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

A certified letter was sent out to me on Jan 13 and it's the 21st. Still have not received it and when I try to track it all it says it's in transit. Desnt say where it is. I called local post office and all they say is its on the truck. What do I d

Asked by Ann over 10 years ago

It's odd for someone to say "it's on the truck" when the tracking seems very non-specific and sounds like it hasn't been updated. 8 days is too long for a certified letter to reach you unless the item was missorted en route and was either misdelivered or is sitting at a PO and nothing is being done with it. I don't know what to tell you to do except to wait a few more days. After that, you could contact the sender and say you never received the letter though they would have the same information as the online tracking.

Are mail carriers allowed to have tattoos and/or piercings?

Asked by Rose almost 11 years ago

Yes, I've heard of nothing to the contrary and I know that many of the younger letter carriers have tattoos and piercings.

I am a unit owner in a 114 unit condo. An owner operates a rental business in her unit. She has erected a "hotel" sign and has all 114 owners mail delivered to her, and then delivers the mail to each unit. Is this illegal?

Asked by jmasick@hotmail.com over 11 years ago

I am not familiar with any rules that would or wouldn't allow this. On the surface it seems odd that you wouldn't be able to receive your mail directly from the USPS, but this may be the way the condo is set up. When you say an owner operates a rental business in her unit, do you mean she arranges for people to rent other condo units short-term, kind of like a rental agent? Either way, I'm not sure how this affects mail delivery. An alternative to having your mail delivered to this single unit would be to rent a PO Box. Sure it is more costly than just getting your mail delivered to the condo complex, but there is reliability and privacy/security with a PO Box.

I received a letter back and it has stamped on it BOXED CLOSED RETURN TO SENDER...DOES THAT MEAN THE P.O. BOX NUMBER IS NOT GOOD

Asked by Jeremy almost 11 years ago

I'm not sure what it means, but I'd gather that the renter of the PO Box either stopped paying the fee on the PO Box and it was closed or that they closed it on purpose. They also probably didn't put in a forwarding address which is why the label said "return to sender". It means the PO Box number exists but is not currently in use.

I had my bank mail a check to someone but it was sent to an incorrect address. The check was cashed/stolen. Would the carrier leave it at an address even though the name was not someone who lived there? Should it have been returned to the sender?

Asked by Nonni5 about 11 years ago

I can't say for sure what should have happened with the check that was mailed to the wrong address. It is bad that the check was cashed by an unintended party. A letter carrier doesn't always know who lives at each address and there are many days where a replacement carrier or CCA (City Carrier Assistant) is delivering the mail. If I'm not sure that piece of mail should go the address on the envelope, I will likely deliver it anyway with a "?" written next to the name. Hopefully the resident at the address would put the envelope back in the mail if it doesn't belong to them and write "doesn't live here" on the outside.

What happens if the mailman forgets to put an online purchase in your mailbox?

Asked by Griselda about 11 years ago

This definitely happens all the time. I would hope that we try to deliver every package but if we haven't organized our deliveries well enough, we may forget to deliveran online purchase. The parcel would then be brought back to the Post Office and probably be delivered the next delivery day.

The mail man came to my house before I could put the 2 letter I needed to mail out so I chased him down since I heard the truck. He looked at the 2 letters and then dumped it into a white bin by his legs. Is this what's supposed to happen?

Asked by Kim over 10 years ago

Kim, that is generally what would happen if you came up to my postal vehicle to hand me outgoing letters. I have a small square tray which is raised on 4 sides where I put the outgoing letters and bring back to the post office for dispatch. Some use a bin or a larger tray depending on the outgoing mail volume. So in a word, nothing to worry about it and good question.