to do nothing as it's truly not your responsibility to get involved with someone else's mail. The second suggestion would be to periodically take all of his mail, rubber band it and leave it by his front door if you feel that is a safe and secure place to leave it. I don't now how your residences are situated. Thank you for this interesting question.

435 Votes

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A person in my neighborhood is not getting her mail because the carrier is afraid of the dog INSIDE her house. She leaves her front door open, but has a sturdy storm door. She called the local manager, who said that it is always up to carriers. True?

Asked by Cathy over 8 years ago

Cathy, in my opinion that is a tricky situation. I think it technically can be up to the carrier to decide whether or not they feel safe delivering mail to the house with the dog or not. On the flip side, I encounter that situation a couple of times per day and don't think twice about delivering to houses where I know the storm door is latched and strong enough to contain the dog. This is coming from a carrier (me) who isn't too comfortable with dogs overall and have never owned one. It is a very rare situation (almost zero) that I've refused to deliver mail to a house with a dog inside the front door. If the door looks a bit ajar I might put my foot by the front door while delivering the mail. I'm not sure any of this helps. I think the basic mantra is if we don't feel comfortable delivering to a house we don't have to. It seems a bit too gray though because someone could take that to an extreme. I feel it's always easier to deliver the mail then to have to bring it back and then attempt 2x the amount on the next delivery day.

434 Votes

My mailman put a note on our mailbox that said we MUST pick up our mail DAILY. Or the mail will be returned to sender. Is that a law or do we have a not nice mail carrier?

Asked by Cathy over 9 years ago

I'd say that it is untrue that it's a law that one must pick up their mail daily. If it is a law I've never heard of it and it wouldn't make any sense to me. I believe the carrier is just being not nice and telling you an untruth. The issue a letter carrier may have if someone doesn't pick up their mail daily is that depending on the size of the mailbox it may get too difficult to fit in subsequent mail deliveries. If this were the case it's possible that mail could be returned to the sender. Most mailboxes that I see can handle quite a few days worth of mail and it is common for people to not pick up their mail daily. If you are concerned about your mail being returned, please contact a delivery supervisor or postmaster to get clarification on the matter. Again, I don't see any issue or problem with mail not being collected daily by the recipient unless the mailbox capacity is pretty small.

433 Votes

I recently put mail in the drop off thing at the post office at 3:45 . When will the mailman get it out to take it to its designated spot . It's in the same city where it's going to

Asked by Toree over 9 years ago

If you dropped the letter at the PO at 3:45 PM, there is an excellent chance that the letter would be collected out of the box the same day (assuming it was M-F) and then sent to a local mail processing facility to be sorted and then sent to its destination. This usually takes two days if it's in the same city to get from the origin to destination. It used to be a one-day delivery standard but I think many places now operate on a two-day standard for First-Class mail in the same city.

432 Votes

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Mailman (City Letter Carrier)

Ask me anything!

What do YOU do?

Are mail carriers allowed to take mail truck home everyday during their route? Curious because my neighbor does this daily and usually in his truck for a bit like 10-15 min then goes in his house for 20-30 min. Then leaves.

Newly hired CCA. Orientation next week. Will I be drug tested further? How often will I be tested?

Hi I wanted to know, if I placed a letter with just a name and no stamp into someone's mailbox would the mailman take it, or leave it?

I share a large mailbox with a neighbor who never gets his mail. He is not at home often. I have been advised to throw out his junk mail. I don't think that is legal, nor my responsibility. What can I do without starting an incident. He's nice!

Also on Jobstr...

A person in my neighborhood is not getting her mail because the carrier is afraid of the dog INSIDE her house. She leaves her front door open, but has a sturdy storm door. She called the local manager, who said that it is always up to carriers. True?

My mailman put a note on our mailbox that said we MUST pick up our mail DAILY. Or the mail will be returned to sender. Is that a law or do we have a not nice mail carrier?

I recently put mail in the drop off thing at the post office at 3:45 . When will the mailman get it out to take it to its designated spot . It's in the same city where it's going to

Mailman (City Letter Carrier)

Ask me anything!

What do YOU do?

Are mail carriers allowed to take mail truck home everyday during their route? Curious because my neighbor does this daily and usually in his truck for a bit like 10-15 min then goes in his house for 20-30 min. Then leaves.

Newly hired CCA. Orientation next week. Will I be drug tested further? How often will I be tested?

Hi I wanted to know, if I placed a letter with just a name and no stamp into someone's mailbox would the mailman take it, or leave it?

I share a large mailbox with a neighbor who never gets his mail. He is not at home often. I have been advised to throw out his junk mail. I don't think that is legal, nor my responsibility. What can I do without starting an incident. He's nice!

Also on Jobstr...

A person in my neighborhood is not getting her mail because the carrier is afraid of the dog INSIDE her house. She leaves her front door open, but has a sturdy storm door. She called the local manager, who said that it is always up to carriers. True?

My mailman put a note on our mailbox that said we MUST pick up our mail DAILY. Or the mail will be returned to sender. Is that a law or do we have a not nice mail carrier?

I recently put mail in the drop off thing at the post office at 3:45 . When will the mailman get it out to take it to its designated spot . It's in the same city where it's going to

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