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 that they can become a full fledged supervisor as a CCA (city carrier assistant) because that would mean being hired into a career position. A CCA is a non-career position. I've seen at least 2-3 times at the office where I work where a CCA has become a 204(b) which is an acting supervisor. It surprised me at first when this happened but I didn't have an issue with it as I had no desire to be a supervisor/manager. Some coworkers feel it's a bit absurd. The truth is that our staffing levels are so low across the board that nothing surprises me as to who goes where and does what. In our office we currently have one CCA (pregnant) who is doing the work of a 204(b). I don't know her plans once the baby is born and she comes back to work.
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Sarah, if you live on a rural route I believe that is part of their job but not sure. If you have city delivery (which is the type of delivery I do) there is generally no obligation of the letter carrier to accept the package and money and mail it for you. Most people now with access to the internet and printer can print out their own postage label to be put onto a parcel and then given to a letter carrier (who should take the package) for mailing. The program used to be called Click 'N Ship. It is rare that a customer ever asks me to mail a non-prepaid parcel for them. I would say no almost all of the time because I'd have to then mail the package on my own time and don't want to get into a habit of doing that. The bottom line is that you certainly can ask your letter carrier to mail the package for you but not sure what the response will be. Thank you for your question.
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Jvitto48, thanks for your question but I’m sorry that I can’t give you any assistance in this matter. I don’t know if your local shop steward or area representative can help with this. I’ve never been too involved with any rte inspections, or if I have, it was so many years ago and I don’t remember. NALC has a 2012 “guide to route inspections” available online as a PDF but it’s 188 pages long and may not even address your question about base parcel amount. I don’t know how the base parcel amount is arrived at. I also don’t know if it includes every scannable parcel. My generic advice is to take all authorized lunches and breaks, as well as one or two bathroom breaks if needed. I know route inspections can make people anxious but my attitude has always been that whatever time it takes is valid as long as you aren’t obviously extending your street time. I’ve received between 1-5 sampling requests daily and I know that is a valid use of time while scanning the flats and letters. Good luck on the inspection. I know that’s easy for me to say not being involved. Thanks for writing.
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Deee, I don’t know the answer to this question. On the NALC website there is a CCA resource guide. In a section I looked at it didn’t seem to mention anything about the number of consecutive days you could be scheduled to work. We have several CCA in our office and I’m pretty sure they try to give them off one day per week, but I don’t know if it’s mandated or not. During the busy time they may work more than 7 days/week. If you have a shop steward that you could contact they may have the proper answer for you.
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I've never worked in an urban environment to deliver mail so I can't speak from experience. While it's true you may not have the advertising circulars that you deliver so much of in the suburbs you could have a larger route even though the mail volume per house is lower. Some cities have routes where you use a pushcart and don't have a vehicle to seek shelter in when the weather gets very bad. Is it possible the streets are crowded so it's not always easy to find parking for your postal vehicle if you even have one? Please also consider that you will likely lose your bidding seniority if you switch offices. This may not be important to you of haven't been at the USPS very long. Living closer to work may be a valid convenience for transferring. I'm quite happy working in the suberbs. The neighborhood where my route is can be pretty quiet at times which is what I enjoy. There are probably pros and cons to each work environment and if I was originally hired to work in a more urban environment I may have been fine with that. The decision you make is personal. I hope you feel you make the right move whichever action you choose to (or not to) make.
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I don't know for sure how it works in your town, but I hope it's similar to where I work. If somebody has a doorslot and would like me to mail a letter, they can leave the letter noticeably hanging out of the door slot and I would take it to be mailed. I admit it is a bit precarious as the letter could fall out before being picked up for delivery. Another option is to put a clothespin or other type of clip near the mail slot in your door and attach the outgoing letter so it will be very visible for the letter carrier to take as outgoing mail. You can't go wrong by finding a blue collection box or going to a Post Office, but I think you can be confident using the above mentioned methods. Thanks for your question.
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I don't know anything about getting OIG to investigate anything for the USPS. I think they may have a tip hotline that can be called but I don't know if they will place your tip on any high priority. I would call that carrier a sleazeball for not delivering anything that should be. It is illegal plus the only reason our job exists is because items are being paid for that we should deliver. I have the impression that so many employees (including management) don't care at all about proper delivery of mail and what gets discarded or has the proper postage. There is so little oversight as to what we do on a daily basis unless we do something egregious or work unsafely. I'm sorry to be so negative. It's important to me that every piece of mail that is properly addressed is delivered, no matter if it's a catalog, weekly supermarket flier, or birthday card. It's all mail and should be handled accordingly.
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