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 i put a note onmy mailbox saying, "Please Do Not put packages in mailbox and do not bring to door! please put in box on the right side of the house." would the mailman put it there and read the note or just ignore it and bring it to the door??

Asked by plzanswer almost 10 years ago

I can't say for sure what your letter carrier would do if you wrote that note. I'm not even sure what I'd do. I don't always pay attention to notes written by customers because some of them are ones we aren't allowed to honor. An example would be "no junk mail". Who am I to judge what is or isn't junk mail. Furthermore, we are paid to provide a service by the mailer, not the recipient. I realize that isn't your question. I generally will put any package in a mailbox that fits. Other than that, I will leave it by the front door. I rarely come across any notice re: package placement for a customer but perhaps I'd leave it at the side of the house if it was easy and safe to access and didn't take much longer of time. As I say with most of my answers, I can't comment what another letter carrier would do. It wouldn't hurt to leave the note and see what happens.

Today I accidently dropped a bunch of mail in the Express Priority Blue Box. This was mail for my job so it is important documents. Will this mail be sorted correctly and reach its destination in a timely manner? Or will this be severely delayed?

Asked by Lisa Needs help please! over 9 years ago

Lisa, in my experience your mail should be processed normally so you need not worry. I don't often collect mail from the blue boxes as part of my assignment but if I saw regular mail in the Express Priority Blue Box I'd just put it with other outgoing mail in my postal vehicle and it'd be treated normally. I've never heard of outgoing mail being delayed by this. Thank you for your question.

Ive heard that mailmen have to park at the end of the street and walk the route instead of driving from house to house..Is that true?

Asked by patty almost 10 years ago

Now you're speaking my language Patty. This is exactly how I deliver much of my postal route. The mailboxes where I deliver mail are at the door as opposed to at the street. If the mailboxes are at the street, the letter carrier can usually remain in their vehicle and go house to house. That is called a mounted or curbside delivery method. When the houses aren't too far apart and are on both sides of the street, I'll park at the end of a block, walk down one side delivering the mail, cross over to the other side and return to my vehicle after delivering both sides of the street. That is called a relay. From the same parking spot, I can sometimes deliver up to 3 relays of mail. The method described is called the 'park and loop' method. It is efficient because you can often cross lawns without having to continuously walk to the street and move the vehicle. The relays on the route I deliver range in length from 14-28 houses.

Yes,and there's also a lady in the neighborhood with same name as my mother,even middle initial,who's mail we received a couple times. With same last name maybe these two people are connected?Maybe I'll contact the man's unpaid bill collector.Thanks-

Asked by DwB44 almost 10 years ago

You can certainly do as you feel is correct. The unpaid bill collector would probably appreciate that. It's hard to know who is connected to who espcially if fake/similar names and different addresses are used. One thing I can suggest is for your Mom and Dad to keep an eye on their own credit report to make sure any debt or credit card accts on there are correct. Most people probably wouldn't get too involved in someone else's business, but I commend you for trying to help someone root out possible fraud.

In your opinion, (as all your answers are) do you think most CCA's have difficult finishing a route on time?

Asked by Dee over 9 years ago

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".

Thanks for the reply! And as far as anything illegal,I have been getting there mail every now and then,with a name similar to my dad's?? This person was living in neighborhood, but background indicates another current address,also very close by??

Asked by DwB44 almost 10 years ago

That certainly sounds fishy, especially with mail of a similar name to your Dad, and also nearby addresses. I suppose you could alert local law enforcement or USPS Postal Inspection Service but have no idea what their response would be. If mail arrives at your address with dad's name a little bit "off", he could open it and if it's anything like an unpaid bill he could either do nothing about or call the creditor and say that it's not him.

i have 661 POC's in my route and I AM BURNING unde the scorching sun. do you have any tips to avoid getting burned and stay cool?

Asked by CanadaPostie2015 over 9 years ago

Hello CP2015, I'm not sure what POCs are but I'll guess and say those are the amt of possible deliveries you have each day which sounds like a lot to me. It isn't easy to work outside in the summer when the sun is pounding down on you. While I prefer the heat vs the extreme cold, the summer can be taxing on your body. I'd recommend wearing a wide-brimmed hat to keep the sun off your eyes, face, and neck. I also recommend drinking as much water as you can even before you get thirsty. It sweats off of you pretty quickly so the more you stay hydrated the better you should feel. In terms of actually burning, I suppose you could apply sunscreen liberally with an SPF of 40+. Stay safe and thanks for writing.