Mailman (City Letter Carrier)

Mailman (City Letter Carrier)

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.

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Last Answer on February 18, 2022

Best Rated

Is there ever people who are unhappy with you and why? Anyone ever yell at you about the time you show up or anything really that is something you can’t control and/or something that is just plain stupid

Asked by Caleb about 5 years ago

On the postal route, not particularly. I’m pretty easy going. I don’t really care when people just talk to you because you aren’t just a body. I mean they aren’t conversant and just want to talk about their accomplishments around the house, etc. Truthfully, it’s a waste of my time so I can tolerate it in small doses. If they get too long winded, I walk away and don’t give an excuse. I realize that wasn’t your question Rarely do I ever get complaints about my delivery or the time I arrive. The latter is out of my control. Mail is quite unimportant these days so many people don’t care when, or even, if they get a delivery. I can’t think of any stupid complaints. Every now and then there is a complaint or comment about mail being wet due to sweat on my arm. I don’t find that an unreasonable complaint, so for that customer, I try to keep her mail dry.

Has someone ever tried to get you to deliver a bomb?

Asked by Brick head over 5 years ago

No. Fortunately, that would be a super rare event. In all of my years working at the Postal Service the only issue I ever had to deal with was the 2001 anthrax attacks where we were concerned with exposure to anthrax that was being sent in the mail, 2001. There were 5 fatalities (2 of them were USPS employees) according to Wikipedia.

Should someone have a degree to do this job?

Asked by Bobby over 5 years ago

It is definitely not a requirement whatsoever to have any higher education for this job. No college degree is needed and won’t likely help or hinder your chances of being hired. I have a Bachelors degree (4-year) from s public university in NY. Most of my work colleagues don’t need have college degrees. The job as a letter carrier can be taught in a very short amount of time. You must be in reasonably good physical health and having good organizational skills and being a safe worker are important. I think having a degree helps me understand more about the USPS in general. I am curious by nature so I like to learn more than just how to do the job. Many of my coworkers aren’t that well educated and tend to believe things too easily they may hear through the rumor mill and spread it as fact. I really don’t like misinformation.

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

Asked by Jane over 5 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.

Does my mailman know where
I'M moving....many nosey
neighbors!!!! thank you

Asked by PERSNICKEDY about 5 years ago

Your letter carrier doesn’t generally have access to your new address if you have filled out a forwarding order (change of address request) via www.usps.com. If you were to manually fill out a paper COA request, it’s possible the letter carrier may get a copy of it. I sometimes get a list of the current forwarding orders on file for my route. The list does have the new address for anybody who moved in the last year and submitted a forwarding order. That information is confidential and should never be released to anybody except via official summons or other legal matter. I would be confident that your letter carrier would keep that information private. Most of the time they don’t even have access to that information.

Woah! This is crazy right here! What do you think about this?! https://youtu.be/aFYYMypm8IE

Asked by Jearmy almost 5 years ago

I saw this on the internet and heard about it on the radio. Unfortunately, the USPS sometimes has employees that don’t quite understand the sanctity of the mail and that they can’t throw it away. According to the article he employees was a new hire. Maybe he was overwhelmed with his work assignment, though that is no excuse for discarding mail into a dumpster. I’d hope that he gets in a lot of trouble criminally, but I don’t think they often do. Either way, it looks horrible when we want the country to be able to trust us with their ballots for the upcoming election. I don’t believe the employee was purposely discarding ballots as a lot of other mail was also discovered. I believe it was nearly 1900 pieces of mail.

What do you do in the case of protesters throwing things at you, ripping things off, climbing on your vehicle, insulting you, spray painting, or even trying to hurt you

Asked by asdf over 5 years ago

Fortunately I’ve never had this happen to me and I do work in a generally peaceful and safe area. If it were to happen I would probably call the police, secure my vehicle, and maybe walk away if i could. I would never engage a violent or vandal-driven protestors. We have not been given any guidance on what to do. (May, 2020). I tend to be a de-escalator of situations whenever possible. Stay safe.