Any postal workers on the board? Got a question or two...

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64DartGTinAZ

64DartGTinAZ

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Having issues with our mail getting delivered sometimes...not sure what the official rules are on when the carrier can decide not to deliver a package because it's 'too heavy'.

I thought the rule was under 70 lbs and not marked 'two man lift'?

Just had to pick up a 40 lb box at the post office that fit in a large flat rate box...
 
@inkjunkie should be able to answer your questions. He worked for the postal service in AZ for quite awhile.
 
Try @whitepunkonitro too
He may not work for them...but he's got them pegged pretty good
 
64DartGTinAZ said:
Having issues with our mail getting delivered sometimes...not sure what the official rules are on when the carrier can decide not to deliver a package because it's 'too heavy'.

I thought the rule was under 70 lbs and not marked 'two man lift'?

Just had to pick up a 40 lb box at the post office that fit in a large flat rate box...
Click to expand...

It comes down to the call of the carrier him/her self.
My Wife was a USPS carrier.
 
So, even though the post office policy is they deliver up to 70 lbs, the carrier can just decide they don't feel like delivering the package?
 
Postal worker? That's an oxymoron...postal employee is more like it....
 
Was there any markings of sort on the box? Was it damaged in any way? Did it have any liquids in it that leaked? By large flat rate you do mean priority, correct?
 
Hmm...couple more questions....you have the cluster box for delivery, correct? One central locked box for your neighborhood? Guessing that the carrier left you the notification slip?
Just for common knowledge....the USPS has its own bible of sorts. It is called the Domestic Mail Manual. The DMM is basically the standard operating procedure of the USPS.
Domestic Mail Manual | Postal Explorer
 
Found something that "may" apply.....other than the carrier bring lazy....
Screenshot_20161207-082229.png
 
inkjunkie said:
Was there any markings of sort on the box? Was it damaged in any way? Did it have any liquids in it that leaked? By large flat rate you do mean priority, correct?
Click to expand...

Weight is 45 lbs (per non-certified scale) and here's a pic of the box:

IMG_0482.JPG
 
What I posted above was from the Rural delivery sectionot of the Domestic Mail Manual. Section 508 2.2.3. Do you have a rural carrier? The same may apply to city routes.
The N'L looks like it was written with the black "China" pencils the USPS uses. As a guess it means no delivery due to length.
Asked a friend, his wife is a carrier. She told me that the station she works from strictly enforces the rules in Handbook M41. She mentioned Section 322. Did some reading and found this
Screenshot_20161207-092909.png

I know it states Parcel Post, the USPS calls all packages Parcels. Guessing this is the first time this happened to you. If so your station may have a new manager. USPS may have noticed all the news reports of packages being stolen and decided to implement the above in an attempt to safeguard your package.
 
Not rural - and no, not the first time...or the second...just tired of the carrier bitching about doing her job.

She stated 70 lbs was the limit (when I asked her what the rules were on deliveries on Saturday).
I asked why she wouldn't deliver a package that was reported to me as weighing 40 lbs.
She replied that the second leading cause of injury to postal carriers is lifting.
I asked, so, is it 70 lbs, or not?
She said her station manager told her not to deliver it.
It was too heavy and it was long and would take two people to carry it, and besides, it was in this blue bin and she'd have to bend over...

My wife (who is older than the carrier, but about the same build) picked it up yesterday.
They person who got it said, "oh, yeah, I remember that one - it's too heavy!".
My wife picked it up, by herself, said, "you've got to be kidding me", and carried it out to the car.

OK, guess it's sounding like no recourse, the post office has rules, but the carriers can invalidate them at will.

Thanks for the links to the docs, Doug! Much appreciated!!!

John
 
You would be amazed at what carriers in some places can get fired or let go for.
My Wife busted *** at the post office she worked at carrying things she shouldn't have and it destroyed both of her knees and guess what it got her?
It got her not employed by the USPS anymore and two messed up knees for life.
 
64DartGTinAZ said:
So, even though the post office policy is they deliver up to 70 lbs, the carrier can just decide they don't feel like delivering the package?
Click to expand...

Pretty much. I had a package due to arrive, and it was just a small package.

The delivery lady decided she was going to take it back to the PO and mark it as "no safe place to leave it".

We had just got over a huge snow storm, the roads were open, no problem getting around. My wife and I were outside doing clean up and watched her drive down the road right past us and never stopped.

So she just decided she didn't want to stop.
 
I asked a friend that I worked with. He asked a carrier....his response.....
Ok, if they're too big for the boxes at an MBU, multibox unit, then we may leave them at the door, if we feel it's secure enuff. On some pkgs, all of amazon for example, it will say CARRIER, LEAVE IF NO RESPONSE. Meaning, we have permission to leave the box at the door of the home. If that's not on the pkg, then we're not supposed to. We CAN, if we feel it's not gonna be swiped. It's kinda up to us. Other reasons would be, the shipper requires a sig, but that doesn't sound like this. If they've had a rash of theft in the immediate area, they may tell the carriers not to leave at the door.
And the second part...
Tell him to look up the tracking if he can and see what the reason is for not leaving it. We have to input a reason before it let's us finish the scan
Sadly it does sound like the carrier is the problem.
 
inkjunkie said:
Sadly it does sound like the carrier is the problem.
Click to expand...

I subbed on a very rural route and one time took a package to the house - maybe a 1/4 mile away - and the lady was dumbfounded I delivered the package. The regular carrier was too lazy and always left a notice to go pick it up at the PO. After I had my own route (part rural and part in town), that 40 lb large flat rate box would have certainly been delivered to the front door.
 
Our route is rural. We are a mile and a half from pavement. Our carrier claims his contract says he is to go no further than a half mile from pavement. Joyce lives a quarter mile from the pavement....he will not deliver parcels to her. The mail boxes for our 'hood are at the school bus stop so he doesn't leave parcels there. We go thru Nine Miles Falls going to town, much easier and safer to use a PO Box. USPS has a former you can sign that authorizes them to accept FedEx/UPS packages as well. The 70 pound rule still applies...
 
inkjunkie said:
Our route is rural. We are a mile and a half from pavement. Our carrier claims his contract says he is to go no further than a half mile from pavement.
Click to expand...

The 1/2 mile rule applies here as well. The route I subbed on was 80 miles in length and over half were dirt roads and no house was more than 1/2 miles from where the mailbox was located on the route!
 
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