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

if u went to a door and a guy opened it droped straight 2 his knees and asked u to drop urpants would u

Asked by EJ over 10 years ago

This is a very immature question to ask on this site, but the answer is no. I'm not interested in men to begin with, but even it were a woman I don't think I'd get involved because it's not worth losing a job for a few minutes of fun. I keep it professional while on the clock. In my years of experience nothing even close to the scenario you described (with a male or female) has happened to me.

582 Votes

Does your mail still get delivered if the carrier is on vacation?

Asked by Cliff over 9 years ago

Cliff, mail gets delivered if a letter carrier is on vacation. There is usually a replacement letter carrier who will cover the route of the regular letter carrier who is on vacation. If there isn't enough staffing available, the route which the regular carrier is on vacation from my be split between other letter carriers. For this reason your mail should still be delivered but possibly at a very different time than the regular letter carrier does.

582 Votes

If a package was inadvertently RTS on a Saturday. Can it be picked up that same day once the mail carrier brings it back at the end of his shift?

Asked by Victoria over 10 years ago

I am not sure how to answer this correctly. If you can find the letter carrier who inadvertently RTS the package and positively ID that the package belongs to you, I don't see why not. I just don't have a lot of faith in some of my co-workers how helpful they would be if asked to find a package that they hadn't been in possession of. Actually it would be more of a supervisor issue to try and find the package. Either way I hope it worked out for you or whomever you wrote this for. We probably shouldn't have made the mistake in the first place unless the package was addressed improperly.

581 Votes

Why would a "government official" (or someone driving a gov't use only vehicle) be following my mailman on his route?

Asked by JP almost 11 years ago

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.

581 Votes

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Hi Dave,

I have accidentally dropped off a UPS package in a USPS mailbox within NYC. I have waited 2 weeks for it to be handed over to UPS, but it has not turned up in my tracking. Should I assume that I will not get this back? It has my passport

Asked by Henry over 10 years ago

To be honest Henry, I don't know what happens when you drop a UPS package off in a USPS collection box by mistake. The logical thing would be for us to hand it off to UPS somehow. UPS drop boxes and drivers are pretty easy to find in NYC. You say there is no UPS tracking information that's been updated. Like you said, I doubt it will be turning up anywhere but I don't know what would happen to it unless it's sitting on some pile of errantly mailed items at a mail sorting facility. Nothing surprises me at the USPS when it comes to missing items. I hate to be a pessimist but I hear enough stories of us errantly delivering mail or packages and then who knows what the recipient does with it, if anything. I try to be very accurate and diligent with my deliveries as do most of my co-workers but it just takes a few screw-ups to ruin the journey of a package or letter which was properly mailed. I know I got off on a tangent here. Maybe you could wait another week before considering it lost or call the USPS customer service phone number. I'm not sure how much help they can be in this situation.

581 Votes

Thank you so much for a speedy answer. Thank you for answering all these questions! One other question I would have is, what do you do when a house does not have a mailbox?

Asked by Dee over 9 years ago

My pleasure to answer yours and others questions, Dee! It's easy to respond quickly as I don't get an overwhelming number of questions. I also don't like to have a backlog of emails either. Anyhow, to answer your question the correct thing to do is to not deliver the mail and have it returned to the sender with the endorsement "No Mail Receptacle". I don't come across this situation very often. I sometimes fill in on another route and there is one house with no mailbox. I just rubber band the mail and leave it on their bench by a front door. I think if it was on my postal route I'd request the customer install a mailbox to have mail delivery service.

580 Votes

When do most mailman and women start their routes? Are there different times for different people? or is it the same for everyone?

Asked by Andrew over 10 years ago

It probably depends on the office where you work as to what time you start delivering your route. Where I work most deliveries probably start between 9:15 and 10:30 AM. It depends how long the letter carriers take to prepare their routes in the AM for delivery. Some routes get more mail than others or take longer to prepare in order for delivery. Also, some letter carriers are faster than others at starting their routes. I usually start delivery by 10AM and am finished around 4PM if the weather and volume of mail and parcels isn't out of line with what I normally get. Most of the letter carriers where I work start their tour at 7:30 AM.

579 Votes

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