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

RE: Going Home With LLVs. 1st and last saw 5 years ago and reported. Parking between houses now. 1 postmaster said this is worst office in our state. I have had too many delivery problems so I removed mailbox. Having my mail delivered elsewhere.

Asked by Me over 8 years ago

I’m not sure what you mean about parking between houses . I guess you mean that the person doesn’t park the LLV in their driveway. It’s sad that you’ve had so many problems with your mail delivery that you have had to have your mail delivered elsewhere. I am sometimes embarrassed by the caliber of my co-workers. I’m sure other companies have similar issues. Thanks for your input. As I mentioned to someone today, I love my job and what I do, but can’t say the same for some of my coworkers and management. I’d say most are fine to deal with and do good work but the bad apples aren’t as rare I would hope.

Hi A month ago i bidded on a route and i got the news that i got it. I started working in the route and then i hear that someone else posted for the position also and that he had more seniority than I. I am ask to give him the route

Asked by William almost 9 years ago

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.

back but the problem is that they are not letting me go to my old route.They said i will be regular but unassigned

Asked by William almost 9 years ago

I don't know what advice to give you except that there seems to be a procedural error somewhere for this type of conflict to arise. I'd recommend a shop steward to assist you with this, but I sometimes don't have a great deal of confidence in their integrity to be objective if they have a closer personal relationship with the person who was of higher seniority. There has to be more to the story as to why you were awarded a route based on the bidding process and then told at a later time that something wasn't done properly and that you can't keep that route or your old route.

Hey Dave! Remember me? Well I've been working as a letter carrier on long island for just over 3 months now. I have two questions for you.
1. Is it legal to be scheduled to work 7+ days with no days off? I've worked a total of 26 days straight.

Asked by Dee over 9 years ago

Hello Dee. I guess you are a CCA. I see from your post that you are working quite a bit. 26 days straight does seem excessive even though it's Christmas month and it's busy with parcel deliveries and more. I don't know the rules as to how many days in a row a CCA can be scheduled to work. In my office it seems they max out at about 13 days in a row, but I don't know if it's a rule or not. If there is an NALC steward in your office, you may ask them. Furthermore, the nalc.org website should have some q and a for CCA which may address your question.

Is it possible to deliver a letter to a retail store,like Wal-mart, to an individual working there. I realize you would have to drop it off at customer service desk, if that is even possible? Or are there other options?

Asked by DavidB about 8 years ago

We deliver mail to retail stores all of the time. For the most part, the USPS delivers mail to every address in the country. I understand your question is about having it sent to an individual at the store. The letter would be delivered with all of the other mail for the day for that business. It’d be up to the business itself to get the letter to the intended recipient and that may be difficult especially in a large store

I'm a rrc and have every other Saturday off. Can I be scheduled to work on my day off if another employee wants to use a vacation day on that day

Asked by Matt over 9 years ago

Matt, I'm a city letter carrier so I believe we have different work rules and leave usage policies. I don't know how it works for rural route carriers and working on your scheduled day off for extra pay. It doesn't seem to me that rural route carriers get paid OT or extra days pay too often in my office, but again I admit I'm not familiar with the rules that govern rural routes. You could contact a union rep from the NRLCA and maybe they can give you that info or even ask your supervisor or manager. As a city carrier this scenario happens all of the time. A city carrier will request a vacation day and then another city carrier will work on their scheduled day off for a minimum of 8 hrs OT pay.

Is it true it's legal for the mail truck to run a red light

Asked by Henry over 9 years ago

I have never heard that before and I'd say it's not legal for a USPS vehicle to run a red light. We are supposed to follow the traffic laws like any other vehicle. I'm sometimes disgusted the way I see some of my coworkers operate the USPS vehicles. I feel we should be professional representatives of the USPS, but I see some people don't care and drive like jerks in the USPS vehicle as they do in their privately owned vehicles.