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.
Kim, that is generally what would happen if you came up to my postal vehicle to hand me outgoing letters. I have a small square tray which is raised on 4 sides where I put the outgoing letters and bring back to the post office for dispatch. Some use a bin or a larger tray depending on the outgoing mail volume. So in a word, nothing to worry about it and good question.
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I am not sure if you can. An option is to contact the sender by phone or another means and request to not be sent any mail. If the mail is First class you can write "refused" on the envelope and it will be returned to the sender. Generally any mail that is sent as Presorted Standard (bulk mail) will just get discarded at the local PO if you write "refused" on the mail. The sender would never know you didn't want that mail. I'd just recommend that you discard/recycle any mail you don't want. For the most part customers I deliver mail to don't refuse many letters and probably just throw away anything they don't want. If they give it back to me I handle it as above (either discard the PO where I work or return it to the sender).
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I've never heard of your pay getting docked for not delivering mail on time. I think only Express Mail (aka Priority Mail Express) does have a delivery time guarantee and the sender can request a refund if that commitment isn't met. We can get disciplined at our office (letter of warning/suspension/termination) if we fail to deliver a time guarantee mail item, but I've rarely ever heard of anyone getting anything beyond a warning for this. This type of mail is a premium service so we must give it our utmost attention and care. Good luck in orientation. Here is just a life lesson in general: Don't believe everything you hear. I'm a big skeptic in so much I hear at work unless a reliable source. I actually might annoy people because I believe so little at times.
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Chris, I'll be honest that I don't know anything about gloves to wear for delivering mail in the hot summer. I use my bare hands probably 99% of the time. I don't concern myself with the cleanliness of the mail whatsoever and it's never been an issue for me. I have noticed in very cold weather that I need to cover my extremities well so I just wear as warm gloves as I can but don't know any brand. Some coworkers use sealskin gloves. it is difficult for me to finger the mail with a gloved hand so I hold the mail in a gloved hand and keep the hand that I use to finger the mail in my pocket as much as possible with no glove. I don't do too well in the extreme cold. Thank you for your question.
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I don't think we should refuse delivery for that but I can't say for sure what we are allowed to do. As long as I felt that the door was secure enough and the dog wouldn't get out I would make the delivery. When you say you've never received a notice, do you mean you have never been told that the dog is an issue? I'm not sure what kind of notice you mean. Maybe the letter carrier refused mail delivery and never said the dog was an issue. I have a few places where I deliver to very loud barking dogs but I have never really had to refuse delivery due to this. It is often stressed by postal management to be very careful near dogs so I can understand if a letter carrier is apprehensive about it, but I can't say what they should do in the situation you described.
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If I were in motion, I'd safely pull over, put on my four-way flashers, and then get out to investigate. It's possible that my gas cap is hanging out the side of the LLV, the back gate isn't secure, or maybe I'm dragging something. It could also be something that I haven't thought of. If the motorist is still around I'd ask them what they are pointing out. If it seemed to be some type of phony diversion tactic, I'd try to get far away from the motorist pointing and then investigate safely.
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The mailman should pick up any first class outgoing parcel just like they would any other item you wanted to mail as long as there is sufficient postage. An exception to this would be any item weighing over 13 oz that had postage stamps on it (as opposed to a Click 'N Ship label). This would be a Priority Mail item anyway, not First Class. This would need to be presented at a retail counter to be mailed due to security rules when mailing heavier items that may go on aircraft. I often pick up outgoing First Class parcels from a woman who sells items online and ships them from her house.
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