Mailman (City Letter Carrier)

Mailman (City Letter Carrier)

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.

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Last Answer on February 18, 2022

Best Rated

A friend of mine put an envelope with money in it intended for me. It was money for a charity...it may have just said 'popcorn money' on it. I don't think my name was on it. I think the mailman took it. Any way I can find out where it went?

Asked by Zon4Ever over 11 years ago

Probably not. If it was a blank envelope or had very little written on it, the letter carrier possibly took it without looking and it was mixed in with all of the other outgoing mail. From what you described there was likely no name or address on it either. Ultimately it may wind up in the "nixie" office which is for undeliverable items. I don't know where that is or what happens to it afterwards. If you were to contact this office (which I don't even know how you would), I don't think they would have the resources or time to look for the envelope in question.

If DOG is barking in fenced in front yard, should the mail carrier still enter when sign on gate warns of the dog?

Asked by herding hollywood almost 12 years ago

I know I have sort of answered this question already, but I will again. I would say that a letter carrier shouldn't enter a yard where a barking dog is visible and not on a leash and could physically come in contact with the letter carrier. If the owner isn't present to accept the mail, the carrier is best advised to bring the mail back to the post office and notify the supervisor why the mail couldn't be delivered. The USPS wants to reduce the number of dog bites because it is dangerous to the letter carrier and costly to the USPS because of any time off required and any medical treatment needed. Fortunately where I work I don't hear of too many dog/carrier incidents, but I do realize other areas may not be as safe. 

I got a ring on ebay the mail carrier delivered it to the wrong address i call my post office and thay will not do any thing about it. i cant get my money back. so i am out the ring and 172.00

Asked by Debbie over 11 years ago

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.

My mother had a bill to mail, everything was in the envelope and it was stamped. Some time after 6pm, I walked down to the blue collection box and mailed it. She didn't seal the envelope. Can I ask the carrier to open the box and find the envelope?

Asked by L.Williams over 11 years ago

You may certainly ask a carrier to open the collection box, but I don't know if they will. I don't even have keys to open one of those boxes so it's possible the carrier you ask won't have access to the collection box. If you are able to have a carrier open the box, if there is a lot of mail in there, I don't know that they will take the time to go through it to find the bill you are looking for. Bring ID with you in case they want to match up the unsealed mail with your address. As I said, I don't know what response you will get from the letter carrier, but was just giving you some possibilities. It is also possible that the bill will get to the destination unsealed and all will be fine.

how many hours a day do you work? How much is starting pay for 1 hour?

Thank you. I want to be a mailman and I am 18.

Asked by albert over 11 years ago

Albert, your message posted 2x so I will answer it once and then copy and paste it. I currently work 7 hours a day as I am on a limited schedule for personal reasons. A regular city letter carrier can expect to work 8 hours per day (plus 30 min. unpaid lunch), 5 days per week. The 5 days may not be consecutive since mail is delivered 6 days per week. As a new hire, you will likely be a CCA (city carrier assistant) who has a very varied schedule and I'm not sure they are guaranteed any hours. I believe starting pay is about $16/hour for a CCA, with very few benefits, if any. Once you are promoted to a regular city carrier,  the salary increasea to about $23/hour and tops out at about $28.50/hr after a certain amt. of years. These salaries are set in accordance with a labor agreement between the USPS and the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), which is our union. You also get benefits once you become a regular city letter carrier as opposed to a CCA. If you visit the website www.nalc.org they have pay charts listed or you can probably just do a google search or look on www.glassdoor.com. Good luck in what is a pretty good career in my opinion. 

Hello-
Just wondering about mailing UPS or FEDEX,and if they still stamp the city name on the envelope before it is sent out like the regular mail is done? In case you wanted to mail someone,but not wanting them to know what city it is coming from?

Asked by DwB44 over 11 years ago

I don't believe that UPS or FEDEX do any type of stamping on their envelopes or parcels like the USPS does when processing the mail. I do know that both companies have very good tracking services for each item so the recipient can tell what facilities the item went through before being delivered to them. When they receive what you sent to them, they can likely go online with the item tracking # and find out how the item traveled from you to them. Thanks for writing.

Hi there,

I just sent out my rent check to my landlord and realized everything was correct except I wrote 362 Box Street rather than 462 Box Street. Will it still be delivered? Or should I cancel the check and resend?

Asked by AmandaB over 11 years ago

Amanda, I can't say for sure what will happen with your rent check that was misaddressed. If the letter carrier delivers both of those addresses on Box St. and is familiar with the names on their route, they may deliver the letter to where it is intended (meaning it will get to your landlord). It's also possible that different letter carriers deliver to those 2 addresses and the letter carrier at 362 Box St. will just deliver it to 362 Box St. or return the check to the sender (you) as "Attempted, Not Known". I would recommend not canceling the check and waiting several days to see if the landlord received the check. Is there a way to contact the landlord and tell them what you did and it's possible they will ask you to resend the check or wait a few days to see if they receive it? I say this also to maybe save you money because putting a stop payment on a check often has a fee associated with it.