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.
There is no need for you to be hypothetical in your question. I'm sure care packages are mailed to famous people all the time. Sometimes they give out their address of their personal representative or agent to maintain privacy of where they actually reside. It does seem strange or incorrect for a package to be out for delivery and no status update for three days. I'd normally say that if a package is out for delivery there should be some follow up status the same day (i.e. Delivered or Attempted). While I can't say for sure what happened to your package, hopefully it was delivered but the letter carrier forgot to scan it accordingly. This would be a mistake on our part. Thank you for your inquiry.
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Sa-mind, I do understand your concern about driving the LLV as well as your co-workers and supervisors. I have experienced the latter myself. As to whether or not you should give it a shot, I'd say absolutely try it. It isn't the easiest of jobs and there are some tough personalities you may have to deal with. After all of my years at the USPS, I am still trying to learn that myself. Fortunately, as a letter carrier, much of the day is spent on your own delivering mail. Regarding not knowing the area they are putting you in, the management should give you a map and delivery instructions for the area. It also helps if you have a smartphone with a mapping like Google Maps or Waze. There were several occasions where I thought about quitting the USPS, but I was fortunate to have family members who thought much more logically than myself and advised against it. Starting as a CCA may not be so great due to lower wages and minimal benefits, but once you become a regular letter carrier, it is a solid job with benefits and a pretty good union. Nothing is perfect, but when I see people working in retail and grocery stores or the local convenience store, I doubt they are making $50K per year with paid vacation, paid sick days, a 401(k), decent health insurance and a retirement plan..or at least not all of this. I don't know what type of work you do now, but consider the pros and cons of leaving it with the benefits of working for the USPS, and try not to let mean people get to you. As the saying goes: mean people suck! I wish you the best and hope you at least try the job.
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Clint, Thank you for 4 interesting questions.
1) I think that being a letter carrier is fine for all types of personalities. There is no requirement to talk to the customers as far as I know. I happen to be somewhat social and enjoy the interaction with my co-workers and customers, but some of my co-workers are very quiet, just come to work, deliver the mail, and don't say too much. I prefer them much more to people who don't know when to be quiet or talk entirely about themselves constantly.
2) Not really. The cold/wet weather doesn't bother some people, but I don't particularly like or get used to working in it. My advice is to learn to dress properly. That is VERY important because being wet and/or cold for hours is not somthing I get used to. The biggest problem I have dealing with is my hands being cold. The rest of your body you can cover up sufficiently in almost any weather. It is difficult for me to "finger the mail" if I'm wearing warm gloves on my hand, but I make do somehow and the climate I work in isn't known for lots of severe and cold weather, though it happens for sure.
3) Yes, but of course it depends on the type of job, pay, benefits, etc. The list of jobs I would take is probably much shorter than the ones I wouldn't take. For example, I wouldn't ever want to work in Food Service or Custodial Services.
4) No, I won't say that it is my dream job, but I'm glad that I wound up as a letter carrier and hope to be able to comfortably retire after working the required number of years. I've had some internal and external issues during my career (I won't get into details online), but in the long run it has been definitely a job I'm glad I chose. My father encouraged me to get into this career and I am glad he did seeing how secure it has been.
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I deleted your first question because it was similar to this question. I'm sorry Jen, but I don't have any information as to how soon the carrier academy and training begins after the 2-day CCA orientation though I imagine it would be quite soon. I wish you well with your pursuit of this job as a letter carrier. Be safe.
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Bracketologist
Where do you think the Selection Committee needs the most improvement?
Veterinarian
Who are the bigger hypochondriacs: dog owners or cat owners?
Bartender
How often would you date customers?
I am not sure what will happen re :your license being suspended and being offered a CCA Position. How long do you think it will be before you get your license back? I don't believe it is legal to have you driving a USPS vehicle with a suspended driver license.
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I don't know the procedure and "track record" of how many days a week that a CCA will work. I think that it differs for each office and sometimes on the time of year re: weather and how much vacation/sick coverage is needed. When I was a PTF (which was before CCA position existed), it varied from day to day. Some days I would start the same time as other letter carriers (apprx 0730 AM) and others I would start work at 1030 AM to deliver parts of routes that needed coverage. If someone called in sick on a day that I was scheduled to start at 1030AM, I may get a call early in the AM to come in to work earlier. Also, if you are not scheduled to work on a particular day, once you leave work on the previous day, I don't think there is any requirement to be available until your next scheduled day/time to work. Of course, if you are interested in the extra hours/$$ that would come in with coming in to work based on a phone call, then I would make yourself available and go to work when called.
Regarding your 3rd question, if I didn't currently have a job with benefits or vacation pay, etc. I would definitely start a career as a CCA. The reason is that you potentially could become a USPS career employee which has MANY benefits that have helped me enormously through the years. I'm not exaggerating one bit when I say this. Also, having a union to support me through difficult times has also been helpful. I don't honestly know what the long-term future of the USPS is because of technology and how little younger people use the USPS, but I think it will be healthy for the forseeable future to start a career in it.
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I'm not sure what you mean by close a mailbox, whether if the door/lid is ajar or you mean permanently close it and return mail to the sender. I do know if a mailbox is full and the mail isn't claimed after awhile (not sure of the time frame), the letter carrier does have the option to return "overflow" mail to the senders with the endorsement on it saying "box full". Another option is that the mail can be put into a "hold" area in the post office with a note on top saying "box full" and waiting to see if the mailbox is emptied and then would deliver the mail being held at the post office. I don't know if one procedure is correct and the other isn't. I haven't experienced it much (if at all) during my career.
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