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 think there's any benefit for the USPS at all. I just think he's benefiting himself and it does seem unethical to me. It doesn't sound legal to take home any mail even though it's nondeliverable, nonreturnable, or excess advertisements. I just am not familiar with anybody enforcing it if it is illegal. On a similar note, there is a promotional pen company that sends out sample pens to potential customers. Sometimes the company has moved and the mail isn't forwardable. I'll take the pen out of the envelope and put the envelope into the NOVM (no obvious value mail) receptacle which each PO has. Again, it may not be legal, but I don't see the issue in taking it for personal use.
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Sure, I don't think there are any restrictions on this whatsoever. I have a friend of the family who met his future wife while delivering mail to her. I think it's important to keep it professional while delivering the mail and don't do any special favors or inappropriate while in uniform. I mean having lunch with them would seem fine to me, but don't have them follow you around if you are delivering mail on foot. Romance can bloom anywhere. Two of my former coworkers met while working at the PO and later became married and have a child and work in separate locations.
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I didn't know that an assignment can officially start on a non-Saturday. Saturday begins a pay week and from then until the following Friday a regular city letter carrier (like yourself) is guaranteed 40 hours of pay which could include a holiday (like 2/15) or paid sick or annual leave. In your situation I would think that you'd have to work on either Thursday or Friday to make up the 40 hours. It's a bit confusing as to know what assignment you would do considering I don't know the size of your office and how easily they could put you somewhere else for either Thursday or Friday. I don't know the contract well enough to even know if this issue is addressed. I'd recommend talking to your shop steward or supervisor to see what they think. Is it possible that the start of your bid could be delayed until Saturday 02/20/16 in which case you'd be on your comp tour on 2/19 and would be working to get 40 hours for the week ending Friday 02/19/16.
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From CA to FL it should take 4 days maximum for a letter to be received as long as it was addressed properly and had sufficient postage. I don't know what can be done since first class letters aren't trackable. It's possible for letters to get lost, misdelivered, or damaged in our machinery but that is all a pretty low percentage of mail. I would say be patient and hope it arrives soon at the FL destination.
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That is very considerate of you to wonder if we will be annoyed by you receiving so many parcels. Have you worked out with the local USPS if you can pick them up daily? At the office where I work I don't think that would be allowed unless you are a PO Box renter or have made an arrangement that I wouldn't know about. . If packages are addressed to your residence or office they would be delivered since that is our service. I know that I'd never be annoyed if someone received many packages on a regular basis. That's our business. I can't say that other coworkers would be so positive as I am but I wouldn't be concerned. If you use a private mailbox service it is possible that the USPS is still delivering the items to the private mail company known as a CMRA and you'd be picking up your packages there.
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I don't know anything about Federal Law when it comes to this subject. I'd suggest that the letter carriers may not want you that close to them while they are sorting the mail because you might be able to view what mail other residents are getting which might violate some privacy rules. I've never heard of what the MHP mgr is claiming to be true. Also, I don't see why you couldn't access your mailbox once the letter carrier has locked your section and moved on to an adjacent section of centralized boxes. When I deliver to a centralized box unit, it can be a little annoying when residents come out to chat and want their mail, but I don't experience that behavior often. If I do, I'm generally pleasant with them, give them their mail if they request it (since I don't work in an area where mail theft is not common whatsoever) and move on. I should also clarify I don't regularly deliver to centralized boxes and it's only when I fill in on another route than my own do I do that. Mail is becoming less and less important to most people that some residents don't even collect their mail for days at a time. It sounds like someone is making up a story to exercise some authority that they don't have. I don't like to hear that at all.
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Most, if not all, letter carriers are now equipped with mobile scanning devices that transmit delivery data more or less in real time (I'm guessing a few minutes delay but not much more). With our previous scanning devices our delivery data was also transmitted but we had to have it paired with an older flip phone to transmit the data to our main computer system delivery database. Thanks for your question.
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