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

To Postman-
When you send the Business Reply envelope,is it still stamped at the post office with time/date and location?
Thanks-
David B.

Asked by DwB44 about 11 years ago

Not usually. Business Reply Mail is sent to a mail processing facility like all other outgoing mail. When it gets there I'm not exactly sure how it's processed but I think the bar coding on the envelope might separate out BRM so it doesn't have to go through a canceling machine. I just know that a local PO has nothing to do with stamping the date and location on it. What the actual envelope looks like at the receiving end I don't know.

653 Votes

What does it mean when the mailman skips your house? My mailman deliberately speeds pass my house. Theres nothing blocking the mailbox. This has been going on for 2 wks. Every other day or so theres a mailman who does deliver the mail. Why isn't he?

Asked by Chasity_ over 10 years ago

It sounds suspicious or odd that your letter carrier is speeding past your house and skipping delivery with nothing apparent to block their access to your mailbox. It could be that you have no mail addressed to your house that day, but you would know better than me if you should be getting a delivery daily. I would call or somehow contact your local post office and ask to speak with a delivery supervisor or manager and mention it to them. Out of 6 delivery days a week, I would guess about 4 of them have some type of mailing that goes to each address which I service. I can't say it's the same for your town. It is also a bit strange that when you have another mail carrier they deliver the mail.

652 Votes

Is it okay to finish a route and take the half hour lunch at the end then drive back to office

Asked by JVitto over 10 years ago

I used to do this but was then told that I really should take the 30 minute lunch within 6 hours of my BT (begin tour) time. I now take lunch from approximately 1300-1330. The new scanners that we have tells the mgmt where we are so they can see if we are sitting for 30 minutes at the end of the day instead of our approved lunch period. If the management doesn't give you a hard time about it, I don't see why not but the union and managers technically should be enforcing the 6-hour rule for taking a lunch break. I've become used to it so it's no big deal to take lunch when I'm supposed to and not at the end of the delivery route.

652 Votes

If you notice a broken mailbox what do you do with the mail and how do I get it as soon as possible

Asked by Heem over 10 years ago

I usually will continue to deliver the mail as long as the mail can be sheltered from the rain and other elements and hope that the customer will fix the mailbox in a reasonable amount of time. Some letter carriers will not deliver the mail to a mailbox that has fallen to the ground or is broken in some way. I suppose that is their option. If the mail isn't being delivered, it is likely being held at the PO for a certain amt of time (I don't know how long). You can probably go and pick it up there as long as you present identification that matches your address and if the clerk can find the mail that is being held.

652 Votes

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Hi. I was wondering about if there is a way to get my mail early. I need to leave for holiday travel tomorrow and my mailman doesn't come till almost 5 pm. Do you have any suggestions?

Asked by mcmjuly over 11 years ago

I don't know if this would work and I generally don't like customers doing this but you could possibly find your letter carrier on their route earlier in the day and ask for it. Please understand that your mail could be somewhere not easily accessible in the delivery vehicle and the letter carrier may not want to make the effort to get it out for you. I rarely have anybody ask me for their mail early so I can't tell you how I would handle it. Is your mail that important that you can't wait until you return from holiday travel to retrieve it? Many people go days without taking in their mail from the mailbox. My recommendation would be to not ask for your mail early but it wouldn't hurt to try if it is that important to you. Happy Thanksgiving and travel safely.

651 Votes

Hi...I live in a town in Illinois, where the mailman walks from house to house. Towns around me use mailtrucks, which has to be more efficient.

Considering that the usps is looking to cut costs, why would they not transition everyone to curbside?

Asked by Jodi over 10 years ago

I agree that using postal delivery vehicles to deliver the mail curbside would be more efficient than door to door delivery by a walking letter carrier. There would be more gasoline consumed by these engines running for many hours per day but you would still probably save money versus the costs of a carrier walking door to door and not being able to deliver in the same number of houses in the same amount of time. I deliver mostly by walking from house to house and some neighborhoods in the town where I work have curbside delivery. Those routes do have more delivery points than the one I deliver. The two factors that I can think of for not transitioning everyone to curbside are as follows: 1) I've never heard of the USPS forcing anyone to move a mailbox from their house to the curbside. Who would incur that cost? There would probably be a lot of pushback from customers who have delivery to their front door. 2) Many neighborhoods don't have the streetscape to handle mounted (curbside) deliveries. If the houses are too close together you will have many cars parked on the street which make it difficult for the letter carrier to access the mailbox from the mail truck. In these cases, the letter carrier must perform a time-consuming dismount procedure if they want to deliver the mail to the house with a mailbox they can't access directly from the mail truck. It works fine in most suburban and rural areas but in a tighter density environment , the economics of it may not work. I, for one, love to walk from house to house and get exercise while delivering the mail, but understand your question about how curbside delivery could be more efficient. Thank you for the observant question.

650 Votes

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.

650 Votes

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