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.
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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You can give a mailman any package that has the postage paid on it either via a computer printed label (such as Click 'N Ship) or a label where the recipient will pay the return postage. In the latter case, the label will clearly say "No Postage Necessary If Mailed Within The United States". Every letter carrier should accept the package no questions asked. The exception to this would be a city letter carrier who may not have a USPS vehicle which they are operating from and are unable to bring the package back to the Post Office. In that case I believe you can go to www.usps.com to schedule a package pickup. The mailman usually won't take a package back to a specific address until it is processed through our mail distribution system. Most of the time we just accept any package or mail along our delivery routes and bring back to the post office where we work from and it gets dispatched to a mail distribution center for processing. 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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I must admit that does sound a bit early that the mailman arrives before 9AM daily. The more common comment is that mail deliver is later in the day that people would like. We generally have no control over the order that we deliver our mail routes. The routes are set up in a certain order of delivery and mailman are usually under a time pressure to deliver their routes and be finished in a prescribed amount of time. I believe your best remedy is to go to a mailbox (formally known as collection boxes) before the pickup time printed on the label inside the lid to ensure your outgoing mail will be processed that day. Thanks for writing.
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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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Thank you for the NALC information. Definitely see if you can file a grievance for the mgmt not giving out Progressive Discipline. Again, if it is a big mistake like leaving the engine running or having a motor vehicle accident, maybe that couLD go straight to a letter of removal.
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Andy, I am glad to write this blog of my experiences and advice as a letter carrier for the USPS. To answer your questions:1) I'd wear a suit if you have one, or ar least a shirt and tie with nice pants and shoes. Try to be clean cut, ambitious, professional and polite. I don't know how much appearance counts in a USPS interview, but it can't hurt to take the above advice. Be on time and respectful of the interviewer.
2) Becoming a regular from a CCA is usually just a matter of waiting until there is a vacancy in your office or station that remains unassigned to a regular carrier. Then it may take a month or two to become a regular carrier. The time that it takes for a CCA to become a regular carrier depends on the staffing and turnover where you are assigned to work. I can only speak for my PO, but I've seen it take as little as one year and as much as 8 years (that is when we had PTFs (part time flexibles, a precursor to CCAs) to become a regular employee.
3) When you become a regular employee, the hours get much more stable and predictable. You generally work 5 8-hour days per week with set hours. As a CCA, you pretty much work when they want you and for as long as needed per day. There aren't many rights for a CCA with regards to hours except if they are "holding down" a regular assignment for a rte that is temporarily vacant due to illness or vacation. As a regular employee, you can refuse OT if there is enough staffing to cover all of the assignments in a day. The management can mandate carriers to work OT if they are short handed and those who want to work OT already will be working some amt of OT. The rules for this are a little complex so I won't go into it here.
Thanks for your questions and good luck Andy.
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