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.
If an item needs a signature (usually it’s a certified letter or registered mail), I knock on the door to obtain the signature of the resident if they want to accept the item. If they aren’t home or don’t want to come to the door, I leave a PS Form 3849 (Notice Of Attempted Delivery) which advises the customer that we had an item that may have needed a signature and the form gives them options to either pick up the item at a specific PO or they can request a redelivery. During the Covid19 pandemic, the procedure has changed slightly. As long as the customer is home and acknowledges that they want to “sign” for the item, we can print their name on the electronic scanner that they usually sign. This eliminates them from having to get too close to you or to touch the scanner. It seems to have worked well so far. Stay safe and thank you for your question.
I have a feeling that you might be correct about this. I have been thinking about that in the past but never decided to look into it. Maybe one day this whole site will disappear and my nearly 1200 questions answered will be for nothing. I never hear from the the siren operatoes though it never really concerned me. The sire never seems updated. I just checked their twitter account. The last posting or retweet was from 6 years ago. I certainly feel like a bit of a sucker to have continued here for so long. I’d probably have reached more people by doing a Reddit AMA. Thanks for bringing up this subject.
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.
I don’t what you mean by that, but I don’t trust President Trump at all. He lies more in one day than I have in a lifetime. He seems like he’d like the USPS to fail or be privatized. You didn’t ask for this commentary, but he has failed this nation miserably in his handling of the Covid19 Pandemic. His defeat in the November, 2020 election is what I’m hoping for.
Navy Officer (Former)
What's the most dangerous situation you were ever in?Bracketologist
Why have there been so many 15-2 upsets, but no 16-1's?Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon
How often do people wake up during surgery?I’d heard about our LLV’s catching fire in the last few years. I suppose it has to do with parts maybe rusting and wiring becoming frayed. They also mentioned possibly fuel leaking out which could ignite the fire. The only thing I know about the fires from social media or the news. It would definitely be scary since you can see how thoroughly the vehicles were damaged or incinerated. Fortunately, if all goes to plan we should start to get fleet replacement vehicles in 2022 (according to the link you sent me). I’m not sure how many years it would take to manufacture 180k vehicles or whatever the contract is for. Our current fleet of LLVs were manufactured between 1987-1994. Thanks for bringing this video to my attention.
Usually, the second person in the truck would be a supervisor doing a route delivery observation. This happens about one time per year. In our office, the supervisor often follows along with their own vehicle and may walk near you while you make your deliveries. Other times it may be a trainee who is “shadowing” a seasoned employee to learn how the job is done. In the larger delivery vehicles there is sometimes a package helper to make parcel deliveries easier and possibly more efficient. In my office, I rarely see 2 employees in one vehicle so I can’t comment much further.
-OR-
Login with Facebook(max 20 characters - letters, numbers, and underscores only. Note that your username is private, and you have the option to choose an alias when asking questions or hosting a Q&A.)
(A valid e-mail address is required. Your e-mail will not be shared with anyone.)
(min 5 characters)
By checking this box, you acknowledge that you have read and agree to Jobstr.com’s Terms and Privacy Policy.
-OR-
Register with Facebook(Don't worry: you'll be able to choose an alias when asking questions or hosting a Q&A.)