Mailman (City Letter Carrier)

Mailman (City Letter Carrier)

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.

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1236 Questions

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Last Answer on February 18, 2022

Best Rated

I asked the question 4 days ago about having tickets delivered to my neighbors. If I approached my mailman about helping me would he be offended? How often are you approached by people asking you for favors, etc?

Asked by mandm over 10 years ago

I remember your question about having tickets delivered to your neighbors and asking if you could ask the mailman to deliver them your house or some type of favor. I am rarely asked for any type of favor like that and I think if I heard a request like yours that may sound a bit fishy I would decline to get involved. It's not worth risking any type of job discipline to help a customer. I don't know that if you approached a mailman they would be offended. I just hope they would have enough common sense to decline to assist you. Also, we don't deliver the route each day so even if one carrier agreed to assist you there is no way of knowing that when they are off from work the replacement carrier would smart to not get involved with any favors. If what you are doing is unethical or shady I would not get the USPS involved.

Around what time does the shipping start and when does the routing end in Sundays?

Asked by Angel over 10 years ago

It probably depends on where you live and if there is package delivery on Sunday. I think you are asking me what time the package deliveries start and finish on a Sunday. It has been many years since I've done any type of delivery on Sunday, but in the office where I work on Long Island (NY), 2-3 City Carrier Assistants (CCAs) work from apprx 9AM-3PM delivering packages that arrive from Amazon.com. Again, these are just estimates since I don't have experience with this. Thank you for writing.

If i was to put my mail in the collectors box and lets just say i needed it back cause whatever reason. And the envolope has my name on it, could i have it returned if i go to the mailmen when he is collecting the mail and show valid U.S. form of i.d

Asked by Joseph about 10 years ago

Regarding your question Joseph, I don't known what the official rule is on this. If I were the letter carrier who was collecting the mail from the blue collection box and you approached me with appropriate ID and the letter was easy to find, I'd return it to you. I can imagine some other carriers not being as accommodating to your request either because they don't want to help you or because we may not technically be allowed to. It's also not always so easy to find the person collecting the mail unless you are watching the mailbox for awhile because letter carrier doesn't always come at the time printed on the collection box schedule label. The time printed on the label is the earliest time of the collection but it could be hours before the mail is actually collected.

I live in Midtown West, in an apartment building with 10 units. When I first moved in, I received mail, but about one month later, my mail delivery stopped. When I've called to PO, mail delivery resumes for a few weeks but then stops. Help!

Asked by Rob F. about 10 years ago

Rob F., the main customer service rep phone # for the USPS is 800-275-8777. Please advise them that you are having a delivery issue at your apt. building. They will likely just forward the comment/complaint to your delivery PO and I'm not sure what will happen from there. I'd hope that you would either see the mail service resume or get an explanation as to why the mail delivery has stopped to your unit when you are residing there. Is there any construction going on at your building that would restrict access to the mailboxes which I presume are located in the entry vestibule area of the apt. building. You could also leave a note in your mailbox explaining that you reside in the building in a specific apt. and you should be receiving mail. I don't know why mail delivery would be suspended form your building or just you with no clear explanation.

How long does a postal carrier have to deliver bulk mail?We mail a time sensitive local newspaper. It is taking 10 days before being delivered.there is no direct answer from local postmaster or carrier. How many days to deliver bulk mail?

Asked by Georgia over 10 years ago

I don't know the answer to this question. In the PO where I work, the supervisors manage when bulk mail is distributed for delivery and we will deliver it on that day unless there is some extenuating circumstance why we can't. I notice that most bulk mail that comes to our PO is usually delivered within 3-4 days, often earlier. 10 days seems like an awfully long time for bulk mail to be sitting around no matter the time sensitivity or not. When your mailing is given to a BMEU (Bulk Mail Entry Unit), do they have any straight answer either? I agree that this is poor service if you can't get any range of time or reason why it's taking so long to be delivered. I do acknowledge that bulk mailings do get put to the bottom of the list as far as priority of which class of mail to deliver, but there isn't a huge amount of First-Class Mail and Periodical mail to go through that a bulk mailing should take so long. I'm just speaking from the perspective of where I work and can't really comment on the operations of another post office.

What would a mailman do if the owner of the parcel isn't at home.

Asked by Jasmine about 10 years ago

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.)

I have been having problems with my postman for a year. He has peppered my dogs and I have complained numerous times what do i do now? Also he has put a fake notice to "tether my dogs." It has no official seal and the envelope is a blank oneisitreal?

Asked by Alex over 10 years ago

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.