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.
For a registered letter that needs a signature, the letter is usually brought out one time to try and get somebody to sign for having received it. If no authorized recipient is available, a notice is left (PS Form 3849) advising the addressee that the letter needs to be picked up at the PO, or they may sign the 3849 to authorize redelivery. If the letter isn't picked up in a few days, a reminder 3849 2nd notice is delivered with a date written on it telling the addressee that the item will be returned to the sender if it isn't picked up. The date is usually 15 days from the First Notice being left, but I'm not sure. I hope this helps and I have deleted your previous question as I believe it is a duplicate. Thanks for writing.
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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 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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Sparky, again you're welcome regarding this forum. It can get a bit exhausting trying to keep up on the many questions asked, but I rarely get more than a couple per day. Furthermore, I volunteered to do this so I have nothing to complain about. On the route each day I carry a couple of pens, some scrap paper if I need to make some notes, water, my lunch, and sunglasses. I happen to have some stamps in my wallet and will give them to customers on occasion, but that's rare. Most of the time they have the envelopes ready to be mailed with the proper postage. I also don't want them to get in the habit of them thinking it's part of my job to have stamps with me, because it isn't. Fewer and fewer people are mailing letters these days and are paying their bills electronically. I don't see anything wrong with a CCA using a GPS on their smartphone to navigate to/from routes. The USPS should really be giving you a map with directions if you are unfamiliar with a route, but I am pretty sure our CCAs use their own GPS to get around the town. Since I do the same assignment each day and know it automatically I can listen to an ipod while delivering the route. I don't know if this is actually allowed but I think it should be. I only have one earbud in at any time. I think I'd get bored pretty quickly if I didn't listen to something (music/podcasts) while delivering the mail. The postal vehicle I drive doesn't have a working cigarette lighter outlet to charge up my PED so I am careful about not draining the battery during the day or I can carry a portable battery supply(but have never actually had to use 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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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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