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 see on a map you are referring to towns in MN that are about 55 miles apart. That's the mileage from Chaska, MN to Zimmerman, MN. I'd say it's approximately 2 days to get from the origin to the destination. For example, if the letter was mailed on a Tuesday before the collection deadline it should be delivered by Thursday. I hope this answers your question. It's also not a good idea to send actual cash through the mail if you can avoid it.
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As far as I know you are allowed to. I know some carriers who have portable radios or just use their PED to play music. As far as a cell phone goes, I'm pretty sure you can use it as long as it is hands free. I have a route where I walk most of the day and I listen to podcasts on my iPhone. I have one earphone in and leave the other ear free. I think it's inappropriate and a bit unsafe to have both ears covered while delivering on foot or driving. The outside noise is important to hear if a car is coming or a customer that may need your attention. From time to time, there may be a safety talk or notice at work about the use of personal electronic devices but it doesn't seem too strict or maybe just not enforced. I don't like seeing my colleagues have both ears covered while delivering mail, but I'm not a supervisor so I don't address this issue.
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I am not familiar with this situation on what the mailman is allowed to do or not with respect to spraying an area for bees and killing flowers and demanding weeds can be cut. I can tell you that the mailman does need to have unobstructed access to your mailbox with low/no risk of being stung by a bee that could affect his health. I'd say that he could suspend delivery to your house until the situation is fixed to his satisfaction. I just hope both parties will be reasonable and you won't worry about him being vindictive if you call the PO to discuss this issue with a delivery supervisor/manager/postmaster. I'm not sure what you mean by "he can spray". If you are asking, "can be spray?" I don't know this answer.
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Will, I am not a rural carrier so I'm not sure how much my tips would help because as city carriers, we are paid for whatever time we work. There is almost an incentive not to work as quickly, but I think most city carrier's give a fair shake and not try to make their day longer. At least I don't do that because I enjoy my free time. My main tip would try to be very organized both in the office and on the route. Work efficiently, but safely, especially when driving. I load my parcels in the order of delivery or close to it. Being more organized does initially take more time, but you should come back with a pretty empty truck not having forgotten anything to deliver. Do you case your DPS letter size mail? If not, you can take it to the street and go through it as you deliver and not waste time in the PO casing it. City Letter carriers generally don't see the DPS letter mail until we finger through it at the delivery point. Along the route and in the office, try not to waste time talking to too many people.
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Supervisors or Postal Inspectors sometimes monitor carrier activities while they are delivering mail. Approximately 1x per year, a supervisor will spend much of the day going around your route with you and filling out a P Form 3999 (which describes the time and activities a route takes to complete). Sometimes they will be in a Gov't use vehicle or sometimes they can ride along in the delivery vehicle. Postal Inspectors have a law enforcement function so they may watch a carrier activities if they suspect something illegal. I have seen postal inspectors at the PO where I work just a couple of times in my many years of employment. When we are followed during the day by a supervisor, it's just a bit of annoyance and know it's part of their job. As long as the letter carrier is doing their job properly there is nothing to worry about.
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I don't know at all about the requirements for what vehicles are allowed for delivering US Mail. We use Postal-owned vehicles where I work. When I was first hired we sometimes used our own vehicles for mail delivery and didn't know of any requirements. We were only doing park and loop and foot routes with our own vehicles. The rural route carriers had privately owned right hand drive vehicles for mail delivery. I would recommend looking at the website or contacting the NRLCA, the National Rural Letter Carriers Association. I know that city carriers (which I am) would sign a CDOA which was a Carrier Drive Out Agreement that would stipulate what is required and what the compensation would be for using your own vehicle.
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I can't say for sure why the drastic difference in the time your mail is delivered. If it's the same letter carrier who is coming at different times I can see a couple of hours difference but your description is up to 5.5 hrs difference. Normally the mail is sorted before we start delivering. Any mail which we pick up during the day as outgoing mail doesn't need to be separated. We just bring it back and give it to a dispatch clerk. At times we are shorthanded at the USPS so that results in us doing additional assignments possibly before delivering our own routes. This could be up to a couple of hours but that doesn't seem to be the norm where I work. Please remember that I can't speak for what happens at other postal facilities. One further comment is that we are supposed to deliver the mail in a specific route order. If your letter carrier doesn't do that it could result in different delivery times. The holiday season for cards isn't as busy as it used to be. We now deliver a significant quantity of parcels which could also take up time.
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