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.
I am not really sure about the policy of delivering to a multi-suite building, but here is the way I see it: If your mail is specifically addressed to your suite and you are a different business than the suite/tenant on the first floor, it should be delivered directly to you. The suite on the first floor shouldn't be getting your mail. I would consider your suite a separate delivery. Again, I don't know the rules but I would treat it like an apartment building where you wouldn't be delivering your mail to a neighbor or vice versa. We are given time to sort the mail in a multi-unit building if a suite has a separate address so I don't necessarily buy the excuse of not having time to sort the world's mail. With regards to the parking, that doesn't seem to appropriate either. I have parked in No Parking Fire Zones in front of buildings if I'll just be 5 minutes or less delivering the mail. I don't think I would park in a handicapped spot. Since the supervisor doesn't care, you could speak with the Postmaster or whoever is next up on the chain of command to see if they can assist at all. As I've posted in other comments, we have a real mixed bag of employees at the USPS so your responses could vary.
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I don't know the answer to this officially. It would definitely be helpful to put your name on your mailbox, but if a letter were dressed accurately with the correct apt. #, I'm not sure why it would be returned to the sender. If I were delivering to an apt. complex, I wouldn't require this to be done. I live in an apt. building and do put my name on the mailbox, but I don't know that it is required.
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I am not sure what your post office or letter carrier will do if you are unable to provide a large enough receptacle for your daily mail delivery. Since you live in a place with only cluster boxes, it seems you have no choice in the matter. If I were able to get to your actual unit or apt. door, I'd likely leave the mail by the door and maybe ring your doorbell. I don't know the procedure for where you live and from what I hear on this Q and A board and from other msg boards, the delivery procedure is far from uniform in multi-unit dwellings. One option is to rent a PO Box which come in different sizes, but that would require an extra cost and a trip to your Post Office on a regular basis. If you stop in to your local post office and present this question to a delivery supervisor, hopefully they can give you a better answer. Good luck with your home-based business.
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Bryan, congratulations on being promoted to a "regular" carrier. It is much better than being a CCA, but 10 months sounds like a pretty short amount of time to be promoted. That is a good thing. With regards to your vacation I don't know the legalities of them mandating you to work when you have reserved a vacation. If you put in a request for annual leave and it was given back to you within a certain amt. of time (marked denied I mean), then I believe it is approved and generally can't be revoked. If you chose at as a full vacation block (usually in 1-week segments), that also is non-revocable by management as far as I know. I would recommend asking your shop steward for advice in this situation as I don't know in the NALC/USPS National Agreement where this is discussed, or possibly in the ELM (Employee/Labor Manual). One other suggestion is to ask on a FB message board that I belong to which you may find helpful. The group is called USPS Postal Maniacs. I've seen other USPS employees post questions and problems there and receive some advice. I will warn you that much of the talk on there is negative towards management, but there are many good people on there who can often steer you in the right direction. Good luck and thanks for writing.
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It is very kind of you to want to tip your letter carrier for his service while you were away. We aren't supposed to accept tips, but I can't say I know of anybody ever being disciplined for it. I gladly accept them but it won't affect the quality of my service either way. I would recommend putting the tip in an envelope and on the outside write "Letter Carrier (insert name here if you know it)" and put it in the mailbox. Maybe tape it to the inside of the mailbox where it would be visible but not necessarily thought of as outgoing mail. If you aren't sure if he is working on a particular day I'm not sure how you could make sure they receive it unless you happen to be home when they are delivering the mail and you hand it directly to the carrier. I will say that you have one observant letter carrier. I would usually let the mail pile up in the mailbox hoping they come home soon to retrieve it.
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I have an route that is entirely walking and the DPS is not allowed to be cased in the office. We take it out to the street and hold it in our hands and "finger" through it as we approach a house and then merge it together with the flats that have been cased and then sometimes a "3rd bundle" which is usually an advertisment that each delivery address receives. It is important though to be careful of the terrain on which you are walking while merging the DPS and flats together, especially when crossing lawns or going up and down steps. The first time I see the DPS letters is just before I get to a house to deliver it. They have been sequenced by a machine to save me the time of having to sort it earlier in the day. For the most part, they are accurately sorted with an error rate which I would say is less than 2% (just a guess). Good luck with your position change and I hope it will lead you to a full time regular city carrier position.
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Hello Joy. The area where you took the photo is probably serviced by a rural carrier or HCR (highway contract routr). These positions are different than the one I am employed as even though we all serve the same function. It makes sense to me that the barrel would be used for packages because I don't think carriers are required to deliver mail to a house that is more than a certain amt of feet from the road. The barrel is a convenient way for the customer to receive packages without having to drive to a post office which is many mlies away and has limited hours. It would also protect the package from damage in inclement weather. I can't confirm this is what the barrel is for.
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