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.
he starting salary for a Transitional Employee was $21/hr, but due to a recent arbitration decision in 2013, new hires are considered CCAs (city carrier assistants) who will usually start at $15/hr, a little bit more if they were previously a TE. Carriers who were TEs and then got changed to CCAs did take a significant pay cut as part of this arbitration decision.
I don't know the answer to this question, but I would speculate that you wouldnt be fired for this, especially if you weren't convicted.
As far as I know, all blue collection boxes are checked and emptied if the public can access them. If they were no longer going to be in service they would physically be removed or at least have a very clear notice on them that they are no longer being checked for outgoing mail. To know whether or not the person got the letter you mailed, I would recommend calling them or emailing them. Our delivery rate is very high so I'd say there is an excellent chance they will (or have) received the letter you put in the blue USPS collection box.
I believe it is legal to advise the USPS to not have their employees walk across your yard. It would be better to put signage up stating that is your request. While we generally aren't too enthused about not being able to cross a lawn, we need to respect the property of our postal patrons and honor such requests as long as the letter carrier can still access your mailbox and comply with your instructions not to cross your lawn.
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I can't say for sure what happened to your priority mail item that you were expecting. Did the sender give you a tracking number? Most items shipped via Priority Mail would have a tracking number? As long as the mailer put the correct address on the Priority Mail and actually shipped the item, it is not likely to be lost, but not impossible.
I don't think the average carrier makes 72K, but I am glad to discuss what I make and put it in perspective. I haven't worked most of 2013 due to being out with an illness. Much of this illness is covered by paid sick leave so my salary for 2013 isn't too far out of line what most carriers probably make who weren't ill. My pay stub through pay period 26 of 2013 (which should be the last pp of the year) says $65200. To be quite honest that is a good salary for not having worked for more than 1/2 of the year. The highest salary I've ever made was probably in the $70-75K Range and that would include working overtime. Raises are passed out based on a contract which is agreed upon between the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) and the US Postal Service. They are often passed out 1X per year if you are at top pay. If you are working your way up to the top salary then you would get raises a bit more frequently. In conclusion, there is potentital to make superb salaries if you are willing to work all of the overtime that is asked of you which may mean coming in to work on a day you are usually off or maybe even working on a Sunday. I can't guarantee this, but if you did a little research under "NALC National Agreement 2014" there may be a published pay chart as to what carriers get paid. Thank you for your question.
Sarah, I would suggest that you speak with either the letter carrier who delivers to your address regularly or call your local PO and speak with a delivery supervisor. I am not sure how either way will result in the package getting to its correct address (you), but I wish you well. As letter carriers we all do make mistakes, but I would hope they aren't too frequent and that the errant recipient of the package would leave it out for a letter carrier to pick up to be brought to the correct address. Thanks for writing.
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