The Battle for the Mailbox
Over the past 50 years there have been numerous attacks against the Postal Service for control of the mailbox. Presently, the Private Express Statute only allows one party(the United States Postal Service) to “legally” place mail in the mail box with some exceptions. Any other party who does so without paying postage, does it at the risk of being charged postage for those items. In addition, the law provides that a violator could be fined.
Letter carriers who find items in the “mail box” without postage should return these items to the Post Office in order to collect postage. Recently, there have been sporadic reports and rumors that certain competitors are telling their employees to place those items that can fit, into the mailbox. No postage has been paid for these items and they should be subject to return to the post office for “postage” due.
Some offices where these items are being delivered every day, have dedicated “bins” specifically for that purpose. Unfortunately, some managers may not be collecting the “postage” due and have even told letter carriers to “take the items out of the mailbox” and leave them on the ground. Other managers allegedly have been directly letter carriers to leave these items (no postage paid) alone and “don’t” bring them back to the post office. Still other managers reportedly are not collecting the postage but are calling Amazon to tell them to pick these items up for a “redelivery” by Amazon employees.
If these and other comments are true, then the decline of the Postal Service will be even quicker than what it might be under normal circumstances. By allowing any competitor access to the mail box, we are relinquishing our right to control the mail box in what goes in it and what can be delivered. This in effect will be tantamount to “privatization” of the Postal Service.
What privatization will mean in the long run is that “more and more” letter carriers and other postal jobs will be lost forever. Amazon, and other competitors, such as ,USPS, Fed-Ex, DHL, Uber, Lyft and every other unknown local delivery company you can think of will feel “free” to use the mail box. This will be a tremendous loss of revenue. Without revenue, the Postal Service will collapse!
The reason the Postal Service has exclusivity to the mail box is because we are required to provide “universal” service. That is our mandate by the Congress. We deliver to all! There is no choosing who gets mail or parcels based on who they are or where they live or how much money they make.
Remember, Congress does not allow us to make a profit. If they did, we could “cherry” pick where we would deliver. That would be the most “profitable” parts of the country. Without the Postal Service many people would never see any mail because it would not be cost effective or profitable to deliver in certain areas of the country and its territories.
Our country would begin to unravel as only some Americans would get services and others might not be able to afford them. In this era of changing technology, some might say the Postal Service is irrelevant. I, however, do not believe that is the case.
Congress enacted the “private express statute” to fulfill its obligation to provide mail services to all parts of the country at uniform rates. You pay the same “first class” rate whether you mail a piece across Long Island or you send it to Hawaii, Alaska or Puerto Rico.
The American public still trusts letter carriers. Are they willing to accept all types of delivery personnel going to their mailbox? Some will be uniformed but others will have no identification. Are they coming to deliver and item or are they taking it away? Think about it, if anyone can deliver items to a mail box, how will there be security or safety and real accountability. Everyone will need to have a “spy” cam or other security item mounted by their mailbox to see who is delivering or misdelivering what.
Recently, the Long Island District at the direction of the USPS National Headquarters has taken the position that items placed in the mailbox by Amazon employees should be retrieved if they do not have USPS postage. Remember, we still do deliver some Amazon items where postage has been paid. Items without postage, however, should be brought back to the Post Office and a copy made of the specific piece. The piece is then supposed to be returned to Amazon.
This I believe is a start in the right direction of protecting our “universal” delivery services but it will require every letter carrier’s participation and cooperation. We need all letter carriers to be diligent and engaged in this battle for the mailbox! Yours for the Union.
