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 am from Paraguay and have sent four items to the US, all with tracking numbers. They went through the Miami ISC but it's been more than a month and there has been no further updates. What may have happened and what could I do?

Asked by renef09 over 11 years ago

I am thinking it may be held up in Customs, but am not sure if that happens before or after it gets to the ISC, or is maybe based in the Miami ISC. Do you know if the recipient is still looking for their items? Sometimes it doesn't get any more bar code scans before it is delivered but actually has been delivered. You could go to www.usps.com and maybe do an inquiry as to where the items could be but I don't have a lot of confidence that you will get any more info than is what you already have.

643 Votes

how late does the mail carrier run pls hlp thnx

Asked by deedee almost 11 years ago

I don't know where you live but delivery is usually done by 5:30 or 6PM based on my experience. I suppose if an office is short-handed or the mail volume is too high then delivery may be much later. The route which I deliver in Long Island, NY generally is done by 3:30 PM if the mail volume (including parcels to deliver) is average. So you can see there is quite a range as to how late a letter carrier route can be and there are variables that make it hard to pinpoint when delivery will be on any given day. Thanks for your question.

643 Votes

There was a city flyer in my mailbox it said postal customer. Does that mean the mailman brought it

Asked by seano760 almost 11 years ago

I am not sure what a city flyer is, but I am guessing it was some type of communication from your city or it was an advertisement. If it said "postal customer" on it, it likely was delivered by the USPS. Another way is to check if there is an indicia on it. That is a square usually in the upper right hand corner of the mailpiece that says "prst std, US mail, paid" or something like that. That is proof of postage. We often deliver mailings that say "postal customer". Basically it means that each address receives this piece of mail. Sometimes it is residential only and sometimes it goes to all business and residential customers.

643 Votes

If i post a letter but didn't mean to can i go back and ask the postman if i can have it back before he takes it away

Asked by daniel almost 11 years ago

I would give it back to you if I know who you are, or you can positively ID yourself, and if I can easily retrieve the letter. It's rarely happened to me and in each case in gave back the letter(s) to the sender. I can't speak to how another letter carrier would react to your request and I don't know if there are any rules specifically allowing or prohibiting this. We are not trained on how to handle this request as far as I can remember.

642 Votes

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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 about 11 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.

642 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 over 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.

642 Votes

What percentage of mail carriers would you say, are female?

Asked by Rose almost 11 years ago

Based on the office where I work, there are about 25% female carriers. I can't say at all what it is at other locations. Lately, the CCAs who have been hired are more like 50% female. Some of them are quite petite so I don't know how they do the job lifting heavy parcels and walking with loaded mail satchels. I give them a lot of credit. I believe you should be able to lift up to 70 lbs, but I don't think that is tested and I see some carriers give their heavier parcels to a parcel post driver to deliver. I don't think that is necessarily fair that they don't have to carry the same load as I do, but I don't care enough to speak up or cause an unnecessary conflict.

642 Votes

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