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Iowa Post Office Wants Customers To Raise Their Mailboxes šŸ˜„

SargeDiesel

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And yet when they drive by in their little sedans, they have to reach up to put the mail in.
Anyway, that's one small area in one not heavily populated county.
140 mail boxes out of tens of thousands. And that made the news? Some Karen contacted KCCI and bitched about it. Fix the dang mail box and move on. Good grief.

>> Coincidentally, while we were chatting with Farrand, the mail carrier drove by, stopped, delivered the mail with no problem, and drove off. It's not clear why the mailboxes have to be raised now. <<

Sure, because that person was driving a small car. People usually drive their own vehicles to deliver mail here. There aren't officially owned postal vehicles in most of these places. Once in a while we have a mail carrier who drives a Jeep and reaches straight across while those in cars reach up, and I reach down to get it if I'm coming home from someplace and stopping at the top of the driveway to get the mail.

Crazy what people gripe about - fix your mail boxes!
Yeah... my old ... old ... postman used to park and walk the route. Seems like this news article is small potatoes
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sharpsicle

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Yeah... my old ... old ... postman used to park and walk the route. Seems like this news article is small potatoes
It is the smallest of potatoes. In fact, if you take out the direct quotes, the article is only 147 words long because there's nothing there.
 

ShadowsPapa

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It is the smallest of potatoes. In fact, if you take out the direct quotes, the article is only 147 words long because there's nothing there.
Must have been a really slow news day. They were looking for a story. They missed.
 

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This is funny. Iā€™ve had my box in the exact same spot for almost 45 years. The illustration shown above is the national standard from the Post Office. Iā€™ve had to replace several boxes over the years, due to idiots doing ā€œbatting practiceā€, or just plain running off the road and tearing them up. Iā€™ve always placed them the appropriate height and distance required. I got a slip in my box Saturday, noting it needs to be set closer to the road, so that itā€™s in line with the others nearby. No big deal, took about 10 minutes with the post hole diggers. I just found it ironic this was an issue after so many years. That, and the fact it was a topic on this forum.
 

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ShadowsPapa

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This is funny. Iā€™ve had my box in the exact same spot for almost 45 years. The illustration shown above is the national standard from the Post Office. Iā€™ve had to replace several boxes over the years, due to idiots doing ā€œbatting practiceā€, or just plain running off the road and tearing them up. Iā€™ve always placed them the appropriate height and distance required. I got a slip in my box Saturday, noting it needs to be set closer to the road, so that itā€™s in line with the others nearby. No big deal, took about 10 minutes with the post hole diggers. I just found it ironic this was an issue after so many years. That, and the fact it was a topic on this forum.
I'm sort of surprised that's not been an issue around here as when we first moved here, the road was pea gravel and tar. They put tar down, spread pea gravel, then tar. It was a decent surface, better than rock/sharp gravel but it's turned to mostly "residential" from ag/farm that it used to be out here so the county put a blacktop surface on it. And in the years since then, they have resurfaced it twice. Each time they move it just a bit so you never know where the edge of the road will be. What they do is put recycled asphalt along the shoulder (unless you flag it and tell them no) and they build out the shoulder to your mail box so the carrier can simply pull over onto a shoulder a bit, reach your mail box, then back onto the road. They are only off the road by a few inches in most cases. It works fine as far as we're concerned - you can drive up and get your mail on the way home and be at least one pair of wheels off the road instead of stopping fully on the traveled portion, and the mail carrier is over almost enough to pass them and not drive much into the other lane (HILLY here)
We all keep the snow scooped so the mail people can get to the mail boxes. Who knows how many inches the road will shift next time LOL but no one has been told to move their mail boxes.
 

Guntar

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I've worked as a rural carrier and my has worked as one for almost 20 years. The height does matter. Do this 6 days a week for 600+ boxes. Arm and out, it takes a toll on the body. THe better the height the easier and less damage on the body. Now most rural carriers use their own vehicles (fact). However, Supposedly starting this year the USPS will start rolling out new Rural vehicles it owns and assigning them to routes. Then good-bye private vehicles.

However, making the news for height issues... Very slow news day.
 

ShadowsPapa

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Now most rural carriers use their own vehicles (fact). However, Supposedly starting this year the USPS will start rolling out new Rural vehicles it owns and assigning them to routes.
Yes, like I said - they use their own. Could be a WJ or an XJ or an Oldsmobile or whatever.
Don't look for the USPS to provide vehicles to the rural areas like ours. It's a one person post office and there's no way they are going to provide 2 or 3 vehicles to the carriers here. Ain't gonna happen. They can't afford to replace every single personal vehicle being used. They'd have more invested in the vehicles than the building!
There is no place to park dedicated delivery vehicles at most rural post offices - they are small buildings with small parking lots. They'd be sitting outside all the time, winter and summer.
And there's the RCAs that use their own vehicle - they will get dedicated vehicles?
 

Guntar

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The USPS provides vehicles for routes not individual carriers. One Rural route one vehicle, 20 million drivers. Yes, they are plaining on providing vehicles for every single route in the country as of now. Will that change... Probably. However, your Post office is no different than thousands of others.
 

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As a mail carrier, I have left similar notices to customers before. If you want your mail, you do have some responsibilities to meet. As long as the boxes are close to regulation, it's not a big deal, but some people try to get away with ridiculous set ups, like a box that's a foot off the ground. And remember, most carriers don't even have right-hand drive vehicles. They have to sit in the middle of the car, which makes that stretch to reach the box hundreds of times a day even worse.
 

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Being I'm on good terms with my mail delivery ladies if either one told me my mailbox needs adjusted I'll do it. It will be a P.T.A. being it's set in concrete, but I'd do it. I had to set in concrete due to it shifting backwards towards the ditch. Thanks to the fire ants for building their nest where they did it made digging it easy. :giggle: they decided to move on afterwards.
 
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Happy to see that everyone took the light-hearted humor of the post at face value and didn't get worked up about anything.
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