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 getting OIG to investigate anything for the USPS. I think they may have a tip hotline that can be called but I don't know if they will place your tip on any high priority. I would call that carrier a sleazeball for not delivering anything that should be. It is illegal plus the only reason our job exists is because items are being paid for that we should deliver. I have the impression that so many employees (including management) don't care at all about proper delivery of mail and what gets discarded or has the proper postage. There is so little oversight as to what we do on a daily basis unless we do something egregious or work unsafely. I'm sorry to be so negative. It's important to me that every piece of mail that is properly addressed is delivered, no matter if it's a catalog, weekly supermarket flier, or birthday card. It's all mail and should be handled accordingly.
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Jonas, I am no legal expert to cite which laws may or may not have been broken. I am pretty sure that this isn’t an appropriate action on behalf of your husband’s friend. In fact, I’m very disturbed to hear this story. You are completely correct that our job is to deliver the mail, NOT ask any q’s or comment about the mail destination or be a private detective. You need not answer him at all or you could take it a step further and say “Do not ask me anything about my mail”. I’m not so sure I’d threaten to report the letter carrier for his actions but you’d be within your rights to do so if the problem continued. I hope this issue doesn’t continue for you.
On a related note, I definitely do pay attention to where mail is going to or coming from. I would never comment on it to a customer or talk about it with someone else. We should be trusted employees and have an obligation to keep all information confidential.
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Jvitto48, thanks for your question but I’m sorry that I can’t give you any assistance in this matter. I don’t know if your local shop steward or area representative can help with this. I’ve never been too involved with any rte inspections, or if I have, it was so many years ago and I don’t remember. NALC has a 2012 “guide to route inspections” available online as a PDF but it’s 188 pages long and may not even address your question about base parcel amount. I don’t know how the base parcel amount is arrived at. I also don’t know if it includes every scannable parcel. My generic advice is to take all authorized lunches and breaks, as well as one or two bathroom breaks if needed. I know route inspections can make people anxious but my attitude has always been that whatever time it takes is valid as long as you aren’t obviously extending your street time. I’ve received between 1-5 sampling requests daily and I know that is a valid use of time while scanning the flats and letters. Good luck on the inspection. I know that’s easy for me to say not being involved. Thanks for writing.
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I'm not sure what you can do about this because I can't speak for what another letter carrier will do in this situation. It is admirable that you are taking initiative for your barking, aggressive dog. If your dog is out but contained in a yard and behind a fence or gate, I'm not sure why your letter carrier wouldn't come on the street. I see some aggressive, big loud dogs while delivering mail but they aren't loose so I don't worry about them. I am not someone who is good with dogs but know many people love their pets. I think you may need to contact the post office and have a conversation with the delivery supervisor and explain (if true) that your dog isn't near the mailbox, is contained in a safe area and isn't a threat to the letter carrier. I don't know what the resolution will be, but it has to start with a conversation. Most rational letter carriers can figure out if a dog is a threat or not. A loud aggressive bark shouldn't be the sole determination.
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I don't know the rule about this Debbie. I would guess that for the safety of the letter carrier it is recommended not to enter an open garage or backyard. I almost always will leave any packages at the front door. If the garage is open and the package can be left there I may consider doing that as well. We have never been told not to deliver a package through and open garage.
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I don't know for sure how it works in your town, but I hope it's similar to where I work. If somebody has a doorslot and would like me to mail a letter, they can leave the letter noticeably hanging out of the door slot and I would take it to be mailed. I admit it is a bit precarious as the letter could fall out before being picked up for delivery. Another option is to put a clothespin or other type of clip near the mail slot in your door and attach the outgoing letter so it will be very visible for the letter carrier to take as outgoing mail. You can't go wrong by finding a blue collection box or going to a Post Office, but I think you can be confident using the above mentioned methods. Thanks for your question.
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JC, I'm so glad you had a great experience with your letter carrier today. Too often I hear of the opposite happening. I don't know exactly how you'd leave feedback for your letter carrier, but I have 2 suggestions. First, you could go to www.usps.com and look for info on how to contact the USPS. It may just be a general call center but hopefully they'll give you the number or some way to contact your local PO. Another option is to write a letter (I know it's not too common these days) to your local PO, attention: Delivery Supervisor or Postmaster giving praise to your letter carrier and describing what she did to go above and beyond. You don't necessarily need the street address for the PO, just the correct ZIP code for your PO. Using the USPS mobile app or the website you can find the address of your local PO. Thanks for taking the time to give positive feedback.
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