# 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:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**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:** [June 25, 2016, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/61 "2016-06-25T16:43:29Z")
> [@j\_coats](#): > > REFERENCE: USPS Handbook SP-1 Highway Contract Routes - Contract Delivery Service - Contents [http://about.usps.com/handbooks/sp1/](http://about.usps.com/handbooks/sp1/) Contract delivery routes are located on sparsely populated rural highways. There are certainly no contract delivery routes on the north side of Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/62 "2016-06-25T19:34:08Z")
This thread was started way way way back in the 20th Century, some of the readers may not understand what’s going on. Back in the distant past, we had devices called “pencils” and a substance called “paper”. You’d use the “pencil” to draw letters on the “paper” mimicking a word processor. Then for 2 shilling six, government employees would take this “paper” to whoever you wanted to get it. Ask your grandma or grandpa if they still have these things laying around up in their attic … or perhaps a local antique store might have some. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/63 "2016-06-25T20:36:05Z")
Postal zombies, but… My carrier won’t pick up outgoing unless he’s delivering, and I don’t get a lot of mail. So I subscribed to the local daily paper. I have mail every day now. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/64 "2016-06-25T23:11:04Z")
I live one zip code south of the OP. The mail delivery here still sucks. I frequently get mail for my neighbors in my box (sometimes close neighbors; sometimes DISTANT non-neighbors). God only knows how much of MY mail lands in OTHER people’s boxes. ---
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2016, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/65 "2016-06-26T00:22:11Z")
I live on a rural mail route. Whether we get mail that day or not, unless the flag is up, outgoing mail is not picked up. If we get mail that day, the unsent stuff winds up in the pile to be put back out the next day. ---
**Author:** ![pidgeon92](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/50afbb/32.png) [@pidgeon92](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pidgeon92)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2016, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/66 "2016-06-26T22:39:34Z")
I love a good zombie thread. 🙂 I live in 60640, a few miles from the OP. This zip code has a terrible post office, and I read a lot of complaints about the carriers in this zip code. That said, my current regular mail carrier is terrific. He’s been on this route for a couple of years, and I hope he stays as long as I live here. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2016, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/67 "2016-06-26T23:00:21Z")
Hmmm. A peculiar little eccentricity of mine pays off, apparently. For no good reason, I’ve never liked leaving mail to be picked up at my home mailbox. I never suspected that it wouldn’t get picked up, I just didn’t like doing it. While working in offices that allowed it it, I just stuffed it in the company’s outgoing mail. Otherwise, I used the corner mailboxes. Now that those have disappeared, I usually use the drive by boxes in front of the post office, or actually go into the one closest to home. ---
**Author:** ![fedman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/278dde/32.png) [@fedman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/68 "2018-04-17T02:01:12Z")
> [@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. And I don’t see how it would cost more to pick up outgoing mail that is already on the same route they are on anyway. If they had to deliver incoming mail, they would have to walk that very same path, those very same steps, so how is it more expensive to pick up mail that is in the same place the mailman would have to go anyway? As far as tipping the mail man, here’s a tip. “Do your job.” if you read a ST archive, the US has cheapest postal costs of major countries; also, USPS is self-funded so when gas costs go up, they have to cover it. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/69 "2018-04-17T02:18:38Z")
And here I thought that mail delivery was slow… ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/70 "2018-04-17T02:27:24Z")
> [@fedman](#): > > if you read a ST archive, the US has cheapest postal costs of major countries; also, USPS is self-funded so when gas costs go up, they have to cover it. And indeed when gas prices dropped significantly, the cost of a stamp actually went down! IRS mileage rates did too. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/71 "2018-04-17T05:12:45Z")
> [@fedman](#): > > if you read a ST archive, the US has cheapest postal costs of major countries In the ST universe, don’t they use transporters and shuttlecraft to deliver the mail? ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2018, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834/72 "2018-04-17T13:22:53Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > I live one zip code south of the OP. The mail delivery here still sucks. I frequently get mail for my neighbors in my box (sometimes close neighbors; sometimes DISTANT non-neighbors). God only knows how much of MY mail lands in OTHER people’s boxes. We had this problem for a long time. We received someone else’s mail several times a week. Recently our next door neighbor (who is a little bit prickly) assaulted the mail carrier because of it. Cops were called, the postmaster showed up, lots of excitement. But you know what? It worked. We ONLY get our mail now. haven’t had a wrong piece of mail in months. YMMV [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/postal-service-why-wont-they-pick-up-my-mail/32834.md?page=3)