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.
Kingston, I'm guessing that a couple of methods you have tried is to return any mail with her name on it with the marking "person doesn't live here" or "refused" on it. Another method is to ask your letter carrier to only deliver mail with your name and/or your husband's name on it. Since the ex-wife possibly had the same last name as your husband I can see some of that mail getting through. You could discard the mail but I don't think that will have any effect on stopping the mail since a letter carrier has no idea what is done with the mail once it is delivered. If you talk to a supervisor at the PO and tell them you don't want mail for that name, I'm not sure what their response will be, esp. when last names may be in common. I am sorry that I don't have any better information as this situation isn't one that I recall coming across. Most people just refuse delivery of that mail or probably discard it. Thanks for writing.
It isn't very difficult to drive our delivery vehicles with the steering wheel and pedals on the "wrong" side. The delivery vehicle which is commonly used it sometimes referred to as an LLV (Long Life Vehicle). The controls are the same as if you were driving from the normal side of a car (the left side if you are facing forward). If you are in an urban environment, there could be some safety issues each time you have to pull away from a curb and make sure nobody is coming on your side. There are mirrors which provide you with a field of view for safety. In a suburban/rural environment where the LLVs are used more frequently, safety is still a major concern so you must be very careful each time you move your LLV from one delivery spot to the next. Backing up is something that you should try to avoid as much as you can due to the limited visibility behind an LLV. I found it pretty easy to drive once I got used to it. The vehicles just don't handle too well in ice and snow. In dry weather and rain they are fine.
I would say that the letter carrier shouldn't enter the fenced in zone to deliver the mail if a dog is present. We often have service talks that are aimed at preventing dog bites. One point that is made is to not go into an area where a dog is loose. To be honest, though, many of us are comfortable around dogs and won't follow that rule all the time. If I encounter what looks like a dog that could cause me harm I avoid that house/area and bring any undelivered mail back to the post office. In my career I don't remember not being able to deliver mail due to a loose dog. The bottom line is that a carrier shouldn't put themselves in a situation where they are at risk for an unwanted encounter with a canine.
You're welcome David. It's my pleasure to try and assist where I can. It's just that I have so little confidence in the operation at times and how the management can resolve situations satisfactorily. I know it's not a good attitude, but if I worked for a company that focused on the customer and quality of work and one that treated its workers with greater respect, I'd give you a more optimistice answer. It's not that we are a horrible place by any means, but being a quasi-governmental orgnaization, I feel that it's just kind of "eh" at times. Some of us work hard and try our best, while others, it seems, work against the operation it seems. Fortunately it's more the former than the latter overall. Thanks again for writing and feel free to post your results on this Q and A site.
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More than likely the envelope with the irregular thickness item in it would make it through the mail system as long as the item didn't puncture through the paper envelope and possibly get lost. The letter sorting process is highly automated so the item in the envelope could get damaged as it goes through the letter sorting machinery. For this reason, I highly recommend using a small padded envelope to protect any fragile or valuable contents that need to be mailed. The cost to mail this is higher than that of a letter-sized envelope but well worth it.
I Dont know why they would ask for an email address. Is there any type of customs declaration form that is filled out when you mail papers to Canada? That form usually includes what is being sent. I don't know that it's obligatory to provide this information. Sometimes USPS will send out surveys or possibly email them to find out about your retail customer experience. If you call the USPS customer service phone number, maybe they could provide more insight. The phone number is 800-275-8777.
In my opinion it is fine to leave off the word "APT" at any time as long as you have indicated what the Suite, Apt, Unit, Lot # is along with the proper street address for the property. In your example "SUPT" is sufficient if that is a legitimate apt. designation. I live in an apt. building as well and for my address I usually just put the street address and then "1A" following it on the same line and never had an issue. I am glad you brought up this question because it is difficult and frustrating to try to deliver mail in a multi-unit building without the Unit # also in the address. A carrier who does the route on a regular basis will often memorize who lives in what unit, but a replacement carrier (which is very common) should not be expected to know who lives where and it is very time consuming to have to consult a building directory for the proper unit #.
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