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'm a little confused by your question. Did you move the mail slot down the driveway into a door because some mail is missing or do you think mail is missing because you've moved the mail slot down the driveway and now the mail carrier won't deliver it? I don't know why your mail would be missing. The main reason is usually misdelivery by a USPS letter carrier and less common is mail theft. To answer your main question, I don't know anything about laws regarding how far a letter carrier can walk to deliver mail. If the carrier delivers on foot then it's very common to have to go to a door or mailbox near a door to deliver the mail. From what you described it shouldn't be an issue to have moved the mail slot into a door.
I don't think the letter carrier (postman) should be commenting at all to anyone who gets mail in your box. Not that it matters, but it seems quite normal to have a bill sent to another address. Maybe you pay his XFinity bill for him. Either way that doesn't matter with regards to your question. If this comes up again, I would politely tell the manager that it's not his business who receives mail at your address. If you happen to see the letter carrier, you could mention that he shouldn't be giving out that information and as long as you, the tenant, are accepting mail for your son (or whomever) then it should be delivered accordingly by the USPS employee. I am not familiar with any circumstances that allows us to verbally confirm who gets mail at an address.
As long as you addressed the letter properly and affixed the correct postage the letter should make it to London correctly. When letter carriers pick up outgoing mail we generally just put it in a basket with all of the other outgoing mail and a processing facility sorts the mail based on where it is going to. If you still have the letter, please put the country of destination (UK or England) on the very bottom line of the address. I'm sure the Royal Post is reliable just like the USPS is.
I think it is inappropriate to solicit your own business while delivering a route for the USPS. I haven't heard of anyone being disciplined for doing this, but I would think that it is technically not allowed. I know of a couple of co-workers who do home improvements, landscaping, or sprinkler work as side jobs but don't know if they actually try to get business while delivering mail. If they want to do a postcard mailing to try and get business I suppose that would be fine as long as proper postage was paid for the mailing and they didn't just put their own postcards in mailboxes while delivering the mail and not affixing postage to it.
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I don't know anything about how a route is established and what it would take to get it changed from a riding route to a walking route. Do you know if they are city or rural letter carriers who deliver your mail? Normally if a carrier is driving in a delivery vehicle and the mailboxes are at the street they should be able to approach and leave the mailbox without having to get out of their delivery vehicle to affect delivery. If a car is parked in the way and the letter carrier can't reach the mailbox without getting out of their delivery vehicle they have the option to skip delivery and attempt it the next day hoping there will be clear access. I am not familiar with an area where some houses are riding and some are walking when they are near each other. Usually it's one or the other. For example, all of my deliveries are to a mailbox which is usually attached to an actual residence so I walk between delivery points. Other carriers stay in their delivery vehicle and put mail in mailboxes which are along a road or curb. This is also known as curbside delivery. My suggestion would be to call the post office and speak to a delivery supervisor or manager about this. I don't know if they will be of any help. Is it possible for you to move your car or even the mailbox so the letter carrier can more easily gain access to the mailbox? You shouldn't have to go without mail delivery but there are certain regulations to be followed so the letter carrier can do their job in an efficient and safe manner.
I'd recommend taking it to the Post Office to make sure you are paying the right amt. You should just be able to put it in a letter size envelope (if it fits) and seal the envelope well. A proper address should also be written on the envelope where the bottom line is the Country of Destination (in your case either UK or Scotland). My quick search says that a 2 oz. letter to Scotland would be $2.21. If you are interested, you can go to www.usps.com and search for calculate a price and after answering several questions you can get a rate. 2 stamps would be equal to .98 so that would be insufficient to mail to Scotland. The minimum price for international mailing is $1.20 I think. Thanks for writing and I always say it's better to put too much postage on instead of too little. This way you lessen the risk of an item being returned for insufficient postage.
I don't believe that is normal or allowed in a USPS vehicle. I wouldn't risk taking a civilian (non-USPS employee) in the USPS vehicle. I can't quote any rules on this but I can't imagine the USPS would take any responsibility should the non-employee get hurt while in that vehicle. It sounds even more suspicious that this friend is bringing a bully breed dog along. I once had my nephews and parents walk with me along the postal route for approximately 45 minutes to show them what my job is like. I didn't receive approval from my supervisor to do this and, after the fact, I realize it may not have been proper to have them accompany me while delivering mail. My nephews were very young at the the time and I carefully watched as they put the mail in the mailbox on several occasions. It's up to you whether or not you want to report this to your local post office that the letter carrier works out of. I don't know if the supervisor would care or do anything but I can't imagine that this is allowed or condoned. If the friend just came along and didn't go into the USPS vehicle, it may not be as clear whether or not that is allowed, but it certainly seems inappropriate. In my work environment, I just stick to the rules as much as I can without drawing attention to myself and stay out of trouble. Thanks for the interesting question.
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