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 is generally not a great idea to send cash through the US Mail but I think it is highly unlikely that a letter carrier would be the one to steal anything out of the mail. Most of us don't even think twice about what is inside an envelope as we get probably a couple of thousand envelopes each day to deliver. It is also unlikely for a letter to get stolen at all. If you are concerned about this and still want to send cash in an envelope I would wrap the money in a sheet of paper so it can't be seen through an envelope. If it is inside a greeting card we wouldn't be able to see it.
I am not sure if the mailman will allow this since many of us act differently than others and we are rarely told of any rules (if any exist) regarding this situation. If I were your letter carrier and I knew you (or you could positively ID who you were) and the mail was easy to find in the outgoing mailbox I'd have no problem allowing you to retrieve that mail. I don't know how full your building mailbox gets. Some buildings just have a few pieces of mail left for pickup. Others are overflowing with outgoing mail. As I answer with many questions on this question board, "It depends". The consistency within the USPS is quite inconsistent.
Yes, mail is delivered Monday-Saturday every week of the year except for 10 Federal Holidays observed by the USPS.
When a house is for sale, I will continue to deliver mail there unless the current owner/occupant has moved out and I don't see a new name on incoming mail. In this case, I mark any incoming "resident" mail as "vacant" and either discard it or return it to the sender depending on the class of mail. Once I see a new name on incoming mail, I commence delivery to that house. I don't know if this is the correct procedure, but it seems to work out fine. Thanks for writing.
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I won't comment on what is legal or not as to the order a carrier delivers the mail or where they take mail before or after a lunch break (if this was a lunch break.) The legality of what a carrier does is not something that I'm well versed on. I think that with their normal delivery they shouldn't be bypassing your mailbox without a logical reason. Is this an every day occurrence, or just once? If it is every day and you don't feel comfortable with what they are doing you certainly can inquire at the PO or ask a delivery supervisor as to why this may be happening. As a carrier I strive to maintain the highest level of professionalism and deliver mail in the prescribed order as to not appear to be doing anything wrong. I would never bring anybody else's mail into my apartment. I am not just not completely sure what, if anything, you are complaining or concerned about. I don't know the relationship that you have with your neighbor/letter carrier and whether or not you could ask them about this. Thank you for your inquiry.
There is no regular mail delivery on New Year's Day.
It depends on each Post Office and how soon their mail is sorted and the letter carriers can load their delivery vehicles and start delivery. At the PO where I work mail is delivered as early as 9:15 AM and as late as 6:30 PM. The evening time can be even later if we are short-staffed. I've heard stories about letter carriers at other offices delivering later than that due to staffing shortages. If I were to work a regular schedule and everything went according to plan, I'd be delivering between 09:40 AM and 3:30 PM.
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