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

Some of my mail gets "this person has moved" and returned. My local post office said they straightened it out. But it is still happening. Do some post offices still have me listed as "moved", if yes: How do I tell all post offices I haven't moved?

Asked by lil-buddy over 11 years ago

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".

Hey Dave, I was just hired at a PO in Long Island as a CCA. Zip code starting 118. My office is a fairly large office. What are the pros/cons on being at a large office? Also if I am asked to deliver with my own vehicle, can I refuse?

Asked by Rob over 12 years ago

Rob, congratulations on being hired as a CCA. I am guessing it is either Hcksville or Plainview. The PROs may be that you will have many people to meet, many opportunities for filling vacancies, and large neighborhoods to get to know. A con may be that if they are short-staffed, the mgmt can ask you to fill in and do parts of several routes in one day which may be exhausting. The positive part to that is that you are paid for all of your time work including Overtime pay. I believe you can refuse to use your own vehicle to deliver mail, however, they may not then be obligated to give you a govt vehicle to deliver the mail. If that is the case, you may have a reduced opportunity to earn a paycheck. Try to be as polite as possible when given assignments and if it turns out to be too much, speak up and advise the supervisor how much extra time you may need. Always make sure to work safely as well. Try not to get too involved with any office gossip or politics. Good luck and continue asking if you have more qs.

If my regular mail isnt at the post office by the time my normal mail man leaves for his route, will they see it when they get back to the Post office and bring it back to my house the same day?

Asked by CC almost 13 years ago

Not usually. At our PO, we generally won't leave for a route until all of the regular (1st and 2nd class) mail is ready for delivery. So as to your question, I would think that the mail wouldn't be delivered until the following day unless a supervisor specifically approved a carrier to go out and deliver late-arriving mail. 

I live in a circle, there has been situations that my mail got stolen and I can't see my mailbox from my residence because it sits before the circle starts, can I move my mailbox to the front of my house?

Asked by Wejo over 12 years ago

I'm sorry to hear about your mail being stolen. I don't know about moving the location of your mailbox. I am just speculating, but if you live in a circle where the mailbox sits at the street and is serviced by a letter carrier from their vehicle where they just stick their arm out and you want to move the box to a location where the same process can still be accomplished, I don't see why it would be a problem. Does the carrier drive by your house anyway, or do they not come in the circle because all of the mailboxes are at an area where they can avoid coming into the circle. If that's the case, I am not sure it would be allowed to be moved "inside the circle". It's important that the approach to the mailbox is not blocked on any regular basis so the carrier doesn't have to "dismount" from their vehicle to put the mail in the mailbox. I'm not saying they wouldn't dismount to deliver the mail, but the general idea of mailboxes at the street is so the mail can be delivered directly from the postal vehicle. For further clarification, I'd recommend calling or visiting your local post office and speaking with a delivery supervisor.

My rural mailman put an international express in my neighbors box (the mail carrier sign it!). I was tracking it and when the post office was notified they said she signed it so what now. Neighbor said they didn't get it; maybe they did ???

Asked by dat over 12 years ago

I apologize that I don't really know what further action for you to take. Were you able to contact your rural carrier to see if they recall where they put the international express item? Did they, in fact, remember putting it into your neighbor's box (and why)? If your neighbor claims that they didn't receive the item, I don't know what else you can do to prove that they did. I suppose this is one of the risks of allowing a rural carrier to sign for certain mail items.

how do i figure out my mail mans name??

Asked by liga over 12 years ago

You could call the post office and see if they will give you his name. They should at least give you their first name. If you happen to see him or her you could also ask them.

How do you organize the mail so you know you give all the mail to the right house?

Asked by cmac almost 12 years ago

For the first 1-2 of hours each morning, letter carriers are busy sorting mail in delivery order so that when we go on our routes, the mail is organized. Each route has a pre-determined order of delivery and we have carrier cases (think of a desk with vertical dividers fof each address or building). After we are done sorting the mail we take it out of the carrier cases and put in trays or rubber band it so it stays organized. Before we actually put the mail in a customer's mailbox, we should be going through the mail we sorted to verify that it is the right mail going to the right house. The vast majority of the mail that we deliver is already sorted by a machine at a regional mail processing plant. The mail arrives at our local post office in delivery order (I'd say a fairly high level of accuracy) and as we go deliver the mail we merge that mail together with the mail we have sorted manually at the post office. The amount of mail we manually sort is so much lower than it used to be either because of automation or a decline in mail volume. When I started working for the USPS only letter size mailing was able to be put in order. Now we have machines that can sort flats (magazines, catalogs) in delivery order which is impressive as well.