Ask a Mailman (City Letter Carrier) anything

The mailman at my office came in to deliver mail and I told him that we had moved our postage machine from one location to another and he told me that they get paid by the foot and his supervisor measures it once a year. Is that true? I doubt it!

Asked by Shan over 10 years ago

I have not had an office to deliver on a regular basis so I can't comment as to how far a letter carrier is supposed to go I to an office to deliver or retrieve outgoing mail. Usually I'd expect to mostly deliver to a mail room or reception desk. As far as getting paid by the foot, I can assure you if it is a city letter carrier they are being paid "on the clock" meaning it has nothing to do with distance traveled on foot, but only by time working. A rural letter carrier may have a different way to calculate their pay where I don't know the details. If your letter carrier is wearing the traditional blue uniform, it is likely they are a city carrier and if the location of your postage machine took them longer to access, they'd actually be paid more money because it took them longer. I am being picayune but I hope you understand the point. Some mail carriers are just lazy, will feed you a line, or genuinely know some of the rules about office delivery.

533 Votes

are mail carriers required to deliver to separate boxes at a 2-family house, assuming the boxes specify 'apt. 1' and 'apt. 2' (particularly if the boxes are on different levels separated by stairs)?

Asked by Joe almost 10 years ago

I don't know the procedures for determining whether a not a building is "officially" considered multi-unit for mail deliver purposes. I once had a person who was leasing part of a house of I could put his mail into a separate mailbox on the side of a house and I said no. The house is considered one address and all of the mail goes in a single box. The landlord can separate the mail. I would think if it's a 2-family house and the boxes are clearly marked as "apt 1" and "apt 2" or something similarly distinctive and the mail is addressed accordingly it may be okay. I truly don't know what constitutes multi-unit or not as far as mail delivery goes. I also don't know if the stairs have any effect to the answer. It's not uncommon to walk up stairs to deliver mail so I can't outright say no due to the stairs separating the mailboxes of the 2 units.

532 Votes

I recently finished my route, came back office and someone defaced my time card. I took a picture, notified my steward to meet with postmaster on Monday. No point in notifying supervisor it was Saturday, rather go to postmaster. Any thoughts,

Asked by rocketman60 about 10 years ago

First of all, I want to say that it's disgusting that a co-worker would do that. It could almost be taken as a threat from a co-worker and make for a hostile environment. I think you did the right thing by taking a photo of it and getting your shop steward involved. It wouldn't have hurt for you to notify the supervisor since they are next up the chain of command. It sounds like you feel that this is serious enough to go right to the postmaster and I understand that. I don't know if your office has internal video cameras which would cover the area by the time clock. That'd give you all of the evidence you need. Be careful not to just wildly point fingers as to who you think has done the defacing, but if you have had a noticeable conflict with one co-worker you could mention that in the meeting with the postmaster and your shop steward. Nobody at work should have to put up with that kind of defacement or intimidation and I really hope that the management and NALC doesn't take this lightly.

530 Votes

I live in a building with mailboxes we tennents access by key. However I found out that the management at our building puts the mail into the boxes and not the mailman. My boyfriend says this is illegal. What can I do to amend this? I live in Canada

Asked by Flower over 10 years ago

Flower, whether you live in Canada or the U.S., my answer to your question is the same: I don't know what can be done to amend this. I don't know that it is illegal either. Most apartment buildings that I've seen have a cluster of mailboxes near the lobby and are serviced by a USPS worker (in the US). I, too, live in an apartment building (a cooperative) and a USPS Letter Carrier distributes the mail. Management has no access to the cluster boxes as far as I know. On the flip side, there may be some arrangement for the management to deliver the mail in your building though I don't know the mechanism that would allow for such an agreement. The only thing I can compare your situation to is that many college campuses have mail that is distributed by non-USPS employees into boxes usually at a residence hall or student center/union. I did that for one year when I attended a university in NY.

530 Votes

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 almost 11 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.

530 Votes

I left a letter in my landlords mailbox in a stamped envelope with my return address and her receiving address when she checked the box her mail was there but my letter wasn't what happens if mailman took it thinking it was outgoing mail

Asked by Kate about 10 years ago

From what you described there should be no problem in your landlord eventually receiving the check. It's possible that the letter carrier took the envelope thinking it was outgoing mail. Since it had a stamp on it and the landlord as a receiving address, they will likely get the check in a couple of delivery days. If a letter carrier sees an unstamped envelope in a mailbox they will often take it as outgoing mail without looking at the destination address. Thanks for your question.

530 Votes

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 almost 10 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.

530 Votes

Mailman (City Letter Carrier)

Ask me anything!

What do YOU do?

The mailman at my office came in to deliver mail and I told him that we had moved our postage machine from one location to another and he told me that they get paid by the foot and his supervisor measures it once a year. Is that true? I doubt it!

are mail carriers required to deliver to separate boxes at a 2-family house, assuming the boxes specify 'apt. 1' and 'apt. 2' (particularly if the boxes are on different levels separated by stairs)?

I recently finished my route, came back office and someone defaced my time card. I took a picture, notified my steward to meet with postmaster on Monday. No point in notifying supervisor it was Saturday, rather go to postmaster. Any thoughts,

I live in a building with mailboxes we tennents access by key. However I found out that the management at our building puts the mail into the boxes and not the mailman. My boyfriend says this is illegal. What can I do to amend this? I live in Canada

Also on Jobstr...

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)

I left a letter in my landlords mailbox in a stamped envelope with my return address and her receiving address when she checked the box her mail was there but my letter wasn't what happens if mailman took it thinking it was outgoing mail

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?

Mailman (City Letter Carrier)

Ask me anything!

What do YOU do?

The mailman at my office came in to deliver mail and I told him that we had moved our postage machine from one location to another and he told me that they get paid by the foot and his supervisor measures it once a year. Is that true? I doubt it!

are mail carriers required to deliver to separate boxes at a 2-family house, assuming the boxes specify 'apt. 1' and 'apt. 2' (particularly if the boxes are on different levels separated by stairs)?

I recently finished my route, came back office and someone defaced my time card. I took a picture, notified my steward to meet with postmaster on Monday. No point in notifying supervisor it was Saturday, rather go to postmaster. Any thoughts,

I live in a building with mailboxes we tennents access by key. However I found out that the management at our building puts the mail into the boxes and not the mailman. My boyfriend says this is illegal. What can I do to amend this? I live in Canada

Also on Jobstr...

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)

I left a letter in my landlords mailbox in a stamped envelope with my return address and her receiving address when she checked the box her mail was there but my letter wasn't what happens if mailman took it thinking it was outgoing mail

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?

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