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

My question was can mailmen take things out of letters. Because twice, I found a letter that was supposed to have a gift in it, but there was a huge hole in the envelope and the gift seemed to taken out

Asked by Sarah almost 12 years ago

It is strictly against the law for any letter carrier to take anything out of the mail. That would be considered tampering with the mail. If the gift was just put in a paper envelope and the envelope was bulging it is possible that if it went through mail processing equipment the machine could have damaged the envelope and caused the gift to fall out. It would be hard to prove that an item was stolen out of the mail, but if this happened on multiple occasions and you suspect something wrong, I'd report it a delivery supervisor at your local post office. I don't think much will be done about it but at least they'd have a record of it. I would hope that any theft from the mail by USPS employees is rare and dealt with in a severe and prompt manner if proven. 

My fiancé is a CCA and we planned to go out of town for the weekend after he got off work Saturday. His boss told him on Thursday he had to work Sunday. Can they force him to work or fire him for not showing up even though Sunday isnt a reg work day?

Asked by Mmmmm over 12 years ago

I don't know for sure whether or not your fiance's boss can make him work on Sunday. I know when I was a PTF (Part-time Flexible) we did work Sunday's on occasion and during this time of year (December) it would be pretty common. He should speak to your boss and say that you already made plans to take a small trip which would include Sunday and could he possibly have off of work that day. I do understand that being a CCA is difficult with scheduling because you are expected to be available on virtually any day. Please make sure he asks off ahead of time for the wedding (If you have a date scheduled).

If the zipcode is wrong, one city over, will i still get my package?

Asked by kaylee over 11 years ago

Not necessarily. Did you put the right name of your community but the wrong ZIP? If so, there is a good chance that the PO at the wrong ZIP city will cross it out and then the package will be sent to your community where it will then be delivered. If the name of the town and ZIP is incorrect on the package, and nobody at the receiving PO recognizes the address as belonging to your community then they may return the package to the sender as "NSS" meaning No Such Street or "NSN" meaning No Such Number. A lot may also depend on how savvy or caring the personnel is at the PO that originally receives the package to have it rerouted to your town where you could then get it delivered. I hope it works out for you. in the future, please remember that a correct ZIP is very important in an address. Thanks for writing!

Are there any specific USPS regulations for installing a mailbox at my home on Long Island?

Asked by chertz over 12 years ago

They are likely the same nationwide.

What would you recommend as procedure if we get someone else's mail? Write a note on it? Leave it?

Asked by Anonymous over 12 years ago

I would recommend that you leave it in your mailbox the next day preferably with either a post-it note on it saying "delivered to wrong address" or writing it on the letter directly if you don't have post-it note or piece of paper to clip to it saying "delivered in error". Please return it somehow to your letter carrier or the PO as you'd probably want the same done if a letter addressed to you was delivered in error somewhere else.

how many day does a package to deliver

Asked by osman mateen over 11 years ago

It depends on a couple of important factors: method (or type of service) sent as well as distance to destination. Priority Mail is one of the best services we offer for parcels. It usually takes about 2 days for most destinations around the country.  A more economical method is called Standard Mail or Parcel Post (not sure of the current name) which could take between 1-5 days depending on distance. Weather and Holidays could sometimes delay the transportation of parcels as well. When parcels are shipped the mailer gets a tracking number so they can see how their shipment is progressing through our transportation network similar to if you shipped via UPS or FedEx. Thanks for your question. 

I put a letter in a blue collection box today, probably around 12:30. In the past, I know USPS has tried to phase these boxes out and I am worried that they are no longer thought of as important to check. How often are they really checked for mail?

Asked by Dennis over 12 years ago

You can rest assured that those blue collection boxes are checked at least 1 time after the time on the label for the stated day. For example, if the label says Mon-Fri 3PM, you can rest assured that the box is emptied AFTER 3PM each day M-F but before the last truck has been dispatched from the local post office to a regional processing and distribution center M-F. (also known as a P&DC or "plant"). Inside each collection box is a bar code which is scanned by the collection box letter carrier. The scan records the time that the box was emptied and is recorded on a central internal computer system.