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.
I don't know but my guess would be 6 months or less. I don't know if there is still a test that needs to be taken to be hired as a City Carrier Assistant and how frequently the test is given. Many years ago, this exam wasn't given too frequently. Now I hear nothing about it so maybe it's an ongoing hiring process, where they are continuously hiring and training. From what I hear anecdotally, and what I personally see in my workplace we defintitely could use some new hires. It seems the demand for letter carriers exists, but the hiring of qualified candidates who make it through probation isn't keeping pace with that demand. Good luck to you!
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Not usually. Business Reply Mail is sent to a mail processing facility like all other outgoing mail. When it gets there I'm not exactly sure how it's processed but I think the bar coding on the envelope might separate out BRM so it doesn't have to go through a canceling machine. I just know that a local PO has nothing to do with stamping the date and location on it. What the actual envelope looks like at the receiving end I don't know.
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I will certainly tell you my experience, but keep in mind that everybody is different in how they handle a job and how hard they want to work and under what conditions. To sum up before I get into the details, I really like the job a lot, but the management and some co-workers aren't so great. When you first start out as a letter carrier, you will likely be a CCA , a city carrier asst, which doesn't guarantee you too many hrs/week, lower pay ($15.50/hr apprx) and minimal benefits. As time goes on and others retire or leave the USPS for various reasons you'd become a FT regular letter carrier with a guarantee of 40 hrs/wk minimum plus health, retirement, paid time off benefits. The pro of the job for me is that you get decent pay and benefits and security for a job that requires a low amt of education (though I do have a college degree), exercise on walking routes and much of the day (apprx 6 hours) away from the office not having to deal with co-workers or management who can be vile or aggravating. There are some very nice people I work with. I generally just see my co-workers for a couple of hours in the AM and maybe 10-20 minutes before we go home at apprx 4:30 PMG. Over the years I've had some health issues which required extended absences. While I can't say the employer was great to deal with during the absence I didn't worry about losing my job and was paid for some of the time I was out (using paid sick leave). Depending on where you work geographically, weather can be issue and you need to be prepared to be outside for many hours per day. The staffing at my office has been a bit low for awhile and there is a lack of quality workers replacing them. This has resulted in a lot of Overtime work available (a good thing or me), but also a lot of mandatory work even for those who don't want it (not so good). It's also difficult to get time off unless you have a vacation block picked out. I also happen to be a bit of a perfectionist with regards to delivering mail accurately and this job works well with my organizational skills. From my experience, more people like to be negative about the job than positive. I understand some of their complaints and feelings, but I choose to be positive and grateful for what I have and not dwell on the little stuff. I tune out then negativity the best I can and do my job. Good luck to you and please ask any more specific questions if you have them.
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I don't know the answer to this question. I can only speculate as to what I might do if I was a letter carrier who was emptying out a collection box and approached by someone asking to intercept their mail. I'll let you know that the times posted on the mailbox are the "earliest" time that mail will be collected from that box. It could be a later time than is posted so you could be waiting awhile for the mailbox collection personnel. If someone could prove to me who they were (with ID) or I personally knew them and could easily find their mail, I'd probably give it back to them. Sometimes the collection boxes near a post office are pretty full and it would be too time consuming to look through it for a couple of letters that somebody wants intercepted. I'm sure there is other personnel who wouldn't return it to you under any circumstances, which is why I can't give you a definitive answer.
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If you don't have an auto-forward in effect for mail to go from the house you own to another address, then it shouldn't be a problem. I do think that leaving a note for the letter carrier is a great idea. If there is a forward on file then the letter carrier may not even see the letter before it is forwarded. The forwarding is often an automated system called PARS that redirects the mail prior to the original letter carrier seeing any mail to be forwarded. I hope this helps and thank your for the question.
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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.
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I can't say for sure if we come later on Fridays or not. It usually depends on the staffing and mail volume as to what time we deliver the mail. At the PO where I work, Friday is usually like most other weekdays for mail delivery time. On Saturday, the mail may come earlier because postal routes may have closed busineses so they can start the residential delivery sooner.
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