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 what can and can't be delivered to PO Boxes. The mailer decides that and I'm guessing when it comes to immigration or citizenship papers there may need to be a physical address to receive the mail in the US but I truly don't know. I don't know much about mail forwarding companies either. There are businesses called CMRAs which stands for "commercial mail receiving agency" (an example is the The UPS Store) which have private mailboxes for rent. I don't know, however, if that is a sufficient alternate to a PO Box for important documents delivery. The address for a CMRA usually reads, for example, "Name of recipient, street address, PMB xxx, city, state, ZIP". PMB stands for Private Mailbox. I don't know if the department that handles immigration and Green Cards can provide further information.
Thanks Jessica. It’s not me in the photo. I’m not sure if I could put up a photo (I mean I don’t know if it’s an option). I wouldn’t put one up though because I’m not authorized to speak on behalf of the USPS and would prefer my id isn’t known to anybody who may call me out for doing this and tell me to cease or possibly discipline me. It also allows me to be openly critical and honest where I feel it’s warranted. I’m sure the letter carrier liked that you came onto him. I don’t think I’d mind either if I liked the woman. I will now call you “homewrecker”. Absolutely just kidding.
I can't really comment on any specifics that are happening with regards to your mail delivery. I do agree 100% that you should be receving every piece of mail that a mailer has paid for you to get. This would include any mailing that isn't addressed but goes to each address on the route and is labeled "postal customer". As I've stated before I'm sure it goes on at the PO where I work as well. From top to bottom there are some apathetic and lazy employees. Please do write to your US Senator or the USPS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and make a report of what you believe is happening. I would first take it up with your local post office but that could prove fruitless.
The Facebook Link does work, but why do I only see one photo with a date stamp of 2012? As far as what we are a.lowed to do I don’t think an LLV should be parked for :45 in front of the house of a letter carrier as we only are allotted :30 for lunch and that includes any travel time. I will say that enforcement of any rules regarding this is far from uniform. Our organization is entirely inconsistent in so many ways and some supervisors don’t care what you do as long as you don’t get hurt and don’t cost them overtime unnecessarily. Others are more strict and sometimes they play favorites which I find entirely unprofessional. The bottom line as far as your question is: I don’t think it’s appropriate but I can’t say for sure that the carrier is doing something against the rules. One letter carrier in my office used to drive his delivery vehicle home for lunch as his delivery route was nearby his house. , but he never stayed for more than about :25.
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I wish. LOL. I’m sure there are some that do get hit on often and some carriers may be the ones doing the flirting. I think it’s inappropriate to do if it’s excessive or the person being hit on feels uncomfortable and if it’s unwanted. I rarely have been hit on or flirted with. I mostly just do my job and try to stay professional. There are certainly cases of carriers meeting their future mates either at work or on the postal route. It’s all good when the relationship is getting on well. I’m sure it can be uncomfortable or ugly if it doesn’t end well. Good question by the way.
It should be a very straightforward process as to who is awarded an assignment. Seniority is usually the main determining factor. In your case I don't know why they would say you won the bid and then later say someone higher in seniority bid for it. I would ask to see evidence of the bid and that it was submitted in time by the person with more seniority than you. I've never seen this conflict happen before where I work. If you can bid for other offices in your city I thought the process was fully automated. I am not sure what advice to give you. A union shop steward may be able to help you but maybe they are involved in person with higher seniority get assigned to the route that you got.
I don't know the minimum distance that one must have a car from a curbside (mounted) delivery mailbox. Normally as long as the postal delivery vehicle can access the mailbox without the letter carrier needing to leave the vehicle to make the delivery that should be sufficient. We are supposed to minimize the amount of times that we put our vehicle in reverse so the letter carrier may also need clearance in front of the mailbox so he may safely drive to the next delivery point. It also may depend on the personality of the letter carrier. They are allowed to refuse delivering of the mail to any address where they need to exit the vehicle but for many letter carriers it may be easier to just leave the vehicle and walk a few feet to the mailbox rather than having to "flag the house", bring the mail back to the PO, and reattempt delivery on the next delivery day. I suppose if it's a chronic problem or they would need to get out for each stop due to vehicle blockage it would be time consuming and the management may even tell the carrier not to do that. I don't have any curbside deliveries on the route I deliver. If I'm helping out on another route which does have curbside deliveries I tend to get out where necessary and deliver the mail. I don't like to bring back any mail to the PO that should've been delivered. Again, all of this is my opinion and I don't know the actual rules which govern your question except, as stated above, the carrier should be able to approach and leave your mailbox without having to get out of their delivery vehicle.
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