# Postal Service - Why Won't They Pick Up My Mail? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 12, 2000, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834 "2000-09-12T00:23:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [October 22, 2011, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/41 "2011-10-22T17:01:16Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Weird. I have no memory of either making this post nor the situation that prompted it. How things change in 11 years. On the Internet, [ol][_]Nobody knows if you’re a zombie and [_]Nothing can ever be truly deleted.[/ol] ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/42 "2011-10-22T17:01:28Z")
> [@ultraviolet1017](#): > > Of course the post office will raise their rates. They do that every few months, by raising the prices of stamps. Everytime I turn around, stamps cost more than they did the last time I bought them. The raise their prices at the drop of a hat. You realize that postage hasn’t gone up since May 2009, don’t you? Just sayin’. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/43 "2011-10-22T17:18:11Z")
> [@ultraviolet1017](#): > > Of course the post office will raise their rates. They do that every few months, by raising the prices of stamps. Wrong, about once a year lately. > [@](#): > > Everytime I turn around, stamps cost more than they did the last time I bought them. Exaggeration, unless you are so big it takes you 12 months to turn around. > [@](#): > > They raise their prices at the drop of a hat. Wrong, it has to be done by Congress. ---
**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/44 "2011-10-22T17:30:36Z")
> [@sh1bu1](#): > > Wrong, it has to be done by Congress. This is incorrect. Rates are approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission. Although one could argue it was created by Congress by way of legislation, much like the post office the PRC is considered an executive branch agency. And the PRC only gets a say when the post office wants to raise rates beyond that of inflation. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/45 "2011-10-22T23:36:02Z")
> [@BrothaTJ](#): > > Hehe as far as tips go, you should feel no obligation to tip your mailman. But my dad has developed friendly relations with many people on his route, so much so that he even attends wakes for people on his route who pass away. Mailmen don’t make a whole lot of money, and he usually makes an extra $600-$800 in tips around Christmastime, which is greatly appreciated by my family. I’m not, however, implying that you should have to tip your mailman just to get routine service. You’ve got a real problem on your hands there Joseph, and I would suggest talking to your mailman to see what’s up. heh, if we didn’t slip Mary a dozen eggs every week we would be up to our neck in fresh eggs pretty quickly [mrAru also takes them in to work. Unfortunately they repay him occasionally with huge bags of zucchini :smack:] ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/46 "2011-10-23T07:52:17Z")
> [@toadspittle](#): > > Exactly–this is how it always worked in my suburban childhood neighborhood. You had to put up the red flag if you had letters to be picked up, else the mailman might drive on by. > > Of course, I can’t remember a single day that we didn’t get ANY mail delivered to us. I guess junk mail ensures that we always get pick-up. > > Of course, now that I live in an apt. in NYC, I have NO mail pick-up. Have to walk to those blue drop boxes on the corner. Most apartment buildings that I have known of, where they have a group of mailboxes together for all the tenants, have one outgoing box there also for everybody to use. Is this not the case in the above and several other up-thread remarks about multi-unit dwelling places? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/47 "2011-10-23T17:11:10Z")
That may be true in large apartment buildings, but it’s not true in small ones. I live in an garden-style apartment complex. That is, there are twelve apartments in each building, arranged in three stories of four apartments each. There are several mailboxes in the complex where I can deposit my mail. There are no outgoing mailboxes in the apartment buildings themselves. There is a mailbox for each apartment for incoming mail, but to send mail I have to walk to the nearest mailbox. The nearest ones are about a hundred yards away for me. As I said eleven years ago, some mail carriers will unofficially agree to pick up any mail left next to the mailboxes, but that’s their own decision, not U.S. Post Office policy. In any case, it’s a bad idea, since anybody can steal your mail before the carrier picks it up. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/48 "2011-10-23T20:45:26Z")
Don’t most mailboxes (for individual, detached houses) have a little red flaglike thing you’re supposed to put up to let the mail carrier know you want them to pick up outgoing mail? Do people still do this, or was that just a regional or temporal variation in L.A., while I was growing up in the 1960s and early 70s’? ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/49 "2011-10-23T21:00:59Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Don’t most mailboxes (for individual, detached houses) have a little red flaglike thing you’re supposed to put up to let the mail carrier know you want them to pick up outgoing mail? Do people still do this, or was that just a regional or temporal variation in L.A., while I was growing up in the 1960s and early 70s’? those are on roadside (rural or unimproved (no sidewalks or curbs) urban/suburban) where the postal carrier road a vehicle to make deliveries to each address. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/50 "2011-10-23T21:37:50Z")
Wow. No mail collection for 11 years. That’s completely unacceptable! ---
**Author:** ![ClevelandProud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@ClevelandProud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ClevelandProud)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/51 "2011-10-24T02:22:02Z")
There is the issue of a theft problem with outgoing mail left for the mailman to pickup. A better solution is to deposit the mail inside the post office. Heck, I take it one step further and wait in line to have the postal counter clerk hand cancel my outgoing mail. Nowadays, mailing a letter is a crapshoot. Doing everything that you possibly can helps to increase the chance that your piece of outgoing mail will arrive safely to its desired destination! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/52 "2011-10-24T02:30:02Z")
I don’t know of any evidence whatsoever that mail is more likely to get lost today than it ever was. And, in any case, it’s always been very rare for mail to get lost. I would say that less than one item in a thousand is lost in the mail. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/53 "2011-11-06T22:43:50Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > those are on roadside (rural or unimproved (no sidewalks or curbs) urban/suburban) where the postal carrier road a vehicle to make deliveries to each address. I never realized this, but it does make sense. I don’t know if this is still common, but a lot of houses in cities had mail slots in the door rather than an outside mailbox, so there really wasn’t any place to leave outgoing mail. ---
**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:** [November 7, 2011, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/54 "2011-11-07T01:03:33Z")
I think people are talking past each other in this thread because many do not realize that postal delivery practices are not uniform. The OP stated that he lived on the north side of Chicago. Residences in the City of Chicago do not have the type of curbside mailboxes that people are imagining. There is no mounted delivery in Chicago. Carriers walk from house to house and climb stairs to porches or go inside apartment building lobbies. A “mailbox” is often [a slot in a door](http://a.rgbimg.com/cache1pcX4Y/users/r/rw/rwlinder/300/mGAUT7a.jpg) or [a slot in the side of a wall](http://www.mostphotos.com/preview/195153/mail-slot-in-brick-wall.jpg) into which letters are deposited. Sometimes it is an [external container](http://theironking.com/Websites/theironking/Images/mailbox.jpg) screwed to the side of a wall. Apartment buildings may have banks of boxes like [this](http://www.beaconhillmail.com/images/mailboxes.jpg) or [this](http://freethumbs.dreamstime.com/33/big/free_334579.jpg) mounted inside their lobbies or on the wall outside the front door. In the city limits, it is not customary to leave mail for your mail carrier to pick up. Instead, on most large streets there are [blue collection boxes](http://tonireavis.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/mailbox2.jpg) every few blocks for people to deposit their outgoing mail. Each box has a scheduled pickup time posted on the box. Every box has at least one daily pickup, some more. This does cause confusion for people who have recently moved from suburban or rural areas who are accustomed to leaving their outgoing mail to be picked up when their incoming mail is delivered. In the ten years since the OP posted, the USPS has waged an aggressive campaign to remove the street collection boxes. They have disappeared from most suburban areas. Fortunately, they still are readily available in major cities like Chicago, but suburban and rural postal customers have no choice but to leave their outgoing mail to be picked up by the delivery carrier (or to drive to the post office). ---
**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:** [November 7, 2011, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/55 "2011-11-07T01:09:15Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > In the ten years since the OP posted, the USPS has waged an aggressive campaign to remove the street collection boxes. They have disappeared from most suburban areas. Why? What is the alternative? Email? ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/56 "2011-11-07T01:42:36Z")
Nothing to add except that this Friday will be exactly eleven years and two months since this question was posted, and Wednesday will be exactly eight and a half years since the OP was active on this board. Well, that and I drop my mail off in the slot at the post office. My Amex goes to Newark NJ from Long Island. The last two months I’ve dropped it off at the PO on a Friday afternoon and gotten an email from Amex the very next day (Saturday) telling me they received it. ---
**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:** [November 7, 2011, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/57 "2011-11-07T02:05:08Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Why? What is the alternative? Email? Why? To save money. In that sentence I was talking about the blue collection boxes like [these](http://www.watchdognation.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/collection-box-1.jpg). They are generally being removed from areas where mail is delivered to curbside boxes like [this](http://www.watchdognation.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/collection-box-1.jpg) or neighborhood cluster units like [this](http://site.budgetmailboxes.com/blog/wp-content/themes/pool/images/DesignGuide_img6.gif). These provide places where outgoing mail can be placed to be picked up when the incoming mail is collected. These types of mailboxes (as opposed to collection boxes) are generally not found in older cities. People are sending dramatically fewer letters. The collection boxes are not being used and are not generating revenue. Where the amount of mail collected drops below a critical threshold, consideration is given to removing the collection boxes. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/58 "2011-11-07T04:52:59Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > There is no mounted delivery in Chicago. “Mounted delivery”? That sounds like it goes back to days of mail carriers on horseback. > [@](#): > > In the city limits, it is not customary to leave mail for your mail carrier to pick up. Instead, on most large streets there are [blue collection boxes](http://tonireavis.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/mailbox2.jpg) every few blocks for people to deposit their outgoing mail. L.A. must be different; here the larger apartment buildings do have a secure outgoing mail receptacle which the carrier has to unlock in order to collect the mail. Smaller complexes just have an open bin sort of thing below the tenants’ boxes; I wouldn’t have left anything there to be mailed if it was important. ---
**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:** [November 7, 2011, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/59 "2011-11-07T12:59:06Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > People are sending dramatically fewer letters. The collection boxes are not being used and are not generating revenue. Where the amount of mail collected drops below a critical threshold, consideration is given to removing the collection boxes. Seems like a vicious cycle. If people can’t find boxes to drop mail in, they are less inclined to use the service, more boxes are removed… ---
**Author:** ![j\_coats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/97f17d/32.png) [@j\_coats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_coats)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/60 "2016-06-25T16:27:14Z")
REFERENCE: USPS Handbook SP-1 Highway Contract Routes - Contract Delivery Service - Contents [http://about.usps.com/handbooks/sp1/](http://about.usps.com/handbooks/sp1/) 33 Route Performance 331 Line of Travel Suppliers must follow the official line of travel described in the contract or they should proceed directly to the first box on the route where mail is to be delivered and/or collected and begin service. Even if there is no mail for a particular box, the supplier must stop to make collection when the signal flag is raised. The official starting and ending point of delivery is the designated loading and unloading area of the head-out office. [http://about.usps.com/handbooks/sp1/sp1\_c3\_013.htm#ep998399](http://about.usps.com/handbooks/sp1/sp1_c3_013.htm#ep998399) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834.md?page=4)