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.
This is true to a point. There are no absolutes with regard to driving in inclement weather. I drive a Grumman LLV which is what the vast majority of our motorized fleet is comprised of. Most of them were manufactured in the 1990s. All of our vehicles have heaters and fans. They may not always operate optimally but they are equipped with them. I don’t know of any LLVs that have air conditioning. We do have some new Dodge ProMasters which have AC but they can’t be used on driving routes because they are left-hand drive vehicles. If there is any decent accumulation of snow or ice on the road, the LLVs are dangerous to operate as they don’t have much road traction. I’d be worried about driving on any incline or decline in a snow or ice-covered road. Our basic mantra is that if we feel it’s unsafe to deliver the mail for any reason we can bring it back to the PO and tell a supervisor about the reason for non-delivery. Within the next few years, we likely are getting fleet replacement vehicles. I’m pretty sure they will have air bags and AC, and hopefully a back-up camera. They will hopefully be safer than the vehicles we currently drive.
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Thanks for the info and sharing videos in a previous question/posting.
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Yes. I’ve never had an issue using the restroom at any business that I deliver mail to if I have to use their facilities. I work near a gas station and public library so those are my “go to” spots. Furthermore, there are sometimes construction sites on the postal route and I may use their portable toilet if necessary. As inappropriate as it may sound, if I’m in a rural area and there are no restrooms nearby I may just urinate (discreetly) in a wooded area. It would be embarrassing if I ever was caught but so far it’s not been an issue.
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Some letter carriers may handle it differently than others. This is my comment in most situations as to “what would we be done if....”We can rubber band the mail and leave it on the ground or on a bench by a door. Technically, the mail should be endorsed “NMR” which means No Mail Receptacle and returned to the sender, if applicable. Certain classes of mail would just get discarded at the PO and maybe sent out for recycling.
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That’s funny. Some people would say why don’t I ever see the mailman working. We definitely take breaks during our delivery day. Contractually we are entitled to 30 minute lunch (unpaid) and two paid 10-minute breaks. Some assignments are allowed a one-hr lunch but it is still unpaid. We are also allowed as many bathroom breaks as needed. To answer your question, I’m not sure why you don’t need see them on a break. I am on one right now answering your question. To maximize the time I have for a break/lunch, I generally just sit in my postal vehicle and eat or use the Internet. Some letter carriers meet for lunch and buy food. If your letter carrier is a rural carrier, you may not see them take a break because they can go home as soon as their deliveries are finished. City carriers (which is what I am) are “on the clock” so we generally take our authorized breaks.
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This is a very thorough question and i don’t know that I can give you an absolute answer, but I can try. I can assure you that any mail given to a clerk at PO or out in a collection box (blue box) or picked up by a letter carrier from your residence will go the same day to the mail processing plant in Columbus, OH. I guess an exception would be is if the letter carrier picked up the mail so late in the day due to our staffing shortages that the mail may not be dispatched from your local post office to the regional processing center. I haven’t seen this happen too often but I can’t speak for any office other than the one I work with. Another thing to point out is that there is possibly more than one truck per day that takes outgoing mail from your PO to the Columbus mail processing facility. I’m not sure about your office. I still don’t think for the most part it would make a difference if the mail was dropped off at the PO or picked up at your house. Thanks for your question, Roger.
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Jeffrey, I don’t know the official answer to this question. In the post office where I work, the carriers who collect mail front the blue collection boxes generally aren’t delivering mail on any specific postal route. They probably aren’t even looking at the destination address when they collect the mail. I’m pretty sure most mail that is collected from the blue mailboxes gets sent to the a processing and distribution center. Very little, if any, local mail is intercepted and delivered without it ever leaving our local PO. I hope this answers your question. Thanks for participating in the Q and A ?
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