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.
Hello David, it is unfortunate that your mailbox was broken by your mailman. I don't know the claims process for reimbursment for broken mailboxes. There must be a claim process in general for property damage caused by a USPS employee. I'd recommend contacting your local post office and speaking with a delivery supervisor and/or Postmaster to file a complaint. Hopefully they can point you in the right direction in the process of making such a claim. If not I would try and go up the chain of administration at the USPS which would be the district or area office which oversees your local post office. Good luck to you. Had you told the mailman in the past not to open the mailbox forefully or to not let it slam down. I come across broken mailboxes often. Most customers leave them damaged, but some will buy new ones or have them fixed. I've not heard of a mailman breaking one except running a curbside delivery box over with ther LLV (Long Life Vehicle). Thanks for writing and good luck in your claim. I hope it can be resolved to your satisfaction.
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I don't believe you would be hired without a driver license to be a letter carrier. It is great that you like to walk a lot which is very healthy, but many communities have mail delivery which uses a motor vehicle to go from house to house or at least uses a vehicle to get the letter carrier to their route. That vehicle is usually driven by the letter carrier themselves. In some urban environments (like some of NYC), there are "walk-out" routes where the letter carrier leaves the PO on foot with a mail satchel and/or cart and doesn't need to drive. The mail for parts of their routes are left by another carrier in a vehicle in what is called a "relay box". I dont know that this relieves the carrier from not having a driver license because when one is hired they need to be flexible in their work assignments which may include a route that has driving involved. My short answer to your question is no, but would need further research.
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To my knowledge rural letter carriers aren't required to wear a USPS uniform and I have never seen a RLC wearing one. There are 2 rural routes that are delivered from the office where I work and I've never seen them in anything except everyday clothes a regular manual worker would wear. Your question of why should a rural carrier wear a uniform is one I don't know. I didn't think a rural carrier could even purchase official USPS uniform items except maybe a baseball cap or other headwear. It's true that they don't get a uniform allowance like the city carriers receive. You could contact the NRLCA if you had a question I can't answer hear. They are the union that represents Rural Letter Carriers nationwide.
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It does seem like a mis-scan from what you've described, especially given the time stamp of the "available for pickup" scan and the fact that it doesn't even make sense. You could report the lost piece to your local post office. I don't know the procedure as to what happens from there especially if the item was not insured. Another option is to call 1-800-275-8777 (USPS). Thanks for writing.
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There is no regulation that I'm aware of that requires the collection box to be accessible 24/7. I know that in the town where I work some office buildings have collection slots in their lobby and I think an access card is required to enter the building during "off" hours. The mail collection slots serve the same purpose as the blue collection boxes meaning mail is picked up from those boxes/mail slots on a regular schedule.
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This is a bit of a tricky situation and I don't know the right answer. On one hand you have a street that you are allowed to park and some neighborhoods don't have enough available space to leave sufficient room for the postal vehicle to get to the mailbox without the letter carrier having to get out of his vehicle to affect delivery. On the other hand, if the letter carrier feels that the approach/departure to the curbside mailbox is unsafe or too small they don't have to get out to deliver the mail as far as I know. I don't know if there is a set amount of space to be left before and after a mailbox that needs to be left for the postman to deliver. Also, I always wondered what's to stop someone else for parking "too close" to your mailbox on a public street causing you to not get mail delivery. If you live in a public community (as opposed to a gated/private community for example), you have no more right to parking in front of your house than I do. That would be a situation beyond your control. I'm sorry that I don't have a better answer for you. Thanks for writing.
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Not to make light of your question, but I like your handle "Hungry For Bread". I don't know why the USPS (or more specifically an employee thereof) would take a bag that was obviously not outgoing mail. Technically, the mailbox isn't to be used as a place to leave and pick-up non-US Mail items. From my experience, however, I rarely hear of letter carriers taking non-US Mail items out of a mailbox unless they were circulars/ads placed in mailboxes without postage being paid. You could call the PO where your mother lived and ask them about the missing bag of bread and mail, but I doubt they would know anything about it or admit to it. How do you know that the PO took your stuff and not somebody else? Nobody else should be going into your mailbox to take anything. I am glad you wrote in, but I'd appreciate that you leave the implied profanity out of your question (referring to WTF) for any future inquiries. I don't feel it is appropriate for this message board but acknowledge it is used much more commonly these days than when I was younger.
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