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.
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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It does seem like a mis-scan from what you've described, especially given the time stamp of the "available for pickup" scan and the fact that it doesn't even make sense. You could report the lost piece to your local post office. I don't know the procedure as to what happens from there especially if the item was not insured. Another option is to call 1-800-275-8777 (USPS). Thanks for writing.
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Debbie, I m sorry to hear that the ring you ordered on eBay was misdelivered. I'm pretty sure there is nothing we can do regarding reimbursing customers for misdelivered unless there is some insurance purchased by the sender. Your story doesn't surprise me, however, since misdeliveries are made all the time. It's also unfortunate that whoever received the misdelivered package didn't return it to the PO since it didn't belong to them. That would have been the right thing to do. I am also guessing that in the situation you described, the sender won't reimburse your $$ because their records show that the ring was delivered.
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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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I drive an LLV each day. Our office has 3 types of vehicles. We have Ford Windstars, LLVs, and 2-ton Trucks (which are boxy cargo type looking trucks). The LLVs are the only ones with the steering wheel on the right hand side. I think most mailmen drive the LLVs (Long Life Vehicles), or whatever the newer version of it is called. Our PO doesn't have them yet so I don't know what they are called, but they are similar.
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Generally we will accept any letter as long as there is proper postage affixed to it. That letter would be dispatched to a regional mail processing center on the same day we accept it. A letter from Scranton, PA to Cleveland, OH would probably take 2-3 days to reach its destination. Earlier this year I think that our first-class mail delivery standards was slowed down by one day. A letter that would usually be delivered overnight now would take 2 days for delivery and so on. Thank you for your question.
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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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