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.

SubscribeGet emails when new questions are answered. Ask Me Anything!Show Bio +

Share:

Ask me anything!

Submit Your Question

1237 Questions

Share:

Last Answer on February 18, 2022

Best Rated

How does a new CCA in Mass have to do to memorize his route on the beginning? And how hard is it? In a non familiar area. Thank you!

Asked by Lazarevicmass over 10 years ago

A CCA shouldn't have to memorize a delivery route as far as I know. I believe as long as you can read a map or use a smart phone GPS, you should be okay. Hopefully the postal management or a fellow letter carrier can give you written instructions and/or a map to help you. I know that if I give away part of my route for a CCA to deliver, I am expected to write down the delivery instructions including park points, vacant houses, certified mail, and Managed Service Points (which need to be scanned). I will admit that not every office or carrier is that well organized so there may be a level of "baptism by fire". The key for me is organization and reading a map if you are unfamiliar with an area.

what days do mailman come to turn in or take mail from apartments?
can I ask my mail lady to sell me stamps if i'm in a tight situation?

Asked by jessie about 10 years ago

In most apartments, just like houses, mail is delivered 6 days week (every day except Sundays and Holidays). If there is outgoing mail, it should be taken at that same time. Many apartment cluster boxes have a slot for outgoing mail. If not, the mail should be deposited in a blue collection box which are at the Post Office or in the street in various locations. With regards to asking a mail lady to sell you stamps, you can ask but we aren't required to carry stamps as city letter carriers. I carry a few with that I purchase with my own money and will put them on envelopes if someone has short-paid the postage or if they need a stamp. Sometimes I'll ask them for the money, sometimes I won't. The whole scenario doesn't happen too often. I am a stickler for the proper postage being affixed to mail so I sometimes I won't accept a letter with insufficient postage and leave a note or write on the envelope that add'l postage is required.

I dropped an envelope into a blue usps collections box into the slip part of it, will the mailman get it? I did not use the handle part that you open.

Asked by aa almost 10 years ago

I'm not sure where the slip part is but you likely mean the area below the part with the handle. I didn't think you could get a letter through there. Anyhow it's very likely that the mailman will get your letter when the collection box is emptied. The area I think you are referring to goes to the same area as if you opened the lid with the handle on the top and deposited,the envelope the correct way.

I live in a residence, never closed, but have had three occasions recently when an item wasn't delivered with a reason listed in tracking as business closed. Why?

Asked by jayking@gmx.com over 9 years ago

That is interesting to hear yet not surprising to me. There are certain parcels that are supposed to have a scan on it whether or not it's actually delivered on a particular day. Amazon.com parcels are one of these types of parcels but it may occur on other parcels as well. I don't think it's right for the USPS to be doing this because it is misrepresenting the status of a parcel. In your case the fact that you live in a residence that is never closed makes it even more wrong to be scanned as "business closed". Sometimes a letter carrier may forget to deliver a parcel or it is missorted to another route and there is no time to get it correctly delivered on the same day. In this case, it might be scanned "attempted" or "business closed". In my opinion both of these scans are wrong and misleading to the recipient and/or shipper. I hope you have at least received the parcel the next delivery day. I've never been asked to scan a parcel wrongly and would refuse to do so. You may see this more lately as the volume of our parcel business for the month leading up to Christmas is probably double or more our normal parcel load.

Lets say Its monday and presidents day, specific mail is to come on a thursday. does presidents day affect it to come on friday?

Asked by David over 10 years ago

its possible that a holiday may delay mail delivery by a day. We don't always get the mail there on time except in the case of Priority Mail Express which is guaranteed by a certain date or the mailer can apply for a refund of the postage. During a holiday, I believe mail is still being transported through our distribution network, though I don't know if it is sorted at a mail plant and therefore could be delayed a day due to the holiday. The mail volume to be delivered the day after a Monday holiday is usually much more than a regular Monday.

Claims he received mail at our house that was addressed to his previous address (same town). I don't believe him, & I'm curious, could/would a postman/woman deliver post to a different address than what is marked. (Did not sign up for forwarding)

Asked by m0m2t0by over 10 years ago

I believe it would be rare for someone to receive mail at your address when they didn't put on a forwarding order and then to actually know about it. Certainly mail could be mis-delivered to your house, but how would that person know unless you contacted them somehow? I deliver mail only as addressed with a couple of exceptions. If I can see that the sender addressed it wrong (usually a wrong house #, but the correct street), I would likely deliver it to the address where the person lives. Even if someone moved in the same town but didn't put in a forwarding order, we aren't allowed to just "hand off" the mail to their new address. I did recently notice that a woman (her parents live on the route I deliver) had a piece of mail with her name on it but the address to be delivered to was in Maryland. I know the woman is now receiving mail at her parents home and likely has a forwarding order from Maryland to her parents house in NY. The letter may have been automatically re-routed to NY with the new addresses bar code put on the envelope and the letter then arrived in the computer-sorted mail for the NY address. I just delivered it knowing that the surnames matched. I hope this answers your question and thanks for writing.

I am expecting a check from Prudential that was mailed out on the 29th. They said 3-5 business days but its the 6th day and its not here. My apartment number wasn't on the mail but whats more likely, the snow storms delaying mail or was it returned?

Asked by Anthony over 10 years ago

It is possible that the mail from Prudential is delayed due to the storm or because there is no apt. # on the address. I am not sure which would be more likely. I don't know how strict your post office or letter carrier is on delivering to multi-unit buildings with no apt # on the mail. I would think that if they know what unit the letter should go to it would be a good idea to just deliver it there. In general it is important to put your apt # on your address, but I think you know that. I'd recommend giving it a few more days before worrying that the check is really lost. Thanks for the question.