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.
Sparky, again you're welcome regarding this forum. It can get a bit exhausting trying to keep up on the many questions asked, but I rarely get more than a couple per day. Furthermore, I volunteered to do this so I have nothing to complain about. On the route each day I carry a couple of pens, some scrap paper if I need to make some notes, water, my lunch, and sunglasses. I happen to have some stamps in my wallet and will give them to customers on occasion, but that's rare. Most of the time they have the envelopes ready to be mailed with the proper postage. I also don't want them to get in the habit of them thinking it's part of my job to have stamps with me, because it isn't. Fewer and fewer people are mailing letters these days and are paying their bills electronically. I don't see anything wrong with a CCA using a GPS on their smartphone to navigate to/from routes. The USPS should really be giving you a map with directions if you are unfamiliar with a route, but I am pretty sure our CCAs use their own GPS to get around the town. Since I do the same assignment each day and know it automatically I can listen to an ipod while delivering the route. I don't know if this is actually allowed but I think it should be. I only have one earbud in at any time. I think I'd get bored pretty quickly if I didn't listen to something (music/podcasts) while delivering the mail. The postal vehicle I drive doesn't have a working cigarette lighter outlet to charge up my PED so I am careful about not draining the battery during the day or I can carry a portable battery supply(but have never actually had to use it).
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I am not sure what will happen re :your license being suspended and being offered a CCA Position. How long do you think it will be before you get your license back? I don't believe it is legal to have you driving a USPS vehicle with a suspended driver license.
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You're welcome and thank you for the compliment. Good luck to you in the interview this week for CCA. The rural carrier position is a completely separate pay scale and pay method vs. city carriers. They are also represented by a different union. I honestly don't know the procedure or opportunities for transfering between a city carrier and rural carrier. City carriers are paid by time at an hourly wage. Rural Carriers are given a route, or part of a route, to complete and paid a set wage on the volume of mail for a particular assignment. I think the dollar amt. is adjusted yearly during a "mail count" period for rural carriers. The sooner a rural carrier finishes their daily assignment, the sooner they can go home and still be paid a set amt. for the day. In the office that my brother works in, I think that most of the rural carriers are done before noon and start their day apprx. 7:00 AM. It is a pretty good deal for them. Some of them are required to work 6 days/week as part of their regular assignment. The office I work in has both city carriers and rural carriers though I've not ever seen one transfer between crafts. It doesn't mean it can't be done. I'm sorry that I'm just not familiar with how it's done and if it would mean a re-starting over in your craft seniority for bidding purposes.
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LA, it is awful that mail is being stolen. I don't know what good it will do, but I would recommend reporting that to your local post office or the Postal Inspectors. To answer your question, I don't know that a mailman would get involved with being responsible for a key to a private mailbox. If everyone on their route did that, how would they keep track of all of those keys? Furthermore, if that mailman was off/sick/vacation, how could you be sure that the replacement mailman would get the key? I just don't think it will be feasible or practical or possibly even allowed. Another option (though less convenient) would be to rent a PO Box which would definitely be secure.
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Without the proper postage (or any postage at all), one of 3 things might happen with the item you mailed: 1) it will be delivered as if it had postage 2) it will be delivered, but the recipient will be asked to pay the postage (currently .49 for a first-class 1 oz. letter), or 3) the letter will be "returned for postage" to you if you put your return address on it. Where you are mailing the item from/to shouldn't matter if it was mailed in the US.
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It is probably a toss up as to which is the quickest. To make sure that it gets dispatched with the mail the day you leave it at the PO, I'd recommend bringing it directly to the PO. The reason why I call it a toss up is that the final dispatch of mail from a post office to the processing facility doesnt happen until all of the letter carriers have returned from their assignments and back to the local PO.
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I'm sorry but I don't know why this would be happening. Did someone with a similar name possibly live at or near your address and then moved and not leave a forwarding address? I know that isn't a likely reason. The only suggestion I can think of is to contact your local post office and re-affirm that you are still at your present address and don't return any mail that comes with your name to your present address. If it isn't your local post office that is returning your mail, I don't know how/why this is a happening. Thank you for writing.
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