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 don't know of any rule against this. I haven't seen it in my office much (or at all) but several letter carriers (4 I think) live in the towns where we service.
Dee, hello again! This is a question that I can't answer directly, but can suggest some websites to look at. The one I looked at is opm.gov and click on the tab "retirement" and "FERS Information" once you are converted to a career letter carrier you'll be employed under the Federal Employees Retirement System. Your age and years of service determine when you are eligible to retire and how much of an annuity you will receive. Trust me when I say it's not a terribly generous system when it comes to receiving a monthly payment. You would, however, qualify to receive Social Security and 401(k) type funds at certain ages. The key is to put as much of your income as you can into the Thrift Savings Plan, which is similar to a private employers 401(k) . Some people can retire with just 20 years of service at a certain age but the FERS annuity may be quite paltry.
You are doing it correctly by choosing "no" when the question comes on the MDD asking "is this a duplicate mailpiece". The next screen should say "label scanned in error" and then let you choose "delivered". I get this message when I accidentally have scanned a mailpiece twice in a row. The scanner is asking if you have 2 mail pieces with the same USPS tracking number which shouldn't happen. It has nothing to do whether or not it was ever scanned in the office by a clerk. The MDD doesn't hold that information. I think the only time you'd get two packages with identical tracking numbers is if the mailer printed out the same label twice and attached it to two separate items. This would be cheating the USPS out of revenue. I've seen this happen before but it is rare.
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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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.
Funny that this is kind of a duplicate question and we are talking about duplicates. You are doing it correctly by choosing "no" when the question comes on the MDD asking "is this a duplicate mailpiece". The next screen should say "label scanned in error" and then let you choose "delivered". I get this message when I accidentally have scanned a mailpiece twice in a row. The scanner is asking if you have 2 mail pieces with the same USPS tracking number which shouldn't happen. It has nothing to do whether or not it was ever scanned in the office by a clerk. The MDD doesn't hold that information. I think the only time you'd get two packages with identical tracking numbers is if the mailer printed out the same label twice and attached it to two separate items. This would be cheating the USPS out of revenue. I've seen this happen before but it is rare.
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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