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.
It has been many years since I've had orientation so I can't tell you exactly what it's about. If I remember correctly, it was 3 days long (usually not at the office where you will be a CCA) which included a carrier academy where you "practice" sorted some mail and learn a lot about working safely including how to avoid dog confrontations. You also learn about the different classes of mail and how to forward mail and how to handle express mail and certified mail. Once you report to an office you may be assigned a trainer who may take you around for 3 days with them to deliver a route. Also please remember that as a CCA you may be required to work Sundays and Holidays to deliver Amazon parcels if your office/area participates in that program. You really need to be flexible in the number of hours and which hours you will be asked to work. Thanks for your questions and keep them coming if you think of anything else. Please remember that I'm just basing these answers at my experience at my Post Office. As they say online, YMMV (your mileage may vary).
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Most letter carriers wear a USPS-funded and approved uniforms. After a few months of employment, we are given an annual allowance to buy uniforms which includes outerwear, footwear, and other accessories. If you are a rural carrier or a newer carrier, you may wear your own clothes. If you did a web search for USPS City Letter Carrier uniforms and clicked on "images", it should give you a good idea of what a uniform looks like.
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They do make a difference. By affixing a Priority Mail sticker, you are required to pay the Priority Mail rate which can be much higher than the standard parcel post rate or what I think is called retail ground. Priority Mail is given excellent treatment as far as how it is transported from origin to destination and there is a very high likelihood that the item will be delivered within 1-3 days of mailing depending on the destination. If the sticker is affixed to an item but there isn't sufficient postage to cover the Priority Mail rate, the parcel will be either returned to the sender for being "short paid" or an attempt to collect the underpayment from the recipient as "postage due".
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I think it would be great if you scored well on any exams you take for employment with the USPS. Many new hires today are hired as CCA (city carrier assistant) which is a letter carrier position. I think you apply for certain positions so you may have a choice to be a CCA or PSE (Postal Support Employee). A PSE is a position where you generally work inside doing mail processing, distribution, or retail sales and service. Most, if not all, of the letter carriers who I work with were hired as carriers first. I don't, however, have any more insight to the hiring practices except what I posted here. I know I'd always like to see motivated and competent individuals hired by the USPS.
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I'm not sure I understand your question but I'll take a guess that you want to know the three main things we do on our job. Our main job is to sort mail (a little bit in the AM) , deliver mail and parcels and collect outgoing mail in a prescribed geographic area. It is most important we do this in a safe, professional, and courteous manner and pay attention to the addresses and deliver the mail properly. It is a fairly simple job in my opinion but can be physically challenging in harsh weather and heavy mail loads. Thank you Jacob for your question.
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Dee, hello again! This is a question that I can't answer directly, but can suggest some websites to look at. The one I looked at is opm.gov and click on the tab "retirement" and "FERS Information" once you are converted to a career letter carrier you'll be employed under the Federal Employees Retirement System. Your age and years of service determine when you are eligible to retire and how much of an annuity you will receive. Trust me when I say it's not a terribly generous system when it comes to receiving a monthly payment. You would, however, qualify to receive Social Security and 401(k) type funds at certain ages. The key is to put as much of your income as you can into the Thrift Savings Plan, which is similar to a private employers 401(k) . Some people can retire with just 20 years of service at a certain age but the FERS annuity may be quite paltry.
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I don't know much about the DDC. If I took it at the USPS, I don't remember. There could be a quiz but it's probably not too difficult especially if you've taken a DDC before outside the USPS. Important things are to always wear a seatbelt, don't drive distracted, keep a safe following distance, only back up when necessary, and always turn off the vehicle when getting out of it. I'd imagine there would be some videos. There is an entire procedure to follow each time you leave the USPS delivery vehicle which should be taught to you eventually. It is vital to follow that for safety reasons and stopping preventable accidents. Good luck!
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