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 think that is probably the case that the carrier put your name on the blue tape inside of the mailbox. I believe this is very common in apt buildings or cluster box units. The reason for this is probably so the carrier knows what name to deliver to your mailbox even though one could argue that all names should be delivered unless a known forwarding request is on file. In general I think it’s a good idea to have the current residents name(s) inside a mailbox to provide more accurate service though I know some people will disagree with me. On the postal route I deliver, there are no names inside of the mailboxes. I deliver to all single family houses.
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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.
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I have come across the same situation while delivering mail and getting a sampling request for an address that is either on Hold or Vacant. I don’t know what the proper procedure is and the management in my office has never addressed this as far as I know. I also don’t know if anybody has asked about it. If I were in that situation, This is how I answer: Yes, the address is on my route. When it asks me to scan the flats/letters, I just hit enter and “No more to Scan”. To repeat, I can’t say this is the correct procedure, but this is what I do in that situation. Thanks for your question.
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Henry, I can’t actually picture what that truck looks like and I don’t know what it is used for. If I had to guess it may have been some type of maintenance vehicle that the USPS used for building or vehicle maintenance. It doesn’t seem to be any type of delivery vehicle that I am familiar with. If you want to do some more research, there is a Smithsonian National Postal Museum and maybe their research or archivist staff would know more about it. They possibly charge a fee for doing research but I can’t be sure. Their website is postalmuseum.si.edu
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Tanya, I’m not familiar with why the prison mail would be rejected especially because you’ve addressed it properly. I know that jails/prisons have very specific rules about incoming mail to inmates. I would think that any mail rejected would explain the reason for the rejection. I don’t know that the PO will be of any help in this manner. I also don’t know how easy it’d be to reach the prison to ask for more on this subject. They strike me as being one big unfriendly bureaucracy. Thanks for your question.
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No, no, a thousand times, no! I should clarify what I mean by that. If I see mail addressed to a house and I may not be sure that it is for a name at that address, I may query whoever answers the door to see if they will accept mail for a particular name. More often than not, I’ll just write a question mark next to the addressees name and leavethe letter in the mailbox. If the name isn’t accepted there, they would usually leave the letter back in the mailbox for me to return to sender. Under no circumstances would I ever ask a follow up question or anything more “nosy” than do you want to accept mail for this name at you’re address? Anything more than that is unethical and none of our business. I hope if that ever happens to you again, do not feel you have any obligation to answer. They should never ask you what’s in a letter unless it meets certain criteria for being suspicious which, for the most part, is rare.
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From what I understand, we scan the flats and letters to verify how long it takes mailpieces to get from somewhere to the delivery point. I haven’t heard this for sure. I agree it seems pointless and annoying. I make sure to take the time to do it properly though I don’t trust most of my coworkers to do it. Regarding what to do when it asks i feel the address is on the route, i usually put “yes” if it’s vacant or hold but I have to say I’m probably not consistent with that i do. I’d hit “yes”, then “end scanning” and then “no more to scan” if I had zero mailpieces with me. I’m not sure how it is in Massapequa but the communication as to what we’re supposed to do in any situation is quite half-assed and different supv may give different answers. I have so little faith in the supervisors to give the right information that I often don’t even bother asking. We had a service talk today about how to scan parcels that are on “hold”. The directions were completely the opposite of what we were told in the past. Besides that, I doubt they will repeat the service talk for the carriers who were off today or on vacation. I’m just venting but I think you can relate to my comments. Thanks again for writing and hope you liked my tangent.
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