What are mail carriers' schedules like?
Asked by
janbb (
63219
)
February 9th, 2010
In an idle moment, while watching my mail carrier bring the mail, I wondered about their work week. Most of the time, I have the same deliverer but some days, it is someone else. Do most full-time mail carriers work five days a week – Monday to Friday or do the days off vary? Are the hours generally 8–4?
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19 Answers
I believe they have 5 day work weeks that varies in days from time to time since the USPS delivers 6 days a week. at least one day out of the week, mail is delivered by a reliever, who probably has 5 different routes each week.
ask @astrochuck. He does it.
I believe they would look something like this:
Day: _______________ Time: _______________ Route:
Monday ___________X:00 – Z:00 ________________1
Tuesday___________X:00 – Y:00 ________________1
etc. _________________ etc. __________________etc.
” Oh yes wait a minute Mr Mailcarrier.”
Paging AstroChuck.
AstroChuck to the White Courtesy Phone.
Some carriers have bigger routes than others. sometimes, two routes are split between one carrier and that really loads down one person. our mail ariives at different times each day. its never the same. our mailman just retired and a lady is now making his deliveries. it appears our mail is now going to arrive at the same time each day.
My parents are both mail carriers and their schedules are somewhat confusing. They always have Sundays off, but it could vary in which weekdays they have off. So for example say my mom has Monday off one week, then the next week she will have Tuesday off, then so on and so forth . However, say it’s the week she has Friday off, then she has that Saturday off as well. Then that week following a weekend she works six days a week. Here is how it looks like. X’s are the days they work
M T WThFSaSu
off x x x x x x
x off x x x x x
x x off x x x x
x x x off x x x
x x x x off off x
x x x x x x x
repeat back to having monday off. However sometimes they may get called in on their “off” day to work.
It varies with hours as well. My parents usually work 7:30–5. It really depends on if they have to work overtime or not. So it honestly just varies on many different things.
@janbb You’re welcome! That is how it is with my parents and we live in Ohio so I am not sure if it’s the same with AstroChuck.
Yeah, @AlleyCat8783 covered it pretty well. In most places city letter carriers have color-coded rotating days off. My schedule is red. That means this week it’s Tuesday, next week Wednesday, following week Thursday, etc. Since the postal fiscal week starts on Saturday and ends on Friday those of us with rotating days off get a long weekend (Fri-Sat-Sun) every sixth week. Carriers always have Sunday off (except those who work in Loma Linda, CA. They deliver mail Sundays and have Saturdays off). In some places letter carriers have fixed days off but in most places it’s rotating. As for daily hours, it varies. I begin tour at 7:30 am and get off at 4:00 pm (half-hour lunch) when I can manage an eight hour day. I’m on the work assignment list which means I carry overtime on my own route so quite often I might get off at 5 or 6. It all depends what the workload is.
@AstroChuck you’re a mail carrier? my room mate in medical school was a mail carrier (rural) and he was just as strange as you
@drhat77- No. I’m not a mail carrier. I’m THE mail carrier.
Don’t hate on mail carriers, they rock and put up with a lot of crap!
And we step in a lot of it too.
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@Termpaper- Your info is a little outdated. Casuals no longer exist in the carrier craft.
Assuming all else is right. You meant to say off Sunday’s I would assume.
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