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.
Jasmine, it depends on a few factors such as: the history of the area with regards to packages being safely left unattended, whether the sender asked for a signature of the recipient, and if the the sender asked for the parcel to be delivered even if there is no response. For example, the town where I deliver mail is very safe with regards to theft so I'll leave almost every parcel whether or not there is someone home to receive it. In other towns/cities this may. It be the case and the letter carrier would then leave a PS Form 3849 advising the recipient that we attempted delivery of a package and nobody was there to receive it. The 3849 says that the recipient can either sign for re delivery or pickup the package at the Post Office. We deliver packages sent by Amazon.com and they want their packages delivered even when nobody is home (at least where I work in Long Island, NY.)
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Matt, I am not familar with any real details about where a mailbox has to be with regards to steps. I just know that the box needs to be accessible to the letter carrier. I have never heard anything about steps being an issue. You may call the post office to ask if there is any regulation about the placement of a mailbox or mail slot. If they give you an answer that seems like it is made up, you may ask to see where this regulation is in writing or ask for the number to the regional or area office that oversees your local post office. Without having any more information than what you provided me, I'd say that the request by the mailman is invalid, but I just want to reiterate that I'm no authority on all of the rules on this subject. Thank you for writing.
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I presume there are days when you receive no mail and therefore the letter carrier doesn't even stop at your house and wouldn't see your outgoing mail. If you had incoming mail, please make sure your outgoing mail is visible and then should be taken. On days where you have no incoming mail and no flag to alert the letter carrier that you have outgoing mail, I'm not sure how to let them know to stop and pickup your letters. I suggest making the mail visible from a distance (like possibly sticking out of the mailbox) so when they walk/drive by your house it can be spotted and picked up. To be honest though, some letter carriers may not even look at the mailbox if there is nothing to deliver to a certain address. I'm not saying this is correct, but I don't want to speak for fellow letter carriers who vary widely in their quality of work. Thank you for writing.
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I am not sure why a postman would be spraying/peppering dogs without actually feeling or being threatened by dogs. We are told to just skip any residence that has loose dogs and notify the supervisor upon return to the PO as to why you didn't deliver the mail. It isn't uncommon for a postman to leave a note for a patron to contain the dogs or "fix your mailbox", etc. We do have more official notices that we can use to ask residents to rectify a situation which is preventing mail delivery, but I'm not sure how frequently they are used. The management in our office isnt terribly communicative with us about this, but I can't tell you what it is like at other Post Offices.
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Lisa, I'm not sure who is delivering what to the apartment cluster mailbox, or NDCBU as it is sometimes called. Usually if the small package (regardless of whether or not it has tracking) can fit into the mailbox the regular letter carrier will be delivering it as well. When I deliver to an apt complex I bring all of the mail even if it is a larger parcel. In larger city environments, a parcel post route carrier may be delivering the larger parcels. I hope this helps answer your question and thanks for the inquiry.
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The correct title would be "City Letter Carrier" or "City Carrier Assistant". Most areas are now just hiring CCA (City Carrier Assistant). I don't know the procedure how each district, or performance clutster as they are (or were) called, decides when and how many CCAs to hire. Under the careers section of USPS.com, you can search for job openings in a certain geographic area and then choose "delivery/customer service". To apply for these positions, I think you have to set up an account with USPS.com. Another position that you could look up is "Rural Carrier Associate" or RCA. I hope this helps you.
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I don't know Ke. I once wore a pedometer to record my steps but have since forgotten the results. I know that my vehicle odometer to/from the PO plus delivering the route is about 9 miles per day. On part of my route I have dismount deliveries where you deliver a few houses at a time, return to the truck, move it forward to another set of houses and deliver those and so on. Other parts are "park and loop" deliveries which is where most of the walking occurs wearing a sometimes heavy mail satchel. I don't know about other routes, but I'm guessing I walk maybe 5 miles total. There are probably is a way to estimate by taking the number of deliveries I have and multiply by the distance I think there is between each house. Very rough estimate of 350 houses times 50 ft equals 3.31 miles. I hope this helps, but keep in mind that the route size, delivery method, and layout vary greatly.
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