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.
Great question. Since it has been many years since I have been trained to be a letter carrier, I don't remember if I was trained to make sure the box is closed. Personally, it is just common sense to close any mailbox if you can. What I mean is that sometimes the mail is too "tall" and would prevent a lid from closing completely, but I would still close the lid as much as I can. To be honest, I don't think training is that thorough when it comes to being a letter carrier. I have seen carriers just put the mail on the ground in front of a house (not even rubber-banded) because they couldn't find a mailbox or doorslot. I have also seen the mail delivered but hanging out of the mailbox in a very messy fashion when there was clearly enough room to fit it all in. Granted some mailboxes are quite small and it is impossible to fit the mail entirely inside, but I've never heard a customer complain about the mail hanging out of those small boxes. My suggestion would be either to call the PO and speak to a delivery supervisor about this or put a note on the mailbox saying "please close lid after delivering the mail". By the way, I am presuming that your mailbox is deep enough to fit even catalogs and magazines. If this isn't the case, then I do understand the mailbox lid not being closed.
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I think it was about 3 months (probationary period) before I received a uniform allowance. I think I dressed mostly in blue and wore jean shorts or blue jeans as a uniform for the lower part of my body and a dark t-shirt for the upper part. It was during summer months so outerwear wasnt too much of an issue but I probably had a rain jacket and baseball cap. I don't think anything had the USPS logo on it. I can't remember if I bought anything with my own money but probably would have, if necessary. With my first allowance (which was higher than subququent years), I probably bought long and short sleeved uniform shirts, a winter jacket, shorts and pants, shoes, and a baseball bap. It has been quite a few years but this is a guess as to what I bought. I know the items can be a bit pricey and eat up a uniform allowance quickly. On Long Island, NY where I deliver mail there used to be actual uniform stores that we could go in to and purchase our clothing. The one closest to wear I work/live has closed so I spend my entire yearly uniform allowance online. Some vendors will offer you a 10-20% spending bonus if you use the entire allowance at one time. I recommend purchasing items that will keep you warm and dry in bad weather even if it means spending out-of-pocket having used up your uniform allowance. It is difficult for me to work in the cold and always have to layer up properly in the winter. I don't know where you live if this is a factor or not. Good luck in your postal career and keep your head up even if management doesn't treat you like they appreciate you.
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I don't know the answer for sure about this. It may depend on the actual carrier who comes to empty out the blue collection box as I am not sure of the rules that cover this. I know if I were the carrier who was emptying out the box and you could prove who you were and it matched a return address, I would likely return it to you. If there was no return address but you could still somehow prove it belonged to you, I also would likely give it back. But just to reiterate, I don't know the rules that cover this and it may also be up to the direction of the letter carrier.
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Most post offices are open until Noon or 1PM for retail service on Saturdays if they have Saturday hours at all. I don't know if you can put a reverse on a letter that has tracking via the telephone customer service or via www.usps.com. It may have to be done in person at a Post Office. If you call 800-ASK-USPS they may know a bit more about this subject. Their Saturday hours are 8AM-6PM ET.
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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.
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As far as I know, there is no other PO besides the one that delivers your mail that could do anything with the information whether you have moved or not. Other mail processing facilities just sort the mail according to ZIP code to get it on its way to your local PO. They aren't concerned with the name on the mail. Do you live with anybody else who may write that on the mail and put it back in the outgoing mail? As long as your local PO knows you haven't moved, nobody should be having your mail returned to the sender. You could also put a note and tape it inside your mailbox saying "(your name) is a valid name to deliver here".
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Unfortunatley, you are probably stuck with the new carrier. Do you know the reason that there was a change in postal carriers? Some of the reasons are: a change in the territory that makes up a route, a carrier chooses to leave their route for another one, or a carrier retires or transfers to another office. When this happens, the route often goes up for "bid", and the most senior carrier who desires to do the route that includes your street gets that assignment. It is not based on how friendly, efficient, or safe that this carrier works. There are plenty of letter carriers at the USPS who won't win congeniality awards or hard worker accolades. There is very little corrective action that can be taken as long as the carrier shows up for work and doesn't get into any motor vehicle accidents. I don't know how you would feel about calling the delivery supervisor to voice your concerns about the new carrier and the safety of their driving as well as them forgetting mail, but you could do that. I don't know what kind of response you will get or if it will change anything, but I don't think it would hurt to mention it. Those qualities are very unprofessional and unsafe in a letter carrier. There are some of these carriers at the office where I work as well. I try to have as little as possible to do with them whatsoever. I'm sure this problem isn't uncommon in the USPS and most other companies. Thanks for writing to jobstr for advice.
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