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.
Scott, you ask a very good question and I do understand your hesitation for wanting to address this issue with her for fear of retaliation. I would take the step of writing a note for the carrier and politely asking them to close the lid after delivering the mail. I realize I agreed with you that there was a slight risk in addressing the issue, but if dealt with politely I'd hope there would be no cause for retaliation. Also, a call to the delivery supervisor would be appropriate if you dI'd see any obvious retaliation.
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I don't know that the mailbox is technically USPS property. It should only be used for US Mail as far as I know. The mailman probably shouldn't have taken the gift bags if they weren't properly addressed and contatined sufficient postage. Having the flag up does generally signal that somebody has outgoing mail so we know to stop there even if there is no "incoming" mail to that address. I would look at any item that is in a customers mailbox and it is usually quite apparent if it is meant as outgoing mail or not. That being said, I would never recommend that anybody leave anything in a mailbox that isn't associated with US Mail or the USPS. I think in most cases the gift bags would have been left alone in the mailbox, but we have employees among us who aren't that sharp or mayne they were just trying to prove a point that non-mail items should be in the mailbox. I can't comment on why the gift bags disappeared. It is just speculation on my part.
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I am not sure what your post office or letter carrier will do if you are unable to provide a large enough receptacle for your daily mail delivery. Since you live in a place with only cluster boxes, it seems you have no choice in the matter. If I were able to get to your actual unit or apt. door, I'd likely leave the mail by the door and maybe ring your doorbell. I don't know the procedure for where you live and from what I hear on this Q and A board and from other msg boards, the delivery procedure is far from uniform in multi-unit dwellings. One option is to rent a PO Box which come in different sizes, but that would require an extra cost and a trip to your Post Office on a regular basis. If you stop in to your local post office and present this question to a delivery supervisor, hopefully they can give you a better answer. Good luck with your home-based business.
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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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Mikas, I think it is very likely you will receive your package as long as the clerks in your PO can figure out which street you meant to put in your address and that it isn't similarly named with another street in the same ZIP code. The ZIP code is definitely a very important piece of the address to get correct because that will result in at least getting the package to the right PO building and the staff there will hopefully (and likely) be able to figure out the intended address.
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In most cases, if the error is that minor and the misspelled street doesnt match another street in the same ZIP , the delivery should still reach you. Misspellings occur all the time with mailed items and letters.
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I don't think there is any automation involved after 18 months from when a forwarding order started. At the sorting case, a carrier has pink cards with stickers on them which can say when a particular forwarding order started. I keep those cards for about 2-3 years and once the forwarding order has expired (18 months), I put a line through the sticker and maybe a little marker at the address in the carrier case indicating UTF. "Return service requested" AFAIK means that if the letter was going to be forwarded to a new addrees, the sender would like the letter returned to them with the new address info. The carriers handle them just as they would any forward and the CFS (Computerized Forwarding System) will know that the sender wanted the letter returned. The sender does pay an extra fee for this service.
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