August 5, 2015
Note: The issue of parking in front of mailboxes has taken on a life of its own over the years..
Parking in front of a mailbox is perfectly legal in most cities or counties long as cars are allowed to park along the street in the area.
But in some cities across America this issue has caused major disputes between people living in residential areas. For example: There are bazillion forums addressing….
- Post Office won’t deliver mail because neighbor keeps parking in front of my mailbox
- Our neighbor parks his car in front of our mailbox?
- neighbor keeps blocking my mailbox .
In some cities local officials have eliminated the problem by enacting a law that prohibits parking in front of mailboxes. But residents in Fayetteville, Arkansas say the new law has created new problems.
Fayetteville police are starting to enforce the new law restricting parking in front of a mailbox. The Fayetteville Police Department had a 60-day grace period after the ordinance was passed. Now that the grace period has expired residents can get a ticket costing up to $70. The restriction is only effective Monday through Saturday, from 8:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. (exempt are Sundays and holidays). But residents are complaining about problems this new law is causing in the neighborhoods.
For those who say there is nothing that says we can’t hold a customers mail. I believe we are on official business and it is unlawful to willingly obstruct delivery of the mail. Yes as a carrier I will get out and service a blocked mail box. The problem were talking about here is the constant obstruction of delivery. This law would not be passed if those certain individuals would not take it upon themselves to repeatedly block a box. Unfortunately they ruin it for everyone.
1. As carriers, we are to deliver to box regardless it is blocked. Get out with brake and wheel chalk and service the box. It sucks doing it in the rain, but we get paid to do it.
2. What people fail to understand is, that is city property. They can enact no parking anytime. lol imagine our parking points then that happened. But seriously, people are just rude. Had a route one time where the city police had three of it’s best on the same block. One of them seemed to always park their patrol car in front of their neighbors box. We had slips back them addressing blocking mailboxs and it sure felt good to slip that under the city patrol cars windshield wiper when he crudely blocked his neighbors mailbox.
No we’re not it’s a safety issue if you get hurt p.o. won’t back you
I live in a small suburb next to Fayetteville, and while I work in another city nearby, I applaud the police in ticketing these inconsiderate jerks who make it hard or impossible for us to deliver mail. People block my boxes all the time and in areas where there are multiple boxes in one stop, when some stupid ass parks there, four or even eight customers can’t get the mail because I’m not about to climb over somebody’s car or pickup and squeeze between the door and the boxes. I tell people who do this regularly that they are responsible for eight homes not getting mail. Sometimes they quit, sometimes they don’t, and the customers who don’t get mail because of their neighbor oftentimes tell the offender to move it in less polite terms than I’m allowed to use on the clock.
I don’t buy the argument of letting them block boxes and deliver anyway unless it’s not that big of a hassle, or it’s obviously important, or I know it’s somebody else responsible, not the customer whose box is blocked. To allow people to keep doing it doesn’t solve the problem, and with a 1000 stop route I’d never get done if I had to get out every time.
Sound rude? Not when you consider customers get free mail delivery regardless of where they live. It costs to send mail, but not to get it. We are not subsidized with taxes, like some idiots still think, so it doesn’t cost the resident a penny to get their mail, so one would think the least you could do is make it possible to get to your box and have it properly mounted and maintained.
Many towns have No Parking on the side of the street opposite the mail boxes resulting in you either block the mailbox or not park on street at all, which the no parking at all was their intent. If you have No Parking on the side of the street with mailboxes it solves the problem for blocking the boxes. If a person wanted friends over it causes problems with No Parking on side with no boxes. On streets with boxes on both sides it would be in the best interest of the PO to pay to move the boxes all to one side.
Sorry Silver Far, but you are wrong. The safety manual says a Carrier is not to stand in the street to service a mailbox. A carrier must also be able to look inside a mailbox before he or she has to put their hands into it. We have had snakes placed in mailboxes and even had a carrier get bit. It is a safety issue.
The sad thing, is there is nothing in Postal Manuals instructing letter carriers not to deliver mail to blocked mail boxes. When I was trained (I am a retired letter carrier), I was instructed to park as close as possible, and WALK to the blocked mail box in order to deliver the mail. It may take longer, but oh well … It takes what it takes. The PROBLEM is, there are some Postal supervisors instructing carriers to curtail delivery to blocked boxes in order to save time.
Could you not use safety as a reason not to? Absolutely you can. I have some streets on my route that are connector streets and get a lot of traffic, and like any town, some drive like maniacs through residential neighborhoods with kids running all over the place because their parents are too damn stupid to keep them out of the streets.
So, if a box is blocked, and delivering to it means leaving part or all of my LLV in the lane of traffic unattended while I get out, or have to reach as far as the seat belt allows. You could get easily clipped from behind, and you’ll get disciplined for it. That rude customer isn’t worth getting written up for. You can argue lack of visibility, putting yourself in a position where you have to back up when you shouldn’t have to, or any number of safety factors when you have to dismount to get to a box, and damned if I’ll walk several doors down to get to it. If they want us to walk, it’d be a park and loop.
Hallelujah! Please go nationwide with this law. As a letter carrier I deal with this problem on a daily basis. Same people park their car in front of neighbors mailboxes while their driveways is empty. Then they have the nerve to say I’ll get use to it. No, your neighbor doesn’t get their mail because of your in consideration.
Mail carriers have a job to do. It’s a Postal regulation to have 15 feet in front and 15 feet beyond the mailbox so we can deliver the mail. However,people just don’t care. I would be reporting you every day if this law was in my state. It’s rude and inconsiderate especially when your driveway is empty. I had a family go on vacation for two weeks and they left their car parked in front of a row of 5 mailboxes. Driveway empty. So we had their car towed. They were not too happy but it was their fault.