Amazon package in my mail box; not USPS — illegal?

I just found a package from Amazon in my mailbox. I don’t see any USPS postage paid on it. Isn’t that illegal?

It’s a large envelope and here is a picture of it, front and back. Yellow marks hide parts of barcodes and QR codes, and the ‘to’ address.

I could not say. But I wonder if you were one of those kids waving their hand madly in class.

(Best Kids In The Hall accent): There was this kid…. at school…. (Whispered) And he swore….

Is your mailbox locked, or can anyone place something in it?

I often get packages from Amazon in my locked mailbox, meaning the USPS person must put them in there since they are the only ones besides me with a key. If there isn’t a UPS or FedEx sticker on it, you can bet that Amazon paid USPS to deliver it to you. I wouldn’t worry about it.

If you look at the order details in your Amazon account, you should be able to find who shipped it - USPS, Fedex, Amazon, etc…

If it wasn’t USPS, then putting in your mailbox is suspicious. But as the postal service is now basically a subcontractor for Amazon, it probably was them.

Not suspicious, illegal. But probably USPS was the subcontractor for the final delivery.

We get the Amazon truck plenty of times, but often the smaller packages use USPS for “Last Mile Delivery.” It’s a thing.

Yep, I’ve noted as a general rule at the zimaane household, if it’s small enough to fit in the mailbox, the mailman is going to deliver it.

Another possibility: it was misdelivered to a neighbor, who kindly walked it over and stuck it in the mailbox figuring you’d never narc them out. (I’ve done it often, we evidently have innumerate delivery people on our route.)

Usually the ones from USPS will have a return address, while those directly from Amazon will not. And the other carriers say who they’re from.

It is illegal for anyone other than USPS delivery personnel to place items in a mailbox.

https://about.usps.com/news/state-releases/tx/2010/tx_2010_0909.htm

I have definitely had Amazon drivers put Amazon-delivered packages directly in my mailbox; the USPS was not involved. The packages in question had no postage on them.

I sometimes get USPS packages (which I can see with USPS tracking) sent from merchants that arrive with no evident postage.

Would you actually be upset at this happening for some reason? Or are you just commenting on the phenomenon?

I think that tracking number is an Amazon tracking number, meaning it was delivered by one of these

I had an Amazon package delivered earlier this week by the USPS. It has a USPS all numeric tracking number on it. You could contact the local postmaster if you care to pursue it.

I’m not upset. I’m asking the question if it’s illegal.

I saw my mailman on a Sunday. When I asked why she was out on a Sunday. She said Sundays are for delivering for Amazon.

The absence of visible postage means exactly zero.

if the package has a USPS tracking number on it, that means USPS was paid to do the delivery, traditional postage markings or no.

Why would it be illegal for Amazon to make a contract with the USPS?

Amazon isn’t doing anything shady here. They paid the USPS to do the final delivery of the packages. Typically this is referred to as “last mile delivery”.

Last mile delivery is a contract. Amazon isn’t mailing the packages, they are contracting out the delivery to the USPS. Amazon doesn’t pay postage, they pay a contract rate. That’s why there is no postage on the package. If the USPS is only doing the last mile delivery, the only tracking number is probably going to be from Amazon. They probably won’t have a separate tracking number for the USPS portion of the delivery.

FedEx and UPS also used to rely on the USPS for last mile delivery. They started moving away from that a couple of years ago, partly because the USPS is suffering from the same labor shortages and worker overloading that the rest of the world is suffering from due to COVID, and partly because FedEx and UPS would rather keep the money for themselves rather than pay that money to the USPS. So now FedEx and UPS compete with the USPS for last mile delivery. Whether there are still a few areas where FedEx and UPS are forced to rely on the USPS for last mile delivery I don’t know.

I believe DHL still uses the USPS for last mile delivery but I couldn’t find any confirmation of that in an admittedly very brief google search. I know that at one point DHL tried to get into the last mile delivery business on their own and failed miserably, losing a lot of money in the process.

By the way, this is the tracking info for the item I most recently ordered off of Amazon. Note the bolded entry. The bolded entry and all of the entries following that are in the small town where I live, so basically Amazon got the package to my town (the Amazon facility that the package originated from is in another state) and the USPS got it to my house.

2:33 AM Package left an Amazon facility.
4:19 AM Package arrived at a carrier facility.
4:22 AM Package transferred to another carrier for delivery.
5:31 AM Package arrived at a carrier facility.
6:10 AM Package is out for delivery.
4:36 PM Package delivered.

Depends on the type of ‘mailbox’.
If it’s a slot in the door or on the side of the house that drops items inside the house, that is OK for anybody to use.
If it’s a separate box attached to your house, or a rural-type mailbox on a post at the end of your driveway, then it is for USPO use only. (Often that is embossed on the mailbox itself.

Basically, if it’s part of your house, anybody can use it. But if it’s a separate box intended for US mail, only postal workers can put stuff in it.

And well it’s technically illegal, the Post Office seldom prosecutes – they just demand you pay the appropriate postage that they would have charged for mailing that item. (I’ve had to deal with this when new political volunteers put campaign literature in mailboxes.)