Where does the post office deliver your mail?

@tsarstepan,

tsarstepan wrote:

The most stressful part of the day was organizing the loose mail into those mail sorter cabinets without knowing the exact street geography and the address and street numbering isn't as simple as it should be.

Hey tsar, My father, two uncles, and a cousin worked for the PO. When I was a little Roberta, I remember my father practicing his "scheme." He had cards with names and addresses on them and a wooden equivalent of the mail slots into which the mail had to be sorted. He practiced at home. He was tested regularly.

Now this is automated. I'm guessing that the new system is faster than my father was, but not by much.

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@Ceili,

I love that "Citites in Bloom" idea. Mailmen get to know neighborhoods better than anyone.

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Interesting!

Eva, I think you could be right about the year the neighborhood was developed having an impact on how the mail is delivered.

I've almost always lived in older neighborhoods, close to the city centers, which may explain why I haven't seen much of the mail delievery systems that aren't door to door.

Tsar, I can imagine that it would be stressful to have a new route on a regular basis.

Swimpy, it drives our dog crazy too. You'd think that after 3 years he'd have calmed down about it a bit. One day I was out working in the yard and letting Diamond run around loose when the mailman (Jason) came by. He stopped when he saw Diamond outside because usually Diamond is on the other side of the door barking his head off. Jason was really surprised that Diamond was such an gentle, obedient dog in a face to face encounter.

I learned that the dog biting the mailman is a cliche because it really does happen all the time. Apparently the post office doesn't deliver mail to anyone whose dog has ever posed a problem for a mailman.

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I've lived in probably... 10? 15? places in my life, and they all had to-the-door service, with variations according to how many people lived inside that door. (Cubbies at dorm and housing co-op.)

I have the mail slot thing now too, I really love it. First time I've had that.

edit: (started this post a while ago, was interrupted, and just finished), almost every place I've lived was built in the 40's or older.

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live rural, and we have a mailbox across the road from the house, earlier this year the postal service did an evaluation of the route, the y made some folks move the mailboxes to safer areas (wider road shoulder), and even bunched some boxes together (ours is one of three, some have as many as five)

as i travel around the county i notice more of the communal boxes springing up, especially on side roads with few houses, they make a little pull in on the shoulder of the side road, just off the main road and put up a communal box that everyone has to go to to get their mail

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@djjd62,

I recall that Noddy had a box like this and it was often quite difficult for her to get her mail. Is it a problem for people or mostly no big deal?

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When I was a kid, we lived in a two family house where you had to walk up a flight of stairs to get to my place. There was a mail slot in my front door. The mailman delivered the mail TWICE a day...........at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. He carried the mail in a large leather bag (a la Santa Claus.)

.Later on, the mailmen got these wheeled thingies that would hold the bag, while they pushed them. They could then deliver the mail to the upstairs addresses by leaving the bag out on the street, and just taking the mail out for that address, not dragging the entire bag.

When I was a teenager, my parents bought a house in a rather new neighborhood. You had to go to the post office to get your mail. Some years later, they started home delivery.

I live in a one family house, with a community mailbox. There actually is a box that is a bit closer to me. If I want to mail something, I drop it off at the closer mailbox, because the mailman comes later to that box.

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@boomerang,

seeing where some of them are, i imagine they'd be pretty crappy to get to in the winter

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@boomerang,

Dunno excatly where my mail ends up, but I'v repeatedly recived loads of wrongly deliverd mail from various people from afar in the neighbour hood.

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@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

I think it works like that for my sister in Houston. All my Austin clan have neighborhood mailboxes -- even my sister who lived on the fancy golf course.

Yeah but I live in the "Keep Austin Weird" area.

It ain't like where normal folks live.

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@Eva,

Eva wrote:

... However, all the newer neighborhoods (1970s forward) have mailboxes at the curb.

I recall reading somewhere that the USPS instituted a policy that required all new housing to have curbside (vs front door) mail boxes. I think the USPS actually owns the boxes, even though you buy it and put in on your property, they are the only ones who can legally put anything in a mailbox (other than you for USPS pickup). I don't remember what year they instituted the policy, but the fact that newer neighborhoods have curb side boxes makes sense.

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And you can't have any old mailbox without permission

Quote:

Policies for Curbside Mailboxes

* You need to contact your local Post Office before moving your mailbox or mailbox support, because your mailbox needs to be approved by the Postal Service. Your postmaster will approve custom-made mailboxes on a one-time basis as long as they generally meet USPS standards.

* The name on your mailbox should be at least 1 inch high.

* You should install the mailbox with the bottom of the box at a vertical height of between 41-45 inches from the road surface, unless you have a road or curb condition that prevents this. If you do, be sure to contact the postmaster before you change your mailbox location.

* Boxes must also be on the right-hand side of the road and in the carrier’s direction of travel in all cases in which driving on the left-hand side to reach the boxes would pose a traffic hazard or violate traffic laws and regulations.

* Your mailbox should be set back 6 to 8 inches from the front face of the curb or road edge to the mailbox door.

* A mailbox with a lock must be a model that’s USPS approved by the Postmaster General, with a slot large enough to accommodate your daily volume of mail.

* Advertising on a mailbox or its supporting post is prohibited.

* Our regulations cover what can and can’t be placed in a curbside mailbox or mailbox outside of your house, which generally includes only mail that has been sent through the USPS. However, our regulations don’t govern what can be placed in a mail slot on your door.

* You can attach a receptacle for newspaper delivery by a private company to the post of a curbside mailbox used by the Postal Service as long as it doesn’t:

o touch or use any part of the mailbox for support.
o interfere with mail delivery, obstruct the view of the mailbox flag, or present a hazard to a mailperson or vehicle.
o extend beyond the front of the mailbox when the box door is closed.
o display any advertising, except the publication’s title.

* For posts and supports, it’s up to you to keep them neat and adequate in strength and size. Ideally, its assembly should bend or fall away when struck by a vehicle. The Postal Service doesn’t regulate mailbox supports except for purposes of carrier safety and delivery efficiency. It’s also your responsibility to ensure a path is clear to your mailbox so that carriers can safely and efficiently deliver the mail.

Installation of curbside mailboxes must meet our specific construction standards, which you can find at your local Post Office™. For a copy of our standards (United States Postal Service STD-7B, Mailboxes, City and Rural Curbside), write to:

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We have a box on the curb in front of our house (newish neighborhood, I guess)...had to-the-door service growing up. HOA makes everyone have the exact same box, same height, etc. Mike, our old carrier, recently retired (he wasn't really all that old) but the nicest guy ever. He left us all a really nice letter on his last day. I miss him.

The new guy is tremendously stressed out (for various reasons, I think...he doesn't speak English well and probably the morning sorting stresses him). Mike always got our mail to us fairly early, but now it's pretty late. I don't mind as long as I don't get yelled at. The new guy has yelled at me a couple of time LOL...screaming, actually, but not just me, I don't think.

I'm just grateful we still have daily mail delivery.

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http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/mfl/lowres/mfln1334l.jpg

and we have to walk out to the mailbox and do not get it delivered into a slot anymore.

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@Irishk,

My dad was a mail carrier for a very long time and he was perpetually stressed out at the beginning. (First as a sub, and then when he started what would become a long-term route.) So I think the "new" part might be the most pertinent re: your mail carrier.

I can't remember all the details about why -- I think it boils down to having to do a vast number of separate actions (especially sorting) that become no-brainers eventually but take significant effort at the beginning, and how that's compounded by time limits. So if there are say 500 actions and each one takes an extra 20 seconds when you're new, that adds up to almost 3 hours extra in the day. Which you really can't do.

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@sozobe,

I think it's stress, too. I talked to Mike about it once. He'd been with the P.O. a good while and had tons of vacation time, plus a generous amount of sick days. I mentioned to him one day how much we missed him when he went on vacation -- it was really noticeable lol. He told me how much harder it is for subs, that they have a million things to do in the morning and limited time to do it. It was a real eye-opener into their daily routine.

Our new guy subbed for Mike for a few months before he got our route as a regular schedule. Whenever we'd get our mail after dark, we'd say, "Mike's on vacation again" lol. He was the best, though. Always had a smile and something nice to say if I was out front when he came by. Things will ease up for the new guy...just takes time.

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@sozobe,

sozobe wrote:

So if there are say 500 actions and each one takes an extra 20 seconds when you're new, that adds up to almost 3 hours extra in the day. Which you really can't do.

I can attest to that! The one major stress I don't miss about my temp job at the post office.

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@sozobe,

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When I lived in Georgetown Colorado there were no mail boxes; the post office was a walk-in closet in the cafe. No-one had a "box" there was just a large wire basket where everyone's mail went. After sorting through the basket and retrieving your mail you could sit down for a cuppa while reading your mail. Everyone's address was
"Name
Georgetown, Colorado"

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@dyslexia,

Yeah, i found an envelope in a farm house once that simply read "Mr. Jones, Williamsburg, Virginia." I wonder if he got rural delivery, or if he had to walk into town for it.

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Where does the post office deliver your mail?

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