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 buy and sell tickets for a living. If I had tickets shipped to several of my neighbors in random people's names would you be able to retrieve them for me if I gave you advance warning of their delivery or is that illegal?

Asked by mandm over 10 years ago

I am not sure of the legality of this, but I know I would never get involved in such a situation. I wouldn't get mail from one address and give the mail to another person especially if it had a random name. It all sounds too fishy to me. When I'm delivering the mail if I see a name that I'm familiar with but the address is not right I will sometimes deliver it to the correct address. An example that I see but am not comfortable with is one customer gets what looks like beer purchase rebate checks sent to his neighbor's house with a slightly altered last name. If I recognize this mail I will deliver to the person whose name is on the envelope. The customer has never approached me to do this and I would never have any apologies if the rebate check was delivered as addressed (to a neighbor) and disappeared. Again, it's something I would never want to be involved with because it sounds fishy and if I am not working I can't control what happens to an intentionallay misaddrressed or misnamed piece of mail. If you work something out with your neighbor that's another story which I don't need to know about. Thanks for writing.

I want to know if I have primary residence in one place and I realized that I need to send a piece of mail out but I'm out of town and I need to send this mail immediately. Can I put my primary address but be able to send it out in a different city?

Asked by daushund Iover almost 11 years ago

Certainly. You may mail a letter from anywhere to anywhere as long as you apply the proper postage. You also can put your primary residence as your return address even if you mail the letter out from a different address. 

What steps should I take if a postal carrier overlooked my mail

Asked by shakita over 10 years ago

Shakita, I'm not sure what you mean by the postal carrier overlooked the mail. Do you mean that they looked inside it when they shouldn't have? If you know this for sure, I'd call or visit your nearby PO and speak with a delivery supervisor. It would seem hard to prove though I don't know the details in your case. If you meant that the postal carrier overlooked an outgoing piece of mail and forgot to take it, I'd recommend making it very visible to them next time and if it becomes a problem, please leave a note saying "please take outgoing mail. Thank you". I hope I have answered your question whichever way you intended it.

What time do mailmen deliver mail in the summer ?

Asked by Jessie about 10 years ago

It depends on each Post Office and how soon their mail is sorted and the letter carriers can load their delivery vehicles and start delivery. At the PO where I work mail is delivered as early as 9:15 AM and as late as 6:30 PM. The evening time can be even later if we are short-staffed. I've heard stories about letter carriers at other offices delivering later than that due to staffing shortages. If I were to work a regular schedule and everything went according to plan, I'd be delivering between 09:40 AM and 3:30 PM.

My husband has the long weekend in May - during memorial weekend. It is our anniversary. We would like to have friday, Saturday, sunday and Monday (which rarely comes around). Can the postal mandate him to work if we already have hotels booked?

Asked by Sunny over 10 years ago

Sunny, I understand how great it would be for your husband to have 4 days in a row off from the USPS to celebrate your wedding anniversary. I don't know the size of the PO that he works in and if he is on the OT Desired List. Those two factors may not matter if the office is so short handed with staff that they need your husband to work Fri and/or Sat. I don't believe that the fact you have hotels booked would have any bearing as to if he gets off or not. I know where I work if you were to take the entire week prior to Memorial Day as a vacation week pick using AL (32 hours in this case), you couldn't be mandated to work. There is a certain "pecking order" as to if your husband is mandated to work or not. I don't know all the rules and any attempt to explain it here would likely contain errors. These rules may be in the National Agreement between the NALC and the USPS. I hope it works out for you two regarding the anniversary weekend.

can you wear used post office shirts legally if you buy it in a thrift store?

Asked by klumac over 10 years ago

I didn't know that regulation approved USPS uniform shirts were available in thrift stores. I don't know the rules on whether or not they are allowed to be worn by non-USPS personnel.

to continue on the signature confirmations, its a hassle to have to deliver the package after the customer signs the 3849, sign in person or not sign in person is the question, now we have key in the 3849 on certifieds

Asked by jrv over 10 years ago

You should be able to scan the 3849 if you choose the attempted function. At least this is how it works on the older scanners. If the "delivered" function is chosen then the 3849 (reverse) is scanned. The only change I noticed recently was having to put the 3849 bar coded # in the scanner on the "attempted" function. This allows the recipient to just type in the 3849 # when requesting re delivery. It is an extra step but if you are a city carrier, time=money.