USPO Mail Boxes in the USA?
One thing I frequently see in time in American films is Mail Boxes by the kerbside of residential homes. It’s something that’s always puzzled me because we don’t have them in the UK e.g. in the UK the postman always walks up the garden path and pushes the letters through the letter box in the front door – which means in bad weather we don’t have the inconvenience of leaving the house to receive our post.
I’ve done some quick research on the web and learnt that:-
• American Mail Boxes are lockable (which is something I wondered about)
• That (unlike letter boxes in the UK) they have to be USPO approved, and
• Although they are not mandatory, if you don’t have one then the Post Office are not obliged to delivery your mail? Which is different to the UK, where the Post Office have a legal requirement to deliver our post to our door.
Have I got that right, have I missed anything, and what do Americans think of having to walk down their garden path in all weather conditions to collect their post?A perhaps complex topic just from the point of view of yesterday vs today vs tomorrow. First, all delivery points have to be approved by the United States Postal Service (USPS). Going further one has to consider the setting for mail delivery;i.e. metro, suburban, rural, and etc. Also, the receptacle has to be approved by USPS.
In that context the example of walking up the garden path to the point of delivery either being a slot in the door or a receptacle located near the door is not uncommon. I would speculate it occurs in shall we say old neighborhoods regard city planning.
There was a transition from a postal worker walking to deliver the mail to driving a vehicle and use the street located mailboxes. But, the old method of at the door delivery did not change remaining as the method. So, one sees it has a historical context with its complexities such as time, convenience, fuel, and today environmental issues.
In the 1960's the advent of cluster mailboxes took hold and there was a new beginning of change. They use locks. Today, single homes as well as apartments use them. An example is the mobile home park I live at have cluster mailboxes. The park was established prior to 1978. There are four serving four cross streets and two feeder streets going from the front to the back.
The other examples is my brother lives in a single dwelling home built about thirty years ago and they too have cluster mailboxes. My other brother home is the same age, but his neighborhood the mail delivery point is a mailbox at the street in front of his home.
My sister in Oregon home is about forty years old and she has a delivery point at her door with a mail box located near the door. I have a cousin in Texas in a rural setting. His mailbox is at the street/road located a good 50 meters from his home.
As far at that goes I use to live in small community of five duplexes. Our mailboxes were for drive up delivery by the worker at a central location. There were ten separate mailboxes. But, the veterinarian hospital between us and the main street delivery point was to the door.
For a deep dive POM Issue 9, July 2002
Updated With Revisions Through April 30, 2019
508-1/2/24-mh
62 Modes of Delivery, Mail Receptacles, and Keys
https://about.usps.com/what-we-are-doin … on-631.pdf
Take note of the first section titled 'General' stating within that text;
"Centralized delivery is the preferred mode of delivery
for all new residential and commercial developments. Curbside, sidewalk
delivery, and door modes are generally not available for new delivery points, with very rare exceptions, as determined by the Postal Service in its sole discretion, on a case-by-case basis."
As far as walking about 50 meters to my mailbox cluster in inclement weather it is just the way it is. If it is raining I have to live with it. The same when I lived in apartments with their cluster boxes.Wow – and I thought this was going to be a simple topic.
Thanks for the link; very educational.
So, if I understand correctly, the two key points I get from this for residential postal delivery in the USA are:-
• Generally speaking, although other means of delivery in older residential developments can be many and varied, including ‘delivery to the door’ - ‘all’ new developments are ‘centralised delivery’ as the preferred mode of delivery.
• The USPO makes all the rules.
At first I was shocked that you have to walk 50 metres to your mailbox, but then on reflection I remembered that you live on a Mobile Home Park (multi-occupied addresses). So I checked to see what the Post Office in the UK does for residential multi-occupied addresses e.g. ‘Block of Flats’ (Apartments), Boats, and Mobile Home Parks.
Certainly for Mobile Home Parks and Boats, in the UK there will be a suitable central point such as a reception or ‘lockable letter boxes’; For a block of flats (Apartments), the decision is primarily the flats building or site owner e.g. whether to install letter boxes in each door for each flat (apartment) or whether to install ‘lockable letter boxes’ in the entrance to the building. For flats that have individual letter boxes I feel sorry for the postman having to go from floor to floor in the left and trudge up and down all those corridors – especially if the lifts are broken and he has to use the stairs – You sometimes see this in British TV Comedies (and films).
The only relevant video I could find is a 30 second British Humorous Advert that shows deliveries are made to individual doors, even in a block of flats (apartments) in the UK: https://youtu.be/b6aK3cVX2Ts
Because (apart from the above mentioned) all mail in the UK is delivered to the door, one common hazard for the postman in Britain is the dog (an issue often seen on British TV Comedies and films). https://youtu.be/bb8JwKa42kw
MAKING THE RULES
I was intrigued to learn that in the USA it’s the USPO who make the ‘rules’; in contrast in the UK that authority rest with Ofcom (for changes within the confines of the law), and the Government & Parliament for any changes to the law (2011 Act Parliament).
Ofcom is the Government’s independent Regulatory Authority for ‘communications’: https://youtu.be/cdVUr-NrXng
UK POST OFFICE IN FINANCIAL CRISIS
With the dramatic decline since before 2011 in letters being sent by the post, the UK Post Office, like so many postal services in many countries, is facing a financial crisis. It’s a similar story in Australia, where according to my Australian cousins the Australian Postal Service has become very unreliable over the last couple of years.
In the UK, under current ‘rules’ set by Ofcom the UK Post Office has a legal obligation to:-
• Deliver 93% of 1st class letters within 1 working day.
• Deliver 98.5% of 2nd class letters within 3 working days.
• Complete 99.9% of all delivery routes each working day.
Working days currently being Mon – Sat inclusive.
Last year Ofcom fined the Post Office £5.6 million ($7 million) for failing to meet those targets.
To help the Post Office overcome its current financial crisis, while at the same time protecting the interests of the customer (the pubic); Ofcom is currently in the middle of a three month consultation period for making changes to the Postal Service.
A consultation period being where all interested parties e.g. the Post Office, Trade Union, businesses and the pubic etc. can express their views on Ofcom’s proposals and offer their own solutions etc.
After the consultation period Ofcom will spend about another three months reviewing all the submissions received during the consultation period and make an informed decision on any changes that should be made to the current postal system.
For the consultation, Ofcom’s proposed options are:-
1. To relax the delivery speed to within 3 days for 1st class, and longer for 2nd class e.g. a week. But with a proviso that the Post Office will still be obliged to delivery ‘urgent letters’ (as a premium price) within 24 hours, and that the cost of 2nd class letters is capped to 2019 prices e.g. the Post Office can only raise the price of 2nd class letters by the rate of inflation.
2. That letters are delivered just 5 days a week (Mon-Sat), rather than the current six, or
3. Letters are delivered just 3 days a week.
The first option Ofcom can introduce themselves within the existing laws; option 2 & 3 will require a change of law by the Government and Parliament.
This link below gives the full details of Ofcom’s Consultation:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/20 … -moderniseInteresting info. Thanks! I see there are differences and likeness. First, not being critical, it is USPS as in United States Postal Service. I only bring that up as here we have UPS or United Parcel Service a private company. They are international, so you may be familiar with them there in the UK.
The USPS fall under the Postal Regulatory Commission. The Postal Regulatory Commission is an independent Federal agency that provides transparency and accountability of the U. S. Postal Service's operations. The USPS is self funded mainly through postal rates.
A site for a quick snapshot overview is Top Facts you should know about the U.S. Postal Service.
https://facts.usps.com/top-facts/
An interesting nine minute YouTube on the USPS is at the link next
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX16-52bHvg
One thing to bear in mind is that USPS in competition for parcel delivery with the likes of UPS, Fed Ex, DHL, and etc. I imagine in the UK it is the same.
Oh yeah, back on point of delivery the link next is U.S. Postal Service
National Delivery, Planning Standards, A Guide for Builders and
Developers. Look at page 11 for 'July 2020 Single-point Residential Deliveries'.
https://about.usps.com/handbooks/po632.pdf
I have to head the market now, so I will hope what has been shared either answers inquiries or open doors of curiosity.
Note: Referring to another thread about something to do with the internet. Since I have poked about into USPS and point of delivery my Facebook feed is now inundated with ads for mailboxes. The landing page for one is next.
https://www.mailboss.com/?utm_source=fa … RGPqCQQedIPART ONE OF A TWO PART REPLY:
Thanks for the correction Tim; my error (rather sloppy of me) – But your correction bought to my attention that I’ve also been rather sloppy by calling the postal delivery service in the UK as “UK Post Office” – which since 2011 is incorrect, and misleading; as explained below:-
1. Prior to 2011 Mail Delivery and the Post Office were part of the same Organisation – A nationalised industry (State Owned) called the Post Office that delivered the Royal Mail.
2. In 2011 the UK Conservative Government split the organisation into two parts: Post Office & Royal Mail.
3. The Post Office remains a nationalised industry (State Owned), while the Royal Mail was privatised.
Since 2011: The Function of Royal Mail is just to deliver letters and parcels, very much like you video link for the USA; but obviously on a much smaller scale.
Since 2011: The Function of the Post Office includes:
• Act as an Agent for Royal Mail (for a commission) e.g. a retail outlet where people can take their letters and parcels for delivery by Royal Mail.
• The sale of postage and postage stamps on behalf of Royal Mail (for a commission).
• Sell stationary, including envelopes including envelope of course.
• Sell travel insurance, foreign currency, banking services (the Post Office offers its own Savings Account), and where you can pay your Bills over the counter e.g. utility bills etc.
• The Post Office also acts as an Agent (earning commission) from other Departments e.g. you can go to the Post Office if you wish to pay your vehicle tax, hand in your applications for driving licence and passports etc.
Thanks for the clarity and all the links; very educational.
Yep, likewise, in the UK Royal Mail, although it has a monopoly over letter delivery; it does face stiff competition for parcel delivery from the numerous parcel delivery services, including the ones you mentioned, and many more. I’ve used UPS a couple of times myself, and they’ve provided an excellent door to door service at very cheap prices.
As you said “there are differences and likeness”; the two differences that stick in my mind at the moment being:-
1. With delivery to the door in the UK, it’s a lot of leg work for the postman, they can’t just drive up in a van opposite a Mail Box by the Kerbside, and then onto the next one – Our poor postman has to park his/her van in the street and then walk up and down the street, and up and down each garden path in turn, pulling a trolley loaded with post behind – then drive his/her van another 50 yards down the street, and repeat a process – I guess it keeps them fit.
2. That, as you pointed out on page 11 of your third link; that for new residential development, the developer has to consult with the USPS, and it’s the USPS who dictates the terms of delivery e.g. Mail Boxes – Whereas in the UK the Royal Mail doesn’t have a say in it; it’s automatically letter boxes in the front door, unless it’s a block of flats, then it’s entirely up to the owner of the building on whether they want individual letter boxes in each door, or a generalised Mail Boxes in the entrance.
With regards your last paragraph, my American friend in New York complains about that sort of thing all the time – but strangely, I filter it all out in my mind, so I don’t even see the adverts; which can be embarrassing at times e.g. when watching a TV programme with a friend, sometimes they might say “what do you think of that” in such and such an Advert on TV (or words to a similar effect); and I don’t a clue as to what they are on about, because I was oblivious to the advert (I just automatically switch off when the adverts are on).
I’ve got to break off now, as I need to do my monthly accounts e.g. update my budget estimates for the year and pay some bills. We’ve just had our guttering replaced, changed the grey guttering for black, and the rain downpipe from round to square – A bit extravagant perhaps, but It looks really grand now; and also, with the work having been done our roofer will be wanted to be paid soon.
But I shall be back with Part 2 as soon as I can.PART 2:
I’ve done the banking (online), updated my budget plan for the year and paid the bills etc. so back to my reply….
I wanted to reply in two parts in that after clarifying that in the UK since 2011 the Postal Service is now two separate Companies: The Post Office (State Owned nationalised industry), and Royal Mail.
Royal Mail being a profitable Company when it was privatised in 2011, but which is now financially struggling due to the sharp decline in letters sent by post since 2011; hence the consultation and review by the independent Government Regulator, as explained in a recent post.
In this part, I want to focus on the Post Office, as it’s perhaps the more interesting side due to the Post Office scandal – which currently leaves the Post Office at risk of bankruptcy if the Government doesn’t step in with financial help?
You might have heard it on the news in recent months, where the Post Office is the centre of the worst miscarriage of justice in the UK history, where due to a faulty computer system over 4,000 sub postmasters and postmistresses were persecuted by the Post Office, of which 700 sub-postmasters and postmistresses were falsely convicted of fraud between 1998 and 2015; a heart-breaking and true tale of bankruptcies, suicide attempts and jail sentences which has recently been made into a four part TV Drama series by ITV (British TV Channel).
Mr Bates (a sub-postmaster working for the Post Office at the time) who was himself made bankrupt by the Post Office who falsely accused him of fraud, has many, many years, fought the Post Office in a bitter battle in the Courts, and eventually (last year) got the courts to recognise that there had been a gross miscarriage of justice, and won compensation for the victims of around £100 million ($125 million) (£87 million ($110 million) of which the Post Office has now paid out).
Following the recent court case; although the Post Office has now paid out most of the Compensation, to make matters worse, the Post Office offset the compensation against their taxes e.g. by claiming £100 million ($125 million) tax relief on their tax bill, which is illegal: So currently the Post Office is under investigation by Inland Revenue; and if Inland Revenue insists that the Post Office pay them back the $125 million, then unless the Government bails the Post Office out, the Post Office could become bankrupt?
The Inland Revenue investigation is likely to take months, so everything is up in the air at the moment. But never the less ITV (British TV Channel) have made a four part TV Drama Series, which faithfully sticks to the true facts, which was broadcast on TV last month.
Post Office could face £100m tax bill and insolvency, expert claims https://youtu.be/QbSny3hio8c
Below: short preview of the TV Drama Series (telling the true life events) broadcast on TV last month:
Mr Bates vs The Post Office https://youtu.be/2pQwv4qlMck
One bit of good news is that the UK Government is currently passing Legislation through Parliament to quash all the false criminal convictions for fraud.
Nathanville, you brought up an interesting discussion. Thanks for the information on your postal service across the pond. I live in a very gerrymandered area, so I live in the country next to the city. One block from my house the city begins. I point this out because one end of the street is in town and the other is in the county. However, the mail service is treated the same on both ends of the street. The mailboxes are located at the street so the carrier can drive up and place the mail into the box, then drive on to the next one. Since I've lived in this house for 30 years, I've never given it much thought. We live on a steep hillside, and we must access the street level by a staircase up to the yard level, and then eight stone steps on up to the street level. Yep, kind of complicated, but I certainly wouldn't want the mail carrier to get hurt on trying to get access to our front door.
The drawback of having the mailbox on the street is the access by thieves. One day at 10 pm my husband remembered to go out and check the mail. He discovered a teenage boy rifling through our mailbox. The surprised young man dropped the mail to the ground and ran, and hubby was able to retrieve it all. That day any theft would have been no loss as it was all advertisments. We immediately went to the local big box store and bought a locking mailbox large enough to accomodate moderately sized packages. That was last fall, and hubby still has to complete the job of installing the new mailbox. He needs to hurry and complete the job though. Mail theft is rampant now because thieves are looking for drugs and money to buy drugs.
My husband, a heart patient, has all his prescriptions refilled by mail now, so a thief could profit from a foray into our mailbox. Because of new insurance coverage, I will soon switch to prescription mail delivery, making it even more profitable for thieves.
I'd like to bring out another problem that Tsmog barely touch upon, and that is package delivery by private postal services. So far we haven't had any deliveries stolen, but the delivery services usually are good about bringing the packages down the stone steps to a wooden deck landing at the top of the lower staircase. They usually put small packages on the inside of the gate at the top, but large boxes, like our Chewy deliveries of pet food and supplies are left outside the gate.
People are complaining that thieves are following Amazon delivery vehicles and stealing the packages off their front porches upon delivery. So far, even with Ring style video cameras, there have been few, if any arrests. I know you weren't speaking of package deliveries, but I thought I'd throw that in just in case you might find it interesting.Thanks for your feedback; most enlightening.
There is a lot of similarities and some differences on this side of the pond e.g. one similarity is the option of a free ‘prescription mail delivery’ service from the NHS via Royal Mail for those who don’t want to keep nipping to their local pharmacy to pick up their prescriptions.
Likewise, with your steps; in our previous home (when we were first married) the houses in our street was above street level, with each house having 14 steps from the street; which meant the poor postman delivering in our street had to do a lot of climbing to deliver the post e.g. 14 steps up and then 14 steps down (28 in total) for each house he delivered to – Good exercise to keep fit, but It’s not a job I would like.
We’ve never had the problem with thieves intercepting our post, because the postman pushes the letters through the letter box in our front door; but many, many years ago (back in the 1980s/1990s) it was common practice in Britain for thieves to go riffling through peoples rubbish bins looking for bank statements and utility bills that had been thrown away, so that they could use the information for scams and ID theft etc.
But that is a practice that has died out (thankfully), because people got wise to it, and started to buy home shredders – so the thieves don’t bother riffling through bins anymore.
We’ve had similar problems with package deliveries in the past, not so much stolen, but more leaving packages in silly places where you don’t think to look, and not properly telling you where they left it (or not telling you at all). The most memorable occasion is when a DVD we ordered didn’t turn up, and after the usual 10 days over due date Amazon sent another one: It was only after the 2nd DVD arrived (the following day) that we quite by accident discovered that the delivery chap had (for some peculiar reason) hidden the first DVD under our car – Why he didn’t put it through the letter box, I’ll never know e.g. the car is right in front of our front door? And once we had a note from a delivery chap that he’d hidden the package in our rubbish bin??? Not the wisest of places to hide something important – But I’m sure weirder things have happened to other people?
But these days it’s far less of a problem because delivery companies take greater care to notify you of when they intend to deliver, and give you an option to specify where you want the package hidden if you’re out; and if you’re not in to answer the door, delivery companies, if they can’t hide the parcel in a secure place, they will generally leave it with a neighbour – and drop a card through your letter box letting you know where your package is.
Here in Australia, letter delivery is done via motorcycle. Our mailboxes are usually incorporated in the front fence or gatepost, so the postman can drive his bike right up to it. Parcels delivered by courier or contractor are brought to the door and if no one answers usually left in a secure place or taken to the Post Office to be collected.
We pay to have a post box at the Post Office so most of our mail is collected from there, to alleviate the chance of mail theft which can be a problem.Thanks for the feedback; so Australia sound very much similar to America in that respect e.g. Mail Boxes by the kerbside, so that the postman can just go from one Mail Box to the next without really off his motorcycle. Although I’ve got cousins in Australia that I keep in close contact with and we do talk about lots of things, this is something we haven’t covered in our discussion, so I didn’t realise that your letter delivery was done via motorcycle.
As you may have read in this forum, in the UK, although the postman drives to a street in a van, he/she then has to go on walkabout up and down the street, and up and down all the garden paths; usually pulling a trolley behind him/her; and then drive the van another 50 metres down the road to repeat the process (more walking than driving) – As shown in this short video: https://youtu.be/G7tEHzdiaRU
Finally, I’ve heard of Post Boxes at the Post Office in the UK, but I’ve never used one, and never known anyone who has; so my knowledge in that area is nil.
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