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.
Jordan, first of all, thank you for writing in to this Q and A board. I don't know the rules as far as sending back mail because you haven't emptied your box for a week or two and your box is not full. If I were the letter carrier, I would just continue to deliver mail until the box is full and then probably return any future mail endorsed "box full" to the senders (or discard the mail if it is unendorsed Standard Class mail.) I don't recall ever coming across this situation in my postal career, but if it came about I'd probably ask my supervisor for direction. It is not in my nature to leave any notes (esp. threatening ones) for the most part.
I can't quote you the regulations, but as long as the box is accessible to the letter carrier without a hazard that is usually sufficient for attaching a box to your house.
If there is a forwarding request on file for a certain name at a certain address, it is possible that the letter would be automatically forwarded to the new addrEss. We have an automated system that does this. The problem is that it doesn't catch every forwardable letter. it is possible that the letter gets accidentally delivered to the old address. One option is to write the letter to the old address and write "please forward" somewhere on the envelope. That may alert the carrier that the letter needs to be forwarded.
In my experience it isn't too common for anyone to get terminated for anything. I mean people are given a letter of removal but the union often will appeal that and the carrier is reinstated. If it isn't the first time something happened that was the carrier's fault it may be more difficult to appeal successfully. If you are a CCA it is probably easier to fire you if you get in an at-fault accident. I don't recall any letter carriers at my office ever being terminated for an at-fault MVA. I can't speak for any of the other thousands of offices nationwide. Drive carefully, defensively and don't be distracted.
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I would generally say no, but it wouldn't hurt to try. In our office, I don't believe they usually allow this.
You can give a mailman any package that has the postage paid on it either via a computer printed label (such as Click 'N Ship) or a label where the recipient will pay the return postage. In the latter case, the label will clearly say "No Postage Necessary If Mailed Within The United States". Every letter carrier should accept the package no questions asked. The exception to this would be a city letter carrier who may not have a USPS vehicle which they are operating from and are unable to bring the package back to the Post Office. In that case I believe you can go to www.usps.com to schedule a package pickup. The mailman usually won't take a package back to a specific address until it is processed through our mail distribution system. Most of the time we just accept any package or mail along our delivery routes and bring back to the post office where we work from and it gets dispatched to a mail distribution center for processing. Thanks for writing.
Chris, the pleasure is mine to help out where I am able to. I am not sure what your comments mean regarding the Darwinian approach, except possibly that I was just stating the obvious to drive carefully. I am not familiar with what the USPS Manual says, but does that state several simulated scenarios to be passed? Good luck to you if you are trying to get hired as a letter carrier with the USPS.
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