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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Last Answer on February 18, 2022

Best Rated

I would come home to an empty mailbox after work. How could I find out if mail was delivered to my house to my house the day before since I work dawn to dusk? I suspect high school kids stealing my mail when I am not home.

Asked by samantha about 10 years ago

Samantha, I don't know how you would find out whether or not mail was delivered to your house on a particular day. There are days when people receive zero mail. Is there any mail that you are expecting but don't get? Have you heard of anybody else with the same issue? It is illegal to take mail from mailbox that doesn't belong to you so I would hope the HS kids wouldn't take that chance, but I realize it does happen sometimes. Another option would be to rent a PO Box where your mail is secure. It is, however, an added expense and may not be overly convenient. While I can't comment on your personal situation, I don't think theft of mail is terribly common. I have been accused in the past of living in a fantasy world.

571 Votes

How much snow is too much in front of the mailbox? I live on a busy street and don't want to get hit by a car shoveling 6" of hard snow. I haven't received mail in two weeks! Is my mail carrier just too lazy to get out of the truck? What should I do?

Asked by Aly about 10 years ago

Aly, I don't have a definite answer for you. If the letter carrier can't approach your mailbox without having to get out of their vehicle I don't believe they are obligated to get out of their truck to deliver the mail. You may look at it as being lazy, but picture that scenario several hundred times in a day if each of their delivery mailboxes were in the same situation. This would take a much longer time for the carrier to complete their route. While your mail isn't being delivered I wonder if the letter carrier is taking the accumulated mail each day just if case your mailbox is approachable. If not, it is likely being held at your local post office. While I can appreciate the safety concern about you not wanting to risk getting hit by a vehicle I'm not sure what the solution is. I'm not sure if the delivery vehicles in your town are the same LLVs (long life vehicle) that I use for mail delivery, but if they are I can tell you that are very poor handling any snow or icy conditions. It's possible your letter carrier doesn't want to risk getting their delivery vehicle stuck in the snow, especially on a busy road. Winter can be a very frustrating time to be a letter carrier given some of the poor equipment we are given relative to the road conditions.

570 Votes

We have been on vacation for 2 weeks and forgot to put a hold on our mail. We live in an apt, so our mail slot is fairly small. We came back and found that our mail slot was full and some of our mail was left in the junk cubby underneath. Is that ok?

Asked by Jonathan Rossen over 10 years ago

I am not really sure of the procedure that your letter carrier is supposed to follow if your specific mail slot becomes full. I understand that they probably didn't want to bring it back to the PO where it can be held usually up to 30 days before being sent back to the senders due to a full mailbox. The carrier probably felt that it was a safe environment to leave it in the junk cubby even though that area was possibly accessible to anybody. I hope that no mail was missing that you can tell. You made no mention of that so I presume you think it was all there. Technically the letter carrier should have been on the safe side and brought the mail back to the PO since you live in a multi-unit building, but I often have the "no harm, no foul" attitude meaning it's no big deal as long as nothing looks as if it was tampered with. I know that others will disagree with me on this comment. It is similar with packages to be delivered. In the area I work in, it seems to be a very safe suburban environment so parcels are left when nobody is home as long as there is no signature required. In other areas where mail/package theft may be an issue the USPS may require somebody at an address in order to release a package.

570 Votes

If the mail already came, and USPS tracking say's my package will be delivered today, will another Mailman be coming to drop off my package or no?

Asked by johnny over 10 years ago

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.

569 Votes

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Hi. As a flight attendant I travel a lot for work & I put my mail on hold while I'm gone (5-6 days at a time,3 times a mnth). I know there are no limits to how many times you can put your mail on hold, but is this ok? Don't know what else to do. Thnx

Asked by jx over 10 years ago

JX, what an exciting career you have. I happen to have a lovely girlfriend who is also an FA, so I can relate to you being gone for several days at a time. It is fine to put your mail on hold as frequently as you do. You probably have read online or on the card you fill out (if you request your mail to be held on a paper "Authorization to Hold Mail" Card) that there is a minimum of 3 days and a maximum of 30 days to hold your mail per request. From what you've described you are following those parameters. The only other suggestion would be to rent a PO Box if you don't want to keep putting the mail on hold. It does cost money to rent a PO Box, but there is a high level of convenience knowing that your mail is secure no matter how long you are away and you don't have to fill out a hold mail request each time you travel. Furthermore, many PO have extended hours as to when the lobby is accessible for PO Box Customers can retrieve their mail. Thank you for writing and safe travels!

565 Votes

I'm moving to a new city, to a new home which has a mailbox. Ive previously always had a PO BOX. My question is, Do i need to contact the post office that ill be moving in and getting mail there, or just have my mail transferred and it should arrive

Asked by Matthew over 10 years ago

Matthew, the mail being transfered from your old PO Box to your new address should just be delivered when it arrives with your new address on the envelope. It wouldn't hurt to contact the new PO to where you are moving, but isn't necessary. Whenever I see a new name at an address that I'm not familiar with, I will almost always just deliver it and if it happens to be in error, the current resident will often leave that mail out for me with a note saying "person doesn't live here". In your case it sounds like you are moving into a place that is going to be vacated by someone else. When that happens, I'm usually expecting a new name at that address so I will just deliver the mail with the new names without any advance notification of the new resident. I hope this helps. Good luck in your new home.

558 Votes

Had a package to be delivered it was shupped on 2/10/2015 with no update on usps side since EMS site says sent to jf. No other. Updates is this normal. No sign of customs scan at all .

Asked by Jarvis christian almost 10 years ago

The USPS help/customer service phone is: 1-800-275-8777. I don't know how helpful they will be since they generally have access to the same info you do with regards to mail tracking. I am not sure if you are the shipper or the recipient. Regardless, it sounds like it has been a long time since there have been any updates. I assume by JF you meant JFK. I guess the only advice is to wait for the item to appear somewhere. After that, I'm not sure what can be done.

486 Votes

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