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.
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.
I don't think you'd get in trouble for that. The recipient may question why the mail and documents look water damaged but I don't know that they could pinpoint it was you who sent it in that condition. Mail is often wet when I deliver it in the rain. It's difficult during downpours to keep it dry and to be honest I don't try that hard to keep it completely dry. The bottom of my mail satchel gets wet very easily so when I carry mail in it the edge of the mail will often get wet. If the recipient has an issue with the condition their mail came in they may just ask you to resubmit the documents if that is possible. Thanks for the question and I hope I helped you.
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.
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.
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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.
There are two reasons I can think of that there would be a rider in the middle seat. The first reason would be that a supervisor was riding along for part of the day which they may do once a year or so. Sometimes they just follow along in their own vehicle. The other reason would be if a new hire (CCA) was learning on the job from a carrier trainer and going out to deliver for the day with the trainer. Those are the two reasons I can think of. I guess another reason is if there were many packages to be delivered a helper could ride along but I’ve yet to ever see that in my office with a regular LLV (long life vehicle). That is usually done with a larger delivery vehicle or our new Dodge Promasters. Thank you for writing in with a question.
I can't give you any definitive advice for how retirement works after you've retired from the military and then work for USPS. Our retirement benefits are mainly determined by the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). My recommendation is to go to to www.opm.gov and look under the "retirememt" tab and then there is a section for "Military Retired Pay" which should give you some helpful information. Congratulations on the upcoming retirement from the US military.
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