Dumb Kwestion #56 - No Post on Sunday!

Ok kiddos it's time for another silly survey, kooky query, or problematic probe!  Yep it's another DUMB KWESTION!!!!

This time the question is what kind of mailbox do you have?  Where do you pick up your mail? 

Is it from a small box on the porch of your house?



Or possibly a mailbox out on the street in front of your home?



Maybe you have one of those really old-school slots in the door of your house or aparment that the mail-carrier crams your letters into?



Possibly you live in an apartment or condo and have a bank of security mailboxes at your clubhouse?  Or you have a P.O. box in a store or official Post Office where you get your mail from a similar bank of mailboxes?



Maybe you get your mail some other way?  Tell us!  Fundy is just itching to find out, and so am I.

We have a small bank of security mailboxes in these interesting looking kiosks located all over the neighborhood (about every 3 or 4 blocks).  Mine is about 10 houses down the street from my house near one of the street corners.  With more than a few thousand houses in our massive development I am guessing there could be in excess of 60 of  these things.

So that spikey little Yucca Tree (in the foreground) is at the edge of my driveway.  Between the portable toilet and that white trailer you can see the red arrow pointing at our mailbox kiosk beyond.



The smaller boxes are for the individual houses also there are a few larger boxes are for packages too large to fit into an individual box.  There is also a slot to place your outgoing mail for pick-up by the postal carrier.

In the UK we only have these...


If anything bigger is being delivered then they ring the doorbell.

It's interesting to see the bank mailboxes that you use.  How are things posted in them, as it looks like you need a key to access them.  If so, does the postman have a key?

About 15 years ago someone kept smashing ours. So I went and bought one of those very thick plastic ones. The kind if you hit it with a bat it will bounce back on you. No problems since. It's about 25 feet away or so at the street by the driveway. Hurricane Michael did blow off the top portion of it but I found it several yards away and just snapped it back on.

Being too lazy to walk all the way out to my box and check if the mail's come or not, I attached a spring loaded flag, so when the door is pulled the flag is released. I also have a mechanism where a piece of metal connects to a magnet and completes a current so a light comes on (for those dark winter nights). Everyone thinks I'm crazy, but I've seen neighbors checking to see if my flag is up before they check their own mail   

  That's really cool.

So, does that mean anyone can steal your post if you don't go and check it?

Fundy wrote:

  That's really cool.

So, does that mean anyone can steal your post if you don't go and check it?

I suppose. We've been pretty blessed and had no mail theft in the 25 years we lived here

Fundy wrote:

In the UK we only have these...


If anything bigger is being delivered then they ring the doorbell.

It's interesting to see the bank mailboxes that you use.  How are things posted in them, as it looks like you need a key to access them.  If so, does the postman have a key?

The bank-type mailboxes do require a key to get into (look at my last picture with the key in the mailbox door...in my second post).
For the outdoor kiosks like I have the letter-carrier has a master key that often will allow them to open the entire face of one whole bank of boxes (so 10+) at the same time.  Then he/she can stuff the mail in all those boxes without having to open them one at a time.



When we had a box at the post office it was more like the 4th picture in my first post.  The Post Office workers could access the mailboxes from the other side of the wall (meaning that there was no back wall on the mail box).  So the postal worker would just stand on the back-side stuffing mail into the boxes (see picture below).  You had to be careful when picking up your mail from the customer side not to get a letter caught on your sleeve and accidently push it through the back or else it would fall on the floor and you couldn't get it.

Fundy wrote:

  That's really cool.

So, does that mean anyone can steal your post if you don't go and check it?

We used to have a mailbox just like Jim and Mike do (in our last house), and the mail delivery was around 11am.  Several people in the neighborhood where getting their mail stolen during the day when they were at work.  It can be a problem depending on how good your neighborhood is.  It caused us to go get a P.O. box at the Post Office that we had to pay about $25 a month for (but much more secure).
These are probably the most common in the U.S.  They allow the letter-carrier to stay in their vehicle and deliver all the mail on their route.  The type you have Fundy requires the letter-carriers to walk around to deliver the mail.  Hence, they stay slimmer than our chubby postal workers in the U.S. 

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's how I get my mail.  Many a CD has graced these hallowed grounds.  LOL

As far as I'm aware no one has got those multi mail boxes in the UK.  Our postmen drive to a location, and then deliver the mail to all the houses in 4 or 5 roads.  Then they drive to another location, and deliver the post there.  They used to use bikes, but found it cheaper to use vans (not sure how that works!)

I get all our bigger mail delivered to work.  That way we know it won't be returned or thown over the fence, or left with a neighbour.

I'm just guessing that the bicycle vs. van could be due to people getting more packages then they used to 10+ years ago.  Harder to load a bunch of packages onto a bicycle then in a van. 
I'm also guessing the given the much larger size of the U.S. that the people in rural areas are spread out quite a bit more than they are in the U.K.  So the letter-carriers go from house to house in their mail jeeps/vans a greater distance than the U.K. mail-carriers.  Hence the mailboxes on the street here in the states.

Somebody said something one time in comparing the U.S. to the U.K. that I have remembered for years.  The difference is that in the U.K. 100 miles is a long distance, and in the U.S. 100 years is a long time.  I like that, as it points out two very big differences in our nations.

The only boxes here in NZ are the kind that sit at the end of the driveway. Only a courier would ever approach the house. We get mail delivered only 3 times a week because there just isn't the volume to justify daily delivery any more. A few years ago NZ Post moved away from bicycles to these cute electric buggies. 

That buggie is one dangerous hot rod!

Like Jen, we here in my Missouri town have mailboxes on fence posts arranged in rows.

Jen5 wrote:

The only boxes here in NZ are the kind that sit at the end of the driveway. Only a courier would ever approach the house. We get mail delivered only 3 times a week because there just isn't the volume to justify daily delivery any more. A few years ago NZ Post moved away from bicycles to these cute electric buggies. 

That buggy is awesome!

Here in the U.S. we get so much junk mail that the Post Office could never get away with delivering only 3 days a week.
I'm guessing for every piece of mail that I need/want to get I probably get 5-8 other things that I recycle or throw away because it is just companies soliciting me for services, products or credit cards.

It seems that most of our mail-carriers in the states drive around in these fancy little vans delivering mail.  Although in some places you will see a standard Jeep (or Jeep Cherokees) fitted with the steering wheel on the right side and just a sign on the vehicle.  I think these are for letter-carriers delivering in the country or very rural areas.

 

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

Being too lazy to walk all the way out to my box and check if the mail's come or not, I attached a spring loaded flag, so when the door is pulled the flag is released. I also have a mechanism where a piece of metal connects to a magnet and completes a current so a light comes on (for those dark winter nights). Everyone thinks I'm crazy, but I've seen neighbors checking to see if my flag is up before they check their own mail   

My mailbox actually has an extra flag with yellow stickers on it that you push down when you get your mail, and it will pop back up when the mailbox door is opened.  Most of the time, that means we have gotten the mail.  Every once and a while, it will mean some kid threw their trash in there.  Of course nowadays, if that happens, I can look at the footage from my Ring doorbell and spot who did it.

Mailboxes in my neighborhood are encased in bricks at the end of the driveways (not in the middle of the driveway, mind you . . . . on one side of the driveway, between the curb and the sidewalk).

Through The Dark Radio wrote:

Mailboxes in my neighborhood are encased in bricks at the end of the driveways (not in the middle of the driveway, mind you . . . . on one side of the driveway, between the curb and the sidewalk).

Thanks for clearing that up...I was a little concerned there for a second. 
You must live in a rather swanky neighborhood.  They don't typically have pretty brick mailbox encasements in the hoods I'm used to living in.

Normaniac wrote:

That buggie is one dangerous hot rod!

lol, you're not kidding. They get in something like 200 crashes a year.  

Staybrite wrote:

Jen5 wrote:

The only boxes here in NZ are the kind that sit at the end of the driveway. Only a courier would ever approach the house. We get mail delivered only 3 times a week because there just isn't the volume to justify daily delivery any more. A few years ago NZ Post moved away from bicycles to these cute electric buggies. 

That buggy is awesome!

Here in the U.S. we get so much junk mail that the Post Office could never get away with delivering only 3 days a week.
I'm guessing for every piece of mail that I need/want to get I probably get 5-8 other things that I recycle or throw away because it is just companies soliciting me for services, products or credit cards.

Our postal service doesn't really do a lot of junk mail, unless it's the kind that's addressed. Fliers either come with the newspaper or are delivered by kids on their "flier route." I just slap a "no circulars" sign on my letterbox so I don't get any.

Quote :

My mailbox actually has an extra flag with yellow stickers on it that you push down when you get your mail, and it will pop back up when the mailbox door is opened.  Most of the time, that means we have gotten the mail.  Every once and a while, it will mean some kid threw their trash in there.  Of course nowadays, if that happens, I can look at the footage from my Ring doorbell and spot who did it.

Oh man, I so want a RING doorbell. I need to just get one. You like yours?

Staybrite wrote:

Through The Dark Radio wrote:

Mailboxes in my neighborhood are encased in bricks at the end of the driveways (not in the middle of the driveway, mind you . . . . on one side of the driveway, between the curb and the sidewalk).

Thanks for clearing that up...I was a little concerned there for a second. 
You must live in a rather swanky neighborhood.  They don't typically have pretty brick mailbox encasements in the hoods I'm used to living in.

I like to make sure I am clear for those simpletons out there . . . not you, of course 

Option #1 (box next to the door) in my neck of the woods. Some of the older homes with original doors have slots like the UK. I'm kind of surprised the slots have stuck around on newer homes there as they aren't energy efficient. Like Fundy, in our city the postperson will drive around and then walk to deliver several blocks at a time and then come again for larger packages they couldn't carry.

Fundy wrote:

In the UK we only have these... (door slot)

If anything bigger is being delivered then they ring the doorbell.

...
So, does that mean anyone can steal your post if you don't go and check it?

It could happen but pretty rare for normal mail. Package theft is more a concern today. Like you I had them delivered to work. Ringing the bell doesn't do much if nobody is home. Unless it requires a signature or specifies to leave it somewhere specific, the carriers will just leave it in front of your door.

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

Oh man, I so want a RING doorbell. I need to just get one. You like yours?

I just have standard wifi cameras (v2 of this) watching my front and back porches. I could talk through them if I wanted but mounted them inside so they couldn't be disturbed or need USB run outside. They have come in very handy a few times since I installed them a few years ago.

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

Quote :

My mailbox actually has an extra flag with yellow stickers on it that you push down when you get your mail, and it will pop back up when the mailbox door is opened.  Most of the time, that means we have gotten the mail.  Every once and a while, it will mean some kid threw their trash in there.  Of course nowadays, if that happens, I can look at the footage from my Ring doorbell and spot who did it.

Oh man, I so want a RING doorbell. I need to just get one. You like yours?

I absolutely love mine!  It is nice to see how your packages are handled when they are delivered.

Mine has already prevented one package theft.  There is a family in our neighborhood that is always in trouble with the law.  One day as I was coming home from school, my Ring app notified me someone was at my door after I had packages delivered earlier.  The neighbor's 10 year old girl was picking my packages up and looking them over while her older brother kept watch at the street.  My Ring has a microphone, so I activated that and yelled for the girl to put down my packages!  It scared both kids and they took off!  I was able to extract photos from the video of the kids if I have any further issues to take to the police.  I also shared those photos and what happened with each of my next door neighbors so that they also could keep and eye out on similar activity.

I am thinking of adding a second ring to the back door.

The bad thing about a ring door bell- no more "ring n run" where you ring someone's door bell then run off and hide in some bushes! Just like caller ID ended prank calls!