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 depends on what other job/career options you may have and how they compare with the USPS. I have somewhat of a bias because I enjoy working here and it has been a great career. I do realize, however, that being a CCA isn't easy and it's a non-career position and only pays moderately to begin (currently $16.06/hr). Regarding the USPS financial situation, I don't think that should impact your choice. The USPS isn't going away anytime soon. While I'm sure it's losing plenty of $$ often there is still as much work as I can remember. There will likely be changes that happen years from now but I don't know what they'd look like. I've never seen a layoff or RIF since I've been employed by the USPS. Good luck to you Jerz whichever job/career path you choose.
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Rose, I'm not sure exactly what you mean by this question. If you would like to give a gift to a particular letter carrier, I'm sure it'd be appreciated. During this time of year (December holiday season), many people who I deliver mail to will give me a cash gratuity or gift of sweets or wine for example. It is never expected by me to receive a gratuity or gift but I follow up with a thank you card to the customer. If you're not sure when your particular letter carrier is working you may just have to wait until you see them to present them with the gift or leave it in your mailbox and hope they will get it. Please ask a follow up question of me if I haven't explained my answer clearly.
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I don't know anything about getting OIG to investigate anything for the USPS. I think they may have a tip hotline that can be called but I don't know if they will place your tip on any high priority. I would call that carrier a sleazeball for not delivering anything that should be. It is illegal plus the only reason our job exists is because items are being paid for that we should deliver. I have the impression that so many employees (including management) don't care at all about proper delivery of mail and what gets discarded or has the proper postage. There is so little oversight as to what we do on a daily basis unless we do something egregious or work unsafely. I'm sorry to be so negative. It's important to me that every piece of mail that is properly addressed is delivered, no matter if it's a catalog, weekly supermarket flier, or birthday card. It's all mail and should be handled accordingly.
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Jonas, I am no legal expert to cite which laws may or may not have been broken. I am pretty sure that this isn’t an appropriate action on behalf of your husband’s friend. In fact, I’m very disturbed to hear this story. You are completely correct that our job is to deliver the mail, NOT ask any q’s or comment about the mail destination or be a private detective. You need not answer him at all or you could take it a step further and say “Do not ask me anything about my mail”. I’m not so sure I’d threaten to report the letter carrier for his actions but you’d be within your rights to do so if the problem continued. I hope this issue doesn’t continue for you.
On a related note, I definitely do pay attention to where mail is going to or coming from. I would never comment on it to a customer or talk about it with someone else. We should be trusted employees and have an obligation to keep all information confidential.
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I don’t really think so unless the carrier was in some imminent safety danger due to his hardcore flirting and his wife found out. He could bid to another route when the opportunity arises and if his seniority is high enough to get the other route. I’ve never seen it happen where a carrier was replaced due to a customer request or a personal issue. There may be a mechanism/procedure to do that, but I’m not aware of it. I don’t know the specific situation that you are talking about, but it’s a good reason not to mix work and personal life beyond friendships. There is too much potential for disruption.
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There isn't really much to do Brittany except to be patient. Mail can go missing or be delayed for so many reasons. Most First Class mail isn't tracked either so it's not easy to tell where it is. 2-3 days delivery is the norm for most First Class mail in the US. If a piece of mail is misdelivered by a letter carrier it's hard to say when or if it will ever get properly delivered. Has your boyfriend mailed you items before to your current address and have there been issues in the past?
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From what I understand, we scan the flats and letters to verify how long it takes mailpieces to get from somewhere to the delivery point. I haven’t heard this for sure. I agree it seems pointless and annoying. I make sure to take the time to do it properly though I don’t trust most of my coworkers to do it. Regarding what to do when it asks i feel the address is on the route, i usually put “yes” if it’s vacant or hold but I have to say I’m probably not consistent with that i do. I’d hit “yes”, then “end scanning” and then “no more to scan” if I had zero mailpieces with me. I’m not sure how it is in Massapequa but the communication as to what we’re supposed to do in any situation is quite half-assed and different supv may give different answers. I have so little faith in the supervisors to give the right information that I often don’t even bother asking. We had a service talk today about how to scan parcels that are on “hold”. The directions were completely the opposite of what we were told in the past. Besides that, I doubt they will repeat the service talk for the carriers who were off today or on vacation. I’m just venting but I think you can relate to my comments. Thanks again for writing and hope you liked my tangent.
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