Glossary
Postal Mail Carrier Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential postal mail carrier terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key postal mail carrier vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in postal mail carrier training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Arrow key
- A key used to open apartment and collection boxes.
- Casing
- Sorting mail into route order.
- CCA
- City carrier assistant: a non-career city carrier.
- Certified mail
- Mail requiring a signature.
- Collection box
- A blue box for outgoing mail.
- Dog warning card
- A card noting addresses with dogs.
- DPS
- Delivery point sequenced mail sorted by machine.
- Flats
- Large envelopes and magazines.
- Hold mail
- A request to stop delivery temporarily.
- Park and loop
- Parking and walking a loop of deliveries.
- Peak season
- The busy holiday period.
- RCA
- Rural carrier associate: a non-career rural carrier.
- Route
- The assigned delivery area.
- Scanner
- A device that records delivery.
- Undeliverable
- Mail that can’t be delivered.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Postal Mail Carrier practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Postal Mail Carrier training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.