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

If you notice a broken mailbox what do you do with the mail and how do I get it as soon as possible

Asked by Heem over 10 years ago

I usually will continue to deliver the mail as long as the mail can be sheltered from the rain and other elements and hope that the customer will fix the mailbox in a reasonable amount of time. Some letter carriers will not deliver the mail to a mailbox that has fallen to the ground or is broken in some way. I suppose that is their option. If the mail isn't being delivered, it is likely being held at the PO for a certain amt of time (I don't know how long). You can probably go and pick it up there as long as you present identification that matches your address and if the clerk can find the mail that is being held.

You come later on Fridays

Asked by Lj over 10 years ago

I can't say for sure if we come later on Fridays or not. It usually depends on the staffing and mail volume as to what time we deliver the mail. At the PO where I work, Friday is usually like most other weekdays for mail delivery time. On Saturday, the mail may come earlier because postal routes may have closed busineses so they can start the residential delivery sooner.

I want to know if I have primary residence in one place and I realized that I need to send a piece of mail out but I'm out of town and I need to send this mail immediately. Can I put my primary address but be able to send it out in a different city?

Asked by daushund Iover over 11 years ago

Certainly. You may mail a letter from anywhere to anywhere as long as you apply the proper postage. You also can put your primary residence as your return address even if you mail the letter out from a different address. 

Hello-

I live in a standalone condo complex with 4 units, and I keep getting mail from certain senders for the owners upstairs because they seem to have specified my unit #. I left a note for them to fix this, but it has not stopped. What can I do?

Asked by Liz over 11 years ago

I dont know what you can do for sure to stop the owner's mail from being delivered to your unit if it has your apt # on it. Your neighbor may have contacted some companies to get them to change it, but I imagine names and addresses are often sold from one company to the next which results in the wrong address being distributed to other mailers. You can put a note in your mailbox saying "please only deliver mail for (insert your name(s) here" and that may stop your neighbors mail from being delivered to you. You are correct that it is your neighbors responsibility to advise senders of their correct address if the want to receive their mail. 

If you lost your mail key, and your landlord is on vacation, can you request it delivered to your personal home or for pick up?

Asked by CB about 11 years ago

I don't know about this. You can request anything of the USPS, but it's probably a matter of policy or your individual letter carrier as to whether or not they will do that for you. We usually refrain from allowing people to pickup mail on any regular basis at the PO unless you go away on vacation, put your mail on "hold" and then pick up the mail at a future date (and that can be done just once per "hold" request). If your landlord would just be away for a few days, I'd deliver the mail to your personal home temporarily, but this has rarely come up for me and I can't comment for sure how others would respond to a similar request.

If a package is marked delivered on your account. And said it was in a parcel locker and I didn't get it who do I talk to?

Asked by JF about 10 years ago

Was there a key to the parcel locker in your mailbox? That would indicate as to where you should go to retrieve your parcel. If there is no key in your mailbox to access the parcel locker, then I'm not sure where your parcel would be. I'd speak with the letter carrier who serves your route or a delivery supervisor at the PO where the mail is delivered from. I don't have a lot of faith in tracking down parcels that are misdelivered or said that they are somewhere and they aren't. Sometimes it may show up in a day or two, but I don't know why it would show as delivered to a parcel locker and now you can't find it. I hope your package shows up.

Can a mail man bid on a route that's not in his district?

Asked by Jim over 10 years ago

When a route goes up for bid due to a vacancy, it is usually first offered in the office or city (if there are multiple stations combined into one bidding unit). If nobody bids that assignment and there are no unassigned regular letter carriers in the bidding unit, the assignment might be posted as available through the eReassign system. This is the way that letter carriers can move between districts.