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 have no idea why your aunt would take your packages to your uncle's house and he would open them? That sounds illegal to me unless you have some sort of relationship with them to allow this. I'm assuming you don't live together and aren't happy about this. Your aunt must also live nearby. Was anything missing from the packages? You could start by asking your aunt why she did this and tell her not to. You could also mention it to a delivery supervisor at the USPS where she works. I don't know what kind of family tension you want to cause but if something is actually stolen you could call the police to file a complaint. I also have no idea how far that would go. Whatever you do, it sounds like a real sleazy thing for your aunt and uncle to do and I would never imagine doing this.
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Two good questions that are easy to answer. 1) there is no radio in the LLV which I drive. It's possible some postal vehicles have radios but not the one I use. Some carriers bring a portable radio with them or listen on their mobile devices to music or podcasts. I listen to podcasts while delivering the mail. I have one ear with the earphone in it and the other left open so I can hear any traffic or people looking to get my attention. We are probably not supposed to work with both ears covered.
2) I get both a pension and a 401(K) type program since I'm employed by a quasi-governmental organization. The pension is called FERS (federal employees retirement system) and the 401(K)-type program is called the Thrift Savings Plan. Along with Social Security, they make up the 3 "legs" of the retirement system under which I'm covered. The TSP offers a lot of potential growth because you can contribute a lot of your earnings plus the USPS matches some of your contributions. You choose how aggressive of an investor you want to be with your TSP contributions. Thanks for your questions and asking something I actually know about. Many of the questions here I can only answer by my experience not necessarily what the rules may be or how different people would act in a situation.
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Please go to www.usps.com for information on how to apply for a job with the USPS. On the main USPS website, there is a section on the right hand side regarding employment and careers with the USPS. I don't recommend any online sites that ask you to pay for applying. If they are providing material for how to succeed or prepare for the exam, that may be valuable, but the USPS doesn't charge to take the exam as far as I know.
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Kathy, usually they aren't in trouble when being followed. It's a fairly normal procedure done 1x a year. As far as giving him a good review, you could write a letter to the Postmaster at your local Post Office where Ken works or possibly the website www.usps.com has a "contact us" option. To be honest I don't know what would happen with such a letter, but I hope that Ken would at least hear about it and get a copy. If you don't see Ken being followed in the future you can rest assured he probably wasn't in trouble. I realize that you often aren't home when he makes the mail delivery.
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Yes, it's a regular work day for the USPS on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I'm not sure how busy of a day it is, but the online shopping business has been a boom for us so the days following Thanksgiving through Christmas are usually an endless flow of packages to deliver.
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From what you described there should be no problem in your landlord eventually receiving the check. It's possible that the letter carrier took the envelope thinking it was outgoing mail. Since it had a stamp on it and the landlord as a receiving address, they will likely get the check in a couple of delivery days. If a letter carrier sees an unstamped envelope in a mailbox they will often take it as outgoing mail without looking at the destination address. Thanks for your question.
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Congratulations on being hired by the USPS as a letter carrier. We often walk for 4-5 hours per day so it is important to wear comfortable shoes. The shoes that can be purchased with a uniform allowance can easily cost $100/pair. They are usually black leather athletic or walking shoes with a certified slip-resistant grip. You don't need to spend that kind of money on your own for shoes. To get an idea what the shoes look like, do an Internet search for letter carrier uniform shoes. I wear New Balance and Rocky shoes. Since the prices for our uniforms are pretty high, you can search non-uniform websites to see if less expensive shoes are available. I am fortunate to never have had any chronic foot pain from being a letter carrier, so I can't be any more specific as to what to avoid when purchasing shoes. Good luck to you Dee!
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