Ask a Mailman (City Letter Carrier) anything

1237 Questions

Last Answer on February 18, 2022

Are you still a Mailman? By the way thanks for asking my previous question. :)

Asked by angiezhang7248 Gmail Girl about 6 years ago

Yes, I am. it’s my pleasure to be able to answer questions that relate to my profession. am very fortunate to still be employed during the Covid19 Pandemic. Our workload has slowed down significantly since earlier in March, 2020. On most days there isn’t enough work to fill up a full 8-hour shift so we sometimes have to pivot. That means we complete our own assigned route plus :30 on another delivery route all within an 8-hour workday. The important part is staying safe and not being infected with Covid19. It is a scary disease with so many people dying.

361 Votes

Is there any condition besides a hurricane or wild fire or floods that they would say “okay don’t go out today”?

Asked by Micah over 6 years ago

There aren’t too many that I can think of where we wouldn’t go out on our routes. I believe if there was extreme cold and wind chill conditions or a snowfall that made the roads impasssable, the mgmt may decide to suspend delivery of mail for the day. I don’t keep track, but, in my career, mail delivery has only been canceled on a few occasions. The LLV that many of us use for delivery don’t handle well when snow has accumulated more than a few inches on a road. It is even worse on an incline or decline.

361 Votes

What do you think of this?
https://youtu.be/dplvOCL2N54

Asked by Dan over 6 years ago

Dan, I watched the video and it was pretty well done.i don’t know if it’s your video or you are just referencing it. It keeps referring to the postal inspecting service but it is the postal inspection service. They are somewhat thinly staffed so I don’t know how much they will investigate this particular case but I know what you talk about and it is definitely an issue. The same thing sometimes happens in my office where if some Amazon parcels happen to not get delivered there is a scan that is put on such as “no access” or business closed” that will “stop the clock”. It definitely is a false event scan if we just happened to forget the package at our office or forget to deliver it and it would be too far to go back and deliver it. I have no idea what the financial agreement is between the United States Postal Service and Amazon but we try to make sure each package that we get every day from Amazon is delivered that same day. The quality and quantity of the employees at each office varies greatly. I take a lot of pride in my work so I try to make sure each package is delivered each day for my postal route. There is definitely a falsification of scans where it says delivery has been “attempted” and it really hasn’t. I don’t know the solution to it except more public outcry and exposure. I will not be a whistleblower, however, because I would be concerned any retaliation for this. I don’t believe I’ve ever falsified and Amazon delivery scan.

360 Votes

Why is there sometimes someone else in the car when they are delivering mail?

Asked by Jane about 6 years ago

It’s either a supervisor doing a periodic check of the route and the carrier delivering it or there may be a trainee being shown how to do the job.

360 Votes

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What’s the worst weather you have ever worked in

Asked by Sid over 6 years ago

I can’t say what the worst weather was, but extreme cold for NY Metro area (around 0F) is pretty difficult to work in. If we get a significant snowfall, our LLV (long life vehicles) perform poorly on unplowed streets and even worse on inclines. As long as you dress properly and cover your extremities well, most inclement weather is manageable. A deluge of rain is difficult to work in because you are trying to stay dry as well as to keep the mail dry. I realize this doesn’t fully answer your question, but I can’t pinpoint any “worst weather” day I’ve experienced.

359 Votes

Have you eved had to call 911 while on the job

Asked by Mat almost 7 years ago

Fortunately, no. I believe if I were involved in a motor vehicle accident, I’d first call my supervisor, and then call 911 (unless there were apparent injuries or fire where we would call 911 first).

359 Votes

What do you do if your doing your mail route and a Tornado warning is issued?

Asked by Yancey about 6 years ago

I don’t live or work in an area with tornado warnings or sirens. I imagine if there was one or a severe thunderstorm, I’d seek shelter somewhere. The vehicle I use for work would be fine if there were a thunderstorm. If there were a tornado I do not believe the vehicle would be a safe place to be. Maybe I would go see if I could find a house and get down low but I’m not really sure of the right procedure because I’ve never been involved in an area subject to tornadoes. They are rare in the northeastern US where I work.

358 Votes