Editing Mail carrier

{{Short description|Postal worker}}
{{redirect-multi|2|Mailman|Postman}}
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[[File:NYPL 1814 postman.jpg|thumb|upright|19th-century English postman ]]A '''mail carrier''', also referred to as a '''mailman''', '''mailwoman''', '''mailperson''', '''postal carrier''', '''postman''', '''postwoman''', '''postperson''', '''person of post''',<ref>{{cite web |title=Can you deliver the goods? |work=[[Royal Mail]] |year=2013 |url=http://www.royalmail.com/jobs-home-page/can-you-deliver-goods |access-date=2013-02-15|archive-date=19 December 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111219060424/http://www.royalmail.com/jobs-home-page/can-you-deliver-goods}}</ref> '''letter carrier''' (in [[American English]]), or colloquially '''postie''' (in Australia,<ref>{{cite web |title=Keeping Our Posties Safe |work=[[Australia Post]] |url=http://auspost.com.au/education/ourpost/students/our-post/posties-safe.html |access-date=2013-02-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180420203154/http://auspost.com.au/education/ourpost/students/our-post/posties-safe.html |archive-date=20 April 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Canada,<ref>{{cite web |title=Nelson: More big cheques will soon be in posties' mail |work=[[Calgary Herald]] |year=2018 |url=https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/nelson-more-big-cheques-will-soon-be-in-posties-mail |access-date=2020-01-10}}</ref> New Zealand,<ref>{{cite web |title=Postie |work=[[New Zealand Post]] |year=2009 |url=http://jobs.nzpost.co.nz/careers/operations/postie |access-date=2013-02-15}}</ref> and the United Kingdom<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Robinson|editor1-first=Mairi|title=The Concise Scots Dictionary|year=1987|publisher=Aberdeen University Press|isbn=0-08-028492-2|page=511|edition=1987|quote=post &c, ''16-'' postie &c, ''17-'' - ''n'', a letter carrier, ''orig'' a courier carrying mails, ''now'' a Post Office postman}}</ref>), is an employee of a [[post office]] or postal service who delivers [[mail]] and [[parcel post]] to residences and businesses. The term "mail carrier" came to be used as a gender-neutral substitute for "mailman" soon after women began performing the job. In the [[Royal Mail]], the official name changed from "letter carrier" to "postman" in 1883,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.postalheritage.org.uk/visiting/familyhistory/whatdidyourrelativesdo/ |title=What did your relatives do? |publisher=British Postal Museum & Archive |access-date=4 December 2009 |location=London |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090118132432/http://postalheritage.org.uk/visiting/familyhistory/whatdidyourrelativesdo |archive-date=18 January 2009}}</ref> and "postwoman" has also been used for many years.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Post Office |journal=[[The Strand Magazine]] |volume=14 |pages=221 |publisher=George Newnes |location=London |date=1897 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qZiYMsBzbEgC&dq=postwoman&pg=PA221 |access-date=6 December 2020}}</ref>

==United States==
In the [[United States]], there are three types of mail carriers: City Letter Carriers, who are represented by the [[National Association of Letter Carriers]]; [[Rural Letter Carrier|Rural Carriers]], who are represented by the [[National Rural Letter Carriers' Association]]; and Highway Contract Route carriers, who are independent contractors. While union membership is voluntary, city carriers are organized nearly 93 percent nationally.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nalc.org/nalc/facthist/nalcfact.html |title=NALC Facts & History - FAQ |publisher=Nalc.org |date=2013-01-28 |access-date=2013-12-25 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113034758/http://www.nalc.org/nalc/facthist/nalcfact.html |archive-date=13 November 2013}}</ref>

Letter carriers are paid hourly with the potential for overtime. They are also subject to "pivoting" on a daily basis. When a carrier's assigned route will take less than 8 hours to complete, management may "pivot" said carrier to work on another route to fill that carrier up to 8 hours. Postal management uses this tool to redistribute and eliminate overtime costs, based on consultation with the carrier about his/her estimated workload for the day and mail volume projections from the DOIS (Delivery Operations Information System) computer program. Routes are adjusted and/or eliminated based on information (length, time, and overall workload) controlled by the program, consultations 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 actual delivery of mail).{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}
[[File:StateLibQld 1 119780 Postmen walking in the laneway beside Brisbane's General Post Office, ca.1936.jpg|thumb|Postmen walking in the [[laneway]] beside [[General Post Office, Brisbane|Brisbane's General Post Office]], c. 1936]]
Rural carriers are under a form of [[salary]] called "evaluated hours", usually with overtime built into their pay. The evaluated hours are created by having all mail counted for a period of two or four weeks, and a formula used to create the set dollar amount they will be paid for each day worked until the next time the route is counted. {{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}

Highway Contract Routes are awarded to the lowest bidder,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://about.usps.com/publications/pub100/pub100_017.htm|title=Star Routes|website=about.usps.com|access-date=2019-10-11}}</ref> and that person then either carries the route themselves or hires carriers to fulfill their contract to deliver the mail.

Letter carriers typically work urban routes that are high density and low mileage. Such routes are classified as either "mounted" routes (for those that require a vehicle) or "walking" routes (for those that are done on foot). When working a mounted route, letter carriers usually drive distinctive white vans with the logo of the [[United States Postal Service]] on the side and deliver to curbside and building affixed [[Letter box|mailboxes]].
Carriers who walk generally also drive postal vehicles to their routes, park at a specified location, and carry one "loop" of mail, up one side of the street and back down the other side, until they are back to their vehicle. This method of delivery is referred to as "park and loop". Letter carriers may also accommodate alternate delivery points if "extreme physical hardship" is confirmed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://pe.usps.gov/Archive/HTML/DMMArchive0106/print/508.htm#wp1046972 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060825000554/http://pe.usps.gov/Archive/HTML/DMMArchive0106/print/508.htm#wp1046972 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2006-08-25 |title=USPS DMM 508 Recipient Services |publisher=Pe.usps.gov |date=1994-07-03 |access-date=2013-12-25}}</ref> In cases where mail carriers do not have assigned vehicles, they may also get undelivered mail from [[relay box]]es placed along their routes.<ref>{{cite news
 | last = Levine
 | first = Alexandra S.
 | title = New York Today: Mysterious Mailboxes
 | newspaper = [[The New York Times]]
 | date = 21 July 2017
 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/nyregion/new-york-today-postal-service-mailboxes.html
 | access-date = 9 April 2021}}</ref>[[File:Provincia de Buenos Aires - Cartero en 1920.jpg|thumb|20th-century mounted postman in Buenos Aires]]Rural carriers typically work routes that have a lower density and higher mileage than those of letter carriers.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thenation.com/article/in-rural-america-the-postal-service-is-already-collapsing/|title=In Rural America, the Postal Service Is Already Collapsing|last=Bittle|first=Jake|journal=The Nation|date=2018-05-03|access-date=2019-10-13|language=en-US|issn=0027-8378}}</ref> They all work mounted routes, leaving their vehicles only to deliver to group mailboxes or to deliver an article that must be taken to a customer's door. However, with former rural areas being urbanized, their routes are growing very similar to mounted "city routes." Rural carriers often use their own vehicles and are not required to wear a uniform. Because of urbanization around cities and because rural carriers deliver mail at less cost to the Postal Service, the rural carrier craft is the only craft in the Postal Service that is growing.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}

Highway Contract Route carriers work routes that were established with a density of less than one customer per mile driven (some later become denser and can then be converted to rural delivery). They are only mounted routes, and all HCR carriers use their own vehicle. These routes are typically found in outlying areas, or around very small communities.[[File:Postman on Wandle Rd, SW17 (5479444030).jpg|thumb|21st-century postman in London delivering mail from a modern mail cart]]

The three types of mail carriers are also hired differently. A new letter carrier begins as a City Carrier Assistant (CCA).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nalc.org/depart/cau/index.html |title=Contract Administration |publisher=NALC |access-date=2013-12-25 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131127073409/http://www.nalc.org/depart/cau/index.html |archive-date=27 November 2013}}</ref> Rural carriers are hired as Rural Carrier Associate (RCA) carriers, without benefits. There is normally an RCA assigned to each rural route and they typically work less frequently than city CCAs. As a result, there are thousands of RCA positions that go unfilled due to lack of applicants that are instead covered by other RCAs until hiring improves<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.usps.com/employment/ruralcarrierassoc.htm |title=USPS - |access-date=2006-08-06 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822231510/http://www.usps.com/employment/ruralcarrierassoc.htm |archive-date=22 August 2006}}</ref> for the hiring process explained). Highway Contract Route carriers are hired by the winning bidder for that route. They are not United States Postal Service employees and normally receive lower pay than carriers on city or rural routes.

===Female carriers===
[[File:Female mail carrier during WWI.jpg|thumb|upright|Jeanne Decorne, a female auxiliary mail carrier collecting mail in Paris during [[World War I]] about 1915]]
Women have been transporting mail in the United States since the late 1800s. According to the United States Post Office archive, "the first known appointment of a woman to carry mail was on 3 April 1845, when Postmaster General [[Cave Johnson]] appointed Sarah Black to carry the mail between Charlestown Md P.O. & the Rail Road "daily or as often as requisite at $48 per annum". For at least two years Black served as a mail messenger, ferrying the mail between Charlestown's train depot and its post office."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/women-carriers.pdf |title=Women Mail Carriers |date=June 2007|website=About.usps.com |access-date=2015-07-15}}</ref>

At least two women, Susanna A. Brunner in New York and Minnie Westman in Oregon, were known to be mail carriers in the 1880s. [[Mary Fields]], nicknamed "Stagecoach Mary", was the first black woman to work for the USPS, driving a [[stagecoach]] in Montana from 1895 until the early 1900s.<ref>{{cite web |author=Drewry, Jennifer M. |url=http://www.cascademontana.com/mary.htm |title=Mary Fields a pioneer in Cascade's past |publisher=Cascademontana.com |access-date=2013-12-25 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120729174246/http://www.cascademontana.com/mary.htm |archive-date=29 July 2012}}</ref> When aviation introduced [[airmail]], the first woman mail pilot was [[Katherine Stinson]] who dropped [[mail bag|mailbags]] from her plane at the Montana State Fair in September 1913.<ref name="usps women">{{cite web|url=http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/women-carriers.pdf |title=Women Carriers |website=About.usps.com|access-date=2009-03-02}}</ref>

The first women city carriers were appointed in World War I and by 2007, about 59,700 women served as city carriers and 36,600 as rural carriers representing 40 per cent of the carrier force.<ref name="usps_women">{{cite web |author=Historian USPS |title=History of Women Carriers |work=Postal People |publisher=USPS |date=June 2007 |url=http://www.usps.com/postalhistory/_pdf/WomenCarriers.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090508223754/https://www.usps.com/postalhistory/_pdf/WomenCarriers.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2009-05-08 |access-date=2009-03-02}}</ref>

==Famous carriers==
[[File:Estatua El Cartero.jpg|thumb|upright|Postmen homage in [[Rosario]], [[Argentina]]; opus by [[Erminio Blotta]], Palace General Post Office]]
Famous real-life letter carriers include:

* [[Berry van Aerle]], Dutch football player (35 caps){{citation needed|date=October 2023}}
* [[Raymond van Barneveld]], who worked as a postman before becoming a professional darts player{{cn|date=January 2024}}
* [[Olivier Besancenot]], candidate for the French presidential elections in 2002 and 2007
* [[Peter Bonetti]], [[England|English]] [[Goalkeeper (association football)|goalkeeper]] who played for [[Chelsea F.C.]]
* [[Charles Bukowski]], novelist and poet
* [[Allan B. Calhamer]], the inventor of board game ''[[Diplomacy (game)|Diplomacy]]''
* [[Jean Cameron]], Scottish World War 2 postwoman who changed the uniform to allow trousers.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2017-03-07|title=Wearing the Trousers|url=https://www.postalmuseum.org/blog/wearing-the-trousers/|access-date=2021-12-09|website=The Postal Museum|language=en-US}}</ref>
* [[Steve Carell]], American actor<ref>Interview: Steve Carell (March 20, 2006). ''InFANity: The Office'', [[TV Guide]] Channel.</ref> 
* [[Ferdinand Cheval]], who spent 33 years building an "ideal castle"
* [[Ace Frehley]], original guitarist for the rock band [[Kiss (band)|Kiss]], worked as a mailman before he became the "Spaceman"
* [[Domingo French]], mailman of the [[Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata]], turned into revolutionary and soldier during the [[May Revolution]]
* [[Vic Godard]], English punk musician, founder of the [[Subway Sect]], became a postman midway through his music career
* [[Terry Griffiths]], a former postman who became a world-champion snooker player
* [[David Harvey (footballer)|David Harvey]], a goalkeeper who became a postman after leaving football
* [[Rudolph Hass]], developer of the [[Hass avocado]]
* [[Gladys' Leap|Gladys Hillier]], [[England|English]] postwoman, inspiration for the title of an album by [[Fairport Convention]]
* [[Brad Hogg]], an Australian cricketer who is a former Perth postman
* [[Elsie Johansson]], Swedish poet and author who worked at the postal office for around 30 years before she'd her literary debut at the age of 48.
* [[Alan Johnson]], the former UK [[Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer]]<ref name="AlanJohnson">{{cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=7909132 |title=The charming Mr Johnson|newspaper=[[The Economist]]|author= Bagehot|date= 14 September 2006|access-date=21 June 2021}}</ref>
* [[Kimeru]], a famous Japanese pop singer, worked as a mailman before he pursued his singing career
* [[Keith Knox]], a Scottish footballer who also worked as a postman throughout his 25-year career
* [[Tom Kruse (mailman)|Tom Kruse]], MBE was a mailman on the Birdsville Track in the border area between South Australia and Queensland
* [[Stephen Law]], philosopher. Expelled from school and worked as a postman until being accepted to [[Trinity College, Oxford]] to study philosophy
* [[Jan Nyssen]] was a mailman from 1977 to 1997 in [[Liège]] (Belgium) and became a [[Professor]] of [[Geography]].
* [[John Prine]], Grammy winning folk singer
* [[Bon Scott]], former lead singer of [[AC/DC]] was once a 'postie' in Australia
* [[Allan Smethurst]], English singer known as "The Singing Postman"
* [[Snowshoe Thompson]], mail delivery on skis
* [[Neil Webb]], English footballer who became a postman after leaving professional football

==Fictional carriers==
[[Image:Mr. McFeely heads to post office.jpg|thumb|Mr. McFeely delivering a letter]]
[[Image:Postman Pat, Omagh - geograph.org.uk - 2193341.jpg|thumb|Postman Pat]]

* [[Cleveland Brown]] from ''[[Family Guy]]''.
* [[Cliff Clavin]] ([[John Ratzenberger]]) was a main character on the [[NBC]] series ''[[Cheers]]''.
* Gordon Krantz as ''The Postman'', main character in the [[The Postman|novel]] and [[The Postman (film)|film adaptation]] ([[Kevin Costner]]).
* Jules ([[Frédéric Andréi]]), the main character in the 1981 French thriller film [[Diva (1981 film)|''Diva'']].
* [[Newman (Seinfeld)|Newman]] ([[Wayne Knight]]) was a recurring character on the [[NBC]] series ''[[Seinfeld]]''.
* Mr. McFeely ([[David Newell]]) on the [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]] series ''[[Mister Rogers' Neighborhood]]'' and its animated spin-off ''[[Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood]]''.
* Mr. Sprinkles ([[William Newman (actor)|William Newman]]) in the 1993 film ''[[Mrs. Doubtfire]]''.
* Reba the Mail Lady ([[S. Epatha Merkerson]]) from the children's TV series ''[[Pee-Wee's Playhouse]]''.
* Tom Tipper from ''[[The Railway Series]]'' book ''Really Useful Engines'', then the [[Thomas & Friends series 4|series 4]] of ''[[Thomas & Friends]]'' episode "Mind That Bike".
* [[List of Postman Pat characters|Pat Clifton]], the title character of the children's television series ''[[Postman Pat]]'', famed for delivering letters in his "bright red van" with Jess, his "black and white cat".

==In heraldry==
The coat of arms of [[Daugailiai]], [[Lithuania]] features a postman playing [[post horn]].{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

==See also==
* [[Balloon mail]]
* [[Jewish letter carriers]]
* [[List of fictional postal employees]]
* [[Mail delivery by animal]]
* [[Mail satchel]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Mail carriers}}
* [http://www.nalc.org/ National Association of Letter Carriers]
* [http://www.nrlca.org/ National Rural Letter Carriers' Association]

{{Postal system}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mail Carrier}}
[[Category:Mail carriers| ]]
[[Category:Transport occupations]]