Mailboxes

[Rick Potter]

At the local Post Office, for 15 years there used to be a drive through area with half a dozen mailboxes. A couple weeks ago, they were just gone, and we had to park and go in the lobby to mail letters.

Is this happening elsewhere, or is it just a local manifestation?? Wonder why?

No politics please.

[Lisa Starr]

Our local post office never had a mailbox you could drive up to. We do have a walk up one located outside the post office and it is still there. Since they've opened the lobby portion of our PO to 24/7, it wouldn't surprise me to see the box outside go.

[Doug Dawson]

At the local Post Office, for 15 years there used to be a drive through area with half a dozen mailboxes. A couple weeks ago, they were just gone, and we had to park and go in the lobby to mail letters.

Is this happening elsewhere, or is it just a local manifestation?? Wonder why?

No politics please.

it’s all about politics, so we can’t discuss it here.

[Jim Barkelew]

Nothing to do with politics. People don't mail letters/bills like they did before. The post office has been operating in the red for decades so removing or relocation boxes has been an ongoing effort to save your tax dollars.

[Alan Rutherford]

Nothing to do with politics. People don't mail letters/bills like they did before. The post office has been operating in the red for decades so removing or relocation boxes has been an ongoing effort to save your tax dollars.

You might be right, but in a service industry making your service less convenient is not usually the path to success.

[Jim Becker]

Nothing to do with politics. People don't mail letters/bills like they did before. The post office has been operating in the red for decades so removing or relocation boxes has been an ongoing effort to save your tax dollars.

The USPS posted something like a $2 Billion gross profit in the last measurable period. The "loss" is because of enforced fully funding of retirement obligations out 75 years or something like that. They are not generally funded by tax dollars, either.

Unfortunately, the likely reasons for so many drop boxes disappearing really are things that cannot be discussed here at SMC...and if they are, this will be yet another thread that moves behind the curtain.

[Stan Calow]

All our post offices still have drive up boxes. But most of the stand alone ones around town have disappeared. We had lots of vandalism and theft going on with them.

[Brian Elfert]

The USPS posted something like a $2 Billion gross profit in the last measurable period. The "loss" is because of enforced fully funding of retirement obligations out 75 years or something like that. They are not generally funded by tax dollars, either.


The USPS has not made any of the required payments to their retiree healthcare fund since 2012 so retiree healthcare is not causing their losses for the past number of years. I find it interesting that there are an equal number of current employees and retirees getting healthcare from the USPS. That doesn't seem very sustainable.

Congress passed the Postal Reorganization Act in 1970. The USPS is required by law to maintain the same level of employee benefits that employees got in 1970. They can't eliminate retiree healthcare without adding another benefit worth the same amount of money.

[Brian Elfert]

It makes sense to remove some of the collection boxes located on street corners and such. It makes zero sense to remove mail collection boxes at Post Offices. It can't save more than $1,000 a year per Post Office to get rid of them. There is very little labor cost and a little bit of cost to maintain the boxes.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Nothing to do with politics. People don't mail letters/bills like they did before. The post office has been operating in the red for decades so removing or relocation boxes has been an ongoing effort to save your tax dollars.


Locally here, drive up drop boxes are often over flowing with mail. Mail looks like a tongue sticking out of box. Then you have to go into PO and request that someone come empty the box, which they usually do. PO really needs some kind of camera to monitor the boxes. But the bottom line is it's about politics. FYI, it has been reported, that the Postmaster General is under criminal investigation here in NC for political contributions scheme.

[Mel Fulks]

P.O. General has always been a political plumb job....they don't even wear the uniforms. That shows they don't take the
job seriously!

[Lee DeRaud]

The post office has been operating in the red for decades so removing or relocation boxes has been an ongoing effort to save your tax dollars.The "savings" amounts to what, one employee walking across the parking lot to empty it twice a day?!?

[Rod Sheridan]

At the local Post Office, for 15 years there used to be a drive through area with half a dozen mailboxes. A couple weeks ago, they were just gone, and we had to park and go in the lobby to mail letters.

Is this happening elsewhere, or is it just a local manifestation?? Wonder why?

No politics please.

GHG reduction strategy?

If they already exist at the Post Office, I don’t think there would be much of a saving in removing them, unless someone is interested in hobbling the postal system....Rod

[Kev Williams]

There is no monetary, or rational, or logical reason to remove near zero maintenance free-standing mail drop boxes. That pretty much leaves only one other reason...

[Jim Koepke]

The "savings" amounts to what, one employee walking across the parking lot to empty it twice a day?!?

How much would the cost be since someone inside the post office is getting paid to be there anyway?

jtk

[Jim Matthews]

Unfortunately, the likely reasons for so many drop boxes disappearing really are things that cannot be discussed here at SMC...and if they are, this will be yet another thread that moves behind the curtain.

This situation is a "picture perfect" example of how misinformation breeds more misinformation.

Vox covered this. TLDNR version : that viral photo was taken outside the Hartford Finishing company.

https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/8/19/21375303/mailboxes-removed-usps-postal-service-collection-boxes-mail-in-voting

[Brian Elfert]

Locally here, drive up drop boxes are often over flowing with mail. Mail looks like a tongue sticking out of box. Then you have to go into PO and request that someone come empty the box, which they usually do. PO really needs some kind of camera to monitor the boxes. But the bottom line is it's about politics. FYI, it has been reported, that the Postmaster General is under criminal investigation here in NC for political contributions scheme.

Postal workers seem to live and die by schedules. If the sign on the boxes says they collect the mail at say 9 am, 1 pm, and 5:30 pm those are the times they will collect the mail even if the boxes are normally full by say 3 pm. It sounds like they need to add another collection time if the boxes are overflowing regularly. I am surprised with mail volume down so much that the boxes are filling up. I never go to the Post Office to mail something that would fit into one of those drive-up boxes. I always have a package that has to go inside.

I stopped at a Post Office yesterday to get a Priority Mail envelope. One side of the retail counter was piled practically to the ceiling with packages. I assume they are packages customers dropped for shipping, but why on the counter instead of in the back unless they just don't have room? This Post Office is only a retail location in a strip mall so maybe they don't have enough storage room in the back?

[Ed Aumiller]

In VA there is a lot of vandalism to boxes outside... Prying them open, etc... FYI

[Frederick Skelly]

We still have them at the post office itself, but they have been removed everywhere else around town for 10 years.

[Kev Williams]

I stopped at a Post Office yesterday to get a Priority Mail envelope. One side of the retail counter was piled practically to the ceiling with packages. I assume they are packages customers dropped for shipping, but why on the counter instead of in the back unless they just don't have room?
The packages DO eventually go to the back, but sometimes they pile up pretty good before someone finds time to gather 'em up :)

[Jim Becker]

My local PO where I send packages from and have a box for the business sometimes has piles of stuff at or near the counter when they are busy servicing customers. They deal with that during breaks in traffic when they are not sorting into boxes and while they are preparing for the pickup.

[Bill Dufour]

I read that Ben Frankilin invented the "modern" mail sorting bench still used today.
Bill D

[lowell holmes]

There is a drive in box at our post office.

I find our carriers to be polite and prompt.

[Michael Weber]

Today’s local papers lead story is about mail stolen from drop boxes. These are just outside the main post office. Checks stolen are being cashed. In most cases the amounts have been modified to a much larger amount. The story doesn’t mention how a check for say $95.50 is changed to $9000 but it can’t be simple. Also, nothing in the story indicates who cashes such large checks. Nor any details about how the contents of the drop boxes was achieved. Seemed kind of negligent from a journalistic viewpoint. But our paper is slowly dying and it’s Editor is some young hipster dude.

[Doug Dawson]

Today’s local papers lead story is about mail stolen from drop boxes. These are just outside the main post office. Checks stolen are being cashed. In most cases the amounts have been modified to a much larger amount. The story doesn’t mention how a check for say $95.50 is changed to $9000 but it can’t be simple. Also, nothing in the story indicates who cashes such large checks. Nor any details about how the contents of the drop boxes was achieved. Seemed kind of negligent from a journalistic viewpoint. But our paper is slowly dying and it’s Editor is some young hipster dude.

Apparently the postal police (no pun intended) have been withdrawn from patrol duty, so I can understand how this would be happening.

You can google for the latest news on that.

[Bill Dufour]

Probably in the 1970's thieves broke into a mail drop box and took all the checks. tossed the other mail. They took a counter check, invented a company name, used my fathers account number and forged his signature. Cashed it on a busy Friday afternoon in downtown Oakland for about 500$.
The postal inspector came by and turns out this was a gang traveling up and down the state changing cities every week. Every Friday payday, Multiple checks, multiple banks, multiple accounts all within minutes of each other. They had a good forger in the crew. I thought it was my dad's signature. He could tell it was not.
They gave my dad a letter so he did not have to pay any late fees for unpaid bills since the checks had been stolen in transit proving he had mailed them
Bill D