About Mailmen
Mailmen, or letter carriers as they are called by the U.S. Postal Service, are responsible for delivering mail to homes and businesses. The Postal Service pays a good wage and offers solid employee benefits, making being a mailman or woman a popular job. Competition for these jobs is fierce and all applicants must pass a special examination before being selected for a Postal Service position.
Other People Are Reading
-
History
-
Benjamin Franklin, the first Postmaster General in the United States, was appointed in 1775 by the Second Continental Congress and soon set up the country's first postal system. By the early 1800s, only people who lived in large cities had home mail delivery. People in other parts of the country were required to take letters to the post office for mailing and also picked up their mail at the post office. Mail collection boxes began appearing in large cities around 1853.
In the 1880s, mail was transported from the east to the west by steamship, which took 3 to 4 weeks. Mail sent on an overland stagecoach route took months to reach recipients. William H. Russell formed the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company and Overland Express Company in 1860 because he believed that it was possible to deliver cross country mail in less time than it was being delivered. Known as the Pony Express, the company used horses and riders to transport mail through Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and California.
The Pony Express was able to cut mail delivery time in half and operated until 1861. Despite the 200,000 dollar deficit that the Pony Express incurred, the company was considered a success because it proved that it was possible to deliver mail through a central overland route all winter. In 1861, the country's first transcontinental telegraph line was completed. The line provided customers with a new way to get urgent communications to the West Coast and rendered the services of the Pony Express obsolete.
Function
-
The U.S. Postal Service delivers over 200 billion pieces of mail to over 130 million delivery addresses in the United States. The Postal Service uses approximately 750,000 letter carriers to deliver the mail.
-
Types
-
Regular mailmen are given an established route and service that route daily. Substitute carriers fill in when regular carriers are unable to work for a day or two. Temporary carriers work on auxiliary routes or fill in when a regular carrier is on vacation.
Considerations
-
Prospective letter carriers must pass a special examination given by the U.S. Postal Service when it is in need of additional carriers. Successful applicants must receive a score of 95 to 100 percent to be considered for a position, although military veterans may receive lower scores and still be considered for employment. The examination covers address checking, forms completion, coding, memory, and an inventory of personal experiences and characteristics. You can find post office exam preparation programs online at postofficejobs.com and examtest.com (see Resources). Libraries and bookstores offer study guides for the U.S. Postal Service exam.
Benefits
-
Mail carriers enjoy the freedom of doing their jobs in the outdoors and aren't tied to a desk for 8 hours a day. They are covered by the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and the federal retirement program. Full-time carriers receive 13 paid sick days per year. Annual leave is determined by length of service, but carriers who have been employed for 15 years or longer receive 26 days of paid leave annually. Carriers can also participate in flexible spending accounts, life insurance and thrift savings plans.
-
