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

Thanks for answering my previous question about the application process in '98. I applied on-line last August and so far have heard nada. Zip. Zilch! Do you have any idea if I will get at least a reply or rejection notice? #lostinspace

Asked by FF almost 13 years ago

Do you mean that you applied 3 mos. ago? I am not sure how long it takes to get a response either yea or nay. I would hope that you would at least get some reply but I have no further info. 

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.

If I dropped some mail that I was going to hand deliver in the post office box by mistake, can I get it from them if I wait for them by the box?

Asked by Melva about 12 years ago

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.

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

Asked by kaylee almost 12 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!

Is it okay to spell out single-digit street numbers on postal mail? For example, writing out Two Penn Center instead of 2 Penn Center. Or do postal regulations prohibit spelling out the figure two?

Asked by Laurel almost 13 years ago

I believe it is permissible to spell out the single-digit number of a street adddress as given in your example.

i ordered live fish off ebay will the mailman just them in my mailbox or what

Asked by sam almost 13 years ago

I am not sure, but if it is properly packaged and labeled, I think it would be fine to leave in a mailbox if it fits and no signature was required. I am imagining that it comes in a styrofoam box and inside there are some bags with the fish in them, but I really don't know.

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 about 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.