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.
If it is a temporary change, you could put a replacement mailbox or cardboard box (or anything labeled US mail) in an area visible and accessible to your letter carrier. I had a resident recently move the mailbox to near his garage because his whole front steps area of the house was being ripped out, expanded, and rebuilt. Your letter carrier shouldn't give you a hard time about this. If you get a chance you can mention it to them ahead of the construction beginning, or post a note by your present mailbox that you'll soon be providing a temporary alternate area to deliver the mail. Thanks for your question and consideration.
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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.
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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.
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You are obviously referring to holiday gratuities, no need to hide that on this forum. We aren't really supposed to expect or accept cash tips but know that many of us do (me included). I can't really comment on who has a right to them. Maybe the comp man and the unassigned regular could split anything they get but I'm guessing there may not be enough trust to do that. I'm not really sure why the former carrier deserves anything if he voluntarily bid off that route for another assignment. I don't know what "aa" means but "as" means ass kisser. I guess I don't really agree with you in this situation and holiday gratuities really shouldn't be basis for any rules about bumping or holddowns. It really just seems to cause problems when it shouldn't even be entering into the picture.
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If I were in motion, I'd safely pull over, put on my four-way flashers, and then get out to investigate. It's possible that my gas cap is hanging out the side of the LLV, the back gate isn't secure, or maybe I'm dragging something. It could also be something that I haven't thought of. If the motorist is still around I'd ask them what they are pointing out.
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Teri, generally the mailman will be running behind because the day after any holiday there is often a heavier quantity of mail to deliver. I can't speak for all offices, but most of my co-workers were probably 1:00-1:30 behind their regular schedule when they started deliveries today. There was a huge quantity of parcels to have sorted by the clerks (took awhile) and also delivering these takes longer . One other factor is that the sun sets earlier this time of year so delivering the mail in the dark takes even longer.
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As a general rule, I think a letter carrier should be delivering mail to a mailbox unless they know or trust the person asking for the mail. If you are asking if they can bypass a house and not deliver mail at all, the main reason for refusing to deliver mail would be that the carrier feels their personal safety is in jeopardy due to a dog or other unsafe condition. They can also refuse to deliver the mail if safe access or access in general (door to an apt. Building is locked for an example) to the mailbox can't be assured. I don't know if the situation occurred to you which brought up this question. It is rare that I ever don't deliver mail to an address. Even if it's an unsafe construction area, I may give the mail to one of the workers who will put the mail in the mailbox.
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