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 Can't answer that re: whether they will let him take off or not. If airline tickets or other travel was booked pre-hire, he could always use that as evidence that it was planned earlier. It is up to each mgr or supervisor whether or not to approve time off. I hope they are flexible and give the time off whether paid or not.
Generally we will go to each address 1X per day Monday-Saturday. Exceptions to this might be is if we have an Express Mail delivery for a house and the regular letter carrier won't reach that address on time. During a busy holiday season when there are many parcel deliveries it is common to have a couple of deliveries made: once by the regular letter carrier and once by the parcel delivery carrier. In a city environment where the letter carriers do not have delivery vehicles, a parcel post carrier will deliver the parcels and the regular letter carrier will deliver the traditional mail and small parcels.
Kate, I first want to say thanks for using this Q and A board on jobstr. It is fun interacting and trying to help others with postal-related questions. I am no expert and the views are my own. I'd probably get some type of communication from management (and not in a good way) if they found out I was doing this. So far, so good. Anyhow, to answer your question after my long-winded introduction, yes, most of us will certainly accept tips during the holidays even though it is against USPS regulations. Please don't fell any pressure to do so as I fell that is completely unethical and plenty of people that I deliver mail to don't tip me at all which is fine. We are all paid a fair salary with benefits and a have a retirement plan. If you do tip your mailman at Christmas in cash, the only thing that I hope happens is that you get a thank you acknowledgement. I think that is very thoughtful of you. Merry Christmas to you.
I think when you open a PO box, you need to show ID and give your real name as authorizEd to rcv mail there I don't know that the PO Box clerk will accept mail for a different name addressed to the proper PO Box. One other option is to use a commercial mail receiving agency like the UPS store. I don't know if they are as strict with their requirements for receiving mail.
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I am not sure how you can prove the mail carrier is taking your mail unless some specific items aren't appearing. If they are disappearing you may call the PO and mention it to a delivery supervisor or postmaster though I'm not sure what can be done. It is quite a serious offense to actually be taking somebody's mail so I hope this isn't actually happening.
I don't believe that ordering the supplements from different sources will arouse any suspicion. I know I wouldn't think twice if anybody rcvd express mail in a few consecutive days or even a few days apart nor would I think Postal Inspectors would have any suspicion either.
From what I've seen, most employees will just accept you at your word if you say it's a book/CD/music which you are mailing. The exception would be if it felt like something obviously different like a t-shirt or handbag. I am sorry that you are having a bad experience there, but I guess that is also why Media Mail is usually much cheaper than Priority Mail or Standard Parcel rates.
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