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’ve never found any odd animal inside a mailbox. In the area I deliver, I don’t think there are snakes in the wild. The main thing we’d need to be careful about are wasps or bees and I don’t see them around he mailboxes too often.
FH, thanks for your question. I’ll start by saying your mileage may vary. I don’t know if there is a correct procedure as to how to handle mail delivery to a business which is sometimes open and sometimes closed. I would usually go inside to deliver the mail and ask if there is any outgoing mail if a receptionist or other personnel are available. I mostly deliver to residences so I don’t have a lot of experience in this situation. It’s possible that the business owner has an exterior mailbox and prefers or doesn’t mind if the mail is left in the mailbox whether or not the business is open. I suppose a carrier who delivers to the same business daily knows what is preferred but there are often substitutes delivering the mail so if there are no instructions left for that substitute and no sign on the mailbox saying “please come inside if the office is open” then I’m not sure what that letter carrier would do. We are often told so little how to do certain procedures which is why i almost always put in the disclaimer of “your mileage may vary”.
I am not sure about this as I’ve never encountered this situation. I would think that you would just get out of the vehicle (making sure to shut the engine when you do so as per USPS procedures), walk around to the keypad and enter the code to open the gate, return to the driver side of the vehicle, start the engine, and drive through the gate. The issue you may be thinking about is if the gate remains open long enough for the postal vehicle to drive through. I don’t know the answer to this. I deliver to a couple of gated neighborhoods on occasion, but they are usually staffed by a person or could go up automatically without a code.
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It is very unlikely someone would mail a bomb, but Im sure it has happened. Recently, a man sent quite a few inactive devices that looked like explosives ito famous people or politicians. I’m sure that there have been some explosives detonated at their destination or possibly before, but I don’t know the details. We are sometimes told to be on the lookout for suspicious packages, but, to be honest, it’s never really on my mind. Keep in mind I tend to look through rose-colored glasses and think that kind of thing doesn’t happen here.
I have no idea but consider myself intelligent.
I didn’t think about that with regards to your last question about an address having no mailbox. You are correct. Many businesses don’t have mailboxes. We would just walk in and leave it with an employee at the business, at a reception area or other designated area. If the business happens to be closed when we get there, it’s normal procedure to just attempt the mail on the next delivery day. This is very common in office buildings when many businesses are closed on Saturday. We would bring all accumulated mail for delivery on the next delivery day (usually a Monday).
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