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.
Yes, it should be fine to pay for postage on a holiday and bring it to a Post Office the next day. If you need to hand it to a window retail clerk, they would hopefully just accept it. At the worst, they might postmark the package to show which day the package was actually entered in to the mail stream. I think that is the same if you happened to pay for the postage on a Sunday but wouldn't actually mail the package until Monday. Thank you for using the USPS for mailing the package.
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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.
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This is a bit of a tricky situation and I don't know the right answer. On one hand you have a street that you are allowed to park and some neighborhoods don't have enough available space to leave sufficient room for the postal vehicle to get to the mailbox without the letter carrier having to get out of his vehicle to affect delivery. On the other hand, if the letter carrier feels that the approach/departure to the curbside mailbox is unsafe or too small they don't have to get out to deliver the mail as far as I know. I don't know if there is a set amount of space to be left before and after a mailbox that needs to be left for the postman to deliver. Also, I always wondered what's to stop someone else for parking "too close" to your mailbox on a public street causing you to not get mail delivery. If you live in a public community (as opposed to a gated/private community for example), you have no more right to parking in front of your house than I do. That would be a situation beyond your control. I'm sorry that I don't have a better answer for you. Thanks for writing.
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I don't believe you would be hired without a driver license to be a letter carrier. It is great that you like to walk a lot which is very healthy, but many communities have mail delivery which uses a motor vehicle to go from house to house or at least uses a vehicle to get the letter carrier to their route. That vehicle is usually driven by the letter carrier themselves. In some urban environments (like some of NYC), there are "walk-out" routes where the letter carrier leaves the PO on foot with a mail satchel and/or cart and doesn't need to drive. The mail for parts of their routes are left by another carrier in a vehicle in what is called a "relay box". I dont know that this relieves the carrier from not having a driver license because when one is hired they need to be flexible in their work assignments which may include a route that has driving involved. My short answer to your question is no, but would need further research.
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I'm glad you like this blog. It's my pleasure to help where I can and I have a great appreciation for those who do podcasts or other websites just for fun. Their time commitments are impressive given the work it takes to maintain a blog or a website. Since I have no experience with the CCA hiring process, I can't give you any hard facts about how long the process takes. Congratulations on getting an interview. There will likely be a drug test and medical exam if you haven't gone through that process already. I imagine it would only be 1-2 months after that to be notified if you will be hired. There are about 6 CCAs in the office where I work but there is a solid turnover among them. It's not the job for everyone. It's physically demanding, pay for CCAs isn't great ($16.50/hr Apprx) and you aren't always treated that well. I still recommend it if you get hired because long-term it has proven to be a great career for me. I wish you well and have a positive attitude.
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There is no regulation that I'm aware of that requires the collection box to be accessible 24/7. I know that in the town where I work some office buildings have collection slots in their lobby and I think an access card is required to enter the building during "off" hours. The mail collection slots serve the same purpose as the blue collection boxes meaning mail is picked up from those boxes/mail slots on a regular schedule.
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Sean, it depends on your letter carrier and their willingness to do this. I would do it if it's not too frequent a request and it was just a letter or large envelope, meaning it just needs a stamp or two. On my initiative, I keep some postage stamps in my wallet and will honor that request most of the time. To be honest it doesn't come up too often. If I notice an item has insufficient postage I may just affix one of my own stamps and send the item on its way. There is no requirement that we do any of this and I don't want customers to get in the habit of requesting this service. The reason I have this attitude is because there are easy ways to buy stamps in quantity. The USPS allows you to buy them online, or 24/7 at any PO that has a Sales and Service Kiosk. Supermarkets and Wholesale Clubs sell postage stamps as well. I know this doesn't answer your question, but so many communication and financial transactions are more easily done online that mailing letters is becoming much less significant.
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