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!

[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