I use to work for the U.S. Postal Service and during my time there, I got trained on all of the different types of mail routes there were. In case I had to back-up for another mail carrier, I would have some knowledge on how to work or handle their specific mail delivery routes. The mailman that gets to deliver to the apartment mailboxes really has a nice route. Their mornings at the Post Office are the same as everyone else’s. They have to case mail for 400 to 800 households like the other mail delivery drivers do. However, once they get their mail cased and ready to be delivered, they really have it easy. They get to pull up to these big cluster mailboxes and just insert mail into them.

I’m sure most people have seen the way an apartment complex will have their mailboxes set up. Each resident will have their own key for unlocking their special box and getting their mail out from the front side of these CBU mailboxes. The mail carriers for the USPS will have just one master key for unlocking the back panel of these huge mailboxes and it allows him/her access to each individual box from the rear. The mailman just has to stand there and insert each person’s mail and some of these community mailboxes will be large enough for 50 people to get their mail from. As someone who use to deliver mail for a living, its a lot easier servicing 50 customers in this fashion; than trying to drive down small streets and high-traffic roads, where you have to pull in and out each time you make a drop off.

Now in my area there are a lot of apartment buildings which are located in the business districts and where you have a lot of real estate zoned for commercial purposes. The majority of residential areas that find their self in the middle of a lot of commercial real estate, are these low-income and government funded apartment buildings or you have the high-income apartment housing for the upper-class folks. So often a mail carrier working a couple of apartment buildings on their route, will also stop by a few commercial mailboxes; which usually get a lot more mail than the average home owner or person residing in an apartment complex. Each mailman, who has a route for the USPS, can only carry so much mail in their LLV or Long Life Vehicle (most common mail vehicle). Another slight luxury for the lucky few who get apartment building on their route; if they do indeed deliver to businesses too. It doesn’t take too many businesses to fill up a load, so these mail carriers get to drop off huge amounts at each commercial box on their stop; while delivering mail to dozens of others, by simply filling up a cluster box at the apartment buildings. If you plan to get a job or start working for the USPS soon, consider yourself lucky if you have an apartment or two on your route.