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.
Dustin, I appreciate your kind words and am surprised by the number of q's being asked about being a letter carrier. as to whether or not I am happy with my profession isn't an easy answer.i generally like it and get along with most of my co-workers (though you may only see the, 2+ hours per day in the office) and am fortunate to work in a fairly affluent and safe community. There are times where I doubt that I can do this an entire career and other timsay where I know this is one of the higher paid jobs (and stable) without having a skilled trade. I have been out sick for much of this year and hope to return to work soon. Not once during that time was I concerned about my job being in jeopardy. If I could roll back time, I am not sure what job I would do. Nothing pops into my head right now that I'd rather be doing for a similar wage. I enjoy the independence of delivering mail and not having much office drama. I also like some of my co-workers and occasionally socialize off work. I don't know that I have a least favorite part. The management can sometimes be irrational in their demands but I try to not let it bother me and do the best I can. I would recommend being a CCA as long as they knew the pros and cons of the job. Once you are a CCA, you may eventually become a regular letter carrier which provides higher pay, paid holidays, health insurance options, and sick/annual leave. As a CCA, I believe you get only a little (if any) of the above benefits. Thanks for your thorough question. Feel free to keep asking.
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Hello. I wish you well in your pursuit of a career with the USPS. I don't have any specific insight on how long it should take to get a reply after taking a drug screen, but 2.5 weeks doesn't seem like an overly long period of time to have elapsed so far without hearing a reply. I don't think the fact that the year is almost us has anything to do with the fact that you haven't heard a reply yet. At least I don't think that would have any great impact on the reply time.
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I believe that the tracking should be for the entire time that the package is in transport whether it is going to the recipient or back to the sender. I have rarely come across this situation, but if I saw a package being returned to the sender who lived on my route I would make sure to scan it on delivery back at the sender's house. But like everything that I comment on here, I use the word "should" because I come across many inconsistencies in when items are scanned. The management is fairly vocal in my office in making sure we scan all items with a tracking barcode (which is a good thing), but I lack confidence in the USPS as a whole in doing things correctly and consistently. Thanks for the question.
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I know this answer may be a little late, but I think the PO might just put it in the FEdEx box for you but I can't say for sure. We wouldn't just discard it. Did you try contacting the PO that services that mailbox?
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Depending on the destination and originating office, it is possible that overnight shipping may not be available. I don't think this has changed much except that the name of Express Mail is now called Priority Mail express. The overnight shipping option is still very much an available product.
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I think if you put the letter in the outgoing mail with the stamps looking perfectly in place and that they don't come off, there shouldn't be a problem. I don't know that I've ever seen what you are writing about.
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I would suggest that you can put that letter with pre-paid return postage in the outgoing mail. Technically I suppose you should put on a new stamp to send it from NY, but it's probably not necessary. mail processors generally don't look at each piece of mail to See if a metered letter was mailed from the correct zip.
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