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.
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!
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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.
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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.
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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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I don't know the accuracy of the website mailbox.com. I don't believe it is sanctioned by the USPS. Either way, if you dropped a letter in an official USPS collection box, you can rest assured the mail would be picked up and sent on its way. Where was the letter going to? It can sometimes take up to a week for a letter to reach its destination but 1-3 days is the norm if properly addressed and had sufficient postage. I recommend a bit more time and hopefully the letter will reach its destination.
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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.
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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.
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