Who Will Defend the Mailbox?
The Private Express Statue pretty much says that the Postal Service has exclusive rights to deliver mailable matter and place such matter into a mailbox that must be maintained by every customer who wishes to receive mail. In certain situations the Postal Service has installed cluster boxes in “new” developments at no cost to the customer. When these boxes deteriorate or fall apart, however, I do not believe the Postal Service will replace them. It will be the responsibility of the owners of those properties whether it be a “landlord” or community group or other organization.
The issue that am I writing about is not about who replaces the mailbox, it is about who can place items in your mailbox. Ask yourself, who can use the mailbox? Aside from the letter carrier who works for the Post Office, no other individual has a right to put items in a mailbox. This includes: newspapers, political flyers, advertisement, circulars, small items parcels and flats. Amazon, UPS, Fed Ex and any other company(that places items in the mailbox) and any other item that do not bare postage that was not purchased at a Post Office or electronically are not permitted to use the mailbox.
Thus if you find items without postage in a mailbox you should be returning these items to your post office and reporting it to management so that the offending parties will be required to “pay” postage for these items. If it is a saturation mailing (one for each delivery) on your route then you should return two (2) samples and advise they were delivered throughout the entire route.
If competitors and other parties are allowed to use the mailbox with impunity then this will, in my opinion, be the beginning of the end of the Postal Service. It will also mean that the mail that you deliver will not be as secure as it should be. If anyone can place an item that has not been delivered through the Post Office in a mailbox then revenue that pays your salary and benefits will be lost. Amazon has recently announced that they will no longer use the Post Office in 1000 zip codes across the country.
Most of our competitors know the mailbox is the sanctuary for only mail that has been sent through the Post Office. They do not use the mailbox. They place there items near the mailbox or on the ground or in between doors and there is no prohibition from doing that. Newspapers also are never or rarely found in a mailbox. They are thrown on the lawn or driveway in a plastic bag. Again, there is no prohibition against that.
Recently, however, one competitor (Amazon deliverers) are beginning to think the mailbox belongs to them. It does not. The mailbox is only for items sent through the United States Postal Service. From what I can determine, some of this issue is because when Amazon makes a delivery, they are also supposed to take a picture of where they leave the item. What better place than to put it in the mailbox. Unfortunately, they do not have the right to use the mailbox and we should not allow them to infringe on the mailbox that it only supposed to be used for the “U.S. Mail.”
There have even been a few isolated reports that Amazon deliverers have told letter carriers not to take the Amazon items out of the mailbox. Any letter carrier that is told by an Amazon deliverer not to remove items from a mailbox should report this immediately to their supervisor on a form 1767. This is a report of an “unsafe or hazardous condition”. The carrier should also file a grievance with their shop steward (write a specific statement) as to when, where and what was said to them and by who (was it Amazon, UPS, Fed Ex, or other). Also describe the vehicle and get a license number or vehicle number if you can and finally, call the union office (631-789-1616).
This may seem to some of you overly dramatic but this may be one of the only ways that we can defend our jobs from an onslaught of competitors who want to replace you and get access to the mailbox. No one else, has the legal right to use the mailbox for any type of delivery. If you don’t defend the mailbox, who will?
