Postal Service Mail Carrier Sort and deliver mail for the United States Postal Service (USPS). Deliver mail on established route by vehicle or on foot. Includes postal service mail carriers employed by USPS contractors.
Postal Service Mail Carrier is Also Know as
In different settings, Postal Service Mail Carrier is titled as
- City Carrier
- City Carrier Assistant (CCA)
- City Letter Carrier
- City Mail Carrier
- Letter Carrier
- Mail Carrier
- Rural Carrier
- Rural Carrier Associate (RCA)
- Rural Mail Carrier
- Rural Route Carrier
Education and Training of Postal Service Mail Carrier
Postal Service Mail Carrier is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Postal Service Mail Carrier
Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.
Education Required for Postal Service Mail Carrier
These occupations usually require a high school diploma.
Degrees Related to Postal Service Mail Carrier
Training Required for Postal Service Mail Carrier
Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Postal Service Mail Carrier in different industries are
- Postal Service Clerks
- Couriers and Messengers
- Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service
- Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks
- Cargo and Freight Agents
- Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators
- Light Truck Drivers
- Freight Forwarders
- Postmasters and Mail Superintendents
- Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance
- Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service
- Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks
- Driver/Sales Workers
- Order Clerks
- Baggage Porters and Bellhops
- Counter and Rental Clerks
- Stockers and Order Fillers
- Customer Service Representatives
- Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers
- Office Clerks, General
What Do Postal Service Mail Carrier do?
- Obtain signed receipts for registered, certified, and insured mail, collect associated charges, and complete any necessary paperwork.
- Sort mail for delivery, arranging it in delivery sequence.
- Deliver mail to residences and business establishments along specified routes by walking or driving, using a combination of satchels, carts, cars, and small trucks.
- Return to the post office with mail collected from homes, businesses, and public mailboxes.
- Turn in money and receipts collected along mail routes.
- Sign for cash-on-delivery and registered mail before leaving the post office.
- Record address changes and redirect mail for those addresses.
- Hold mail for customers who are away from delivery locations.
- Bundle mail in preparation for delivery or transportation to relay boxes.
- Leave notices telling patrons where to collect mail that could not be delivered.
- Meet schedules for the collection and return of mail.
- Return incorrectly addressed mail to senders.
- Maintain accurate records of deliveries.
- Answer customers' questions about postal services and regulations.
- Provide customers with change of address cards and other forms.
- Report any unusual circumstances concerning mail delivery, including the condition of street letter boxes.
- Register, certify, and insure parcels and letters.
- Travel to post offices to pick up the mail for routes or pick up mail from postal relay boxes.
- Enter change of address orders into computers that process forwarding address stickers.
- Complete forms that notify publishers of address changes.
- Sell stamps and money orders.
- Scan labels on letters or parcels to confirm receipt.
Qualities of Good Postal Service Mail Carrier
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Tools Used by Postal Service Mail Carrier
- Delivery unit computers
- Handheld computers
- Mail distribution cases
- Mail relay boxes
- Mail sorting trays
- Passenger vehicles
- Portable barcode scanners
- Postal vehicle tire chains
- Route cases
- Small trucks
- Time clocks
- Wheeled carts
Technology Skills required for Postal Service Mail Carrier
- Address Management System AMS
- Automated Data Collection System ADCS
- Delivery operations information system DOIS
- Delivery Routing System DRS
- Electronic Time Clock ETC
- End of Run Report EOR
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Windows
- Microsoft Word
- Time and Attendance Collection System TACS
- Word processing software