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 don't know anything about cards that need to be submitted so that mail can be received at rural mailboxes, but I'm also not familiar with rural route procedures in general. I don't see why mail that has a valid address regardless of the name of the resident/business which is on the mail wouldn't be delivered unless the recipient refuses it. I have no authority as a city letter carrier to decide who qualifies to receive mail. I deliver mail to an address unless it's a previous resident or an unknown name which the current resident doesn't know or want to accept. It's very normal to have someone run a business from their home. I think it was proper of you to check with your local PO to ask about this but I wouldn't have thought you would receive the answer you did. If you wanted to, you could tape a small note inside of your mailbox saying "accepting mail for (name of business)". That would remove any doubt in the mind of a rural carrier whether or not the business name is valid at your address. To answer the first part of your q, I hope the postal worker wasn't drunk, just giving you wrong info.
I don't know where you can find this information as to if it's in our ELM or JCAM since I'm not involved in contract administration whatsoever. Your shop steward might have an answer plus I think some offices operate differently even if it's in violation of a nationally agreed upon procedure. It also depends on whether or not you are a CCA or if you're a Regular. If you're a Regular carrier, it also depends on whether or not you are on the ODL. That will determine if they can mandate you in on your SDO (also known as your NS day). In the office where I work, CCAs don't technically have a scheduled day off and should be checking the schedule daily to confirm when/if they need to report for work the next day. As far as regular carriers go, it seems that our management makes the schedule up on a daily basis but probably does a rough draft in the later part of the previous week. The schedule is on a clipboard on the supervisors desk. I've heard in other offices the management will usually post the following weeks schedule by Wed. of the previous week. I don't know the real rules probably because it doesn't seem to be much of an issue in my office (except maybe when we are very short-handed) and I like to work a lot of OT if it's available. I'm not willing to do the research to give you a more definitive answer which is why I've referred you to other sources that maybe could assist you.
It should be delivered by a letter carrier. It may not be your letter carrier. If he doesn't drive a postal vehicle to his route and then walk it's not likely he will be the one delivering it. Some offices have parcel post drivers that deliver larger parcels via a delivery vehicle. If nobody is home to accept the package, there is a possibility you'd have to pick it up at the PO or request a redelivery.
Your mail shouldn't be returned because you don't pick it up daily. I've never heard of any obligation one has to pick up their mail at any specific interval. If the mailbox fills up, I know mail can be returned but I'm not sure if that means the overflow mail or the mail in the box already. In my experience it's very common for mail to be left in the mailbox for days. It doesn't bother me one bit and it's rare that the mailbox gets so full that action must be taken. Without knowing any further details, it sounds like your letter carrier is being a jerk and looking for conflict rather than providing quality service.
Pharmacist
3D Games Developer/Programmer
Rap Promoter / Manager
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.
I'm sorry to hear about your relationship not doing well with your boyfriend. It is horrible that he will mark your mail "return to sender" without your permission. I don't know the legality of what he is doing or if charges can be filed. You could contact your local PO and advise them of the situation, but I have no idea what can be done about it. The practical, but not necessarily convenient or affordable, way to resolve this is to rent a PO Box which only you'd have access to.
I have no idea why a letter carrier would do that without proper notice to you and how would the other resident have a key to that mailbox since you have it? Do you have a key to the correct mailbox or a newer mailbox with your correct address. I am a bit confused about your question. Is the mail for the different townhome now being delivered to the mailbox where your mail originally went? I'd recommend contacting the post office from where your mail is delivered or go to usps.com to email them with your question or call: 1-800-275-8777. They will probably contact your local post office to get some type of info as to why this happened. I'm not sure a property manager at the the townhome complex could help but it wouldn't hurt to ask.
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