USPS Cracking Down On Use Of Mailboxes For Flyers

Don't put your Halloween invitations in a mailbox -- at least not in Connecticut -- according to this news article, the USPS is charging the sender 44 cents per item, even though the USPS didn't deliver the mail!

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/arti...mail%20boxes

Sounds like be paying "protection money" to mafia thugs!

That has always been a rule! 20 years ago the newspaper could not put its daily in my street mail box. That is why they had to install the newpaper box. I think this ruling is under the concept of a Home mail box if federal property (even though you have to purchase it), and if you use it a federal fee (44 cents in this case) is charged. Heck, they even make me trim the fool weeds on a county road back 8 feet from the mail box! I guess they would have to charge the weed consortium 44 cents a weed!
To sum up, it is nothing new (same as the [priority box thing posted on another thread)..

I agree the law has been on the books for ages, but as mentioned in the previously posted link, the newspaper article has stated:




Personally, I think the USPS is not going to get "rich" by enforcing such laws and are really hurting themselves in the long run, as the public sympathy toward the USPS is being diminished because of it.

I thoughtit was illegal to put anything in a mail box that was from the post office?

SV: you are correct and in my opinion, it's a good rule

Imagine if any company, advertiser, or door-to-door salesman could stuff your mail box -- the pre-Internet equivalent of spam. And in the early days of the post office, it was essential to developing support and trust with the public.

KirkS

I was reading up further on this subject and found several articles suggesting that if the mailbox in front of your house has to be purchased by the homeowner but remains the property of the USPS, then we all should be able to bill the cost of same to the USPS, along with the cost of its maintenance (i.e. painting it, straightening it, securing it when it is bent or toppled over by a snowplow, etc.), and then leaseback to the USPS the plot of land where the mailbox sits.

Of course, that's a ridiculous expectation, but the theory is that there is no other item in which such government control is made on a private homeowner.

It's also very interesting to note that while most seem to agree that this "rule" has been on the books for years, it is difficult (if not impossible) to see the law in "black and white" as I have been unable to find anything on the internet that clearly addresses the item in terms of Federal Law and/or penalties for violation. Further, does the law even provide that the USPS may bill someone for placing items in a mailbox that was not delivered by the post office, or is that something the USPS came up with on their own?