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 know I have sort of answered this question already, but I will again. I would say that a letter carrier shouldn't enter a yard where a barking dog is visible and not on a leash and could physically come in contact with the letter carrier. If the owner isn't present to accept the mail, the carrier is best advised to bring the mail back to the post office and notify the supervisor why the mail couldn't be delivered. The USPS wants to reduce the number of dog bites because it is dangerous to the letter carrier and costly to the USPS because of any time off required and any medical treatment needed. Fortunately where I work I don't hear of too many dog/carrier incidents, but I do realize other areas may not be as safe.
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It is fine not to put a return address on anything you mail. The issue that could come about is if the item you sent is "undeliverable as addressed" meaning that you didn't put on the correct destination address. In this case, the letter would likely be sent to the "nixie" or "dead letter" office. I don't know what it is called nowadays and I don't know what would happen to the letter, but you wouldn't get it back unless somebody opened it and your address was found on the inside. I don't even know if that is legal to do or if it is even done. Again, as long as you put the proper destination address on the letter, don't worry at all about not putting on the return address. Thanks for your inquiry.
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Do you mean that the marking was "insufficient postage", not "insufficient packaging". If it was "insufficient postage", I'm pretty sure you would just have to pay the difference between the Parcel Select rate and the Priority Mail rate. What I'm not sure about is how you get credit for an already purchased postage label, if that's even possible. If you took this to the PO for some type of resolution, I question whether all of the clerks would know how to adjust the rate properly as the ability, care, and training of the SSAs (sales and service associates) seems to vary widely. Thanks for writing.
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I am not sure why the authorization to hold mail form would show up in your mailbox unless it was put there by error. Normally we wouldn't deliver a signed form like that until it is time to resume delivery of mail after the hold period which was authorized has expired. Postal Customers use that form (or can complete it at www.usps.gov) to have their mail held at the post office if they will be away for a period of time between 3 and 30 days. At the end of the authorized time period, a letter carrier will either deliver all of the mail that was held at the PO or the postal customer can pick up the mail at the Post Office. If the form you recevied has been completed (or even if not), you may put a post-it note or attach a note to it and leave it in your mailbox explaining to the letter carrier that you don't want your mail held at all and that you didn't authorize it. Another option is to take the card to your local post office that delivers the mail and tell them you don't want your mail held. My guess is that somebody has made an error in delivering the form to you OR something shady is going on, but I think it is more likely the former. Thank you for your inquiry.
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I'm glad you like this blog. It's my pleasure to help where I can and I have a great appreciation for those who do podcasts or other websites just for fun. Their time commitments are impressive given the work it takes to maintain a blog or a website. Since I have no experience with the CCA hiring process, I can't give you any hard facts about how long the process takes. Congratulations on getting an interview. There will likely be a drug test and medical exam if you haven't gone through that process already. I imagine it would only be 1-2 months after that to be notified if you will be hired. There are about 6 CCAs in the office where I work but there is a solid turnover among them. It's not the job for everyone. It's physically demanding, pay for CCAs isn't great ($16.50/hr Apprx) and you aren't always treated that well. I still recommend it if you get hired because long-term it has proven to be a great career for me. I wish you well and have a positive attitude.
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I am not sure how the mail got delivered to your new address unless it was maybe in the same town and somehow the letter carriers coordinated internally to deliver it to the new address, though this is unlikely. Usually, you would need to fill out a change of address card (by mail or online) to have mail from a previous address sent to a new address.
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I am not sure that they will do this. It probably depends on how helpful the person who answers the phone wants to be. Unfortunately, that is my answer with many questions that requires interaction from personnel at the PO. To give a more practical answer, it is sometimes hard to give a time of expected delivery if there are staffing shortages at an office and a route is broken up into several "pieces" and not delivered as a whole route by 1 person. If one person is delivering an entire route then they usually follow a prescribed delivery order so it would be approximately the same time each day (usually within a 1 hour time frame.) For example, if I were to deliver my entire route, the deliveries are usually made between 1000 and 1545. Thanks for writing.
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