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 say for sure but we often are the same person that delivers packages and regular post. During this time of year, it is common for some offices to have another person deliver packages separately from the post because the package volume can be so overwhelming. Some offices have full-time parcel post routes so the package would possibly be delivered by a different letter carrier. Thanks for writing and Happy Holidays!
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Kris, I don't know the answer to your question regarding the legality of photographing or videotaping mail, employees, managers or operations. I have never seen anybody do it while "on the clock", but I don't think it would be looked upon well by others. Also, I also don't recommend videotaping customers. It could be reported to management and it may not be allowed. With regards to a DWI while employed as a driver, I don't recommend withholding information that would be available on a driving record from a state dept. of Motor Vehicles. I don't know if a DWI stays on permanently. On the other hand, if the USPS couldn't find out about a past DWI and disclosing it would result in disqualification from being hired, it would be better not to disclose it.
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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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Generally, a mailman (letter carrier-terms are synonomous) is the only person who will deliver from a post office, but I don't know that to be an absolute rule. My brother is a clerk at a post office which is comprised only of rural letter carriers. If Express Mail arrives later in the day when the rural letter carriers have completed their routes, either he or another clerk, or maybe a supervisor will deliver the Express Mail item. Also, in general, a package that arrives at a local post office on a particular day at 2:00 PM should be delivered with the following delivery days mail. Again, it's not an absolute guarantee but within the normal course of operations, I would think it should be delivered.
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No, a lettter carrier isn't supposed to accept any gift of substantial value from someone on his route. It doesn't mean that it isn't done, just that it's not supposed to be done. I don't know of anybody losing a job due to this but they aren't supposed to appear to be accepting gifts from customers.
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If the flyers are unaddressed which would usually be the case when there are leftovers, I bring them back to the post office where they are usually discarded in a recycle bin. It's not too often that I have leftover flyers because they are usually distributed to the letter carriers in the correct quantity needed to cover the entire route (give or take a few). Another reason why we usually don't have leftovers is because we are supposed to count out the number of flyers needed for each section (loop or relay) resulting in a low amt of overage. I do see many flyers put in the recycle bin at the end of the day leading me to believe that some flyers aren't delivered or there is an error in the counts for some routes. A lot of flyers are probably of little interest to the recipients, but that isn't my concern. I am loyal to the mailers who are paying the USPS to provide delivery services for their advertising.
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I am not sure why the mailman didn't take the outgoing mail that was left in the mailbox with a note saying it was outgoing. Generally, they should have taken it as it is understandable if it won't fit through the thin slot for outgoing mail. Did the mailman leave you any incoming mail? Maybe you could try it again tomorrow or make it more prominent that you have an outgoing letter, though I'm not sure how prominent you already had it posted.
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