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.
Kyle, I think the normal amount of time for a First-class letter to get from Lancaster, PA to Charleston, SC, would be 2 days. From what you wrote it has already been 4 delivery days and the letter hasn't arrived. I don't know that it's rare, but it exceeds our service goal as far as I know. Are you sure you addressed the letter correctly and completely? Letters still get lost in the mail, missorted, misdelivered, destroyed by our automated sorting machines, etc. but that is all a very low percentage of the amt of mail processed.
I can't comment on your particular situation, but maybe I misspoke about no discipline as long as you are doing your job. I agree that taking a day off does sound like discipline. Did you call the SUpv to say you couldn't make the 3PM deadline? They shouldn't be so hard on you in the first week, though going over by 4.5 hrs is quite a bit. Any chance of somebody training you better to be more efficient as you deliver? These are just some suggestions.
Generally, no. The reason is that if an item shows up after the mailman has left for their route, the new incoming mail may not even have been sorted yet. Furthermore, most POs have policy against giving out mail over the counter that is intended to be delivered by a letter carrier. I can't speak as to what your specific PO would do, but generally the answer would be no as stated above.
As far as I know if a letter requires a signature to be delivered (i.e. registered or certified), the letter carrier should make an attempt to get a signature at the intended address and not just leave a PS3849 Notice of Attempted Delivery. You may call the Post Office to have the item redelivered and you may leave the signed notice for the carrier to pick up and leave the registered item if all parties feel comfortable doing that.
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I don't know the answer to this for sure. I believe the mail would be delivered to the building in one bundle with the other businesses mail mixed in if there are no specific suite #'s. For you to have your mail delivered separately, I believe you would need to have a specific address which is different from the rest of the building (i.e. the same street address, but a suite # associated with it). You could consider renting a PO Box, but that would have a cost plus would require a trip to your local PO to retrieve your mail. Most of the mail that we deliver is sorted by a machine into delivery order so if your address doesn't have a separate suite number, a letter carrier probably wouldn't segregate your mail just because you have a box with your business name on it. It's my pleasure to assist you on this forum and thank you for writing.
I don't know what can be done regarding this very important letter which was returned in error by your letter carrier. You can mention it to him or call the PO and speak with a delivery supervisor or Postmaster so that it doesn't happen again. I am sorry for the inconvenience and expense caused by this mistake.
I can't quote you the regulations, but as long as the box is accessible to the letter carrier without a hazard that is usually sufficient for attaching a box to your house.
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