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.
You've come to the right place to ask questions about how a mailman's route works. I never mind answering questions but sometimes wish there was a search function on this page since the questions may have already been asked.
1) I have the same route all the time, but that is the fact that I have enough seniority at my post office to deliver the same route daily. When you start your postal career you are usually a CCA (City Carrier Assistant) or a Carrier Technician (also called a floater or T-6 or comp. carrier) that fills in for a carrier on a route when they are off, hurt, sick, or on vacation, etc. Since we deliver mail mail 6 days a week, but only are required to work 5 days per week, the Carrier Technician delivers the route on our weekly non-scheduled day.
2) If we are a regular carrier that has an assignment that is to deliver the same route daily (which is the case for me), the only reason my route would change would be if another route became vacant (usually due to a carrier retiring or transfering) and I requested to be moved to that assignment. The person who gets the vacant assignment is the most senior carrier that wishes to be reassigned. On rare occasions the local office goes through a route reorganization (I think there has been 1 in the 15 years I've been at the PO) when all of the assignments are put up for bid because so much of the routes have been territorially reorganized. Again, the assignments are awarded by seniority.
3,4) Yes, a regular workday is 8 hours and my route is set up to take about that long to deliver if there is an average volume of mail, parcels, decent weather, etc. On a lighter volume day, I would finish earlier and a heavier day would take longer than 8 hours to complete the route. This time also includes sorting some mail in the morning as well as some organizational duties when delivery of the route is completed. I'd say that the earliest to finish is maybe 15 minutes less than 8 hours and on a heavier day I may take 30-45 minutes extra to complete the route. There are days that can even take longer than that, but I'm just giving you the averages. In the office I work at in Long Island, NY, there is ample opportunity for overtime pay for those that want to work more than 8 hours/day or work on their non-scheduled day. Everything quoted here is for a city letter carrier. There are rural letter carriers (a different union and different rules even though their job is to deliver mail like me) who can go home as soon as they finish their routes. We are "on the clock" so if we finish in 7:15 we would still have to stay for 8 hours. That is a rare occurrence and we could do some prep work for the next day or help out another carrier if we have "down time". It is more common to have too much work than too little in my experience.
Thanks for all of your great questions and feel free to ask any more that you can think of.
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I am not sure, but if it is properly packaged and labeled, I think it would be fine to leave in a mailbox if it fits and no signature was required. I am imagining that it comes in a styrofoam box and inside there are some bags with the fish in them, but I really don't know.
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It would probably be hard to live in NY on a CCA salary starting at $15/hr. I know some regular carriers work second jobs or work as much OT as available. My situation is a bit different as I am single, have low overhead (I own a co-op apt), and am very conservative with my spending. The NY metro area can be very expensive with regards to rental apts/houses and property taxes.
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I would call 800 ask USPS, or see if you can get the number to your local PO to advise them of your concern About not receiving your mail. Hopefully, they will have a lucid explanation and can rectify this matter.
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I would say that it is fine to leave a correctly addressed and posted letter in your mailbox for the carrier to take with them to mail. I would recommend that the letter be very visible so that the letter carrier can see the letter they are supposed to take with them.
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I am not familiar with any rules that say you must empty your mailbox daily. I would let mail pile up in a mailbox until it may become full so no future mail can fit in a mailbox. It is not a common occurrrence where I deliver mail, but I am sure it does happen some places. If a mailbox came completely full, I may return any additional mail with the endorsement "box full".
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As far as what far as what job would be a good alternate to a city letter carrier based on your medical condition, I think that working inside as possibly a retail sales and service associate would be good. The problem is that I don't believe they are hiring many workers for these positions when compared to letter carrier hiring. There are also custodial positions available in some offices, but that job requires much physical labor as well. I am sorry that I don't have any great advice for you as city letter carrier is the job most in demand. You could see if there are rural carrier associate positions available in your office or adjacent offices. Those positions don't require any walking except delivering parcels to doors sometimes, but much less than a traditional park and loop walking city route.
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