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.
Maybe for a day or so to see if anybody in the PO knows where that address is. Being that I deliver mail to the same neighborhood each day I know if a piece of mail has a valid address on it or not. It's possible if there is a replacement letter carrier delivering mail on a certain day and they can't find an address they will bring back the mail and then possibly the regular letter carrier on the route or somebody else would know where the address is. More often than not when mail has an address that can't be found (or the address doesn't even exist), we will endorse the mail as "NSN" which means "No Such Number" and it will be returned to the sender. The USPS has a national database of all valid addresses so we usually know at the PO if an address exists or not.
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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. If it seemed to be some type of phony diversion tactic, I'd try to get far away from the motorist pointing and then investigate safely.
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I don't know the policy on this as I've never thought to put someone's mail on hold without their authorization. I suppose this could come about if their mailbox was full and the carrier couldn't deliver any more mail to that address. In that case maybe a letter carrier would hold any future mail at the PO for a certain amount of time and then possibly return that mail to the sender with the endorsements "mailbox full". A letter carrier can also hold the mail at the PO if your mailbox is inaccessible due to snow. They will usually deliver all of the accumulated mail within a couple of days of the mailbox becoming accessible. We had that situation occur at our PO this past winter when snow prevented some of the driving (mounted) route carriers from being able to drive up to a mailbox without getting out of their LLV.
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I don't believe they can ask you what is actually in the large letter, but I know if it's over a certain weight or size, they can ask something to the effect of "is the item you are mailing liquid, fragile, perishable, or potentially hazardous?" and you self-certify the answer with a yes or no. Certain batteries have to go by surface only and can't fly on airplanes. So I would take exception of they actually ask you what is being mailed if it's first class or Priority Mail. If you are mailing something via Medial Mail they can verify or even open a package to inspect that it is media (books, CDs, cassettes, video, DVD). I hope this answers your question.
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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.
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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 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.
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