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 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.
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I’m not sure what the hardest part of the job js. Most challenges are surmountable. I like most aspects of being a letter carrier. I would say working in the snow or dark is the most difficult part to do. If one has the proper cold weather gear and lighting for working in the dark, these challenges are much more manageable. Most of the time I’m able to work during daylight hours but in the fall/winter the sun may set at 1700 which could easily result in us working in the dark. Our vehicles perform quite poorly in the snow so it is sometimes hard to safely drive them. Dealing with a difficult supervisor or manager is sometimes hard as well. They are known to be unreasonable at times in their requests for being on time. That ebbs and flows. Sometimes there are weeks of “civility” followed by several days of nastiness and what feels like disparate treatment. Most of the time I let in roll of my back and don’t escalate a situation. In general, I am very organized so delivering mail is quite an easy job and goes somewhat smoothly on a daily basis.
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I’m not really sure but that it a good question. My career goal before I wound up at USPS was to be an air traffic controller. I love aviation and thought it would be a great career. It turned out not to be the right fit for me. While I was greatly disappointed at the time I am quite satisfied now with where I landed. I also like working with the public and I have a love for NY City so maybe i could work at one of their cultural institutions or be a guide. For the skill level I have and the stress levels I can handle (not good with stress and responsibility), being a letter carrier is probably the best choice i could have made. A lot of it was by luck and a father who was always pro-civil service or Government jobs.
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Mike, I’m not saying it hasn’t happened, but I’ve never heard of a USPS vehicle being pulled over by a police officer for missing a license plate. Each vehicle has an ID number and I think that suffices as a license plate. I imagine if I rcvd a ticket for that I would give it to my supervisor and let them deal with it. That being said, I wouldn’t mind if we got held to the same driving standards as everyone else and were pulled over for moving violations. I don’t even hear of that happening too often. I drive the USPS just as I do with my own vehicle. That means obeying all traffic rules, driving defensively, and courteously. Fortunately, I’ve never been involved in an MVA while at work, but it doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Nobody is above the law or above making an error.
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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.
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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.
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Maybe I have a boring existence or work in a pretty quiet area but I have never had that scenario ever happened to me whatsoever. The closest thing I’ve ever seen (which I was not impressed by) is an older man who likes to walk around the house in his underwear. He is creepy to begin with and I try not to have much of a conversation with him anyway. I don’t know what I’d do if that scenario presented itself. I could just carry in with business as usual. Seeing someone naked doesn’t totally phase me as I’ve seen topless women on beaches or even in NY City or San Francisco. I do feel it is inappropriate for someone to come to the door naked but I probably would not make a big deal of it.
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