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 about 10 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.

507 Votes

can you wear used post office shirts legally if you buy it in a thrift store?

Asked by klumac about 10 years ago

I didn't know that regulation approved USPS uniform shirts were available in thrift stores. I don't know the rules on whether or not they are allowed to be worn by non-USPS personnel.

506 Votes

What happens to a regular carrier on the ODL if his supervisor calls him in on his day off, but the carrier doesnt answer his phone.

Asked by Jason over 10 years ago

Jason, I'm no expert on the rules and regulations with reference to our union contract (NALC/USPS National Agreement), but I can give you my take on it and anecdotal experience. I feel that if the supervisor hasn't scheduled you before you left work on your previous work day to work your day off you have zero obligation to answer the phone or to come to work. I would probably recommend not even responding if you feel that there will be a conflict if you refuse to go to work. It makes perfect sense that you already had other plans, you are away for the day, had a MD's appt, etc, and you can't come to work. Just to be sure, you never have to tell mgmt what you were doing on your day off. My anecdotal experience is that nothing can be done with regards to discipline for not answering the phone or going to work on your NS day if you haven't been previously scheduled or mandated. I've never heard of an attempt to discipline someone for this.

506 Votes

What steps should I take if a postal carrier overlooked my mail

Asked by shakita over 10 years ago

Shakita, I'm not sure what you mean by the postal carrier overlooked the mail. Do you mean that they looked inside it when they shouldn't have? If you know this for sure, I'd call or visit your nearby PO and speak with a delivery supervisor. It would seem hard to prove though I don't know the details in your case. If you meant that the postal carrier overlooked an outgoing piece of mail and forgot to take it, I'd recommend making it very visible to them next time and if it becomes a problem, please leave a note saying "please take outgoing mail. Thank you". I hope I have answered your question whichever way you intended it.

506 Votes

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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 almost 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.

505 Votes

i had "not nice words" with a substitute driver the other day and she threatened to stop my mail. Can she really stop it because we had words.

Asked by tn mom over 9 years ago

I don't know the answer to that. I can't imagine that there are too many situations to get into conflict with a customer. I would usually walk away from most situations that could get out of hand. Anyhow, they shouldn't threaten to stop the mail because of the "words" unless there was a physical threat made by you, which it doesn't sound like. If, by chance, you notice mail not being delivered, you could contact a delivery supervisor or Postmaster or manager to tell them what happened and ask why you didn't receive mail when you were supposed to. I hope that cooler heads prevail. I have a few jerky customers that I deliver mail too, but I don't let it bother me. They continue to get the exact same quality service as everybody else I deliver mail to. I hope that cooler heads prevail in your situation and that the mail service isn't interrupted. Thanks for writing with your q.

505 Votes

Is there a typical time frame to get hired as a carrier from the first steps of applying until one lands a job?

Asked by cdaws almost 10 years ago

I don't know but my guess would be 6 months or less. I don't know if there is still a test that needs to be taken to be hired as a City Carrier Assistant and how frequently the test is given. Many years ago, this exam wasn't given too frequently. Now I hear nothing about it so maybe it's an ongoing hiring process, where they are continuously hiring and training. From what I hear anecdotally, and what I personally see in my workplace we defintitely could use some new hires. It seems the demand for letter carriers exists, but the hiring of qualified candidates who make it through probation isn't keeping pace with that demand. Good luck to you!

505 Votes

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