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

I mailed a check to the wrong address and placed it in my building's mailbox for pickup by the mailman, once the mailman comes for pick up will he be able to allow me to retrieve my mail?

Asked by Kimberlee almost 11 years ago

I am not sure if the mailman will allow this since many of us act differently than others and we are rarely told of any rules (if any exist) regarding this situation. If I were your letter carrier and I knew you (or you could positively ID who you were) and the mail was easy to find in the outgoing mailbox I'd have no problem allowing you to retrieve that mail. I don't know how full your building mailbox gets. Some buildings just have a few pieces of mail left for pickup. Others are overflowing with outgoing mail. As I answer with many questions on this question board, "It depends". The consistency within the USPS is quite inconsistent.

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 12 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. 

Can a mail man bid on a route that's not in his district?

Asked by Jim almost 11 years ago

When a route goes up for bid due to a vacancy, it is usually first offered in the office or city (if there are multiple stations combined into one bidding unit). If nobody bids that assignment and there are no unassigned regular letter carriers in the bidding unit, the assignment might be posted as available through the eReassign system. This is the way that letter carriers can move between districts.

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

Asked by Martha Archer about 11 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.

Do u guys deliver the day after thanksgiving

Asked by Kashmere over 10 years ago

Yes, it's a regular work day for the USPS on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I'm not sure how busy of a day it is, but the online shopping business has been a boom for us so the days following Thanksgiving through Christmas are usually an endless flow of packages to deliver.

What time do mailmen deliver mail in the summer ?

Asked by Jessie almost 11 years ago

It depends on each Post Office and how soon their mail is sorted and the letter carriers can load their delivery vehicles and start delivery. At the PO where I work mail is delivered as early as 9:15 AM and as late as 6:30 PM. The evening time can be even later if we are short-staffed. I've heard stories about letter carriers at other offices delivering later than that due to staffing shortages. If I were to work a regular schedule and everything went according to plan, I'd be delivering between 09:40 AM and 3:30 PM.

If annual leave is 440 hours carry over per year. My question is if a carrier has 10 weeks 400 hours for 2015, he can carry over 4 weeks or 160 hours for 2016 calendar year? bc he didn't carry over 440 only 160. please clarify

Asked by jvitto48 about 11 years ago

I don't fully understand your question, but I will tell you what I know. For the leave year (which is slightly different than a calendar year since it goes by pay periods), the maximum annual leave that a FERS City letter carrier can carry over is 440 hours, the equivalent of 11 weeks. Any leave accumulated in the 2015 leave year that would bring the AL balance to greater than 440 hours would need to be used by the end of the 2015 leave year or be forfeited. In your example a carrier that has 400 hours in 2015 can only save an additional 40 hours of AL to be carried into 2016. The remaining 120 hours (assuming they received 160 hours during 2015) would have to be used by the end of the 2015 leave year or be forfeited. Another way I read your question is that you are asking if a carrier begins the year with 400 hours and wants to carry over 160 hours into 2016, would that be okay. The answer is yes because 160 hours of AL is under the 440 hours maximum leave carryover.