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.
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.
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If the package is supposed to be delivered Monday, I would see if you could somehow contact (via phone or email) your local PO early Monday AM and see if they could "intercept" the package before returning it to the sender. I know some POs would be very helpful and others not at all. This is a sad aspect of the company that I work for. We are sometimes overwhelmed and feel we don't have the time to go the extra step to help out in a situation like yours. Somebody would need to go look at the parcels for the route which covers your house and try to find the parcel and correct the address. If you don't know how to contact your local PO, please call 1-888-ASK-USPS to see if they have any suggestions. I wish you well.
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I'm sure each Post Office has a slightly different dispatch schedule for mail being sent off to a P&DC (Processing and Distribution Center). I think that our Post Office dispatches the mail 2-3 times per day. I don't think that something mailed in the morning gets to its destination sooner than a letter which is collected prior to our final dispatch which is usually around 6PM. We have service levels which basically say if a letter or parcel is mailed on a certain date (before a final dispatch) that it should reach its destination by a certain date. This is usually 1-3 days depending on the distance between the origination and destination Post Office and the class of mail that is being sent (1st Class, Priority, Express, Parcel Post, etc).
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I can't remember a time that I came across any suspicious letters or packages, or at least not as of late. Not long after 9/11 I think there was anthrax sent through mail or something like that to Washington DC. It made me nervous and I think I had some type of reaction that I may have contracted it and had trouble breathing. It turned out to be all in my head and nothing ever came of it. There probably is drugs sent through the mail or maybe other illegal substances but I have no experience with it fortunately.
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In my experience it isn't too common for anyone to get terminated for anything. I mean people are given a letter of removal but the union often will appeal that and the carrier is reinstated. If it isn't the first time something happened that was the carrier's fault it may be more difficult to appeal successfully. If you are a CCA it is probably easier to fire you if you get in an at-fault accident. I don't recall any letter carriers at my office ever being terminated for an at-fault MVA. I can't speak for any of the other thousands of offices nationwide. Drive carefully, defensively and don't be distracted.
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I wish you well in your career as a CCA, but I certainly understand that a drive from Brooklyn to Glen Head is pretty far. I don't know anything about the transfer process even when you just started your probationary period. I don't think it was possible when I was a PTF (part-time flexible) to put in for a transfer until a certain amount of time had passed since I was hired. I don't know if the process has changed. Thanks for writing.
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ST, I'm not sure what happened in your situation. Some USPS carriers may be trained or take it upon themselves to do things differently than others. If the letter carrier saw the one letter in your mailbox but the rest of the mail taken in (by you), they might think it's mail for a person no longer living there and return it to the sender "Attempted, Not Known" or "Unable to Forward" or something else. It seems likely that this is what happened and the letter wasn't stolen though I can't says for sure.
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