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 am not sure there is a way to verify they were actually delivered by the PO. In general, an EDDM should only sit for a few days at most from what I've seen at the PO where I work. I don't know if there is a specific time frame that they must be delivered after being received by the delivery PO. If you called the destination POs, I don't think there is much hope that whoever you speak to could verify if they were delivered or not. There is a good chance they wouldn't even remember it. Basically all I can say is that they should've been delivered, but can't recommend a way to verify that your EDDM postcards were delivered. EDDM stands for Every Door Direct Mail.
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I don't know the answer to this though not much surprises me regarding the USPS. While most mail is delivered domestically within about 4 days, I suppose there a reason some exceptions where it takes much longer. You can post this question again with the answer (if you know it) or email me privately daveabbey at aol dot com.
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From CA to FL it should take 4 days maximum for a letter to be received as long as it was addressed properly and had sufficient postage. I don't know what can be done since first class letters aren't trackable. It's possible for letters to get lost, misdelivered, or damaged in our machinery but that is all a pretty low percentage of mail. I would say be patient and hope it arrives soon at the FL destination.
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I'm not sure if you will like the job as a letter carrier because each person is different. There are few important things about it to know when you start out as a CCA (city carrier assistant). They include being very flexible in your schedule, being assigned different routes daily depending on staffing needs, and possibly working on Sundays and Holidays. It can be a physically demanding job and you want to be prepared for all different weather extremes depending on where you live. I enjoy the job because I'm not in an office and I can be very organized and am providing quality service to whomever I deliver mail. I recommend doing a little research on websites like postalmag.com or postalnews.com to learn of the latest issues. The USPS plans to hire tens of thousands of people in 2016, but part of the reason is that the attrition rate is high. In a recent article I read, 54.4% of CCAs didn't stay on the job for more than one year. I find the job fun, but it's been many years since I've been in a position of a different assignment each day or every few days. I do see the job as a challenge for new hires. I wish you well if you decide to become a letter carrier. Work accurately and safely, and try not to let any office negativity get to you.
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Not often. I deliver the same route each day, so I pretty much know when residents move in or out. I deliver mail in an upper middle class community and there aren't many rentals and most houses are occupied. If mail begins to accumulate for awhile and I don't see any activity at the house and the grounds start to look more unkempt I may suspect a house is vacant. When most people move, they submit a change of address/forwarding order. This also gives me an indication that if I don't see a new residents name that the house could be vacant. At present, about 1% of the houses on my route are considered vacant and don't receive mail delivery. I'm sure in many other communities that aren't as well off economically there could be more vacant homes.
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It's not true that we deliver in all conditions no matter what. If a letter carrier thinks it is too dangerous to deliver mail to an address they can refuse to do so no just need to tell the supervisor when they return to the post office. It's rare that I'd not deliver mail, but some of my co-workers may not try as hard to deliver the mail. It's usually better to try and get the mail delivered. This way we don't have to bring it back another day with even more mail. I'm not sure why they request mail to be picked up. If there is road construction it is sometimes difficult to get to houses, or roads could be flooded, or snowed out. We are supposed to attempt delivery each day to each address. Our unofficial motto has to do with delivering mail in all comditions, but that is a bit more folklore than reality.
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It depends. Some CCAs have a very difficult time comprehending the whole delivery process and procedure and are too slow. Others pick it up rather easily and don't have much of a problem finishing close to on time. The probationary period allows for carrier to improve their efficiency in delivery. From my observation, the supervisors aren't too quick to terminate a probationary CCA if they show improvement, work safely, have a great attitude, plus aren't too slow. You can tell that some workers are just clueless about what they're doing. They don't last too long. It's not a super difficult concept to deliver mail properly, but you need to be able to follow a map and be organized. The more one does it, the easier it gets. There are some CCAs who I thought may not pass probation, but did and are doing a decent job or "good enough for government work".
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