USPS? getting delivery ever other day?

Jimbrown · Jan 24, 2022

Well the post office does not even deliver to my house. I have to drive 15 miles to the post office

etpm · Jan 24, 2022

Jimbrown said:
Well the post office does not even deliver to my house. I have to drive 15 miles to the post office

I'm pretty sure that if you have an address on a public road they have to deliver to a mailbox, that you are not required to get a PO box or resort to general delivery. Are you on a public road? Can you explain your situation better?
Thanks,
Eric

John_Mc · Jan 25, 2022

Our town is served by four different post offices. The one that serves us is aslightly shorthanded, but has been keeping up well, so we've had just about ZERO problems.

Surrounding areas have had major problems. I was told that one town's smal PO was so backed up that when one of the distribution trucks from the main sorting facility showed up, they had to turn it around and send it back: they had no place to put that shipment of mail.

They didn't have enough people to start with, and with a few out sick, they just went downhill from there.

John_Mc · Jan 25, 2022

etpm said:
I'm pretty sure that if you have an address on a public road they have to deliver to a mailbox, that you are not required to get a PO box or resort to general delivery. Are you on a public road? Can you explain your situation better?
Thanks,
Eric

That's not how it works here. Since we moved in 20 years ago, our mailbox has been a mile from our house. The mail carrier does not come down our dead end road (which is a public, town-maintained road). We were told that we needed some minimum number of houses in order to relocate the mailboxes and have the carrier come down the road.

A few houses have gone up since then, so we might meet that minimum now, but we've gotten used to it. The only real bummer is that when a package is too large to fit in the mailbox the carrier is only obliged to drive a certain distance to deliver it (I think that is 1/4 mile?) so when it doesn't fit, we get a notice and need to drive to the PO to pick it up. If we moved the mailboxes, they would be close enough that the carrier would deliver. However, no one has made a move to relocate them. Personally, I like our mail carriers. They have always been extremely reliable. They have a very full, rural route. I have no interest in making their job tougher, particularly at a time when there is such a shortage of people willing to do the job.

etpm · Jan 25, 2022

John_Mc said:
That's not how it works here. Since we moved in 20 years ago, our mailbox has been a mile from our house. The mail carrier does not come down our dead end road (which is a public, town-maintained road). We were told that we needed some minimum number of houses in order to relocate the mailboxes and have the carrier come down the road.

A few houses have gone up since then, so we might meet that minimum now, but we've gotten used to it. The only real bummer is that when a package is too large to fit in the mailbox the carrier is only obliged to drive a certain distance to deliver it (I think that is 1/4 mile?) so when it doesn't fit, we get a notice and need to drive to the PO to pick it up. If we moved the mailboxes, they would be close enough that the carrier would deliver. However, no one has made a move to relocate them. Personally, I like our mail carriers. They have always been extremely reliable. They have a very full, rural route. I have no interest in making their job tougher, particularly at a time when there is such a shortage of people willing to do the job.

Thanks. It sounded at first like all your mail was only available at the Post Office. I appreciate our mail carriers too. We are also rural and sometimes don't get mail until 8 at night. Those folks put in some long days.
Eric

stephenh · Jan 25, 2022

etpm said:
I'm pretty sure that if you have an address on a public road they have to deliver to a mailbox, that you are not required to get a PO box or resort to general delivery. Are you on a public road? Can you explain your situation better?
Thanks,
Eric

Not true here. I moved to this county in 1974, and there is no postal delivery except to the P. O. Box at the post office. We have to pay $160 a year to have the box, [small], and nothing is delivered to a home and that is true for the entire county.

Additionally, the PO will not deliver [to the box] mail that does not have a Box # in the address. Even if they know you after living here for decades. It is a constant chore to insist to vendors and people mailing to you that they have to put the PO # on the envelope or parcel. Several times a year someone does not do that and our mail gets sent back to sender.

deserteagle71 · Jan 25, 2022

etpm said:
I'm pretty sure that if you have an address on a public road they have to deliver to a mailbox, that you are not required to get a PO box or resort to general delivery. Are you on a public road? Can you explain your situation better?
Thanks,
Eric

It seems to vary as to which part of the country you live in. In Pennsylvania, where I grew up, each place out in the country had its own mailbox sitting out front to which mail was delivered. Out here in Nevada the Post Office utilizes communal mailboxes that serve a whole area, people have to drive to the mailboxes and pick up their mail. The Post Office will not deliver to individual mailboxes. The current bank of mailboxes I have to use now give each address a box - a slot, really, about 2-1/2" high, 12" wide by 12" deep. That works OK for letters, etc. although for someone with big hands it can be very difficult to pull a letter out of the back of the slot. But if you have a package delivered, what you get is a pink notice in your mailbox that tells you to go to your Post Office (miles away) to pick up your package and that is a pain for someone like me who rarely drives to town.

TheMan419 · Jan 25, 2022

stephenh said:
Not true here. I moved to this county in 1974, and there is no postal delivery except to the P. O. Box at the post office. We have to pay $160 a year to have the box, [small], and nothing is delivered to a home and that is true for the entire county.

Additionally, the PO will not deliver [to the box] mail that does not have a Box # in the address. Even if they know you after living here for decades. It is a constant chore to insist to vendors and people mailing to you that they have to put the PO # on the envelope or parcel. Several times a year someone does not do that and our mail gets sent back to sender.

Yep. We have several rural areas within our county that require resident to have a PO Box. No mail delivery to their physical address. Lots of subdivisions going up that have a bank of mail boxes at the entrance. Kind of like you would find in a highrise apartment buidling. So they all have to get their mail at that box.

japody · Jan 25, 2022

stephenh said:
Not true here. I moved to this county in 1974, and there is no postal delivery except to the P. O. Box at the post office. We have to pay $160 a year to have the box, [small], and nothing is delivered to a home and that is true for the entire county.

Additionally, the PO will not deliver [to the box] mail that does not have a Box # in the address. Even if they know you after living here for decades. It is a constant chore to insist to vendors and people mailing to you that they have to put the PO # on the envelope or parcel. Several times a year someone does not do that and our mail gets sent back to sender.

How can I qualify for a free PO Box?

You may qualify for free (Group E) PO Box service if your physical / business location meets all of the following criteria:

The physical / business location is within the geographic delivery boundaries administered by a Post Office.
The physical / business location constitutes a potential letter carrier delivery point of service.
The United States Postal Service® chooses not to provide letter carrier delivery to the physical / business location.
The customer does not receive letter carrier delivery via an out-of-bounds delivery receptacle.

If you believe you meet all of these requirements, do not reserve a PO Box using the Post Office Boxes Online application. In these instances, please contact your local Post Office facility.