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.
Jvitto58, I don’t know what our manuals say about this situation. I always feel we are given such little guidance on when to drop off a parcel on a relay. I know you are going to have route inspections soon. I don’t have much of a memory of what they are like so I can’t give you my experience. If a parcel doesn’t fit in my satchel, I will generally deliver it when I pass the address. This may be before of after I deliver the relay depending on where the park point is for a particular relay. I don’t flag the mail for addresses that have a parcel. I deliver the mail as I normally would and then deliver the parcel before or after the relay. To be honest, I have a geographically compact route so I often deliver most of my larger parcels before I even begin delivering mail for the day. I know you didn’t ask me this and I definitely don’t recommend doing it on an inspection as it can be considered inefficient or time-wasting. I just like to get the larger items out of my postal delivery vehicle. I try not to circle back with the truck if I can avoid it, but to me there are no absolutes and each day has some different nuances when it comes to parcel delivery. Regarding your route inspection, just try to give a fair effort. Don’t hurry, but don’t be a turtle either. I truly don’t have any great guidance because I’ve rarely, if ever, been involved in one.
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Interesting Q. I don’t see why not. The coconuts mailed from Hawaii are popular I think and they aren’t packaged. You’d probably need the first class parcel rate. The best answer would be from your local post office. I can’t say I see non-packages items mailed often but I don’t know a rule that it has to be boxed in anyway. The important things are sufficient postage and a legible address and not a prohibited item.
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I am just speculating that the item may not have even left PR yet. It has been scanned as being processed through the San Juan PR distribution center but that may not mean it has even been loaded onto an aircraft to the mainland USA. There are significant service disruptions for mail going to/from PR due to Hurricane Maria. I don’t have any more information then to just give you this generic answer and to be patient. If you called the USPS customer service phone #, I’m guessing you’d get a similar answer.
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Van, I'm sorry that I don't have any secret tips about casing quickly. By shadow day I guess that means you watch someone while they do their job. I admit when you first see a carrier case with so many addresses and then you have some so much mail to put in the case it is overwhelming. My advice is to not get distracted by outside music or your cellphone. Try to remember where a particular street is on the case. I've found that when you are put in front of a new carrier case it is intimidating, but the more you do it the easier it should become. Do not give up easily as you are just starting your job now at the USPS. I've found it to be a worthwhile career.
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JC, I'm so glad you had a great experience with your letter carrier today. Too often I hear of the opposite happening. I don't know exactly how you'd leave feedback for your letter carrier, but I have 2 suggestions. First, you could go to www.usps.com and look for info on how to contact the USPS. It may just be a general call center but hopefully they'll give you the number or some way to contact your local PO. Another option is to write a letter (I know it's not too common these days) to your local PO, attention: Delivery Supervisor or Postmaster giving praise to your letter carrier and describing what she did to go above and beyond. You don't necessarily need the street address for the PO, just the correct ZIP code for your PO. Using the USPS mobile app or the website you can find the address of your local PO. Thanks for taking the time to give positive feedback.
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Congratulations and good luck to you in your postal career. I'm glad you love it so far. Despite some personal hurdles I've had along the way, I absolutely love it most days and feel very fortunate to have this career. I don't know Powerade but I'm assuming it's an energy drink. I see Gatorade is the main competitor. The main criticism of those types of drinks is the high sugar content. My advice (with no scientific background) is to just drink 1-2 day at most and then hydrate with water. I mostly d non-sugar naturally flavored sparkling water beverages. I drink it quite a bit on hot days and it seems to help so much. I've avoided the Powerade type drinks mainly because I don't want to ingest so much sugar that could hurt my teeth and body. Moderation is my advice. Thanks for writing.
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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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