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.
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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LA, it is awful that mail is being stolen. I don't know what good it will do, but I would recommend reporting that to your local post office or the Postal Inspectors. To answer your question, I don't know that a mailman would get involved with being responsible for a key to a private mailbox. If everyone on their route did that, how would they keep track of all of those keys? Furthermore, if that mailman was off/sick/vacation, how could you be sure that the replacement mailman would get the key? I just don't think it will be feasible or practical or possibly even allowed. Another option (though less convenient) would be to rent a PO Box which would definitely be secure.
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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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You're welcome and thank you for the compliment. Good luck to you in the interview this week for CCA. The rural carrier position is a completely separate pay scale and pay method vs. city carriers. They are also represented by a different union. I honestly don't know the procedure or opportunities for transfering between a city carrier and rural carrier. City carriers are paid by time at an hourly wage. Rural Carriers are given a route, or part of a route, to complete and paid a set wage on the volume of mail for a particular assignment. I think the dollar amt. is adjusted yearly during a "mail count" period for rural carriers. The sooner a rural carrier finishes their daily assignment, the sooner they can go home and still be paid a set amt. for the day. In the office that my brother works in, I think that most of the rural carriers are done before noon and start their day apprx. 7:00 AM. It is a pretty good deal for them. Some of them are required to work 6 days/week as part of their regular assignment. The office I work in has both city carriers and rural carriers though I've not ever seen one transfer between crafts. It doesn't mean it can't be done. I'm sorry that I'm just not familiar with how it's done and if it would mean a re-starting over in your craft seniority for bidding purposes.
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I am not sure what happens next. Eventually, the Priority Mail envelope (which contains your passport) should either have its ZIP code manually corrected and sent to the proper Passport Renewal Office, or be returned to you "Undeliverable As Addressed". I don't know the time frame that this will all take, but with Priority Mail, the item shouldn't be sitting in a processing center for a week. You can call 1-800-ASK-USPS for possible assistance.
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I believe the service standard for a letter from Burbank to LA is 1 day. It is not a guarantee but most letters probably meet that standard.
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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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