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

According to union standards how many hours can a postman be required to work daily?

Asked by Martha Archer about 10 years ago

I don't know the answer to this. The most I've seen in the office where I work is 12 hours in one day and that isn't too common. A standard work day is 8 hours plus lunch (usually :30). There are pay changes when you work more than 8 hrs but I've never heard of an actual maximum number of hours to work in a day.

I mailed an document from new york to china by global express guarantee service via USPS. But it said my destination address was wrong. However the shipment wasn't even sent oversee, how could they tell the address was wrong?

Asked by Daniel over 10 years ago

I am not sure how the global express guaranteed product works. I am not sure if there is a database that the USPS uses to know this. The transportation and delivery is provided by FedEx Express so it's possible they also know that the address was wrong. Hopefully you will get the document back, but I'm not sure that you qualify for a refund. That information can be find on the website about.usps.com and do a search for money-back guarantee for GXG.

Im a new CCA and im wondering what the uniform regulations are if we dont have an offical uniform yet. Do i wear board shorts, collared shirt or what? How about shoes? Leather shoes are expensive, what can i wear instead?

Asked by mike over 10 years ago

Mike, I believe it takes several months before your probation is over and you receive a uniform allowance. I don't know for sure what the uniform regulations are, but the CCAs in my office where jeans and t-shirts mainly. They should tell you at orientation what is acceptable and not acceptable. The shoes must not be open-toed. I may have worn sneakers during my probationary period. The shoes that are purchased with the uniform allowance can easily cost $80 and up. Good luck to you and work safely.

my mail carrier says he can not “leave notice” for Amazon packages if i don't answer at my apartment. he has to leave the package at my door. i had one stolen once and don't want package left. there is now office

Asked by David almost 11 years ago

David, i don't know the answer to resolving that issue, but it does seem wrong for the carrier to leave the package at your apt. door if you don't feel it is safe for that to be done. You are saying there is now an office? Do you mean an apt. rental office that would accept your parcels is available? Maybe a sign could be said to leave packages at the rental office. I don't know that your letter carrier would do that. Finally, your letter carrier is correct (at least from the perspective where I work) that we are just to leave Amazon parcels at any address and not scan it "attempted". We scan it delivered even if they are on a vacation hold and then we hold the parcel at the PO until delivery to this address has resumed. This doesn't make sense if you live in area where a secure place to leave a parcel isn't available. Another option may be to rent a PO Box for your parcel deliveries  but that requires time and an additional cost. Thanks for writing. 

Hello-

I live in a standalone condo complex with 4 units, and I keep getting mail from certain senders for the owners upstairs because they seem to have specified my unit #. I left a note for them to fix this, but it has not stopped. What can I do?

Asked by Liz over 10 years ago

I dont know what you can do for sure to stop the owner's mail from being delivered to your unit if it has your apt # on it. Your neighbor may have contacted some companies to get them to change it, but I imagine names and addresses are often sold from one company to the next which results in the wrong address being distributed to other mailers. You can put a note in your mailbox saying "please only deliver mail for (insert your name(s) here" and that may stop your neighbors mail from being delivered to you. You are correct that it is your neighbors responsibility to advise senders of their correct address if the want to receive their mail. 

I have an inteview tommrow i applied for 2 seasonal positions 2 diff counties. Today i recieved another invite to an interview on the 23rd, this same position already sent me drug/backgrnd test info through email with no interview.

Asked by Cindy almost 11 years ago

Cindy, I dont know how to help you in this situation as I am not even sure what you are asking. Good luck on both interviews. I do realize you want one of these positions much greater than the other. Unless you get offered the job for the first interview on the spot, I highly recommend attending all interviews that come your way. The reason is that you may get an offer from a later interview than at your preferred location. This is likely better than having no employment.

If you lost your mail key, and your landlord is on vacation, can you request it delivered to your personal home or for pick up?

Asked by CB over 10 years ago

I don't know about this. You can request anything of the USPS, but it's probably a matter of policy or your individual letter carrier as to whether or not they will do that for you. We usually refrain from allowing people to pickup mail on any regular basis at the PO unless you go away on vacation, put your mail on "hold" and then pick up the mail at a future date (and that can be done just once per "hold" request). If your landlord would just be away for a few days, I'd deliver the mail to your personal home temporarily, but this has rarely come up for me and I can't comment for sure how others would respond to a similar request.