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.
I don't know if you will receive the package tonight. This time of year I'd say that most packages are delivered by 6PM, but each office probably has varying times due to mail volume and staffing levels. During the holiday season, we deliver some packages on Sunday as well. If you have a tracking number you can track the shipment at www.usps.com but I'm not sure how well it works with items that originated from another country.
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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.
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Andy, I am glad to write this blog of my experiences and advice as a letter carrier for the USPS. To answer your questions:1) I'd wear a suit if you have one, or ar least a shirt and tie with nice pants and shoes. Try to be clean cut, ambitious, professional and polite. I don't know how much appearance counts in a USPS interview, but it can't hurt to take the above advice. Be on time and respectful of the interviewer.
2) Becoming a regular from a CCA is usually just a matter of waiting until there is a vacancy in your office or station that remains unassigned to a regular carrier. Then it may take a month or two to become a regular carrier. The time that it takes for a CCA to become a regular carrier depends on the staffing and turnover where you are assigned to work. I can only speak for my PO, but I've seen it take as little as one year and as much as 8 years (that is when we had PTFs (part time flexibles, a precursor to CCAs) to become a regular employee.
3) When you become a regular employee, the hours get much more stable and predictable. You generally work 5 8-hour days per week with set hours. As a CCA, you pretty much work when they want you and for as long as needed per day. There aren't many rights for a CCA with regards to hours except if they are "holding down" a regular assignment for a rte that is temporarily vacant due to illness or vacation. As a regular employee, you can refuse OT if there is enough staffing to cover all of the assignments in a day. The management can mandate carriers to work OT if they are short handed and those who want to work OT already will be working some amt of OT. The rules for this are a little complex so I won't go into it here.
Thanks for your questions and good luck Andy.
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I don't know I what you can do to save your job. Does the NALC represent CCAs? I am not sure. If you dismounted yoUR mail truck without turning off the engine, that is often grounds for dismissal. It does seem a bit harsh but I know the USPS is very strict on safety sometimes!
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I don't know why the routing would keep going back and forth unless it was considered "undeliverable as addressed". I know that those are likely all sorting facilities for packages near or at airports. I'm sorry that I'd have no further information on the package. Possibly the ZIP code on the package isn't correct so the item keeps getting routed between facilities. I would recommend contacting the shipper and telling them what info you are able to get from the USPS website and see if they have maybe received it back marked invalid address. I'm not sure the shipper will have any information. Since the item originated in Jamaica, NY and is now back in Jamaica, NY, it has possibly been returned to the sender for some reason. Thanks for the inquiry.
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You can rest assured that those blue collection boxes are checked at least 1 time after the time on the label for the stated day. For example, if the label says Mon-Fri 3PM, you can rest assured that the box is emptied AFTER 3PM each day M-F but before the last truck has been dispatched from the local post office to a regional processing and distribution center M-F. (also known as a P&DC or "plant"). Inside each collection box is a bar code which is scanned by the collection box letter carrier. The scan records the time that the box was emptied and is recorded on a central internal computer system.
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I am sorry but I don't know anything about the rules for transferring that apply to CCAs. I would recommend visiting the www.nalc.org website which may have information or contacting a union representative at your local NALC branch or your shop steward. Good luck in your USPS career.
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