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.
Congratulations Daniel on finishing your training as a mail carrier including the driving evaluation. With regard to driving the 2-ton vehicle, I don't know if you will ever be made to drive it. I would hope that you wouldn't be. I know that I am in the same position as you with regards to driving it. I have only driven it a few times in my career and and am never asked to drive it. If you didn't feel comfortable driving it, I would speak up and mention that you don't think it is safe for you to drive it and see if you could get out of doing it. I wish you well.
Yes, the mail should be delivered the next day. I don't personally remember ever skipping a house due another vehicle blocking access to the mailbox, but I'm sure it is a common occurrence for carriers who have routes where they deliver directly to a curbside mailbox (also known as a mounted route or rural mailbox). If it were to happen several days in a row, I don't know the time frame where the mail would eventually be returned to the sender as undeliverable due to blocked mailbox access. The same goes for if we are unable to get to a mailbox or street due to severe weather. In that case we also would attempt to deliver ALL the mail on the following delivery day.
You should be getting delivery mail every regular delivery day if there are items addressed to you. The tracking website which indicated your specific item was still at the PO doesn't mean you will get iat the same day, especially if the package arrived later in the day at the PO. It is possible that your mailman was just late.
I agree with you that as long as you don't have a mailbox up, then NOTHING should be delivered at all. We would discard any Standard Mail (usually circulars or donation solicitations). Any first class mail should be marked "No Mail Receptacle" and returned to sender. One option would be to put your mail on hold while you are away. You can do that online or by going into any PO and filling out an "authorization to hold mail" form.
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If possible, contact the merchant and see if it's possible to correct the address before the package is shipped out. If it is too late and the package has already entered the mailstream, I would see if you could contact your delivery Post Office and advise them that a package will be coming to an incorrect address and it should be delivered to your correct address. That may resolve any misdeliveries or stop the package from being returned to the sender unnecessarily. I hope this helps you. Thanks for writing!
I am not sure if it will be delivered or not. Sometimes a letter carrier will just deliver a letter as addressed and sometimes they will wait until they see new mail coming in via a change of address order (usually a yellow sticker with the new address on it). I am not sure whether the check will be delivered or not. If not, I hope your cousin receives the check back and then re-send it when you are sure that you are getting mail at your new address.
Alex, you can certainly ask the letter carrier to do whatever you want with your mail. If he/she is following proper protocol, they won't follow your request. We are instructed to deliver all mail to its address because someone has paid us to do so. We will not go through the mail for a certain recipient and then discard some of it. The recipient should be going through the mail themselves and discarding/recycling what they don't want. I do realize there is such a high percentage of mail delivered on a daily basis that a customer doesn't want, but as the letter carrier we shouldn't be getting involved in their mail.
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