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

How many times does a post man have to deliver a registerd letter to a person's address before he is to send it bck?

Asked by corinna almost 11 years ago

For a registered letter that needs a signature, the letter is usually brought out one time to try and get somebody to sign for having received it. If no authorized recipient is available, a notice is left (PS Form 3849) advising the addressee that the letter needs to be picked up at the PO, or they may sign the 3849 to authorize redelivery. If the letter isn't picked up in a few days, a reminder 3849 2nd notice is delivered with a date written on it telling the addressee that the item will be returned to the sender if it isn't picked up. The date is usually 15 days from the First Notice being left, but I'm not sure.  I hope this helps and I have deleted your previous question as I believe it is a duplicate. Thanks for writing. 

734 Votes

Hypothetically speaking of course.... Suppose we sent a care package to someone famous at their home address. The package says that it's out for delivery, but the status hasn't been updated for 3 days now. Any guesses?

Asked by mtmom over 10 years ago

There is no need for you to be hypothetical in your question. I'm sure care packages are mailed to famous people all the time. Sometimes they give out their address of their personal representative or agent to maintain privacy of where they actually reside. It does seem strange or incorrect for a package to be out for delivery and no status update for three days. I'd normally say that if a package is out for delivery there should be some follow up status the same day (i.e. Delivered or Attempted). While I can't say for sure what happened to your package, hopefully it was delivered but the letter carrier forgot to scan it accordingly. This would be a mistake on our part. Thank you for your inquiry.

733 Votes

For the Q above, if it's already been 6 days, do i still have a chance of retrieving it from them tomorrow? Or would they have thrown it away or returned it by now?

Asked by Sally over 11 years ago

I am not sure if they would still have it after 6 days. Generally, they wouldn't have thrown it out if the item was mailed a certain class and a return endorsement like "return service requested" but there is no way to know how it was mailed. Hopefully it will be returned to sender and if there is a way to contact the sender they could tell you when they received it back. It wouldn't hurt to go to the PO to see if it's there. Has there been any update to the tracking information besides "arrived at your local USPS facility"?

732 Votes

I am thinking about not even going to orientation because I am so nervous about the LLV driving test and downright mean coworkers and supervisors. Also, I am not familiar with the area they are putting me in. Do you think I should give it a shot?

Asked by Sa-mind over 10 years ago

Sa-mind, I do understand your concern about driving the LLV as well as your co-workers and supervisors. I have experienced the latter myself. As to whether or not you should give it a shot, I'd say absolutely try it. It isn't the easiest of jobs and there are some tough personalities you may have to deal with. After all of my years at the USPS, I am still trying to learn that myself. Fortunately, as a letter carrier, much of the day is spent on your own delivering mail. Regarding not knowing the area they are putting you in, the management should give you a map and delivery instructions for the area. It also helps if you have a smartphone with a mapping like Google Maps or Waze. There were several occasions where I thought about quitting the USPS, but I was fortunate to have family members who thought much more logically than myself and advised against it. Starting as a CCA may not be so great due to lower wages and minimal benefits, but once you become a regular letter carrier, it is a solid job with benefits and a pretty good union. Nothing is perfect, but when I see people working in retail and grocery stores or the local convenience store, I doubt they are making $50K per year with paid vacation, paid sick days, a 401(k), decent health insurance and a retirement plan..or at least not all of this. I don't know what type of work you do now, but consider the pros and cons of leaving it with the benefits of working for the USPS, and try not to let mean people get to you. As the saying goes: mean people suck! I wish you the best and hope you at least try the job.

731 Votes

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my husband insists that if a mail carrier is in a truck, they are not allowed to get out of the truck to deliver mail, so if they cant pull right up to the mailbox, they wont deliver the mail, is that true?

Asked by erica over 11 years ago

I don't know this answer for sure, but I do know if a carrier can't pull completely up to a mailbox to effect delivery, he can "flag" the box as non-approachable and bring the mail back to the PO and try again the next day. Most of the time if I couldn't completely get up to a mailbox, I would get out and deliver the mail so as to not have to deal with it the next day. If a mailbox was habitually blocked by a customer then I may suspend delivery to let them know that their box shouldn't be blocked. This has rarely happened in my experience. I'm pretty sure we are allowed to get out of the truck to deliver the mail. I've never been told otherwise.

731 Votes

Does a package sent in the mail sorted by hand i.e. an odd shaped package not able to be sorted by the sorting machine not recieve regular scans to update tracking? Also would this cause webtracking delivery estimate to display a later delivery date?

Asked by Vanagain over 11 years ago

I have no idea if the hand sorting of odd shaped packages would cause it to not receive the normal scans to update tracking. I would suspsect that as long as the package had a valid bar code which could be scanned along the way that it would be treated just as as other packages. I'm sorry I have no more specific information on the scans of odd shaped items.

731 Votes

Just got offer for cca position AND just found out my license is suspended, what can i do? been unemployed for a year and really need this position.

Asked by mary over 11 years ago

I am not sure what will happen re :your license being suspended and being offered a CCA Position. How long do you think it will be before you get your license back? I don't believe it is legal to have you driving a USPS vehicle with a suspended driver license.

730 Votes

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