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.

SubscribeGet emails when new questions are answered. Ask Me Anything!Show Bio +

Share:

Ask me anything!

Submit Your Question

1237 Questions

Share:

Last Answer on February 18, 2022

Best Rated

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 almost 11 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.

Can a minor (17) pick up & sign for a package at the post office if it's addressed to them? Or is there a way to get the mailman to just leave the package without a signature? I'm tired of begging my parents to come sign & pick up for me. Thanks!

Asked by Ashley G over 11 years ago

I don't know the legal answer to this question at the post office. I think they may ask for identification but I'm not sure the you are required to be 18 years or older. As a letter carrier, I would deliver a package without a signature if the sender didn't request or pay for a signature and the item can be safely delivered to the addressee, which is simple for the route I deliver to because it it is all single family suburban residences.

Is there any location (i.e. the postoffice) that the mail gets picked up more than once???

Asked by Heather D almost 11 years ago

it depends on the community you live in. The blue collection boxes that you may see in your town are probably picked up 1-2 times per day. There is a sticker inside the box that has the collection times. At the actual post office, mail is often sent out more than once a day, but it really depends on the size and location of the post office. At the actual Post Office, there is usually a sign by the mail drop slot that tells the collection times or at least will tell you when the daily deadline is to have mail processed for that day.

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.

Is my mailman not returning the ads from a previous occupant to sender because he doesn't have to? I don't want to start a war over something he has no control over.

Asked by St KING about 11 years ago

I am not exactly sure what you mean by this but I'll give it a crack. I am also copying and pasting this answer as you seem to have asked the same question twice. With regards to advertising mail, or any mail, the letter carrier should only be delivering mail to your residence that has your name OR has another name plus "or current resident" on the address label. If it just has the previous occupants name and doesn't say "or current resident", you certainly have the option to leave it in the mailbox with a note on it saying "addressee doesn't live here. please return to sender". Depending on the class of mail there is a chance we don't actually return the ad to the sender, but we do discard it at the Post Office. It is called NOVM (No Obvious Value Mail). Mail that would fall in that category is in the class of Presorted Standard Mail. Most mail that is Presorted Standard and doesn't say "or current resident" and has a previous occupants name could be discarded into the NOVM at the PO. I don't know that I would call your letter carrier lazy, but maybe they aren't paying attention to the name on the mail. You absolutey have the right to put the ad back in the mail if you wish.

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.

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 almost 12 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"?