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

While driving the vehicle to make a delivery, another motorist points towards the back of your vehicle as if something is wrong. What do you do?

Asked by jonathon almost 9 years ago

I believe I have been asked this exact same question before with the same wording on this website. Anyhow, if this happened, I'd proceed with caution. When I felt it was safe to do so, I'd park the vehicle and walk around it to make sure everything looked okay. If I was in an unsafe area, I may think that it's some kind of setup to get my vehicle to stop and I'd just keep driving. Your scenario doesn't seem like it would happen very often and I don't usually pay attention to the actual other motorists gestures. I have driven a few times without the back tailgate being properly latched down which could make for a hazardous situation. I probably would be glad if someone had pointed that out to me.

I was wondering if you would know how I would go about trying to find the last name of a letter carrier from 1967 in Brooklyn, NY.

Asked by Barbara almost 8 years ago

Barbara, I have no idea how that information would be found with the USPS. I also don't know If those type of HR/Personnel records are public. Before 1971, the USPS was the Post Office Department, an executive branch of the US Government. Even if the information was available I don't know who would be helpful enough in the current USPS HQ or Human Resources Department to look this up. It would seem like a needle in a haystack and I don't have confidence you'd get anywhere in your search. This is based on my personal observations of my employer, not through any knowledge of your specific question.

How long do you get to learn a new route, before you're expected to be "effeciant "?

Asked by Ray about 9 years ago

I don't know officially how long you have to learn a new route before you're expected to be efficient. I would estimate up to about 3 weeks before you get to know it real well. Some people excel and catch on at a quicker pace then others. As far as I know there is no official amount of time before you are expected to learn a route. On the route I currently deliver I was the floater for that route before I got to do it full-time. What that means is that I filled in for the regular carrier on their day off or when they were on vacation or sick. In my case I knew the route quite well when I was awarded it full time upon the retirement of the previous letter carrier on that assignment.

Are mail carriers allowed to take mail truck home everyday during their route? Curious because my neighbor does this daily and usually in his truck for a bit like 10-15 min then goes in his house for 20-30 min. Then leaves.

Asked by Anna almost 9 years ago

I believe it's allowed for a letter carrier to take home the mail vehicle to your own residence as long as it's within a reasonable distance of where you deliver the mail, I delivered mail to a letter carrier's home who delivered mail on a nearby route. He'd bring his vehicle home daily (I could set my watch by him) and eat lunch. Our normal lunch break is 30 minutes and that includes the time it takes to get to and from your postal route. If the carrier was there for more than 30 minutes, that may not be appropriate but I can't really speak for anything that I don't personally know since the rules are so often enforced arbitrarily.

Hi, I ordered a bunch of stuff online on the same day from various online shops from the same country overseas. There will be many packages of different sizes. Can you tell me how a mailman may handle the packages if they all arrived on the same day?

Asked by boo over 8 years ago

Generally, if we had a postal route where we drive a USPS vehicle (as opposed to urban routes where carriers may just walk out from the local post office and pick up mail from relay boxes along the way), we should have no problem handling multiple packages in one day even if they are different sizes. It's common for a recipient to get large and small items in the same day. I generally put them all together and leave them on the ground near the front door or mailbox. I would treat this situation just like I would getting lots of packages domestically. The items may have a tracking bar code that I'd scan as delivered once I delivered the items. I hope your experience is just as I've described.

I've been having a very hard time with my mailman. One day last winter, he threw my mail on my concrete step in the snow because he said it was to snowy, it wasn't at all! I've had numerous bills and mail that never was delivered. who do i call?

Asked by Linda over 8 years ago

As much as I hate hearing stories like this I know it all too much to be true. We have many employees who don't care about delivering mail properly or accurately or have an attitude. Unfortunately I don't know how effective complaining about a letter carrier is. Our management often is indifferent or powerless to effect major changes in someone's work ethic. I know this sounds damning of many co-workers but I just get that feeling at times. I don't mean to sidestep your question but wanted to explain that none of this surprises me. I'd start by contacting your local post office and ask to speak with a delivery supervisor or manager. Tell them your story but don't exaggerate it. If your service continues to be poor or you don't think you're getting mail that you're supposed to or that items you mailed aren't getting to their destination, I suppose the next step would be to contact the USPS Consumer Affairs division. I honestly don't know how effective any of this is, but worth a try. Hopefully I'm wrong in the not-so-rosy picture I painted. If you visit www.usps.com maybe there will be information on how to contact your local PO with a complaint because it's not always so easy to find the phone number of your local PO. Linda, thank you for your question.

If the post office is close, does that mean the mailman stops running?

Asked by Aracely about 9 years ago

Generally that would be correct. If the PO is closed due to poor weather conditions it would usually mean our whole retail and delivery operations have been suspended. I don't know if there are still processing operations going on at the mail plants. It isn't too common for us to suspend delivery for an entire day, but in blizzards or states of emergency, it could be necessary for us to do so.