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 kirk about 8 years ago

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.

Cool enough, we are both from Long Island. So your answering from your experience is probably good for me. This orientation for me will be in Brooklyn & for 5 days. Two more questions currently on my mind.. 1. When does one take the driving course?

Asked by Dee over 8 years ago

Re: your orientation, it's good to know its for 5 days. I don't know whether or not that included the driving course. I can't tell you how much things have changed in 17 years. There is a lot more automation of mail and less manual sorting than in the past. Working in Brooklyn I don't know which vehicles are driven. I imagine there are mostly walking routes with a satchel or pushcart, but it will still be necessary to be trained on driving postal vehicles. It usually takes one day or part of one day for driver training and evaluation. I find a lot of negativity among some coworkers and try to steer clear of them as I am a generally positive attitude person. Also, please don't believe all that you hear. People like to spread garbage rumors which could be true but you never know.

What gift should I get my mailman, also will I have the same mailman every day or do mail deliverers do it on certain days and take turns!

Asked by jay over 8 years ago

No gift is necessary for a letter carrier, but if you'd like to give one I'm sure it will be gladly accepted. Most postal routes have the same person deliver it 5 out of the 6 delivery days per week and then someone else fills in on the regular carrier's day off. If there is a staffing shortage some routes may not have the same mailman each day. Anyhow, 2 common gifts I receive for the holidays are cash (average $20) or a gift card to a coffee chan like Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks. Thanks for asking about this.

How do you know if what is in the mailbox is outgoing mail to be collected or if the resident just left something in their mailbox? I know sometimes people forget to check their mailbox everyday & sometimes a neighbor may leave somethin in the box

Asked by Dee over 8 years ago

It's very common for people not to check their mailbox daily (me included). If there is mail in there from previous days I generally wouldn't look for any outgoing mail. Outgoing mail should have uncanceled postage and be clearly visible when you open the mailbox. Sometimes people leave the lid open or place the letters vertically to show that they have outgoing mail. If the item has no postage I just leave it there. Other people or companies aren't supposed to leave items in a mailbox but it's common and I just ignore it. Landscapers or oil delivery companies sometimes leave an invoice in the mailbox. Every now and again I forget to take someone's outgoing mail, but not often. Some mailboxes may have a red plastic flag that is put in the "up" position to notify the letter carrier that there may be outgoing mail. Upon collection of the mail, the letter carrier should put the flag in the "down" position. These flags are more common in a rural or suburban delivery environment.

So I haven't gotten my card in the mail and my boyfriend put it in the mail on Tuesday what should I do

Asked by Brittany almost 8 years ago

There isn't really much to do Brittany except to be patient. Mail can go missing or be delayed for so many reasons. Most First Class mail isn't tracked either so it's not easy to tell where it is. 2-3 days delivery is the norm for most First Class mail in the US. If a piece of mail is misdelivered by a letter carrier it's hard to say when or if it will ever get properly delivered. Has your boyfriend mailed you items before to your current address and have there been issues in the past?

Been getting message on scanner when scanning a parcel on street, "is this a duplicate mail piece" scanner icon says no, so when l press enter it goes to barcode so l scan delivered. Is that right, bc when I hit yes in another instance comes up 2,

Asked by jrvitto48 almost 9 years ago

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.

Are magazines and large catalogs the bane of your existence (because they're bulky or heavy) or is it more "loose" circulars and such that are worse?

Asked by Harris over 8 years ago

Harris, for last couple of years the number of catalogs and magazines we deliver has decreased quite a bit so they generally aren't a pain at all. Some weekly circulars have loose ads that are oversize or fall out of the main circular and those can be messy, but in the whole scheme of things aren't too bad. Some people love to complain about anything so I'm sure if you poll my coworkers you'll get different answers. Just this past week, IKEA distributed their yearly catalog to many residents where I deliver mail. These are pretty thick, but since that day didn't have a lot of other catalogs or circulars it ran smoothly. It was a heavier than usual load due to the IKEA catalogs, but we only get them yearly and I can't think of another catalog mailers that puts out such thick catalogs in such quantities. In case you missed it, Victoria's Secret ceased mailing any catalogs earlier this year and they were a large mailer of catalogs in the past, I'm sure other catalog companies are following suit as they realize many consumers prefer to browse online. This is a great question. I feel the future for print advertising will continue to decline, but it may not be too precipitous. Another big catalog mailer is Bed, Bath, and Beyond though their ads are very thin so don't add much weight.