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

I got a strange note from the mailman today that I have to put my name on our apt mailbox or it will be returned to sender. I had lots of instances that my mail has been misdirected with the correct address. My question is am I required to?

Asked by bert over 11 years ago

I don't know the answer to this officially. It would definitely be helpful to put your name on your mailbox, but if a letter were dressed accurately with the correct apt. #, I'm not sure why it would be returned to the sender. If I were delivering to an apt. complex, I wouldn't require this to be done. I live in an apt. building and do put my name on the mailbox, but I don't know that it is required.

We recently just moved to a corner house and one of my friends sent me a package with the street address where the house is in but our mailing address is the same house # but with the main ave next to it. Will it still come? Or will it get lost?

Asked by Sofia over 11 years ago

I don't know that I completely understand your question, but I'll give it a try. Most houses have an official mailing address which should often correspond with the physical location of the house. I can see if it is a corner house it may be a bit confusing. You may want to contact the PO to tell them that this may be happening, and, for further reference, please advise those who mail you items of your correct mailing address and clarify with your PO as to what address should be used. This is a very important subject matter to make sure items get to where they are intended to go, especially with a lot more automated processing of the mail and substitute letter carriers who may not be familiar with all of the names are on a certain route.

When I buy something on eBay, how do I know which post office it is deliver to?

Asked by Jah over 11 years ago

When you purchase an item on eBay, it is similar to purchasing any other product online. You advise the seller of the address to ship the item to. The shipper will then mail the item via USPS and it will end up going to the PO that serves the destination address. Most often that is the PO that matches the city in the destination address. 

Do you know people who work at the post office yet have a dream of doing their own business? Do some people work at the post office and work on their dream at night until they get a breakthrough in the area of the dreams?

Asked by JTDN almost 12 years ago

I am sure This happens a lot. While it is a very secure job to have, it's not what everyone wants as a career. Some of my co-workers have left for jobs with other govt agencies, to become police officers. I don't know of anyone who started a business once they got a breakthrough. But we are a huge company so it has likely happened. Not too many people resign after being on the job more than 5 years. 

Hey Dave! Just wanted to share because I've seen your page. I'm currently in central ny about to undergo my first day of carrier academy. I will be a Cca in a small city in upstate New York. I was wondering if you know as a Cca i would get lots hrs?

Asked by Ny cca over 10 years ago

Congratulations on getting hired as a CCA! I don't know how many hours you will get in your particular office as each office is unique. Usually, a CCA fills in for a regular carrier when they are out sick or on vacation to deliver their route. They are also given "pieces" or "splits" on routes when a regular carrier may not finish their route within 8 hours and they don't want to work overtime or when management doesn't authorize overtime for the regular city letter carrier. CCAs may also work on Sundays to deliver Amazon.com parcels. They don't do this in every office so I don't know if yours is included in that service. In the office I work at, the CCAs all get plenty of hours due to a bit of short staffing. I am not sure of the minimum hrs/shift or minimum hours/week that a CCA is guaranteed. If you go to www.nalc.org, or more specifically http://www.nalc.org/workplace-issues/city-delivery/cca-contractual-issues, they have details about being a CCA. It may be a bit technical, but it's a good reference. Good luck, be on time for work, and work safely. Try not to get involved with any office drama.

Hi I just got hired as a cca. I've been reading post on the Internet and have seeing that cca's are hired for 1yr then fired and rehired. Is this what I should expect or is this just hear say?

Asked by Kevin over 11 years ago

I don't know that to be the case where they hire and fire CCA after a year. I have never seen anybody hired for 1 yr then fired and rehired. As long as you are doing a respectable job, it's not likely you would be fired for an invalid reason.

Mailman says he doesn't have time to sort the world's mail, so he delivers ours to another suite everyday so he doesn't have to come to second floor. He parks in handicapped everyday. Supervisor doesn't care. What can we do?

Asked by In Need of Help over 10 years ago

I am not really sure about the policy of delivering to a multi-suite building, but here is the way I see it: If your mail is specifically addressed to your suite and you are a different business than the suite/tenant on the first floor, it should be delivered directly to you. The suite on the first floor shouldn't be getting your mail. I would consider your suite a separate delivery. Again, I don't know the rules but I would treat it like an apartment building where you wouldn't be delivering your mail to a neighbor or vice versa. We are given time to sort the mail in a multi-unit building if a suite has a separate address so I don't necessarily buy the excuse of not having time to sort the world's mail. With regards to the parking, that doesn't seem to appropriate either. I have parked in No Parking Fire Zones in front of buildings if I'll just be 5 minutes or less delivering the mail. I don't think I would park in a handicapped spot. Since the supervisor doesn't care, you could speak with the Postmaster or whoever is next up on the chain of command to see if they can assist at all. As I've posted in other comments, we have a real mixed bag of employees at the USPS so your responses could vary.