Quote Originally Posted by pomtzu View Post
"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.