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.
If a certified letter is mailed and goes unclaimed and is returned to the sender, I don't believe it proves much except that the sender tried contacting a certain recipient. The addressee may or may not live where you sent the certified mail. They might choose not to be available when delivery is attempted and then not claim the letter later on. I believe the letter is returned to the sender 15 days after the initial delivery attempt. Regarding the second question, if a letter carrier is conscientious and knows the names that belong to a certain address, they might only deliver those names. If I'm not sure a name matches an address, I often leave the letter at the address on the envelope and write a question mark next to the name to indicate I'm not sure this letter belongs to that address. I think this is the logical procedure but don't know what the official procedure is, if any. Thanks for writing.
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.
Albert, your message posted 2x so I will answer it once and then copy and paste it. I currently work 7 hours a day as I am on a limited schedule for personal reasons. A regular city letter carrier can expect to work 8 hours per day (plus 30 min. unpaid lunch), 5 days per week. The 5 days may not be consecutive since mail is delivered 6 days per week. As a new hire, you will likely be a CCA (city carrier assistant) who has a very varied schedule and I'm not sure they are guaranteed any hours. I believe starting pay is about $16/hour for a CCA, with very few benefits, if any. Once you are promoted to a regular city carrier, the salary increasea to about $23/hour and tops out at about $28.50/hr after a certain amt. of years. These salaries are set in accordance with a labor agreement between the USPS and the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), which is our union. You also get benefits once you become a regular city letter carrier as opposed to a CCA. If you visit the website www.nalc.org they have pay charts listed or you can probably just do a google search or look on www.glassdoor.com. Good luck in what is a pretty good career in my opinion.
You may want to give it some time if it is a recent occurrence. If the sender put the correct ZIP code on the package, but the USPS delivered it incorrectly, it may wind up being delivered to you. If there was an incorrecr ZIP code on the package and the USPS can't find the proper address, the package could be returned to the sender. It is hard to say what will actually happen to your package that was ordered or what the USPS response will be, if any.
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Missy, I believe that the information you are getting online is correct with regards to the question about the letter being picked up. It means either the addressee went to the PO to pick up the letter you sent them or they signed the PS 3849 (notice of attempted delivery) and the letter carrier then re-delivered the letter on the next delivery day. Either way, it means that the intended recipient received the letter you sent.
I am not sure what can be done re: the mail that has been thrown in the garbage. How do you know it was misdelivered and thrown away by your neighbor? If you are sure it has been misdelivered, you may want to call a delivery supervisor at your local post office to report it. They could then ask the letter carrier about it and make him/her more aware of their delivery quality in the future. As for the missing mail, I don't know of any recourse. Thank you for your inquiry.
I don't know the answer to that question. I didn't know that the USPS tracking says that a package is going to be delivered today. I have actually heard that when a package gets to the destination Post Office and is scanned "arrived at unit", maybe it's soon thereafter that it also says "out for delivery". It's possible that another letter carrier may deliver the package as part of a parcel post route or somebody just delivering a few packages. It depends how large the office is and their staffing levels if you will get that second delivery. Hearing that you are saying the tracking says your package will be delivered today I hope it was.
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