US Postal Service

[jcussen]

3 hours ago, Dutch_12078 said:

I'm told most holds and forwards are managed at the sorting centers these days rather than the end point PO. The carriers receive trays of mail presorted in route order.

I thought the same, in my case it does not work. It must be held at the local post office. I know this is my case, because my regular carrier will leave my mail at the local post office, but the subs will delivery when he is not working. If I get off vacation early, I just go to  the local office and pick it up, so appears the carrier is responsible for it,  and I generally use ""hold" for two weeks at most. I also do the "hold" on line, and give one of the yellow forms to the local post office and one to my regular carrier. But to no avail, this has been going on for the last 8 years, and when I talked to my local postmaster, he said too much contract labor was involved, but I live in south Texas, so maybe we are a little behind the times. But I cut a mail slot in the front door, so not so much a problem now.

[sandsys]

2 hours ago, jcussen said:

I thought the same, in my case it does not work. It must be held at the local post office. I know this is my case, because my regular carrier will leave my mail at the local post office, but the subs will delivery when he is not working. If I get off vacation early, I just go to  the local office and pick it up, so appears the carrier is responsible for it,  and I generally use ""hold" for two weeks at most. I also do the "hold" on line, and give one of the yellow forms to the local post office and one to my regular carrier. But to no avail, this has been going on for the last 8 years, and when I talked to my local postmaster, he said too much contract labor was involved, but I live in south Texas, so maybe we are a little behind the times. But I cut a mail slot in the front door, so not so much a problem now.

Unless you get a free weekly newspaper like we did. How do you stop them from delivering when they give one to every house?!!!  There's nothing like a pile of newspaper laying around your front door to say no one is home.

Linda

[Velos]

Most new housing developments use cluster mail boxes to reduce labor, or put the mailbox on the curb side instead of at the front door. If older neighborhoods could phase in cluster boxes possibly the current USPS staffing might be able to handle the work load more efficiently. Walking to the end of the block is good exercise, a chance to observe your neighborhood ie "Neighborhood Watch", maybe wave to a neighbor etc.  In senior communities those that are walking or balance challenged either ride 3 wheel bikes, golf carts or mobility scooters to their mailbox cluster.

The pandemic has brought a dark cloud over the globe but there are a few rays of sunshine, less junk mail (trees appreciate that too),  pro and con: increased awareness of internet services: more people given the opportunity to register for services online, people can read their scanned mail online instead of hard copy,  see their Dr online and get groceries online potentially contributing to less fuel consumption?

[bigjim]

In theory if the newspaper is mailed it should still be held since it is mail.  A lot of "subs' are every bit as good as a regular depending on if they read instructions that used to be written.  Even on presorted tubs on a walking route carriers were often doing I final sort in their fingers as they went house to house as the presorts might be off just a house or two.  There used to be and I am sure still is a lot of pressure to get out of the office and onto the street doing delivery.  At one PO I worked at we had an auxilary route that did not have an assigned  carrier so often  a different  person might carry it or parts of it every day.  Also there was a lot of new construction so the auxilary route could grow quickly and may even be split on different parts  of the district. Having a good regular on your route is not always a good answer but most often it works well.  I have carried behind a regular  that was more screwed up than the worst sub.

Not just the post office but if every company or entity did right and dealt fairly with their employees there would be no need for unions. Unfortunately  that is not the case. Once when I was carrying a man cut across a parking lot taking a short cut to lunch. Hit me in the rear of the postal vehicle. He was honest and signed a statement admitting it was his fault.   The post office tried to fire me for backing into him. Thanks to the union I kept my job and rightly so.

Edited January 30, 2021 by bigjim
can't type or spell for beans

[TXiceman]

When we still had a sticks and bricks home, you could always tell when we had the sub on the route.  They were late and the mail was misdelivered.  Neighbors were out taking mail to the proper boxes several houses down the street.  Complaining dis zero good.

Ken

[jcussen]

10 hours ago, sandsys said:

Unless you get a free weekly newspaper like we did. How do you stop them from delivering when they give one to every house?!!!  There's nothing like a pile of newspaper laying around your front door to say no one is home.

Linda

No free weekly newspaper where I live, I get a daily subscription paper. which I cancel when I go on vacation. BTW, I am lucky to get the paper thrown close to end of my driveway. The mail used to go into a mailbox next to my front door, and when it was full, thrown on my front porch. A pile of mail on your front porch is also a good indicator that no one is home.

[Kirk W]

10 hours ago, sandsys said:

How do you stop them from delivering when they give one to every house?!!!

I think that they deliver to every address, even if obviously not occupied. 

[ARGO]

3 hours ago, Kirk W said:

I think that they deliver to every address, even if obviously not occupied. 

Yeah, even if the addressee bears NO RESEMBLANCE to the delivery. 

[pjstough]

4 hours ago, jcussen said:

No free weekly newspaper where I live, I get a daily subscription paper. which I cancel when I go on vacation. BTW, I am lucky to get the paper thrown close to end of my driveway. The mail used to go into a mailbox next to my front door, and when it was full, thrown on my front porch. A pile of mail on your front porch is also a good indicator that no one is home.

That is unfortunate, mail should never be left on the porch. If the mailbox is full, the carrier should take all the mail back to the post office and handle in the appropriate manner.

[jcussen]

27 minutes ago, pjstough said:

That is unfortunate, mail should never be left on the porch. If the mailbox is full, the carrier should take all the mail back to the post office and handle in the appropriate manner.

One would think so. I have since removed the mailbox, and cut and installed a mail slot in my front door, so it won't pile up on the porch when they forget about my hold request.

[Randyretired]

A number of times when our mail was forwarded we would come home to mail in our street side mailbox.   I finally started taping a note across  the opening inside the door that the mail was forwarded.    If some one opened the box door they would know we were gone but our mail was forwarded. 

[Ropeshaft]

9 hours ago, Randyretired said:

A number of times when our mail was forwarded we would come home to mail in our street side mailbox.   I finally started taping a note across  the opening inside the door that the mail was forwarded.    If some one opened the box door they would know we were gone but our mail was forwarded. 

We do that too Randy since we spend 5 months in Wisconsin and 7 months in Florida and I think it helps.  But we do have a reliable neighbor in both locations check our mail occasionally while we are gone.

[Al F]

On 1/30/2021 at 12:19 AM, sandsys said:

Unless you get a free weekly newspaper like we did. How do you stop them from delivering when they give one to every house?!!!  There's nothing like a pile of newspaper laying around your front door to say no one is home.

Linda

Those newspaper and flyers are delivered by private companies and have nothing to do with the post office.  You could talk to your local city officials and get them to ban private companies from delivering unsolicited mail. 

[2gypsies]

4 hours ago, Al F said:

Those newspaper and flyers are delivered by private companies and have nothing to do with the post office.  You could talk to your local city officials and get them to ban private companies from delivering unsolicited mail. 

Our advertising flyers, grocery ads, etc. are delivered by our postman.  Walk into a post office to the private box area and you'll see those flyers tossed in the wastecan done by people when sorting their mail.