A mail carrier, mailman, mailwoman, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, or letter carrier (in American English), also known as a postie in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, is a post office or postal service employee that distributes mail and parcel post to homes and businesses. Soon after women began doing the work, the word “mail carrier” became a gender-neutral alternative for “mailman.” In 1883, the official name of the Royal Mail was changed from “letter carrier” to “postman,” and “postwoman” was also used for a long time.

City Letter Carriers, who are represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers; Rural Carriers, who are represented by the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association; and Highway Contract Route Carriers, who are independent contractors, are the three types of mail carriers in the United States. City carriers are organized in approximately 70% of the country, despite the fact that union membership is optional.

Letter carriers are paid hourly, with overtime possible. On a daily basis, letter couriers are likewise subjected to “pivoting.” When a carrier’s allocated route is expected to take less than 8 hours to complete, management may “pivot” the carrier to another route in order to fill that carrier up to 8 hours. It’s a technique used by postal management to redistribute and minimize extra expenditures, based on discussions with carriers about their expected workload for the day and estimates from the DOIS (Delivery Operations Information System) computer software. Routes are changed and/or canceled depending on data collected by this software (length, duration, and total workload), talks with the carrier assigned to the route, and a current PS Form 3999. (street observation by a postal supervisor to determine accurate times spent on the actual delivery of mail).

Rural carriers are paid according to a system known as “evaluated hours,” which includes overtime. The evaluated hours are calculated by counting all mail for two or four weeks and using a formula to calculate the fixed dollar amount they will be paid for each day working until the route is counted again.

Highway Contract Routes are granted to the lowest bidder, who then either carries the route themselves or engages carriers to carry the mail as part of their contract.

Letter carriers usually operate high-density, low-mileage routes in cities. These routes are categorized as “mounted” routes (those that need a vehicle) or “walking” routes (those that do not) (for those that are done on foot). Letter carriers who operate a mounted route often drive distinctive white vans with the United States Postal Service emblem on the side and distribute to curbside and building attached mailboxes. Carriers who walk to their routes often drive postal cars to their routes, park at a designated place, then carry one “loop” of mail up to one side of the street and back down the other until they return to their vehicle.

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