First world problem, but think this is an area where I am not getting an honest return on my tax contributions...

I am blessed to be in a position where I will be moving into a new construction single family home i a nice new development next week. About a hundred houses total. Walk-thru today went mostly well but One thing REALLY got my goat; I found out there are no mailboxes. There is a "Mail Cluster" for all 100 homes boxes in the back. Builder said this was dictated by the Post Office.

I am so pissed. Now every day I have to either walk or drive about a quarter mile each way just to check the mail. (Point of order, my current house is in the same county, similar neighborhood and like all the other ones around us every one has a mailbox at the end of the driveway)

Some light Googling indicates this was mandated by the USPO as a cost cutting measure several years ago, but is just recently being enforced. (Of course there is some environmental BS about mail trucks making stops saves trees or whatever). How about the 50+ households that will drive? Oh and now the little neighborhood that is supposed to be peaceful has 50-100 extra cars driving thru it every day. (Good thing we are cutting costs like this so we can afford to send billions upon billions overseas and fund other BS)

Sure. But honestly, how much mail do you get that is worth making a daily trip to the mail box? I get flyers and bills mostly. I live in an apartment and just check my mail about once a week unless I'm expecting something.

I figure some day you will just have to go to the post office to get your mail because there won't be enough to justify hiring a mail man to deliver it.

My first 2 houses [2010 & 2014 construction] were with community mailboxes. Luckily they were only 100yds & 30ft from the house, respectively.

Our current house is 1976 built & the mailbox is right across the street [all boxes on the same side of the street]

We must go to the post office, and we have to pay for our po box. No delivery to physical addresses, and none of those cluster mail boxes either.

They say it is too difficult to do delivery here, so we all have to drive or walk into town to get our mail.

Since they do not deliver to the house, it makes package delivery problematic depending on who is used to ship.

Six years ago, we bought our current home in a new neighborhood and everyone got a brick mailbox that matched their house. They were building in phases and we were the last of Phase 2. By the time they were done with Phase 4, the mandate was in place. So Phases 5 and 6 have their cluster of mailboxes in a small area on a corner. Sure am glad we got in when we did.

Same thing in my neighborhood. New construction homes, with 1 cluster mailbox per street. Luckily, my house was built in 2020 on a pre-existing lot in the earliest phase of the subdivision that was grandfathered in, so unlike ~2/3rds of my neighbors, my house (and the others on the surrounding 3-4 streets in this corner of the subdivision) has an individual mailbox.

Clusters are nothing new . You can sign up for USPS Informed Delivery and you will get an email every morning with pics of what will be in your mailbox that day . It also tracks package deliveries .

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Same thing in my neighborhood. New construction homes, with 1 cluster mailbox per street. Luckily, my house was built in 2020 on a pre-existing lot in the earliest phase of the subdivision that was grandfathered in, so unlike ~2/3rds of my neighbors, my house (and the others on the surrounding 3-4 streets in this corner of the subdivision) has an individual mailbox.

My in-law's house is similar. They're on one of the 'main' roads, so they get a cluster mailbox.
The homes on the offshoot streets, get individuals in front of their own houses.

quote:

Originally posted by Speedbird:
... there are no mailboxes. There is a "Mail Cluster" for all 100 homes boxes in the back. Builder said this was dictated by the Post Office.

I am so pissed. Now every day I have to either walk or drive about a quarter mile each way just to check the mail.

I believe this is pretty standard/common for recent-ish new developments. The one across the street from me is twenty-five years old or so and that's they way it is there. Same with every other new or new-ish development that's gone in around here.

Yeah: It'd annoy me, too. Especially since much of the "mail" is junk mail you just end up tossing, anyway.

99% of my daily mail is all junk anyway. Why do we even need a USPS at this point?

I go weeks without getting a single piece of legit mail, most documents that would have come via mail now come via email or other electronic means.

Again...why do we even need the USPS?

Concentrated target-rich environment for thievery.

Sign up for USPS informed delivery, it will tell you what they are delivering for that day, you can even see scanned images, if it's nothing but junk just let it sit.

Link

OTOH, we have individual mailboxes installed where everyone has the same box, which is nice esthetically, but, not everyone takes care of them, FL sun beats down and fades paint. Daughters subdivision is the same, I just had to go refurb it with new paint, new door hardware, a replacement box is well north of $400 now.

A single mail box point at the entrance would be ok with me, drive the golf cart up, walk the dog and the neighborhood free of mailboxes,

USPS Mailbox story:
I once lived about 300 yards down a two track driveway and had four other homes on the same lane. The residents of those homes were elderly and not only had to hike out to the mailboxes but then cross a busy roadway to get the mail. But here is what was frosted my ass: The mailman would pull down the lane and park to eat his lunch. Every day. I told him I planned to put up new mailboxes near the houses to keep people safe and be more convenient. He told me that would be "unauthorized" and he could not deliver to the new mailboxes. So... I used my telephoto lens to take numerous photos of his lunch break and then took them into the Post Office. I told the Postmaster that if I did not get "authorized" for the new mailboxes, off the photos would go to the city council and the media. I was quickly "authorized"!
My guess is I would not have that kind of success these days and probably could not find or contact the local Postmaster.

A quarter of a mile away??? It sounds like the rental place we had where the mailboxes were next to the office.

I can see at most one block away if you’re unlucky to have picked the wrong corner house.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
...a replacement box is well north of $400 now.

Da Fuq??

Why is the USPS trying to enforce this mail box cluster and using this as a cost saving measure when they are loosing millions and millions of dollars every year????.... And just recently a new postage rate has been approved and will take effect soon.. ...More ways for the government to mandate idiot policies.......... drill sgt.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: drill sgt,

quote:

Clusters are nothing new . You can sign up for USPS Informed Delivery and you will get an email every morning with pics of what will be in your mailbox that day . It also tracks package deliveries .

^^^^^^^^^^
Not for me. I have a PO box to the tune of 280 per year. Will not do informed delivery because I am a business. At least it is dry when I pick it up.

Our cluster of boxes is on the other side of the development. It gives us a good excuse to take a walk.

Some days it might take an hour to go get the mail, once you stop and talk to the neighbors along the way.

Ha! Where I grew up, the driveway was a quarter of a mile long. At least there was a mailbox there. Not many boxes in NM. We have the cluster boxes at the end of the street. It's still maybe 1/4 a mile away.

It helps you get your steps in!