# No more mailman at the door under U.S. Postal Service plan **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 24, 2013, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366 "2013-07-24T06:57:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2013, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/41 "2013-07-24T18:13:44Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > For those of you in town, how far is it from your front door to the street? Surely not as far as it is from a farmhouse to the farm’s gate. Our “cluster box” is about a half-mile down the road. ---
**Author:** ![Shoujin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoujin/32/3884_2.png) [@Shoujin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoujin)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/42 "2013-07-24T18:52:44Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > same for USA. > > a person can do a change of address or mail forwarding, both have limited duration. if those aren’t in effect then it goes to the address. In our district, a customer can fill out a change of address card or go online and do the same. If the customer moves, but fills out no COA, we hold the mail for 10 working days, then fill out a Moved Left No Address card. COA’s last 6 months in our district, after which all first and second class mail is marked UTF (unable to forward) and returned to sender. Just FYI 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mathematics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@Mathematics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathematics)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/43 "2013-07-24T19:01:23Z")
My mailbox is over a mile away. Fuck rural areas. Although they do deliver packages right to my door. I guess they have no other choice. Edit: It’s not that bad to get there, but I have to go through a trail used mostly by horseback riders (huge poops everywhere, etc). Oh well, though. I am mainly just complaining since this new rule will neither help nor harm me. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2013, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/44 "2013-07-24T19:55:12Z")
> [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](#): > > Seriously? 😕 Filling out an online form that, if your browser is set to default auto-fill, takes all of less than one minute to complete and submit? How you managed to type out a reply to my suggestion is mind-blowing. Way more trouble than having the mail carrier keep pushing it through the mail slot every day and letting it pile up inside the front door. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2013, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/45 "2013-07-24T20:10:03Z")
> [@eenerms](#): > > When we bough this house 18 years ago, the neighborhood was two years old. They had mail box clusters on the curb. After about five years when we were ‘visiting’ the house, noticed everyone had mailboxes and the clusters were gone. That’s the way it was here. It was because our little offshoot road wasn’t paved, just gravel. Once we and our neighbors got the money together to get it paved, we got out own mailboxes out at the end of the street. And the cluster wasn’t at all like you guys are showing. We just each bought our own mailbox to put out there. I do notice that, back when it was at the end of the street, we rarely walked to get it, just picking it up when whoever got home. Now that it’s at the end of the driveway, I walk there all the time. And thus there’s never a line at the street with cars stopped at the mailbox. And that’s just a quarter mile away. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Lurker\_Above](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Lurker\_Above](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Lurker_Above)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/46 "2013-07-24T20:25:38Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Yeah, all new 'burbs in Canada have had cluster mailboxes since way back in the eighties. Yeah, I’ve seen a (very) few examples of new (early 2000’s) streets in older neighbourhoods still getting door to door for some reason. But pretty much everyone I know now uses the cluster mailboxes. It’s not a big deal to go to a central box, and since either prices have to go up or costs come down this seems like a no-brainer from the USPS’s standpoint. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/47 "2013-07-24T20:37:47Z")
Our mailbox is a country-style box mounted on the front-porch rail, about 15 feet from where the curb would be if we had a curb. Where we lived before, we had one of those mailbox clusters; it was about two blocks from our house. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2013, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/48 "2013-07-24T21:15:50Z")
My house was built in the mid 1920s and has a slot in the wall by the front door. If we were switched to a cluster box, that would be one less thing for the dogs to go nuts about. I’d appreciate the silence. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2013, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/49 "2013-07-24T21:43:49Z")
AOL keeps telling me I’ve got mail. I’ve walked out to my mailbox 20 times today and I still don’t see it. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/50 "2013-07-24T22:07:18Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > I’ve thought this was already a rule. My sister moved into a newly built neighborhood, oh, around a decade ago. Every cul-de-sac had its own central mailbox for everyone who lived there. I housesat for her for a while, and it was kind of a pain, to be honest. I didn’t like it. It has nothing to do with the age of the neighborhood. Some neighborhoods have slot-in-the-door delivery, some have a mailbox attached to the house next to the door, some have one on a post at the curb, some have cluster boxes every block or so. I don’t know up to now how they have determined what the system will be for any particular neighborhood. I have lived in places in which all these systems were present within a 5-mile radius. > [@Motorgirl](#): > > I live in an old neighborhood, and there wouldn’t be a place to put a mailbox cluster without taking a piece of someone’s yard via eminent domain. That’s usually how it’s done. It’s not a big deal. > [@Claverhouse](#): > > I can’t imagine what it must be like using a mailbox instead of it being delivered. The only times I’ve even seen a mailbox is outside a farm. Presuming that the merry farmer drives up his gateway every day in a Range Rover or tractor; which for those of us in town without a path would be impracticable. > [@Acsenray](#): > > For those of you in town, how far is it from your front door to the street? Surely not as far as it is from a farmhouse to the farm’s gate. > [@Motorgirl](#): > > About 20 feet. > [@Gatopescado](#): > > Our “cluster box” is about a half-mile down the road. I was asking about Claverhouse’s British neighborhood. He expressed concern about having to walk to the streetside to get his mail from a mailbox. > [@Colophon](#): > > This is news to me. I thought that everyone in the US had mail delivered to mailboxes by the curbside anyway, with those little flags that stick up when the mailman’s been. As stated above, the flag is a signal _to_ the letter carrier, not _from_ the letter carrier. There’s no uniform system. And in some neighborhoods, even where there is a curbside mailbox, the postal carrier won’t pick up the outgoing mail, even if you put up the little flag. I was surprised when I found out that in some places, mailboxes are for incoming mail only. > [@Jumpbass](#): > > In my neighborhood, we currently have door to door delivery. If they decide to change that, and if I have to have an individual mailbox rather than go to a cluster box, the mailman will have to still get out of his truck to get to the mailbox. There are so many cars parked on the street these days. In places where there is curbside delivery, you are required by law to keep the curb clear for postal deliveries, or they will refuse to deliver your mail. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2013, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/51 "2013-07-24T22:48:43Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > That’s usually how it’s done. It’s not a big deal. It’s a big deal when your yard’s already only 10 feet x 10 feet. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2013, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/52 "2013-07-24T23:09:09Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Are you referring to “cluster boxes”? They’re kiosks with PO-box style mailboxes (with additional larger boxes for packages.) Less susceptible to thievery since they are locked (they are filled from the inside of the kiosk.) I was thinking more [like this.](http://hallbrookproductions.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/old-mailboxes.gif) [Or this.](http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/pamtriv/pamtriv0712/pamtriv071200298/2211313-b-w-rural-mailboxes.jpg) [Or this.](http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/alptraum/alptraum0805/alptraum080500020/3013740-old-vintage-mailboxes-in-rural-midwest-united-states-late-sun.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2013, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/53 "2013-07-24T23:20:38Z")
In my apartment complex, there’s a group of mailbox clusters (16 units to a cluster, probably 8 or more clusters) fairly near the entrance to the complex. My apartment is about a quarter-mile from there (measured by car odometer). If the weather is reasonable, I don’t mind the walk (and can certainly stand to burn a few calories (sigh)). Our setup includes the package-sized extra cubbies (eight of them, IIRC, which usually seems sufficient), and the management office will accept delivery of packages that don’t fit in the cubbies. Living in apartment complexes pretty much throughout my adult life, I’m used to setups like this. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2013, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/54 "2013-07-24T23:33:01Z")
without a sidewalk you will have curb delivery in city or rural. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2013, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/55 "2013-07-24T23:34:20Z")
When I was living in Chicago I had a wall-mounted mailbox next to my front door, and the carrier had to walk from house to house and up the stairs to the porches to deliver the mail. We occasionally got reminders from the PO that we had to clear the snow from our porch or we would not get our mail. The house I now own in NC has a curbside mailbox with a flag, and one day several months after I moved in when I picked up the mail one of my letters had a note written on it, informing me that if I left mail in the box to be picked up I was supposed to put the flag up. (Well, how was I supposed to know?) The townhouses in my development have those cluster boxes, which I suppose saves the carrier from having to drive up, down, and around the streets where they’re located. Also, the way the streets and parking is set up there’s no place to set up curbside mailboxes. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/56 "2013-07-25T01:54:01Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > The house I now own in NC has a curbside mailbox with a flag, and one day several months after I moved in when I picked up the mail one of my letters had a note written on it, informing me that if I left mail in the box to be picked up I was supposed to put the flag up. (Well, how was I supposed to know?) What did you think the flag was for? Independence Day? ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/57 "2013-07-25T02:37:04Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > What did you think the flag was for? Independence Day? When I had been living in Chicago I had never left mail in the box for pickup (I always dropped it in a street box on the way to work). The condo I had rented here in NC before I bought the house had something similar to the cluster boxes in the lobby with had a slot for outgoing mail, which was good since I was never able to find any place other than the post office to drop off mail. Since I generally got mail every day, it never occurred to me that there was any reason that I had to let the carrier know that I had left mail in the curbside box. The HOA handbook I had gotten when I bought the house had included info on trash and recycling pickup, I guess it never occurred to them that someone might not be familiar with PO rules on curbside mailboxes. ---
**Author:** ![Obeseus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbce88/32.png) [@Obeseus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obeseus)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/58 "2013-07-25T03:18:19Z")
It’s happening around here, and my mailman friend hates it. It saves him time from delivery and causes him to sit around more. He has a walking route. He takes a Jeep out, parks it, and walks a street or two before moving the Jeep around the block. He has a few of those blue drop boxes along his route, and he needs to get inside them to pick up outgoing mail along the route. The pickup times are different based on the general time he would be in that spot on his route. Since some carriers would pick up outgoing mail before the final pickup time (due to them running early) the USPS put bar codes inside those blue drop boxes. If the final pickup is 3:00 PM at a particular drop-box, he has to scan that barcode at 3:00 PM or later. Some days are just lighter than others, so some days he might reach the 3:00 PM pickup point an hour early. Guess what? He sits in the parking lot of a convenience store and reads the paper. I’ve asked him why he doesn’t just walk ahead and deliver more mail. He would, but there is another blue box further along the route, and he’d just reach that one even earlier. He’d like to finish his route and start sorting piles of bulk mail for the next day’s run, but he’s too far from the post office and can’t put the extra miles on the Jeep. So he sits there in the parking lot and hears people rag him about how mail carriers have it made and goof off all the time. So as more houses are forced to curbside pickup, he’ll finish his route even earlier and be sitting in the parking lot even longer. ---
**Author:** ![Hedda\_Rosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hedda_rosa/32/1204_2.png) [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/59 "2013-07-25T05:17:55Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > As stated above, the flag is a signal _to_ the letter carrier, not _from_ the letter carrier. My parents have a mailbox at the end of a long driveway that nonetheless can be seen from the front door. They have 2 flags on their mailbox. One is yellow and spring loaded and somehow is held down by the closed mailbox door. When the door is opened to put incoming mail in, the flag pops up and is visible from the house. They also have the usual red pointy outbound mail flag that needs to be raised manually. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366/60 "2013-07-25T06:02:42Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > What did you think the flag was for? Independence Day? No, of course not. It’s a signal to mail thieves that there might be something to steal in the box. It saves them a great deal of time as they cruise down the street, since they only have to check the boxes that have their flags raised. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-mailman-at-the-door-under-u-s-postal-service-plan/664366.md?page=4)