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 how long you get to deliver a certified letter, but 3 minutes sounds reasonable to me per address. If the recipient is not home, it does take time to fill out a PS Form 3849 properly to leave in their mailbox. If the recipient is home, they need to sign the MDD and possibly a return receipt which also takes a bit of time. It also takes time to wait at a customer's door once you ring a door bell or knock. My general answer is however long it takes you to properly attempt/deliver a certified letter is what it takes. I don't know of any official time variances. I don't fill out PS Form 3849 in the office because there is a chance you won't need to leave a notice so it's wasting time to prepare them in the office before attempting delivery.
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Great question John. There are 2 main answers I can think of as to why you don't see letter carriers in uniform anymore. 1) There are many CCAs hired. These are non-career employees who generally don't get uniforms or a uniform allowance during the first few months of employment. CCA stands for City Carrier Assistant and are very common in urban areas that may have more turnover than suburban offices. 2) Some regular full-time letter carriers don't choose to wear a proper uniform (or any uniform at all) and the management doesn't enforce the uniform policy. In my opinion, everyone who is eligible to wear a uniform should do so and do it proudly. I wear my proper uniform daily where the one flaw would be is that they aren't too clean because it's hard to get some of the shoulder stains out from wearing a mail satchel and sweating a lot. I guess some workers don't care about looking professional and the management does nothing about it, my office included. Thanks for bringing up a good point.
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I think it would be great if you scored well on any exams you take for employment with the USPS. Many new hires today are hired as CCA (city carrier assistant) which is a letter carrier position. I think you apply for certain positions so you may have a choice to be a CCA or PSE (Postal Support Employee). A PSE is a position where you generally work inside doing mail processing, distribution, or retail sales and service. Most, if not all, of the letter carriers who I work with were hired as carriers first. I don't, however, have any more insight to the hiring practices except what I posted here. I know I'd always like to see motivated and competent individuals hired by the USPS.
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I am not sure anything can be done about it. I don't know why the neighbors would sign for the item without knowing who it was for, unless they thought they were doing the intended recipient (you, in this case) a favor. I also don't why your neighbors would open a package that clearly didn't belong to them. You could call or email the sender them that you received the package (which I think you eventually did unless your letter carrier was the one telling you the story) and that the item is damaged. I don't know if the problem can be remediated or not. If the item was sent with insurance, maybe a claim can be filed. Apartment number is sometimes as vital as the street address itself.
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Hello World Traveler. You're correct that mail can only be held at the PO for 30 days. I have 3 suggestions for you and hope one can be suitable for you.
1) if you have a neighbor or someone you trust you could have them take your mail and hold it for 3 mos. and you can pick it up when you get home.
2) you could rent a PO Box and have the mail temporarily forwarded to the PO Box. I don't think this idea will work because your mailbox would fill up quickly and it's possible any overflow mail would be returned to the sender. I'm not sure of the procedure for when a leased PO Box gets full.
3) If there is a friend or relative who is willing to accept your mail, you could have your mail temporarily forwarded to their address.
I can't think of any other solutions offhand . You could ask your local PO if they'd be willing to hold the mail for 3 months but I've never seen that done before and technically it's isn't permitted. I think they'd just quote the 30-day maximum rule for holding mail.
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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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Okay, I believe it. The contract is only as good as the mgmt and the workforce and shop stewards agree to enforce it. I see things that happen in my office which may not be the correct thing if the contract were followed to the letter, but they seem like rational solutions. It's a tricky balance in our office due to chronic short staffing and incompetence of both supervisors and coworkers. Some workers are very dedicated and do the job well. They don't need to be superstars. Others seem to purposefully work against the system and try to make everything as difficult and slow and crappy as possible. They often tend to the loudest, least mature, and least educated.
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