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.
Chris, that is a very good question. We aren't required to stop at at a residential mailbox if we have no mail to that address and we can't visibly see any outgoing mail or the flag is not up to indicate outgoing mail. In the neighborhood that I deliver mail to most houses get a delivery daily even if it as little as an advertising run that covers the entire route (sometimes known as a 3rd bundle or EDDM).
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I have no idea if the hand sorting of odd shaped packages would cause it to not receive the normal scans to update tracking. I would suspsect that as long as the package had a valid bar code which could be scanned along the way that it would be treated just as as other packages. I'm sorry I have no more specific information on the scans of odd shaped items.
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I deliver the mail via foot and don't drive up to a mailbox as you describe. The town in which I deliver mail does have sections where the letter carriers do drive up to a mailbox and put the mail in. I did this when I was a substitute letter carrier and will do it on occasion if that carrier is out or needs assistance. If the situation you described occurred while I was delivering, I would hand them the mail. I don't know if there is a policy against handing the mail directly to a customer in the environment you described. Some carriers may not want to hand the mail directly to a customer from their postal vehicle for safety reasons.
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Sa-mind, I do understand your concern about driving the LLV as well as your co-workers and supervisors. I have experienced the latter myself. As to whether or not you should give it a shot, I'd say absolutely try it. It isn't the easiest of jobs and there are some tough personalities you may have to deal with. After all of my years at the USPS, I am still trying to learn that myself. Fortunately, as a letter carrier, much of the day is spent on your own delivering mail. Regarding not knowing the area they are putting you in, the management should give you a map and delivery instructions for the area. It also helps if you have a smartphone with a mapping like Google Maps or Waze. There were several occasions where I thought about quitting the USPS, but I was fortunate to have family members who thought much more logically than myself and advised against it. Starting as a CCA may not be so great due to lower wages and minimal benefits, but once you become a regular letter carrier, it is a solid job with benefits and a pretty good union. Nothing is perfect, but when I see people working in retail and grocery stores or the local convenience store, I doubt they are making $50K per year with paid vacation, paid sick days, a 401(k), decent health insurance and a retirement plan..or at least not all of this. I don't know what type of work you do now, but consider the pros and cons of leaving it with the benefits of working for the USPS, and try not to let mean people get to you. As the saying goes: mean people suck! I wish you the best and hope you at least try the job.
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Clint, Thank you for 4 interesting questions.
1) I think that being a letter carrier is fine for all types of personalities. There is no requirement to talk to the customers as far as I know. I happen to be somewhat social and enjoy the interaction with my co-workers and customers, but some of my co-workers are very quiet, just come to work, deliver the mail, and don't say too much. I prefer them much more to people who don't know when to be quiet or talk entirely about themselves constantly.
2) Not really. The cold/wet weather doesn't bother some people, but I don't particularly like or get used to working in it. My advice is to learn to dress properly. That is VERY important because being wet and/or cold for hours is not somthing I get used to. The biggest problem I have dealing with is my hands being cold. The rest of your body you can cover up sufficiently in almost any weather. It is difficult for me to "finger the mail" if I'm wearing warm gloves on my hand, but I make do somehow and the climate I work in isn't known for lots of severe and cold weather, though it happens for sure.
3) Yes, but of course it depends on the type of job, pay, benefits, etc. The list of jobs I would take is probably much shorter than the ones I wouldn't take. For example, I wouldn't ever want to work in Food Service or Custodial Services.
4) No, I won't say that it is my dream job, but I'm glad that I wound up as a letter carrier and hope to be able to comfortably retire after working the required number of years. I've had some internal and external issues during my career (I won't get into details online), but in the long run it has been definitely a job I'm glad I chose. My father encouraged me to get into this career and I am glad he did seeing how secure it has been.
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In your example, I would write "addressee not known" and leave it out for the letter carrier to take back to the PO. Eventually the letter may wind up in the dead letter (Nixie) office where it may be opened and returned to the sender if it can be determined who should get it back or who it should be sent to. I personally wouldn't recommend opening the letter if you aren't the intended recipient. I understand your intentions are good, but I wouldn't want to get involved with someone else's first class mail.
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I am not sure what will happen re :your license being suspended and being offered a CCA Position. How long do you think it will be before you get your license back? I don't believe it is legal to have you driving a USPS vehicle with a suspended driver license.
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