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 person in my neighborhood is not getting her mail because the carrier is afraid of the dog INSIDE her house. She leaves her front door open, but has a sturdy storm door. She called the local manager, who said that it is always up to carriers. True?

Asked by Cathy about 9 years ago

Cathy, in my opinion that is a tricky situation. I think it technically can be up to the carrier to decide whether or not they feel safe delivering mail to the house with the dog or not. On the flip side, I encounter that situation a couple of times per day and don't think twice about delivering to houses where I know the storm door is latched and strong enough to contain the dog. This is coming from a carrier (me) who isn't too comfortable with dogs overall and have never owned one. It is a very rare situation (almost zero) that I've refused to deliver mail to a house with a dog inside the front door. If the door looks a bit ajar I might put my foot by the front door while delivering the mail. I'm not sure any of this helps. I think the basic mantra is if we don't feel comfortable delivering to a house we don't have to. It seems a bit too gray though because someone could take that to an extreme. I feel it's always easier to deliver the mail then to have to bring it back and then attempt 2x the amount on the next delivery day.

587 Votes

what does a mailman wear
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Asked by cameron over 9 years ago

Most letter carriers wear a USPS-funded and approved uniforms. After a few months of employment, we are given an annual allowance to buy uniforms which includes outerwear, footwear, and other accessories. If you are a rural carrier or a newer carrier, you may wear your own clothes. If you did a web search for USPS City Letter Carrier uniforms and clicked on "images", it should give you a good idea of what a uniform looks like.

587 Votes

I'm a nighborhood with mail box clusters how do you know what slot to put the mail on

Asked by Mark over 10 years ago

If a neighborhood has cluster boxes, it's usually a group of 6-30 addresses per cluster box. I actually made up that number. Where I deliver to cluster boxes, they range from 4-16 addresses per cluster box. As the letter carrier, I have a key which opens up the cluster box fully and then i can sort all of the mail for those addresses at one time. The boxes are usually well labeled inside (with the cluster panel open) to know where to put the mail. It's important for the letter carrier to know whether to put the mail either above or below the address if the slots are stacked vertically. I have seen my fellow letter carriers, and I'm sure myself make errors in deliveries to cluster boxes. I also live in an apartment building where mail is delivered into cluster boxes near the elevators. It can get more tedious than walking from door to door delivering mail but it is more efficient to deliver mail to cluster box units.

586 Votes

If the post office is close, does that mean the mailman stops running?

Asked by Aracely over 10 years ago

Generally that would be correct. If the PO is closed due to poor weather conditions it would usually mean our whole retail and delivery operations have been suspended. I don't know if there are still processing operations going on at the mail plants. It isn't too common for us to suspend delivery for an entire day, but in blizzards or states of emergency, it could be necessary for us to do so.

586 Votes

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I recently put mail in the drop off thing at the post office at 3:45 . When will the mailman get it out to take it to its designated spot . It's in the same city where it's going to

Asked by Toree over 10 years ago

If you dropped the letter at the PO at 3:45 PM, there is an excellent chance that the letter would be collected out of the box the same day (assuming it was M-F) and then sent to a local mail processing facility to be sorted and then sent to its destination. This usually takes two days if it's in the same city to get from the origin to destination. It used to be a one-day delivery standard but I think many places now operate on a two-day standard for First-Class mail in the same city.

584 Votes

I'm going to be out of the country for 3 months this summer and worried about my mailbox becoming too full. If I remember correctly you can only hold mail for 30 days, what should I do to ensure my mail doesn't get returned to the senders? Thanks.

Asked by World Traveler over 10 years ago

Hello World Traveler. You're correct that mail can only be held at the PO for 30 days. I have 3 suggestions for you and hope one can be suitable for you.

1) if you have a neighbor or someone you trust you could have them take your mail and hold it for 3 mos. and you can pick it up when you get home.

2) you could rent a PO Box and have the mail temporarily forwarded to the PO Box. I don't think this idea will work because your mailbox would fill up quickly and it's possible any overflow mail would be returned to the sender. I'm not sure of the procedure for when a leased PO Box gets full.

3) If there is a friend or relative who is willing to accept your mail, you could have your mail temporarily forwarded to their address.

I can't think of any other solutions offhand . You could ask your local PO if they'd be willing to hold the mail for 3 months but I've never seen that done before and technically it's isn't permitted. I think they'd just quote the 30-day maximum rule for holding mail.

584 Votes

How long do you get to learn a new route, before you're expected to be "effeciant "?

Asked by Ray over 10 years ago

I don't know officially how long you have to learn a new route before you're expected to be efficient. I would estimate up to about 3 weeks before you get to know it real well. Some people excel and catch on at a quicker pace then others. As far as I know there is no official amount of time before you are expected to learn a route. On the route I currently deliver I was the floater for that route before I got to do it full-time. What that means is that I filled in for the regular carrier on their day off or when they were on vacation or sick. In my case I knew the route quite well when I was awarded it full time upon the retirement of the previous letter carrier on that assignment.

584 Votes

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