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.
Linda, generally if a letter carrier sees a new name at an address he will deliver the mail without any notifcation from the new resident. This is especially true if the letter carrier knows that a previous owner or tenant has moved out. If you are moving in with someone, the letter carrier also should be delivering the mail anyway. Sometimes if I see a new name at an address and I'm not sure if it is correct I will put a question mark next to the name on the envelope and deliver the mail. If I don't get the mail returned with a message on it saying "person doesn't live here", then I will know that the new name at that address is valid. That being said, it wouldn't hurt to leave a notice by your mailbox or to tell the letter carrier that your name is valid at the new address. I don't think it is necessary, but I know I would never mind getting a personal confirmation of a new resident having moved in somewhere. Thanks so much for writing.
If you live on a college campus, they probably already have established a standard method of delivery to the dormitories. They probably don't deliver it to your room. It is likely that the dormitory has central delivery boxes in the lobby area or in a mailroom. Other campuses might have all the student mail come to a central mailroom or student center which has individual mailboxes for each student. You can contact the student life office or office of residential life for more information. Thank you for writing.
Congratulations on getting hired as a CCA. I understand what you are saying that your small office won't have any openings for a career position anytime soon. I don't know if there are offices in the nearby area where you could inquire as to whether they would have any older carriers retiring soon which would create more internal movement. I'm sorry but I have no knowledge about the process for converting from CCA to regular carrier, except a lot of patience. I wish you well in your new position.
I am not sure how you would get the full name of your postman. I read that he won't give you his last name. I have no idea whether or not he has any obligation to do so. I gladly would give it out, if asked. It is also on my ID badge that I wear. I feel that it should be available to the public, but I am sure you will find great disagreement among my colleagues. If you were to call the PO and ask them, I have a feeling they wouldn't give it to you either. Some people get very private about certain matters, yet they will join Facebook and broadcast a lot about their personal lives. That's about all of the insight I have on this subject. Thanks for writing.
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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.
Mischa, I deleted one of your questions because it came up as a duplicate on this website. When we return from our routes, we put all of the outgoing (collected) mail in a dispatch area usually divided into flat, letters, parcels, priority, metered, stamped, etc. With regards to the prepaid shipping labels which is usually called Parcel Select Return Service I put the item in a separate area and our dispatch clerk knows what to do with it. I don't know when it is scanned at our post office. I would suspect that the package would be scanned at least in 1-2 days. Some packages which are being sent back as a return are transported by a 3rd party company that picks up those packages at our post office. Other packages are transported by the USPS back to the company where the package is being returned. I know when I pick it up from a customer as an outgoing return package I do not scan the item at all. I hope this helps but please keep checking USPS.com to track your package for any scans.
Those are known as collection boxes and on the label which is usually inside the pull-down lid or outside the lid is a schedule of the pick-ups from the box. It is usually 1-2 times per day in the office where I work in suburban Long Island, NY. I've rarely seen it be more than that but in busier urban environments it could be more. Our app for iPhone has a "location" option where you can search for Blue Collection Boxes and the last collection time is posted.
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