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 would say congratulations if you've been hired as a CCA with the USPS. It may seem a bit thankless at times as a CCA given that you are paid less than the regular career carriers and the benefits are also lighter. My tips would be to try to have a great work attitude, be on time for work, be flexible since your hours may be quite variable, work safely, and be respectful of your co-workers. This doesn't mean let yourself be stopped on taken advantage of by management or your co-workers. You will likely be filling in for carriers who are out temporarily or doing "pieces" on a route when the mail volume is too high. If you think you are being given too much work in too short of a time window, do your best but then call the supervisors if you won't be able to make it. They may not be happy about it, but as long as you are safe and not making many delivery mistakes, it should be okay. I also recommending to join the NALC who will advocate for your rights as a city letter carrier. Please write more if you have additional questions or you need me to be more specific. Good luck to you!
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Kris, that is a very good question that I don't have the answer to. I follow a general rule that somebody has paid to have mail sent and delivered so there isn't any way for us to pick and choose what type of mail to deliver. It all gets delivered and I rarely if ever have anyone refuse the ads or other unwanted mail. I would just ask that you recycle the unwanted mail. I am very glad that none of the patrons I deliver to refuse some mail, as our job is to provide a paid service to the mailers. I do agree that much of what is delivered often is of no interest to the recipient (including mail that I receive), but I just recycle it. Thanks for writing.
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Hello Jake. I don't think the mail truck should have driven away from you if they actually had the package. Do you know if the mail truck actually had the package for you to be delivered? The only reason that the mail truck should have just driven away is if it somehow felt that it was dangerous to deliver the package to your house. I don't think that throwing a baseball around is reason enough not to attempt to deliver a package.
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If this is actually taking place, I believe that it is wrong to do. Are you getting the information online by using a tracking number and the status says "attempted delivery"? I have heard of what you are claiming but don't know of anybody who personally has done that. If it happens repeatedly I would make a complaint with the USPS, either locally or through their 800 number. Is it possible that you just didn't hear the knock on the door or the doorbell. By no means am I disputing what you are saying, but I hope that this is not a common occurrence or widespread since it is misrepresenting what is actually happening with that package.
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Vbjmin, you ask a question that I'd love to know the perfect answer to as I've been struggling with this issue from the beginning of my postal career. Cold hands are really hard to tolerate especially when you will be out delivering hours and they must be nimble enough to finger the mail. I wear a glove (thick or thin) on the hand where I hold the mail and cradle the flats since I don't need that hand to finger the mail. The hand that I use to finger the mail and deliver the mail I try to wear a thinner and sometimes fingerless glove or one with small gripping dots on them This has worked okay over the years. Another item which can be useful is "hot hands" which are small single-use packets that form a chemical reaction and heat up for several hours. You can put those in your pocket or even inside your glove. I have rarely used these but my girlfriend, not a letter carrier, loves them. I have purchased many pairs of gloves over the years. It's just a matter of finding the ones that keep you warm enough but allows you to still feel the mail. Thanks for writing and winter is my least favorite season to deliver mail.
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I don't know about the legality of keeping the package when it has already been scanned "delivered", but it certainly is bad as far as data integrity goes. The letter carrier may have scanned many of their parcels "delivered" earlier on in the day which is completely wrong (I can't say illegal) so they don't forget later on. Your example is a great reason why we aren't supposed to scan an item as "delivered" until we actually deliver it. Now if you approached him/her and asked about it, they should then give you the package. If this happened to you more than once I would speak to a delivery supervisor about this because it is very much against our rules to scan a package "delivered" when it wasn't. It is also misrepresenting the shipping status to our customers on both the sending and receiving end. It is also strange that the package has a 9:25 PM delivery time. I can't say it's impossible but I've rarely heard of the USPS out on a Saturday night delivering parcels.
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SB, I don't know about the procedure in a condo complex as to how to deliver an international express package has to be delivered. Anything that needs a signature and would require to me ring a bell in a gated community would result in me going to their door and wouldn't be picky about whether I go to their door (once allowed through the gate) or they come to the gate. I have never worked in an environment like that. If I do deliver to cluster boxes and an item needs a signature I'd knock on the door of the addressee's unit to get the signature. Again, I don't know of any specific regulations on how the delivery should be attempted, but I tend to side on the addressee getting the best service possible (within reason, which is certainly open to interpretation). Thanks for writing.
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