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.

SubscribeGet emails when new questions are answered. Ask Me Anything!Show Bio +

Share:

Ask me anything!

Submit Your Question

1237 Questions

Share:

Last Answer on February 18, 2022

Best Rated

Woah! This is crazy right here! What do you think about this?! https://youtu.be/aFYYMypm8IE

Asked by Jearmy about 5 years ago

I saw this on the internet and heard about it on the radio. Unfortunately, the USPS sometimes has employees that don’t quite understand the sanctity of the mail and that they can’t throw it away. According to the article he employees was a new hire. Maybe he was overwhelmed with his work assignment, though that is no excuse for discarding mail into a dumpster. I’d hope that he gets in a lot of trouble criminally, but I don’t think they often do. Either way, it looks horrible when we want the country to be able to trust us with their ballots for the upcoming election. I don’t believe the employee was purposely discarding ballots as a lot of other mail was also discovered. I believe it was nearly 1900 pieces of mail.

261 Votes

Keep a eye out I think there is a troll asking questions over and over look through and see how much of the questions are the same writing styles, posting links, and asking the same questions over and over in a different way among other non sense

Asked by Jessica about 5 years ago

Thanks for the heads up, Jessica. Trolls are the bain of the Internet.

259 Votes

Is it ture that your in line to be the president. Wayyyy down the line and unlikely but are you?

Asked by Coool dudeeeee over 5 years ago

Lol. Not me. The Postmaster General of the United States used to be in the line of succession for the Presidency. I believe that to no longer be the case since 1970 when the position was removed from the Cabinet of the President. That is around the same time that the USPS was created. Prior to that, the organization was the US Post Office Department which was an executive branch agency. When I looked on Wikipedia for Presidential Line of Succession, the Postmaster General was nowhere to be found on the list.

256 Votes

What would happen if a mailman or woman was caught stealing or at least snooping through someones mail?

Asked by Henry over 5 years ago

I don’t know for sure what would happen if a letter carrier was caught stealing or snooping through someone’s mail. If the postal inspectors are involved, they could have the employee arrested and then have a prosecutor charge them with a crime. To me, this is the same as discarding mail that you don’t want to deliver. I would like to think that most of the time, the letter carrier would be fired from the USPS, but our union often fights a termination and the employee may keep their job. I do wish we were more punitive when a postal employee tampers with the mail at all, but they sometimes just get warnings and are back on the job.

253 Votes

Also on Jobstr...

Audiologist

AudiologistCan just one loud concert do serious damage to your ears?

Chef

ChefIs it true that the "specials" are usually the stuff that's been sitting around awhile?

Lifeguard

LifeguardDid you ever have to perform CPR or mouth-to-mouth on a swimmer?

What would happen if a mailman got caught drinking and driving the mail truck?!

Asked by John over 5 years ago

I don’t know for sure but they would likely put on emergency placement leave which means no more USPS vehicle driving privileges until the issue is resolved. I don’t personally know of it happening to anyone but I’m sure it has. If a court of law found them guilty of driving under the influence or intoxicated, I wouldn’t mind seeing the offender losing their job. I have no sympathy for somebody doing that on the job. I don’t know that they would lose their job and our union (the NALC) would likely file a grievance to have them keep their job. I do know if 2 situations where coworkers had DUI outside of work and temporarily lost their state driver license. They were not able to drive a postal vehicle so the USPS gave them alternate duties or had another coworker drive them on their route. Both workers eventually got their licenses restored and were back to full duty but I know it costs them a huge sum of money in fees, courses, increased insurance premium plus the possible loss of their vehicle.

253 Votes

What are some types of questions you wished people would stop asking

Asked by QUESTION TO ALL over 5 years ago

I am not sure if you’re referring to this forum or out while I’m delivering mail. Either way, the answer would be the same. I am very patient and I don’t get annoyed by questions. I triy to put myself in the shoes of the person asking it and if I can I will educate them. I deliver mail on the same route each day so I know most of the residents. There usually aren’t many questions and most of the time I don’t see a lot of people during the delivery day. I admit I get annoyed if people just want to talk in general because I don’t have the time to do that on my postal route and sometimes you are just a person that they want to talk to and you could be anybody. While I am friendly it is not my job to be a social worker. Fortunately, I don’t have many incessant talkers that I deliver mail to. I either avoid them if possible or just walk away after maybe giving them a minute or two of my time.

252 Votes

Hello, so I ordered live caterpillars for a kids science project and they arrived in my mailbox sooner than expected in 105 degree weather. I check the mail but they were dead. How can I ask that live perishables be delivered to my door in this heat

Asked by Nicole about 5 years ago

NIcole, I don’t know for sure about how to guarantee that next time any live perishables are delivered to your door. I do have a suggestion which could work if your letter carrier is conscientious. When you place the order for the caterpillars (or any other live animals), place a visible note (maybe on an index card) and clearly write your request. You could even note that last time the caterpillars were dead likely due to the extreme heat. If I saw that note, I’d pay attention to it and oblige. Unfortunately, i don’t have the same faith in many coworkers. I hope this helps. Thank you for your question.

249 Votes

Home Browse Jobs Host a Q&A Search Blog FAQ Terms Contact

Copyright Jobstr 2014