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

Carrier injured been on partial duty for Two years has been deemed unable to carry by doctor. When must she vacate the route. As of now she is casing for 40 min in the morning so I am not made full time. Frustrated cca

Asked by Bronco mail over 8 years ago

Bronco, I can't give you any definitive answer on this because I don't have knowledge of workers comp/OJI rules with respect to delivering a route or holding a route. I think because it was an OJI, the carrier's route is protected indefinitely unless they voluntarily give it up or retire on disability. This is a comment made with no reference to documentation so I don't know that I'm correct. I know being a CCA is not very desirable but if you have patience then eventually you will become a full-time regular. The size and seniority of your office makes a big difference in how quickly you will become regular. Your union (NALC) rep may know a little more about this subject but I make no promises about that either. Furthermore, they will correctly want to protect that route for the injured carrier as much as they are allowed to. This is probably not the answer you wanted to hear but it's my best guess. Patience is a virtue.

Can someone put a note on a commercial mail box instructing the mail carrier to put their mail in a different box

Asked by michele about 9 years ago

I don't know what at you mean by a commercial mailbox, but generally the mail should be delivered as it's addressed unless their is a valid change of address order filed with the USPS. I have never come across that request or situation but I probably wouldn't follow those instructions, though another letter carrier may. We generally don't like special requests like that because we aren't supposed to honor them and who knows if a replacement carrier would do that when the regular carrier is not working. I like to keep thing a simple and straightforward and that seems to work well.

Can mail be forwarded to an address out of state if the person is not physically living in a residence in that state, due to health issues. Secondly, would that affect the persons medical benefits or tax issues in any capacity when filing taxes, etc

Asked by JVITTO48 over 8 years ago

I can answer your question in two parts. The first question you have is about whether or not mail can be forwarded to an address out of state even if the person isn't living in a residence in that state. Mail can be forwarded anywhere that the USPS delivers to as long as there is a proper change of addresss authorization/request submitted to the USPS. The easiest way to do this is at USPS.com .

As far as affecting and medical benefits and tax issues, I'm not qualified to give you an official answer. It probably depends on the source of the medical benefits. Some state public health assistance programs like Medicaid may require the recipient to live in that state. It doesn't necessarily mean their mail can't go somewhere else. I don't know about tax issues either. It shouldn't matter when filing a federal tax return, but I'm not sure about different state tax laws. There are probably 50 different answers to that.

Hoping you can solve a debate for me & wife. Her friend's hubby is a carrier & brings home "extra coupons" for her & my wife. Claims they are undeliverable & will go to "dead mail" & just going to be shredded & Postmaster approves. I say it's illegal

Asked by CaliDad about 9 years ago

It is true that we send all non-deliverable mail which was sent as Presorted Standard rate (and not requested to be returned to the sender) to be recycled or shredded as far as I know. I don't know if it's illegal or not to take extra coupons to give to customers who request them, but I wouldn't get involved in doing that. Nobody has ever really asked me either to do that for them. I have taken Dunkin' Donuts coupons out of the circulars which were extras or non-deliverable. I know this doesn't settle your dispute. I am more disgusted by co-workers who feel that these weekly circulars are sometimes not that important and may not deliver them or make sure that everyone gets one. My attitude is that a mailer is paying for them to be delivered and that's our job whether or not the customers want them. Some other coworkers probably take home coupons that otherwise would be recycled. Again, they probably shouldn't, but never heard any repercussions for doing so. Thanks for your question.

Can mailmen refer mail for inspection because of a person's attire, religious garb, or what he subjectively perceives as being odd behavior? Can he collect data about the sender (identifying data, license #s, etc.) on the basis of such profiling?

Asked by Teddy over 8 years ago

I don't know the answer to this question but I would generally think we can't do profiling based on what we see and then refer that to the USPSIS. There may be a branch of the USPS that does legally do such observation and data collecting but I know nothing about it nor have ever been approached about being involved in such activity. What you're asking about seems somewhat discriminatory so I would likely never want to be involved in any type of racial profiling.

Thank you for your response! I already contacted the property manager and he told me to contact USPS, which I did over the 1-800... and they asked me to call the local Post office, I called and the lady just put me on hold and then hanged up.

Asked by Isaac about 9 years ago

You're welcome Isaac. I'm sorry you didn't have a good experience with your local PO. I would recommend trying again as it's possible that the call was accidentally disconnected. Some offices are quite shorthanded but that doesn't excuse them for not just taking down some info, talking to your letter carrier when they have a chance and then getting back to you. You have a right to get your mail at a secure location in the centralized mailbox unit and I'm not sure what the reason for this foul up is since I don't have all of the facts.

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 9 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.