[Durham INC] Conversion of Mail Boxes: You're Not Required

[Mike Woodard]

There has been some email traffic recently about the Post Office requesting that homeowners with house-mounted mailboxes remove them and set up a curbside mailbox.

Some of your INC leaders and I are planning to meet with the Postmaster to discuss this request. Until that meeting, rest easy. Moving your mailbox cannot be mandated by the Post Office. Threats of withholding your mail are not valid.

Here is a discussion of this topic, posted recently on a website for Post Office managers.
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Conversion of Mode of Delivery (POM 631.6) 
In this section, conversion refers to changing existing mail delivery to a more economical and efficient mode. The key to converting existing deliveries is identifying those deliveries that are most costly to the Postal Service. Delivery managers can go into any delivery territory where delivery has been established for over 1 year and solicit to convert the mode of delivery if it would be cost beneficial to the Postal Service.

Postmasters should not establish a mixed delivery area where the carrier must zigzag from the door to the curb when previously the carrier took obvious shortcuts to effect delivery. Postmasters must weigh the advantages and disadvantages of converting less than 100 percent of the deliveries.

Customer signatures must be obtained prior to any conversion. In single-family housing areas (including manufactured housing and mobile homes) where the residences and lots are owned, each owner must agree to the conversion in writing. Owners who do not agree must be allowed to retain their current mode of delivery.

When a residence is sold, the mode of delivery cannot be arbitrarily changed prior to the new resident moving in. The existing mode of delivery must be retained. If an owners’ association represents the community, it can direct the mode of delivery for the community. In rental areas, such as apartment complexes and mobile home parks, the owner or manager can approve the conversion. 

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A few items of note:

1) Delivery managers may "solicit to convert" the delivery mode; they cannot mandate.

2) Postmasters should not have routes "zigzag" from house to curb to house. Homeowners should work together to ensure that the 100 percent conversion target, or anything even close, is not met.

3) "In single-family housing areas...each owner must agree to the conversion in writing. Owners who do not agree must be allowed to retain their current mode of delivery." That's pretty emphatic.

4) Note in #4 above that HOAs can direct the mode of delivery and that apartment managers can approve conversion.

Please share this information with your neighbors, especially if they received one of these letters from their carrier. There is no reason we must accept this unilateral action from the Post Office.

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Mike Woodard
Email: mike at mikewoodard.com
Web site: www.mikewoodard.com
Mobile: 919.599.5143