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

WIll you deliver to my school room door if i leave on campus or you would leave it in front of my dorm

Asked by Joy almost 12 years ago

If you live on a college campus, they probably already have established a standard method of delivery to the dormitories. They probably don't deliver it to your room. It is likely that the dormitory has central delivery boxes in the lobby area or in a mailroom. Other campuses might have all the student mail come to a central mailroom or student center which has individual mailboxes for each student. You can contact the student life office or office of residential life for more information. Thank you for writing.

We have been on vacation for 2 weeks and forgot to put a hold on our mail. We live in an apt, so our mail slot is fairly small. We came back and found that our mail slot was full and some of our mail was left in the junk cubby underneath. Is that ok?

Asked by Jonathan Rossen almost 12 years ago

I am not really sure of the procedure that your letter carrier is supposed to follow if your specific mail slot becomes full. I understand that they probably didn't want to bring it back to the PO where it can be held usually up to 30 days before being sent back to the senders due to a full mailbox. The carrier probably felt that it was a safe environment to leave it in the junk cubby even though that area was possibly accessible to anybody. I hope that no mail was missing that you can tell. You made no mention of that so I presume you think it was all there. Technically the letter carrier should have been on the safe side and brought the mail back to the PO since you live in a multi-unit building, but I often have the "no harm, no foul" attitude meaning it's no big deal as long as nothing looks as if it was tampered with. I know that others will disagree with me on this comment. It is similar with packages to be delivered. In the area I work in, it seems to be a very safe suburban environment so parcels are left when nobody is home as long as there is no signature required. In other areas where mail/package theft may be an issue the USPS may require somebody at an address in order to release a package.

What recourse do I have:
I had dvd delivered to a friend. He didn't get it although tracking said it was delivered. Called located po. Super said mail carrier said gave it to woman. It went to wrong address. Woman says she doesn't have it.

Asked by Cher almost 12 years ago

I have to tell you that I don't know what recourse you have in this situation since the woman who says she doesn't have it probably can't be held accountable for actually having it. How does the super know it went to the wrong address? I'm just curious since I'm not sure how this whole chain of events can be verified. I'm sorry that I can't help you further and it is very difficult to get an item back that is misdelivered if the actual recipient doesn't admit to having it. Even if you called a local post office to file some type of complaint about this, I don't know what help they would be.

This is just a comment, not a question. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions so promptly, accurately and friendly. I, for one, really do appreciate your effort! Cheers!

Asked by mcmjuly over 11 years ago

Mcmjuly, much thanks for your positive feedback. This is how I try to be in life as well. I want to be accurate, and not sensationalize any part of my job. I also try to answer promptly because I prefer not to have too much pending email. Maybe touches of OCD.

If I put a forever stamp to an international letter, will USPS return to my the letter?

Asked by May almost 12 years ago

There is a good chance that the letter may actually continue to its destination without being returned. I find the USPS very poor in catching items mailed with insufficient postage. I try to capture it because that is our source of revenue and how we stay in business. I hate the "I don't care attitude" that I perceive in some co-workers. I'm sure this is common in many professions. But, to answer your question, a Forever stamp is currently valued at .49 . The minimum rate for an international letter is  $1.15 but it varies by country of destination. If you don't receive the letter back within a week or so, I'd suspect that it will make it to the destination. Please always remember to include a return address, though I suspect you did. Thank you for writing.

if i order a package and it is snet by usps and it says out for delivery when i look up tracking number. the mail has already come today and there were no special cards saying pick up at post office will it be delivered by truck

Asked by chandler almost 12 years ago

I know this response is likely too late to help you out for today, but I'll let you know my opinion. If all the scanning of the package is done properly, then the package should have been on some delivery vehicle (not necessarily the regular mail delivery) to bring the package to your address by the end of the deilvery day (apprx 5PM local time.) I hope you have received it. I make the qualifier "if the scanning of the package was done properly" because there are times where the information as to where the package is or "attempted" but wasn't really, comes up when you use the tracking number. That brings down the integrity of the scanning data. For the most part I believe the USPS does a very good job of giving the correct tracking information on packages, but I've heard stories to the contrary at times. Thanks for writing.

Can a mailman still find your house without a house number as long as they have the street name?

Asked by Candi almost 12 years ago

Most of the time I would say the mailman could find a house without a house number, but it is highly recommended that you have the number posted somewhere on the house, painted on the curb, or on the mailbox. I would never assume that the house could be found without a visible number posted. I rarely come across the situation where I can't find a house number, but if I did the method I would use would be to find an adjacent house (and hopefully that has a number visible) and then add or subtract 2 (the normal interval) to figure out the house number without a visible number. Now that I think of it you may have been asking if I have a name of a resident plus a street name, but no street number, could I find the house. The answer would be "possibly". If the mailman was familiar with the names on the street they could probably deliver the mail to the right house. Again, I would never assume that mail will get to the correct destination without a complete and proper address. Thanks for writing in.