Here's my thing by postaldog

There's an article in today's paper about a small island community in Maine, Sutton Island, that is losing mail service.

Apparently, for over 50 years the two dozen or so seasonal residents have been picking up their mail, delivered via ferry, at the dock, where it is deposited in a large garbage can by the ferryman, an authorized USPS contractor.

Predictably, there is much groaning about this an suggestions as to why the USPS is stopping the delivery. The USPS claims it is because the delivery is unsecured, with all the residents mail co-mingled in the can.

The real reason is that the recepticle is a garbage can! The USPS is concerned about the image of resident's mail being placed in a garbage can. UPS and FedEx, both place deliveries in the can, and apparently in the 50+ years of this system, there has been no theft or complaint of tampering of the mail.

In my 21+ years of delivering mail, I've put mail in pvc pipes, tupperware boxes, rubber banded it and thrown it in front yards, and delivered to a variety of homemade contrivances.

If it had been a large wooden box with US MAIL stenciled on it, no one would have said anything. This is a case of some pantiwaist tie hearing about delivery to a garbage can and worrying about the image or whether someone takes a picture of mail in the can and posts it online or something.

It is simply another case of postal management forgetting that we are here to serve the citizens of this country. Not the other way around!