Talk:Mail carrier

Older posts
I don't have time right now, but this really needs expansion; historical development of job (parttime vs fulltime, tasks such as special delivery or postage due collection), social position, training needed for the job, relation to other postal workers, etc etc. A brief summary for each of 200 nations will be a rather lengthy article in fact! Stan 01:54, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)


 * HEY! What is this transwiki %$^&$#!! I made it clear that this should be a real article, didn't get into any edit war over it, and my reward was to be blown off. Stan 17:36, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

If I don't get any response in 24 hours, I'm going to unprotect this page and clear off all this transwiki crap, seeing as how none of this bot stuff pays attention to objections registered on talk pages. Stan 17:48, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)


 * I am brand new to the Wikipedia so I hope this is the place to point out some shortcomings with this page.


 * This article appears to be about the United States Postal Service mail carriers. First, it is the United States Postal Service not the Post Office this has been official since the 1970's. Second special delivery is ancient history third and most important to me you have included two kinds of mail carriers in this article. The National Rural Letter Carriers Association represents the Rural Carriers. The National Letter Carriers Association Represents City Carriers.


 * The Rural Carriers are the ones who use their own vehicles some times and usually deliver in the rural areas. However, things are not always this nice and tidy. In concept these crafts are very similar however, in practice they operate differently.


 * We also have highway contract carriers delivering mail. — User:Suprise48 12:37, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

Mail carrier
What is this awful neologism? Can't we move this to postman? Jooler 02:29, 10 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Agreed - mail carrier may be in parlance in North America but nowhere else I know 60.234.141.243 (talk) 21:11, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Postman is already a redirect, so this is a redundant suggestion. If you had created Postman first than, the redirect would be from Mail carrier to Postman. If you look here you will see all the 12 redirect pages that cover most of the possible terms used for the people who deliver mail. ww2censor (talk) 21:23, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Yeah, actualy in america we use mailman(sometimes postman), unless specifically refering to a mail-lady. Ive never heard "mail carrier" used commonly. Sorry, no sources.--71.97.138.104 (talk) 18:34, 28 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I agree that mailman or postman are the usual terms, but there is a gender issue to be considered here which is also mentioned in the article itself. But I would question the choice of mail carrier and suggest moving this entry to letter carrier because this seems to be the official term in the United States (see ). Britain's Royal Mail still employs postman, putting it alongside the female term postwoman in their official job offers (see ), which is another viable option for the main entry: Postman/Postwoman.--Tipedia (talk) 11:49, 26 March 2009 (UTC)


 * "Mail carrier" seems unpopular in the United States. The guidelines at Article titles, particiularly in the paragraph WP:POVNAME, lay out the two issues: common usage generally trumps neutrality, but "colloquialisms where far more encyclopedic alternatives are obvious". (Not that mailman or postman are colloquialisms, but it's the nearest the guidelines seem to come to addressing the issue). My own view on usage, approaching age 50 in the Midwestern US, is that mailman, and to a lesser extent postman, are still the most used terms in common usage in the US. In formal English, letter carrier (the US Postal Service's official name) seems to be the most common of the gender-neutral terms used (e.g., in news sources, unless the news sources are intentionally staking out a conservative or anti-feminist political stance). Usage of gender neutral terms in common usage is a bit more common in better educated people my age or younger. Political correctness brought the issue of gender-neutral titles to widespread national attention in the 1980s, although the suggested alternatives mailperson and postperson never caught on to the extent that letter carrier later did.


 * I don't think there's any way to prove any of this. Google is an extremely imprecise tool for such comparisons for a number of reasons, though may indicate rough popularity; here are some Google (US English) result counts (terms were searched inside quotation marks). I omitted some terms like "mail people" and "post people" just because the number of usages not referring to this topic seems too high (e.g., Google would count "I got the e-mail people sent" among the results):
 * "postman" 5,250,000
 * "mailman" 4,960,000
 * "letter carrier" 1,420,000
 * "mail man" 1,290,000
 * "postal carrier" 530,000
 * "mail carrier" 477,000
 * "post man" 355,000
 * "postwoman" 179,000
 * "postperson" 169,000
 * "mail person" 86,800
 * "post person" 79,600
 * "post carrier" 67,200
 * "mailperson" 24,500


 * "letter carriers" 4,580,000
 * "mail carriers" 998,000
 * "post men" 604,000
 * "postmen" 558,000
 * "mailmen" 353,000
 * "postal carriers" 227,000
 * "postwomen" 130,000
 * "post carriers" 109,000
 * "mailpeople" 20,300
 * "postpeople" 15,400
 * "mailpersons" 10,700
 * "postpersons" 8,110


 * Based on that, I'd favor renaming the article "Postman" if going for commonality (with the bonus of being more universal), and "Letter carrier" if choosing for gender neutrality (with the other names redirecting to the article as they currently do, and mentioned in the opening sentence). I think the dominance of "letter carriers" among the plural terms shows a legitimate distinction (people who may use mailman/postman singularly may also use letter carriers when referring to more than one), but the article title should be the singular form, not the plural.


 * ––Agyle (talk) 20:59, 22 July 2014 (UTC)
 * I was just going to say "mailman" or "postman" is the proper title. I have NEVER heard "mail carrier". 79.106.203.116 (talk) 07:56, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

Famous people who happen to also have been mail carriers at some point in their life
Does it disturb anyone else that the list of "Famous carriers" appears to consist mostly of people famous for other things, but who happen to have been mail carriers? I would have expected a list of "Famous carriers" to be a list of people who became famous as a direct result of their job of carrying mail. -- 76.204.102.79 (talk) 03:29, 6 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, I added Domingo French, and in his case his work as mail carrier, even if not the source of his notability, was instrumental (to a certain degree) in the success of the May Revolution. As a mail carrier, he knew everyone in the city (that was his job) and such knowledge had a great strategic value, helping to identify and monitor suspected counter-revolutionaries MBelgrano (talk) 01:47, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

famous post carriers
Are there no examples famous postcarriers who became famous for doing extraordinary job actually carring and delivering post, rather than excelling is something other than post carrying? As in standing up for burglars, or for working in wars or natural disasters, or for just being so dedicated and punctual for many years (as most post carriers actually are)? —Preceding unsigned comment added by أحمد (talk • contribs) 12:58, 9 October 2009 (UTC)


 * If you can find some soured information on such people please propose them here. ww2censor (talk) 17:15, 9 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Clearly Karl Malone is a famous mail carrier. "Mailman" is a common term used to describe a mail carrier, and Karl Malone is known as "The Mailman." Scatsscout (talk) 06:31, 18 April 2013 (UTC)


 * But, he was never a mailman in the sense used for mail carrier, so it does not belong in this article as it has nothing to do with carrying mail, unless you can provide a reliable source. ww2censor (talk) 08:38, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

As seen in the video, Karl Malone has delivered a plethora of packages over the years.The Mailman DeliversScatsscout (talk) 09:47, 18 April 2013 (UTC)


 * So what? He is not and never has been a mail carrier. Get over it. ww2censor (talk) 13:09, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Bias
This article should be re-labeled "American Mail Carrier" Firstly the job title is more commonly known globally as "postman" Secondly there are no sections describing postmen outside of America Other countries do exist so please remember us when writing articles. 2.123.131.244 (talk) 05:36, 2 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Agreed, this article should also mention the fact that in 1992, The Mailman himself went international. So there should atleast be a mention of Barcelona getting a taste of true postal professionalism. Tearprod (talk) 08:50, 18 April 2013 (UTC)


 * The article's balance is definitely skewed. I'm sure it's not intentional, but a reflection of disinterest in writing about letter carriers (or whatever name you prefer) in other countries. The name issue discussed in a separate section above. ––Agyle (talk) 20:58, 22 July 2014 (UTC)

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Mail carrier vs. Letter carrier
It was suggested in a recent discussion (at Talk:Chairman), and in an old discussion on this page (above) that "letter carrier" might be a more common term and, therefore, a better title for this article than "mail carrier".

However, on Google Ngrams, "mail carrier" has a clear lead. WanderingWanda (talk) 22:06, 12 May 2019 (UTC)


 * Well, yeah. Lots of things received in the mail aren't letters, so "mail carrier" seems more appropriate. 99.101.56.68 (talk) 23:17, 21 May 2022 (UTC)
 * That has nothing to do with it. And who even says this? Is this a British thing? In the US, we say "mailman". 79.106.203.116 (talk) 08:30, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
 * It's a gender neutral thing. Same as police officer or firefighter. With that said, in the UK most jobs are advertised as postman/postwoman, or rarely postperson. Couruu (talk) 09:52, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

New post
A mail carrier, mailman, mailwoman, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, postperson,[1] or letter carrier (in American English), sometimes colloquially known as a postie (in Australia,[2] Canada,[3] New Zealand,[4] and the United Kingdom[5]), 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,[6] and "postwoman" has also been used for many years.[7] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.96.167.202 (talk) 04:40, 13 June 2023 (UTC)


 * "Mailman" is already gender neutral. 79.106.203.116 (talk) 08:31, 15 June 2023 (UTC)