I’m home for the hollidays since last Wednesday. I am at home with the family, and I parked my Explorer on the street/Cul-de-sac next to our yard. As straight as one can get a non-curved car, on a non-curved stretch of road.
Mail did not come for two days in a row. Third day, we recieved an enormous amount of mail (Obviously, the three days worth).
Fast-forward to today’s delivery.
Postal carrier knocked on the door and handed me the mail, and stated that I had to move my car. If I did not move my car, he would not deliver the mail, and that today was a warning.
We argued, and he didn’t grasp the fact that a car/truck is way less cumbersome than 8 ft snowfall. He said that I was not only doing a diservice to me, but also my neighbor, since he couldn’t get to them either.
I then said “Oh, I guess your car doesnt have a reverse on it?” and slammed the door in his face.
Do I need to move my own car, which is front of ‘my’ house? ((I do receive mail to this address))
Where does he get off, telling me to move my car, and what would he do if it snowed?
Back when the US mail was owned by the Govt. Wasnt it an honnor for the carriers to ‘never fail’ in the delivery?
If your car is blocking the mailboxes in any way, the carrier is in the right. Otherwise, I’m not so sure. But they will refuse to deliver if you are in any way impeding their access to the mailbox.
*3.1.4 Clear Approach
Customers must keep the approach to their mailboxes clear of obstructions to allow safe access for delivery. If USPS employees are impeded in reaching a mail receptacle, the postmaster may withdraw delivery service.
3.2.6 Location
Subject to state laws and regulations, a curbside mailbox must be placed to allow safe and convenient delivery by carriers without leaving their vehicles. The box must be on the right-hand side of the road in the direction of travel of the carriers on any new rural route or highway contract route, in all cases where traffic conditions are dangerous for the carriers to drive to the left to reach the box, or where their doing so would violate traffic laws and regulations.*
That took about a minute to find. I’m sure you could find more, and your carrier (as well as you) may have copped an attitude, but if you want your mail delivered you might want to park elsewhere.
Most every one in my neighborhood has a mailbox attached to the house near their front door. The mail carrier parks and walks to a half-dozen or so houses, moves the van, repeat. (He probably does more houses at a time in the flatter areas.)
Maybe you could change to a house-mounted type mailbox or a mail-slot in your front door. I’m sure your carrier would love that.
(While my home’s foundation was dug out for repairs, I set up a typical streetsedge box on a post. When construction was complete, I felt kind of bad moving the mailbox back to the front door. It’s up about 8 steps.)
Yeah, back in the day my mail cariers really enjoyed it when I would install ever-increasing challenges for them to over come in order to get my mail to me. Attack dogs, snake pits, moats … those dedicated civil servants cheerily overcame any obstacle - or gladly died trying. Where need one look these days to find a little basic work ethic and pride in a job well done?
You couldn’t do that in my neighborhood. We are designated as the kind with street side boxes. Only older neighborhoods that are grandfathered in can have the doorway kinds.
Years ago I didn’t know better and parked in front of my mail box. The postman put a flier on my car that had the appropriate regulations printed on it. You can also be denied delivery if you have too much snow or any other obstruction in front of your box.
You were being an ass when you slammed to door in the postman’s face.
Whether you’re in the right or the wrong, this approach is not only hideously rude, but also a surefire way to end up with your mail rubbed generously in the sweaty asscrack of whichever mail carrier is delivering it.
I tried to fight this battle once, and lost. If they can’t get their trucks to drive in front of the box with ease, they do not have to deliver your mail. You don’t like it, you can pick up your mail at the post office. This is one of those battles not worth the effort, because you ain’t gonna win.
Just so you don’t think we’re ignoring this part of your childish rant, if it snowed and he couldn’t get access to your mailbox, he would not deliver mail until you cleared a path.
Sure, the postal carrier is being a bit pissy about it. Unfortunately for you, he’s also well within his rights. Even if he weren’t, there are two broad groups of people you don’t want to piss off: the people who handle your food where you can’t see it, and the people who deliver things to your house. It’s the price we pay for peace of mind. You need to apologize profusely to that man.
It’s a saying, not actual policy. And while the weather itself might not prevent the mail from being delivered, (providing there isn’t a state of emergency in severe weather), a mailbox that has been blocked WILL.
I used to work at the post office. Complain to either the Postmaster or Assistant Postmaster.
It’s sometimes hard to get the number from the main website, but they are usually listed if you enter “Post Office” into the Yahoo Yellow Pages - http://yp.yahoo.com/
Usually they just want things to go smoothly, so they will tell the carrier to back off. If they don’t, then it must really be a problem.
Mrs Sapo (the postal carrier) just had a good laugh at this. No clear access to your mailbox, no mail.
There are different types of routes, All walking, Park and Loop, All riding, Clusters only, etc. If you live in an area where you need to have a streetside mailbox, that’s the last of it. A car blocking your box (even if it is not yours) means no delivery. After several days (the first they just assume it is happenstance) they will notify you that you must clear the box. If in that period you don’t comply, they will put a hold in your address. That means they won’t even attempt to deliver (i.e. they won’t have your mail in the truck) until you go there and notify them that the box is clear.
It kinda sucks, but consider that he has to deal with an entire route full of people who think THEIR mail is super special and important. Making favours and exceptions only gets them in trouble.
Oh and yes, the car does have a reverse. They are only supposed to use in the designated spots on the route (and they do anything to avoid having reverse points in the route) and if a supervisor finds him reversing where he shouldn’t he gets in trouble. If he has an accident while reversing, he is in a world of trouble.
Yeah, it’s a nice motto, but it says “neither rain nor snow nor dark of night.” It doesn’t include things like “jerk customers setting up an obstacle course,” nor does it supersede local snow removal laws if you’re getting ideas about that, by the way. My husband faced a door-slot mailbox past a set of front stairs where not only were they not shoveled, but the resident’s kids had turned it into a literal snow slope for sledding down. He rubber-banded the mail up and tossed it on the porch, being nice since he could have taken it back to the office. The next day, the resident told him that she thought he had to deliver it into the box regardless. :smack:
My husband says the policy at his particular office would probably be to “dismount” for the occasional obstruction but not deliver for repeated instances - doing that every day would slow down the carrier on the route, especially if they let everyone do it, and it could pose a risk to the carrier in some cases.
And reversing? In the street when not absolutely required? Hell no. You try to back up a brick-shaped vehicle with all of those odd mirrors and see how often you want to do it, especially when you’re trying to not hit a customer’s car or mailboxes. Where my husband works, he absolutely cannot back up his vehicle except for specially-designated situations/locations, or face suspension. (Apparently the risk for/incidence of accidents in these vehicles is too great.)
The way you did it works get if you don’t recieve bills to the house, and only do on-line billing. You can stop recieving the 90% unwanted garbage in your life. You can legally park there, but they will legally require you to pick up the mail from the post office, if you do. They don’t always keep it either. Sometimes they send your mail back to the sender with a note of undelverable. The sent one important documant back to the sender once because one day the county highway crew blocked access for a couple hours. The mail got delevered after that day like normal, except for the important one that got sent back as undeliverable to the sender. We found out because the sender told us over the phone.