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.
This is a bit of a tricky situation and I don't know the right answer. On one hand you have a street that you are allowed to park and some neighborhoods don't have enough available space to leave sufficient room for the postal vehicle to get to the mailbox without the letter carrier having to get out of his vehicle to affect delivery. On the other hand, if the letter carrier feels that the approach/departure to the curbside mailbox is unsafe or too small they don't have to get out to deliver the mail as far as I know. I don't know if there is a set amount of space to be left before and after a mailbox that needs to be left for the postman to deliver. Also, I always wondered what's to stop someone else for parking "too close" to your mailbox on a public street causing you to not get mail delivery. If you live in a public community (as opposed to a gated/private community for example), you have no more right to parking in front of your house than I do. That would be a situation beyond your control. I'm sorry that I don't have a better answer for you. Thanks for writing.
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It does seem like a mis-scan from what you've described, especially given the time stamp of the "available for pickup" scan and the fact that it doesn't even make sense. You could report the lost piece to your local post office. I don't know the procedure as to what happens from there especially if the item was not insured. Another option is to call 1-800-275-8777 (USPS). Thanks for writing.
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More than likely the envelope with the irregular thickness item in it would make it through the mail system as long as the item didn't puncture through the paper envelope and possibly get lost. The letter sorting process is highly automated so the item in the envelope could get damaged as it goes through the letter sorting machinery. For this reason, I highly recommend using a small padded envelope to protect any fragile or valuable contents that need to be mailed. The cost to mail this is higher than that of a letter-sized envelope but well worth it.
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I am not sure how the mail got delivered to your new address unless it was maybe in the same town and somehow the letter carriers coordinated internally to deliver it to the new address, though this is unlikely. Usually, you would need to fill out a change of address card (by mail or online) to have mail from a previous address sent to a new address.
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I don't believe you would be hired without a driver license to be a letter carrier. It is great that you like to walk a lot which is very healthy, but many communities have mail delivery which uses a motor vehicle to go from house to house or at least uses a vehicle to get the letter carrier to their route. That vehicle is usually driven by the letter carrier themselves. In some urban environments (like some of NYC), there are "walk-out" routes where the letter carrier leaves the PO on foot with a mail satchel and/or cart and doesn't need to drive. The mail for parts of their routes are left by another carrier in a vehicle in what is called a "relay box". I dont know that this relieves the carrier from not having a driver license because when one is hired they need to be flexible in their work assignments which may include a route that has driving involved. My short answer to your question is no, but would need further research.
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I'm glad you like this blog. It's my pleasure to help where I can and I have a great appreciation for those who do podcasts or other websites just for fun. Their time commitments are impressive given the work it takes to maintain a blog or a website. Since I have no experience with the CCA hiring process, I can't give you any hard facts about how long the process takes. Congratulations on getting an interview. There will likely be a drug test and medical exam if you haven't gone through that process already. I imagine it would only be 1-2 months after that to be notified if you will be hired. There are about 6 CCAs in the office where I work but there is a solid turnover among them. It's not the job for everyone. It's physically demanding, pay for CCAs isn't great ($16.50/hr Apprx) and you aren't always treated that well. I still recommend it if you get hired because long-term it has proven to be a great career for me. I wish you well and have a positive attitude.
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Yes, it should be fine to pay for postage on a holiday and bring it to a Post Office the next day. If you need to hand it to a window retail clerk, they would hopefully just accept it. At the worst, they might postmark the package to show which day the package was actually entered in to the mail stream. I think that is the same if you happened to pay for the postage on a Sunday but wouldn't actually mail the package until Monday. Thank you for using the USPS for mailing the package.
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