4/9/17 A United States Postal Service letter carrier is being investigated after reports that he was charging residents along his route $25 to install curbside mailboxes — a move that some of those residents say was foisted on them.|
City route No. 2 had historically been delivered as a walking route each day by Martin dispatched by truck from Jacksonville’s main Post Office located on New Bridges Street a short drive from the Bayshore Estates neighborhood. Martin told The Daily News he had been walking more than 11 miles each day before curbside mailboxes started sprouting up. The transition from door delivery to a curbside delivery method “shaved two hours off the route. It’s made my job easier,” Martin told The Daily News on Friday while delivering mail on Warlick Street.
Residents say they received — either placed inside their mailbox or hand delivered by Martin — was an undated, four paragraph, typed letter on USPS letterhead signed by Jacksonville Postmaster Jamie Thompson stating: “To modernize and expedite delivery, your neighborhood has been selected to be converted to curbside delivery. The United States Postal Service is requesting your assistance in completing this transformation by requesting the remaining customers to move their boxes to the curb as soon as possible. Your letter carrier can also make recommendations concerning seize (sic), type and the location that will best suit your needs.”
USPS postal operations manual outlines the criteria needed to change the existing method of delivery: “Where the residences and lots are owned, each owner must agree to the conversion in writing. Owners who do not agree must be allowed to retain their current mode of delivery.”
Martin said over the past five years, he’s built, delivered and installed about 100 mailboxes.
source: Postal service investigates area mail carrier following push to curbside delivery
Great job. If this was done of the clock and meet all required size regulations, what’s the problem.
Who actually came up with that letter to go curbside? If Martin’s route was considered overburdened then he should have requested a route inspection to find where it stood for total time. Oh that’s right, we do not do inspections anymore. It is too costly. Cheaper to let the carrier put up mailboxes, and save time and money! what a dumba**!
This is part of my jobs and economic program.
What I’d like to know is whether the postmaster was counseled about sending an improper notice to the customers. As noted in the article, per the POM the method of delivery cannot be changed without the written consent of the customer.
This change of delivery method has taken place in other locations and the postmaster always has to rescind the order. What many in management, which is what I retired from, don’t seem to understand is that at the district and post office level you follow policy, you don’t make it.
Hey as long as he’s installing them on his time what’s the problem? 25 bucks for a mail box and pole seems like a cheap deal. That’s probably what he paid for the materials.
Are they investigating him to give him an award for the $15000 dollars or so a year that his effort to convert deliveries to a more efficient form is saving the USPS?
Should be done everywhere. They preach safety, and yet everyday we
come onto private property every delivery point in the US.
We should never leave the truck.
Safety, Safety, but now walk miles and miles when you can stay safe in your truck.
I don’t want to hear about lost jobs.
we have enough parcels to keep us in business until
Amazon buys UPS.
It’s coming wait until UPS goes on strike when they cut the pay.
Then even more parcels.
It’s safer if you just stay home and the carrier will bring you the welfare checks.
Shave two hours off his route?!?! Does this mean the Postal Service will add two more hours to make his route an 8 hr. assignment again?
Smart guy, shave 2hrs off his route and make money on the side.
It would have cost much more if they hired a contactor and about as much if they bought the materials themselves. He made no money and most likely did the labor for free to cut his delivery time.
I fired a maintenance guy for exposing to a live contactor without PPE.
The USPS and or Representatives can do as they want to with that mailbox. You the customer can’t but the agency according to regulations then!
The rules changed in many places, bet you didn’t know. Guess what happened to some small businesses, they were told here is your cluster box, but retrieving mail from inside the box is an issue, when you get volumes of mail daily, customer addressed!
I am no legal expert but what this sounds like is . That the public in this area
had their civil rights taken away from them. The Law states that all persons should
be treated fair, and that the standard should be for all involved. USPS doesn’t
always see things that way.
How did you understand it to be a “public civil right being taken away” what grade level reading are you in?
Martin stayed it made his job easier?…how about lazy…and never mind thinking of “Service” to the customer. ..let’s make the customer come down to the street who cares if they are inconvenienced in all types of weather…so if Martin thinks his job is easier let’s see when and how fast an addition gets put on his route…..secondly what gave him the arrogant autourity to have side job interactions with citizens..This is nothing but Management using a future suck up carrier to go bullying customers by robbing them of their right to delivery
Martin said it made his job easier?…how about lazy…and never mind thinking of “Service” to the customer. ..let’s make the customer come down to the street who cares if they are inconvenienced in all types of weather…so if Martin thinks his job is easier let’s see when and how fast an addition gets put on his route…..secondly what gave him the arrogant autourity to have side job interactions with citizens..This is nothing but Management using a future suck up carrier to go bullying customers by robbing them of their right to delivery.