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.

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Last Answer on February 18, 2022

Best Rated

I have a rural route, a mailbox at the highway. My mailman drove into my yard, threw my package (ATV battery) out of his vehicle towards my porch, damaging it, got stuck in yard, trenching it up bad. What can/should I do about this? Thank You.

Asked by Bill over 10 years ago

I don't know what to tell you about this with regards to what you should do. You could file a complaint/written letter to the PO claiming financial damage by the rural letter carrier, possibly including the ATV battery damage as well. I don't know how this claims process works at all with respect to any damage caused by the USPS or of an item shipped via USPS. It sounds to me that maybe the carrier shouldn't have driven into your yard to throw the battery near your porch. I don't know the rules about package deliveries on a rural route. In one way, it's good they tried to deliver a package that wouldn't fit in the RR mailbox at the highway. A possible negative is that your yard became damaged due to this. I wish you well but I don't know what type of satisfaction you'll get from the USPS. I don't have a lot of faith in their bureaucracy or claims process. I hope to be proven wrong.

what happens if I have a P.O. Box and I leave town for a while and my box expires before I return?

Asked by Seejay about 11 years ago

I don't know the answer to this question. Maybe you can renew the PO Box via check or credit card. The USPS main customer service phone # is 800-275-8777. If you can manage to get a human on the phone, maybe they can help you further or send a msg. to the PO where your PO Box is located to say you are out of town and will renew it upon return. There is probably a small grace period, but I can't say for sure. If you don't get in contact with the PO and don't renew the PO Box rent, any accumulated mail will likely be returned to the sender with a label stating "Box Closed, No Forwarding Order".

Hey is it the same as australian post office. i want to send my friend a bday card.. She lives in the same state same city haha and i want to know how long it would take to deliver so that i can post it like 2 days before and then arrives on her bday

Asked by Jono about 12 years ago

Sorry to say that we can't guarantee arrival of a birthday card on a specific date when mailed via regular class mail. We do, however, have a decent record of getting most letters delivered the next day when mailed from the same city, and 2-3 days when mailed from further away. To play it safe I'd mail the card 2 days in advance and, if you prefer, you can write "Do Not Open Until Your Birthday" on the outside of it. You are a thoughtful friend. Good Luck!

How do I get the full name of my postman. He won't give me his last name.

Asked by dhflannagan over 11 years ago

I am not sure how you would get the full name of your postman. I read that he won't give you his last name. I have no idea whether or not he has any obligation to do so. I gladly would give it out, if asked. It is also on my ID badge that I wear. I feel that it should be available to the public, but I am sure you will find great disagreement among my colleagues. If you were to call the PO and ask them, I have a feeling they wouldn't give it to you either. Some people get very private about certain matters, yet they will join Facebook and broadcast a lot about their personal lives. That's about all of the insight I have on this subject. Thanks for writing.

I want to be a mail carrier (am 19 yrs)
How many hours do you work a day.
How much is starting pay for an hour?

Asked by albert over 11 years ago

Albert, your message posted 2x so I will answer it once and then copy and paste it. I currently work 7 hours a day as I am on a limited schedule for personal reasons. A regular city letter carrier can expect to work 8 hours per day (plus 30 min. unpaid lunch), 5 days per week. The 5 days may not be consecutive since mail is delivered 6 days per week. As a new hire, you will likely be a CCA (city carrier assistant) who has a very varied schedule and I'm not sure they are guaranteed any hours. I believe starting pay is about $16/hour for a CCA, with very few benefits, if any. Once you are promoted to a regular city carrier, the salary increasea to about $23/hour and tops out at about $28.50/hr after a certain amt. of years. These salaries are set in accordance with a labor agreement between the USPS and the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), which is our union. You also get benefits once you become a regular city letter carrier as opposed to a CCA. If you visit the website www.nalc.org they have pay charts listed or you can probably just do a google search or look on www.glassdoor.com. Good luck in what is a pretty good career in my opinion.

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 over 11 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.

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 over 11 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.