The United States Postal

[pomtzu]

"Neither rain, nor sleet", etc - all well and good within reason.

But when the State Highway Department throws snow a couple of feet high in front of your mailbox, is it the obligation of the U.S. Postal Service to clear it away so they can put a bunch of advertising circulars in your box? Or is it the obligation of the homeowner to clear it away if they want their mail delivered safely??

Neither the post office or the homeowner has any obligation to keep the area by the mailbox cleaned out at all times. I sure wouldn't want to see my mail carrier stuck in the snow in front of my house because she felt it was her obligation to deliver the mail to me everyday, regardless of whether it was safe to do so, or not.

[Lady's Human]

"Neither rain, nor sleet", etc - all well and good within reason.

But when the State Highway Department throws snow a couple of feet high in front of your mailbox, is it the obligation of the U.S. Postal Service to clear it away so they can put a bunch of advertising circulars in your box? Or is it the obligation of the homeowner to clear it away if they want their mail delivered safely??

Neither the post office or the homeowner has any obligation to keep the area by the mailbox cleaned out at all times. I sure wouldn't want to see my mail carrier stuck in the snow in front of my house because she felt it was her obligation to deliver the mail to me everyday, regardless of whether it was safe to do so, or not.

It is the obligation of the homeowner to keep the area in front of the mailbox cleared in case of snow. That's not even an argument, and the USP has made that clear to the customers, in the flier which is supposed to be sent to customers when there's an issue with delivery. (Your mailbox was blocked yesterday, we were unable to deliver, please keep XXX amount of clearance around the box when clearing your driveway.....ad nauseum)

Snow happens.

Carriers are also obligated to ensure that they are safe while doing their job.

POSTMASTERS are supposed to make sure their carriers are being safe, and if there is an issue with delivery at an address, they are supposed to follow up on it with the carrier, and if need be, the customer. In this case, where there were probably several boxes with similar issues in the area, the USP should have either notified customers via the media or taken the time to call affected customers. It's a town of about 2,000 people, which equates to roughly 500-600 homes, of which probably 50-75 were affected by washouts, if that many. It isn't that hard to pick up the phone and call, especially considering the density of management to employees in the USP.

[pomtzu]

Okay LH, so who takes the responsibility for me having a heart attack because I was shoveling 2+ feet of heavy snow that the highway department plowed up for me to shovel out, so the post office could make that delivery that absolutely couldn't wait for a few days?

"Snow" happens, as do wash-outs. I would never expect anyone to jeopardize their safety for the sake of an on time delivery.

I have lived in this rural area for 40 years, and have never received any notification of non delivery by the post office, nor any directive about keeping snow cleared from in front of the box. It's pretty much just common sense that would tell you whether the mail is going to get thru or not. It's not like I live in a town where sidewalks must be cleared, so I imagine city/town ordinances would apply to access to mailboxes as well. Here in the boonies, we don't have those rules that we must abide by. It just all boils down to whether you want to shovel the area clear, or pick up your mail in town until the snow melts.

[lvpets2002]

This is a Interesting Thread.. Now I got a notice once telling me to note my neighbor to stop parking in the street in front of My Mail Box.. US Postal noted bigg time that they would not deliver.. So that evening I for sure noted my neighbor & all has been good ever since..

[pomtzu]

Phone calls - I doubt that's in their job description.

In a small delivery area such as yours, and only a portion affected by non-delivery, it might be doable - if they had phone's # for these people - which they probably don't.

Even tho I'm in a rural area - the actually delivery area is huge - with hundreds of miles of 2 lane roads - with thousands getting mail delivery. Phone calls just wouldn't be a practical solution. We consider ourselves fortunate to see a snow plow the same day it snows. When we first moved here it was much less populated, and in a heavy snow, we might see a plow after 3 or 4 days. We saw more of the National Guard some winters, than we did of the highway department.

[sparks19]

Oh I've definitely had my issues with the Postal service. Drives me CRAZY when I pay extra for delivery confirmation and on HALF of my packages they don't scan them and track them so I have no idea where they are. No idea if they've been delivered. I've had quite a few packages go missing and then when I call and make a claim they suddenly resurface.

I don't really have any complaints about my delivery driver. She's pretty good and very nice. When we got that big storm a month or so back they didn't deliver or pick up that saturday during the storm ... it just wasn't safe and I doubt the truck would have made it around without getting stuck a hundred times lol. But they sent two trucks around on monday to get everything delivered.

[aTailOf2Kitties]

i live in a small town (actually I'm out in the county, near the small town). My Post office has no idea what my phone number is, nor any of the other thousands of people with standard mailboxes in this town. What are they supposed to do? grab a phone book and start calling everybody with a name and address they've ever delivered to?

[smokey the elder]

I don't like that it's hard to get the number for your local post office. I had trouble with bills not being delivered, and then getting late fees on them, and tried to contact them. I even had a bank change my credit card number because I never received a statement one month. I know thousands of pieces of mail get delivered just in a small area. I have the most problems with substitute carriers, who can't seem to tell a 6 from an 8 (last # in my street address.)

I think Postal "Service" has tremendous variability from place to place.

[Lady's Human]

i live in a small town (actually I'm out in the county, near the small town). My Post office has no idea what my phone number is, nor any of the other thousands of people with standard mailboxes in this town. What are they supposed to do? grab a phone book and start calling everybody with a name and address they've ever delivered to?

The USP has one of the largest customer databases in existence. It would not be difficult at all to extract that data for most customers.

It's a very simple process.

The carrier reports to the postmaster that they could not deliver to addresses X,Y,and Z. The postmaster (or supervisor....or assistant supervisor...........or the assistant to the assistant temporary supervisor) punches the addresses into the computer and sends out a robocall saying "we could not deliver to your mailbox today for Z reason, please call XXX-XXXX to discuss the matter"

Robocall goes out, the customer knows they won't get their mail until whatever issue it is is taken care of, and everyone knows what in heck is going on.

With the IT backbone and customer database the USP has, it wouldn't be difficult at all. Where do you think the Census get the data to come talk to or call you? They don't gather it out of thin air......

[Lady's Human]

I don't expect someone jeopardize their lives to make a delivery.

HOWEVER.......I would expect at least a minor attempt at communicating with the customers. A phone call when delivery is suspended for an issue is not an unreasonable request.

Unreasonable is to tell a customer "We mailed notification to you" when the notification is to tell the customer that mail isn't going to be delivered. (I should just say screwit and put a holdout for my address in the machines tomorrow night, but that would subject me to termination)