USPS

jbolt

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I just don't know what to think sometimes.

We live on an unimproved road 15 miles from town. Our mailbox is out on the main road a half mile away. Up until the the beginning of the year if USPS was delivering a package that would not fit in the mailbox they dropped it off at a small country store a few miles away. They would not drive up our road. If it was too large to be delivered by the carrier they left it at the main USPS warehouse in town which was a pita sometimes.

Now there is a post office five miles away in an unincorporated town but because their zip code is different than ours USPS would not send packages there.

UPS and Fedex do deliver to our gate.

At the end of December, after 30 years in business, due to a lack of support from suppliers the small country store closed. (a whole different discussion). With the closing we were hoping USPS would at least drop packages at a private mail center in the incorporated town.

Nope, now for some miraculous reason USPS delivers up our road to the gate and on Sundays! That's great but why now and not before???

I'm also signed up for the "Informed Delivery" so we know what is coming in the mail. We only pickup mail once or twice a week unless something important is coming. Up until this morning I had never had a notification for a package so I was surprised to see it. Now I was not expecting anything until Friday so thinking maybe something was coming early I clicked on the link. "DELIVERED JANUARY 4th" :rolleyes:
 
In my small town usps is pretty good, although they cant ship internationally.Have to drive about 60 miles in 2 trips for that

Ups is great. The lady driver leaves a dog bisquit everytime shes here for my dog.

Fedx sucks. was 10 days late on a big shipment, and the box was trashed.

Just how it is living in a small town.
 
We live in a similar situation and pay for a P.O. Box to get items delivered to the Post Office in one community while mail to the house comes from a different Post Office. "When there is a will, there is a way"
 
Fedex and UPS have been great for the most part.

Fedex Ground delivered a large safe in a full size rig with a 40' trailer. I was shocked he even drove up our road. I don't know how the driver did it but he managed to turn around, back up through the gate and up the driveway to my garage. He unloaded, helped me uncrate and move it into the garage. It was awesome.

Our property is gated so where they leave packages is entertaining sometimes. Due to the way our property slopes my gates are recessed behind the fence line and open out. There is a sign saying so yet packages are always against the gates. I sometimes find packages tossed over the fence in odd places.

If the gate is open both Fedex and UPS will come to the house. USPS just drops by the gate regardless.

I need to put an enclosure for packages to be placed through the fence and out of the rain.
 
Fedex and UPS have been great for the most part.

Fedex Ground delivered a large safe in a full size rig with a 40' trailer. I was shocked he even drove up our road. I don't know how the driver did it but he managed to turn around, back up through the gate and up the driveway to my garage. He unloaded, helped me uncrate and move it into the garage. It was awesome.

Our property is gated so where they leave packages is entertaining sometimes. Due to the way our property slopes my gates are recessed behind the fence line and open out. There is a sign saying so yet packages are always against the gates. I sometimes find packages tossed over the fence in odd places.

If the gate is open both Fedex and UPS will come to the house. USPS just drops by the gate regardless.

I need to put an enclosure for packages to be placed through the fence and out of the rain.
yep, that's not a bad idea. just something for them to put the packages in.
I would go to the post office and talk with them if you do not know your carrier.
Ask them how to handle it, tell them the gate opens.. ask if they will deliver to the enclosure, even ask if you can put a lock on it if you need one. They may have a universal lock, with a key for them on one side and a key for you on the other... I don't know, just thinking out loud.
 
I ran a small business in a small town a while back. Our shop was on one side of the road which had an address from the next town over and was served by their post office. The other side of the road was our town (both sides were physically within our village limits but the post office wouldn't make my address actually in the town which I was in). I went all the way up to having our US Senate representative requesting this change but the USPS wouldn't do it. They have their ways and we all need to work with what they are.

BTW, Sunday delivery is driven by agreements USPS has with UPS (and maybe others) to perform the last mile. Many times these routes are done by "carrier associates" not your regular carrier. I think this is a profitable part of the business and it probably makes a lot of sense given the mandates congress has put on them. It also allows more folks to get started as letter carriers and eventually become "regular" with a pension and such.

USPS actually has kinda an amazing mandate, going to every address every day (more or less). It's a service that allowed the US to grow and thrive as a democracy just as Ben Franklin envisioned so long ago.

John
 
We live in a similar situation and pay for a P.O. Box to get items delivered to the Post Office in one community while mail to the house comes from a different Post Office. "When there is a will, there is a way"
Was going to suggest this. Beat me to it. This is the way of the wood dwellers in a civilized world.
 
I've maintained a PO Box since I was in my 20's, the first time an important letter got misplaced by a housemate....

Small price to pay for the increased confidence.

John
 
I also live on an unpaved road. Our (cluster) box is down on the pavement about 1/4 mile away. With only 2 parcel lockers, we frequently get pink slips saying the locker was full and we should pick up the package at the P.O., 12 miles away. In normal times, this is just inconvenient. Add the pandemic, and the fact that the Post Office employees are unmasked along with 90% of the patrons in a cubicle of a P.O., and it's downright dangerous. Fortunately our SIL works for OnTrac and, being a very small community, he regularly drops and picks up packages at the P.O. in an informal "last mile" relationship.

I am VERY impressed with one of our FedEx drivers. She has never let snow conditions keep her from delivering. Last year she walked a couple hundred yards with a large box up our lane and driveway when the lane was too slippery to get in with the truck. She has confirmed to me that our other driver will just save packages for her to deliver when conditions are bad. This year FedEx got her a 4wd truck.
 
It's interesting that the carrier who delivers the packages is not the regular mail carrier. They are always in an official USPS vehicle. The regular mail carrier appears to be a contractor and drives a Subaru.

I agree though that rural living has its quirks. That being said it is WAY better than where we moved from.
 
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