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I just got a call from the local USPS. Apparently, our porch at our new house is too far away from the road for the mailperson to pick our packages up. The covered porch is connected to a sidewalk which leads maybe 15 yards to the driveway. Maybe that’s too far for someone to walk? I don’t know. They said that we have to leave them next to our garage instead, but there’s no cover from rain. Does anyone have any suggestions for adding cover or anything else? I guess I could just cover my packages with a tarp for now, but I want a more permanent solution.
Here’s a picture showing what I’ve got to work with. Let me know your thoughts.
https://imgur.com/a/z1a1WSN -
Ugh…You have a crappy mail person and/or postmaster. Did you talk to the actual postmaster?
I’ve had conversations with my delivery person and their typical response is “It’s my job to pick up and drop off your mail no matter what”.
Personally, I don’t do pickup because I don’t want to leave things sitting on the porch unattended. I drop off at a post office during my daily routines.
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I would talk with your local postmaster. That should not be a reason to say that. They have to drop off packages at your porch, correct?
We use plastic totes as well so that the packages stay dry and out of snow/rain. Our porch is covered, but extra protection, plus easy for them to haul to the truck.
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I just called them back to verify. Apparently the mail carrier was having trouble with a heavy package that I had left out. It weighed 23 lbs. I mentioned my concern with rain and she said she would drop off some rain-proof sacks, whatever that entails. But I think I’ve come up with a temporary solution. I’ve got a large garden cart that I can borrow. I’ll put my packages in there with a tarp bungee strapped over them and leave it at the garage.
I would drop them off at the post office personally, except I have to leave for work at 7 AM and they don’t open until 8.
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Funny about the weight. I had a 47 lb. pkg. back first of the summer. Our reg. carrier is small and I went to the door and said i would help her carry it. She refused and said she had it. She is a small lady but just snatched it up and said at the same breath, I only have problems with the ones over 65 – 70 lbs. I asked what was the limit and she said, just like at UPS, 100 lb. we are suppose to take unless the overall size is larger than what our arms can wrap around.
So just being cute, I said so I can box up and ship a hundred lb. barbell set. Reply was …Yep!
23 lbs. I am 69 years old and can get that with one arm.
I think .. “What we have here, is a failure to communicate!” [t-satt ??] 🙂
mike at MDCG
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“Some men..you just can’t reach. So you get what we had here last week. Which is the way he wants it. So…he gets it! And I don’t want that for any man.” — Cool Hand Luke
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T-Satt .. well done! … I am probably going to have to go way back in my archived memory to trip you up. Since I am older and was brought up on TV, I’ll slip some past you sooner or later! 🙂 🙂
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Talk about splitting hairs. You would think that the porch is just a few more steps away from the garage door. Is there a rule that has a distant limit a carrier can walk? Think not. What did someone from USPS do, come out and use a rolling measuring wheel or 100 ft. tape measure and measure it and discover that the garage was within the limit and the porch was not? I think not.
Sounds to me that like so many people have posted, that no one at USPS really knows all the rules completely and they are open to individual interpretation.
We hang a small tag that sayd we have pkgs. on front porch for for pickup. They see that, go get them and then removes the tag and puts it back inside the box. We use it every time we have pkgs. too large for our “over sized” box we bought. Our distance is 15 yards [45 ft. +/-] distance away.
Our biggest problem is with all of the subs on our reg. carrier’s day off is with the subs scanning our packages at point of pick-up. Reg. carrier scans right away and puts in the back of truck. Subs, never scan even though I have talked personally with every one of them multiple times. But distance has never been a problem.
Wonder if your mail box got hit by a car and knocked over, would they just not deliver your mail until you replaced it? What if it took you two weeks to get it replaced.
Just makes all of us wonder sometimes.
“What a world,..what a world!” [t-satt the quote is for you..what movie?] 🙂
mike at MDC Galleries
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It’s over 300 yards from the road to my package storage bin by our side porch AND my driveway is an uphill washed out gravel adventure. Our folks drive up it all the time for pickups and deliveries. We’re 12 miles out of town. There are a lot of long driveways out here.
We have this:
Lowes-Outdoor Storage Bin (Shed)-
ashend57: That is good to know. At some point in the distant future, we may move to a rural area. Shipping was the concern I had in the places we wanted. Either having to drop off in town or if we could work out a deal with the local post office.
I’m betting rural PO folks are willing to work with people…
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T-Satt,
If/When you start looking for a rural home, please make sure to find out beforehand whether the USPS actually delivers mail to the address or not. I live in a rural area, though on a public, paved road with a moderate amount of traffic. But the USPS does not deliver to my house. I have the option of having a mailbox at the end of some street that’s not super close by or pay for a PO Box. I chose the latter, and it works great! But no pickups for me. Totally okay for me, since I’m a small seller and my PO is less than a mile away, and I have to go there to get my mail anyway.
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ignore the “please” – not sure why I said that.
My old office job self kick in or something. And I’m not going to risk editing the post. 🙂 -
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Mike: My wife’s favorite movie! “I’m melting, I’m melting!” — Wizard of Oz!
Yep, scans were our issue for a while as well, but running smooth now. Only crazy issue lately? Not taking ALL the packages! We would have 2 or more bins, but they would only take one, leaving the rest! Since I took them in and spoke to a manager…no longer an issue.
I’m thinking we have a pretty good USPS crew overall!
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My letter carrier leaves me a couple of the white plastic usps totes they carry in the back of the trucks. They’re nice because an inverted rubbermaid tote fits perfectly over the top of them to keep everything inside dry. But then again I don’t often have anything particularly large that wont fit inside my setup.
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We have a covered screen porch with a swing door. It’s about 30 feet from the road. Our carriers are more than happy to load all our packages. After we come back from a trip, we may have 50-100 packages. Thankfully they see this as their livelihood.
If we’re home, Ill always help her load up heavy packages. We also put them in those big Ikea bags. She uses them to take to the post office, and brings the empties the next day. Here in rural america, its less likely someone will steal off the porch.
Like ashend57 said, you could get a plastic storage container wherever the carrier feels it;d be appropriate.
PS you have a giant house!
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Same for us Jay. we use the big Ikea bags for both the packages and for loading items we buy at auction. Our carrier will either take the Ikea bags to the PO and bring back the next day or just unload it into the back out on the road and walk the emtpy back up to the porch. She loves all of the Ebayer’s on her route, because when they do a hard count every few months, the more packages they get and load, the more the route goes up in value. She is rooting for us to get several tho9sand items listed and make multiple sales each day. she is seeing the summer slow down and is asking us what is happening and hopes it will pick up.
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Welp, I thought about it and went out and bought an outdoor storage box from Sam’s Club (Keter 230-gallon Deck Box if you want to check it out). We’ll just set it in front of the middle garage door. I’ll get around to putting casters on the bottom so I can wheel it around when I need to get my lawn mower out. I’m kinda sad that I had to spend money on this, but I suppose it’s better than pissing our mail carrier off. LOL!
And yes, it is a huge house. 5500 sq/ft. We got it for a steal too. Cleaning and upkeep will be a hassle, but the storage space makes it worth it!
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