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 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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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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It is fine to ask the letter carrier not to walk through the flower beds and then track mud onto your porch. I'll admit I'm not the most considerate person sometimes when walking across lawns and through flowerbeds. I certainly don't want to crush the flowers. Ultimately it's your property and you can request anything you'd like as to how the carrier approaches the mailbox. It's possible that even if your regular carrier adheres to your request any replacement letter carrier my not adhere to your request if they aren't notified by your regular carrier via a "carrier" alert card. Any reasonable letter carrier should understand and adhere to your request.
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Most letter carriers wear a USPS-funded and approved uniforms. After a few months of employment, we are given an annual allowance to buy uniforms which includes outerwear, footwear, and other accessories. If you are a rural carrier or a newer carrier, you may wear your own clothes. If you did a web search for USPS City Letter Carrier uniforms and clicked on "images", it should give you a good idea of what a uniform looks like.
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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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I'm not sure I understand your question but I'll take a guess that you want to know the three main things we do on our job. Our main job is to sort mail (a little bit in the AM) , deliver mail and parcels and collect outgoing mail in a prescribed geographic area. It is most important we do this in a safe, professional, and courteous manner and pay attention to the addresses and deliver the mail properly. It is a fairly simple job in my opinion but can be physically challenging in harsh weather and heavy mail loads. Thank you Jacob for your question.
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The letter carrier shouldn't be putting your former neighbors mail in your mailbox just because they moved out without putting in a forwarding request. After all, it's not your mail and you have nothing to do with it. After awhile, the letter carrier should empty the mailbox, discard any standard mail (advertising mail of a certain class) and return any first and second class mail as "unable to forward" to the sender. At the PO, that address or unit should be marked as "vacant" so no mail is left there unless a new tenant or homeowner moves in. We shouldn't be delivering mail to addresses known to be vacant. You may leave a note note mailbox saying something to the effect "please don't leave any mail for (insert your neighbors name and/or address) in my mailbox. Thank you." If that doesn't work, you may contact your post office and mention this to a manager or delivery supervisor. From what you've described , the letter carrier(s) serving your area is quite unprofessional and doesn't care to address the issue of the mailbox overflowing.
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