My carrier  brings friends along with her while she delivers the mail and I was wondering if she's allowed to do this. We frequently have mis-delivered mail and I think chatting with friends while delivering may be part of the problem. I've also had more bills and books go lost since she became my carrier than I ever did with the old carrier. It's pretty frustrating.

So, does the PO allow friends along for the ride? FWIW, I don't want to get her in trouble. I will probably just speak to her about this if it is against the rules. She's a very sweet lady and I do not want to cause any problems with her job, especially since she is so close to her retirement. She's so nice that I hate to even complain to her, but I really need all of my mail delivered.

Any suggestions of what I can do about this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Is yours a route that is driven or is it walked? 

If it's walked, maybe her friend likes to walk for exercise and they run in to each other sometimes? 

If the route is driven, I'd think that would be against any policies the PO has.  What would happen if the USPS vehicle were in an accident while a "civilian" was riding along? 

Maybe you should just call and ask let the postmaster know that your mail is frequently misdirected and not tell them that there is this is issue.

Walking or mounted, this isn't allowed.

Could she be training someone as a substitute?

I'd keep track of the mis-directed mail for a while (write down the date and details of the misdirected pieces) and then take that to your postmastere.

Everyone's human and there is the occasional mistake in sorting out mail but it shouldn't be happening on a regular basis.  We had that problem for a while.  It seemed like every sale flyer for blocks around was deposited in our mailbox.  Stuff on the same street I could understand, but one day we got like 15 pieces of mail for about 12 different addresses delivered to our box.  Some of it wasn't even close to where we live.  We definitely complained about that one.