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.
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.
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I don't know much about the DDC. If I took it at the USPS, I don't remember. There could be a quiz but it's probably not too difficult especially if you've taken a DDC before outside the USPS. Important things are to always wear a seatbelt, don't drive distracted, keep a safe following distance, only back up when necessary, and always turn off the vehicle when getting out of it. I'd imagine there would be some videos. There is an entire procedure to follow each time you leave the USPS delivery vehicle which should be taught to you eventually. It is vital to follow that for safety reasons and stopping preventable accidents. Good luck!
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I probably won't be able to assist you with your specific situation but can't give my opinion. I personally think it's not true and the letter carrier is being a bit difficult. It can be annoying to a letter carrier to be interrupted when distributing mail to the cluster boxes but I suppose there are worse things to worry about. I only deliver mail to a cluster box community on occasion and if someone came up to me I'd use my judgment and likely give them their mail. It's a gated community and know of no mail theft issues whatsoever. In your case you even come with a key so it's clear that you are the resident for a particular mailbox and he shouldn't worrry about you taking from another mailbox. Please keep in mind that this is only opinion and it's not something I go through on a daily basis. In the office where I work, we have received no instructions that I can recall about allowing customers to retrieve mail from their cluster box while the letter carrier is servicing them. Letter carriers are tasked with keeping the mail secure but I think with any level of reasonableness they can do that especially with peole they may know personally. Thanks for your question though I don't know if you'll make any headway with your particular new letter carrier.
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It depends on the letter carrier if that happens or not. If I were delivering mail to an address and the mail was just sitting there not being retrieved by anyone and then I received a change of address/forwarding order I would go back and retrieve any forwardable mail and submit it through our forwarding system. I don't know if other letter carriers would be as diligent but I hope they would be. For this reason it's best to put in a forwarding request ahead of the date you want it to be effective because it could take a week or so before the mail begins to be forwarded to the new address.
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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.
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This question has been asked verbatim before. I don't know if this is a joke or a trick. I may safely pull aside when I can if it's believable. At that point I may get out of the vehicle and investigate what is being pointed out. At all times I'd be keeping my personal safety as a priority. There are times when my rear liftgate has popped open. It'd make sense if someone pointed that to me but it's never happened yet.
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During the winter I wear whatever brand clothing makes the USPS uniforms that I purchased. We have only a few choices about the brand of clothing we buy from authorized uniform vendors. I wear whatever will keep me warm and dry from head to toe. I've found that it's best to dress in layers and bring more warm clothes than you may need so you're not caught outside freezing or wet.
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