Broomfield, CO, Letter Carrier J.D. Kohl stands near one of the test mailboxes.
Big test
Customers testing larger mailboxes
The Postal Service has expanded its test of larger mailboxes to rural and suburban communities in California, Colorado and North Dakota.
Customers in these areas recently received the test boxes, which are the same height as regular mailboxes but much wider to accommodate around 70 percent of boxes currently sent through the mail.
The customers who volunteered to test the boxes are providing feedback to the Postal Service throughout the test period.
Broomfield, CO, Letter Carrier J.D. Kohl predicts customers will find bigger boxes are better.
“I can see that it will be a real convenience to the customer,” said Kohl. “The box protects the package from the weather. It also may save the customer from coming to the Post Office if they aren’t home.
and like I always say….
mail travels hundreds, even thousands of miles to get to a customer’s residence. Why not have the customer exert a little more effort with cluster boxes instead of delivering to one box at a time? Just another way to save precious money.
Great idea but with mail thefts from streetside boxes on the rise, why not make the boxes automatically lock after the carrier puts the mail and boxes in the larger box?
I would not want to scan a package “delivered” UNTIL it is delivered.
The larger box sounds nice, until they start getting ripped off like the mail does.
I don’t mind going to the lobby to pick up my package and wait for a couple of hours to get it. At least I’ll get it.
I like the idea myself, but can the USPS force customers to convert to larger boxes? I admit it would help on the street to cut down on some of the hop and stopping, which I really hate doing, and with parcel business exploding, it’s sensible, at least until routes are adjusted properly to reflect the increase in parcel service. My own route has doubled if not tripled its parcel volume, and there are days when I have almost no room left to stuff them into the LLV.
Plus, they would be more secure in a box instead of on somebody’s porch.
Won’t make much difference to me because I retire in a little under two years but it will help other carriers who will be around a long time.
This is not about customer service. This is a way for the USPS to save money. By having larger boxes that fit parcels the USPS will say that it takes less time for a carrier to deliver a parcel since it now fits in the box. With the new scanners the USPS can see if the parcels are being delivered at the curb or the front door. This is why it is carriers should scan parcels at the door when delivering parcels if it does not fit in the box. Rural carriers are only hurting themselves when they scan a parcel in the truck instead of scanning at the delivery point.