Take the last one first:
2. If you're interested in printing money then open a Micro Center in the old Toys 'R Us building at The Summit. Yore welcome.
1. If you're a Bunker Lawyer (@AlabamaHammer, et al.) and interested in free, class action money from the USPS then pay attention:
I am not litigious, therefore I'm not interested in pursuing this action, however, I firmly believe that someone could get a nice settlement from Uncle Sam.
Here's the basic complaint:
If you live within a 1/2 mile of a Post Office then they will not deliver to you and you are required to have a P.O. Box. I'm not 100% if this policy varies by population density around a particular post office or if it's simply the blanket policy no matter what.
The issue is that for many years if you fell into this category then you were actually eligible for a free P.O. Box. However, to my knowledge the Post Office does not freely advise people of this fact and many folks have been paying for a P.O. Box that they shouldn't. The technical jargon can be found in an updated-lingo release below from 2011 and is also in the current Domestic Mail Manual.
Here's the real-world application that I ran into. I was elected as pastor of a church in Vincent in 2014. Part of our bills was the P.O. Box. According to the secretary at the time (who passed away last year) the church has had a P.O. Box since at least the 80s. At some point within the last 1-1/2 or so I became aware of the policy pertaing to "Group E (free) Post Office Box service." I went in to my local PO and was initially told by the clerk that "we don't offer free PO Boxes." She was wrong. I spoke to the local Postmaster and he got back with me in a day or two confirming the free box. We were assigned a new, smaller box and everything's been fine since.
The church was within the 1/2 mile no-service radius, met all the criteria for typically receiving mail service, but was denied by the postal service's own choice, therefore we were eligible for a free box.
I haven't researched how far back the Group E free box policy goes, but potentially the church has been paying for a P.O. Box that it shouldn't have for decades.
I've never spoken to any of the business or individuals living around the church to see what there experience has been but I'm betting that if they never told us (or, maybe they did and it was refused, although I find it hard to believe that one of the previous pastors would have chosen to continue paying for a box that they didn't need to) then they've never told anyone else who is forced to have a Box.
I believe that what is just would dictate that the PO be required to notify you, and provide you, with said free box. I imagine that there could literally be millions of people in the U.S. paying for boxes that they don't have to. Or, maybe our PO is just not particularly well run.
Link to release below: https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2011/pb22317/html/updt_003.htm
Effective September 6, 2011, the Postal Service™ will revise the Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®) 508.4.6 to clarify eligibility, simplify the standards, and facilitate uniform administration for Group E (free) Post Office™ (PO) Box service.
Group E PO Box service is provided free, with restrictions, to customers whose physical addresses are not eligible for any form of USPS® carrier delivery service. This service is consistent with the USPS responsibility to provide universal mail delivery. This revision will simplify and clarify some of the language related to administering Group E PO Box service.
The Postal Service will remove the descriptive term, “business location”, in favor of the general term “physical address”. The latter describes residential locations as well as business locations.
The Postal Service will delete the reference to “out-of-bounds delivery receptacles” in favor of language recognizing that Group E PO Box service is not available when a physical address receives any form of USPS carrier delivery.
The Postal Service also will revise the DMM to acknowledge carrier delivery service that, once established to a particular physical address, eliminates Group E eligibility.
This revision reflects the final rule Federal Register notice published on July 12, 2011 (76 FR 40849–40850), which can be found on Postal Explorer® at http://pe.usps.com.
4.6Fee Group Assignments
* * * * *
[Revise the title, introductory text and items 4.6.2a, b, and c, and eliminate item d in its entirety as follows:]
4.6.2Free PO Box Service (Group E)
Customers may qualify for Group E (free) PO Box service at a Post Office if their physical address location meets all of the following criteria:
a.The physical address is within the geographic delivery ZIP Code boundaries administered by a Post Office.
b.The physical address constitutes a potential carrier delivery point of service.
c. USPS does not provide carrier delivery to a mail receptacle at or near a physical address for reasons in 4.6.3b. “At or near a physical address” is defined by reference to how carrier delivery is already established in a particular locale or ZIP Code.
[Revise the title and introductory text of 4.6.3 and add new items a through d as follows:]
4.6.3 Additional Standards for Free PO Box Service
Only one Group E (free) PO Box may be obtained for each potential carrier delivery point of service, under the following conditions:
a. Group E PO Box customers are assigned the smallest available box that reasonably accommodates their daily mail volume.
b. Eligibility for Group E PO Boxes does not extend to:
1. Individual tenants, contractors, employees, or other individuals receiving or eligible to receive single-point delivery to a location such as a hotel, college, military installation, campground, or transient trailer park.
2. Locations served, or eligible to be served, by centralized delivery or grouped receptacles such as cluster box units, apartment style receptacles, mailrooms, or clusters of roadside receptacles.
3. Locations where circumstances not within the control of the Postal Service prevent extension of carrier delivery, such as town ordinances, private roads, gated communities, unimproved or poorly maintained roadways, or unsafe conditions.
4. Locations served by a delivery receptacle that a customer chooses to locate along a carrier’s line of travel and to which the Postal Service makes delivery.
c. A customer must pay the applicable fee for each PO Box requested in addition to the initial free Group E PO Box.
d. The online application tools described in 4.3.1b cannot be used for free PO Box service.
2. If you're interested in printing money then open a Micro Center in the old Toys 'R Us building at The Summit. Yore welcome.
1. If you're a Bunker Lawyer (@AlabamaHammer, et al.) and interested in free, class action money from the USPS then pay attention:
I am not litigious, therefore I'm not interested in pursuing this action, however, I firmly believe that someone could get a nice settlement from Uncle Sam.
Here's the basic complaint:
If you live within a 1/2 mile of a Post Office then they will not deliver to you and you are required to have a P.O. Box. I'm not 100% if this policy varies by population density around a particular post office or if it's simply the blanket policy no matter what.
The issue is that for many years if you fell into this category then you were actually eligible for a free P.O. Box. However, to my knowledge the Post Office does not freely advise people of this fact and many folks have been paying for a P.O. Box that they shouldn't. The technical jargon can be found in an updated-lingo release below from 2011 and is also in the current Domestic Mail Manual.
Here's the real-world application that I ran into. I was elected as pastor of a church in Vincent in 2014. Part of our bills was the P.O. Box. According to the secretary at the time (who passed away last year) the church has had a P.O. Box since at least the 80s. At some point within the last 1-1/2 or so I became aware of the policy pertaing to "Group E (free) Post Office Box service." I went in to my local PO and was initially told by the clerk that "we don't offer free PO Boxes." She was wrong. I spoke to the local Postmaster and he got back with me in a day or two confirming the free box. We were assigned a new, smaller box and everything's been fine since.
The church was within the 1/2 mile no-service radius, met all the criteria for typically receiving mail service, but was denied by the postal service's own choice, therefore we were eligible for a free box.
I haven't researched how far back the Group E free box policy goes, but potentially the church has been paying for a P.O. Box that it shouldn't have for decades.
I've never spoken to any of the business or individuals living around the church to see what there experience has been but I'm betting that if they never told us (or, maybe they did and it was refused, although I find it hard to believe that one of the previous pastors would have chosen to continue paying for a box that they didn't need to) then they've never told anyone else who is forced to have a Box.
I believe that what is just would dictate that the PO be required to notify you, and provide you, with said free box. I imagine that there could literally be millions of people in the U.S. paying for boxes that they don't have to. Or, maybe our PO is just not particularly well run.
Link to release below: https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2011/pb22317/html/updt_003.htm
Effective September 6, 2011, the Postal Service™ will revise the Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®) 508.4.6 to clarify eligibility, simplify the standards, and facilitate uniform administration for Group E (free) Post Office™ (PO) Box service.
Group E PO Box service is provided free, with restrictions, to customers whose physical addresses are not eligible for any form of USPS® carrier delivery service. This service is consistent with the USPS responsibility to provide universal mail delivery. This revision will simplify and clarify some of the language related to administering Group E PO Box service.
The Postal Service will remove the descriptive term, “business location”, in favor of the general term “physical address”. The latter describes residential locations as well as business locations.
The Postal Service will delete the reference to “out-of-bounds delivery receptacles” in favor of language recognizing that Group E PO Box service is not available when a physical address receives any form of USPS carrier delivery.
The Postal Service also will revise the DMM to acknowledge carrier delivery service that, once established to a particular physical address, eliminates Group E eligibility.
This revision reflects the final rule Federal Register notice published on July 12, 2011 (76 FR 40849–40850), which can be found on Postal Explorer® at http://pe.usps.com.
4.6Fee Group Assignments
* * * * *
[Revise the title, introductory text and items 4.6.2a, b, and c, and eliminate item d in its entirety as follows:]
4.6.2Free PO Box Service (Group E)
Customers may qualify for Group E (free) PO Box service at a Post Office if their physical address location meets all of the following criteria:
a.The physical address is within the geographic delivery ZIP Code boundaries administered by a Post Office.
b.The physical address constitutes a potential carrier delivery point of service.
c. USPS does not provide carrier delivery to a mail receptacle at or near a physical address for reasons in 4.6.3b. “At or near a physical address” is defined by reference to how carrier delivery is already established in a particular locale or ZIP Code.
[Revise the title and introductory text of 4.6.3 and add new items a through d as follows:]
4.6.3 Additional Standards for Free PO Box Service
Only one Group E (free) PO Box may be obtained for each potential carrier delivery point of service, under the following conditions:
a. Group E PO Box customers are assigned the smallest available box that reasonably accommodates their daily mail volume.
b. Eligibility for Group E PO Boxes does not extend to:
1. Individual tenants, contractors, employees, or other individuals receiving or eligible to receive single-point delivery to a location such as a hotel, college, military installation, campground, or transient trailer park.
2. Locations served, or eligible to be served, by centralized delivery or grouped receptacles such as cluster box units, apartment style receptacles, mailrooms, or clusters of roadside receptacles.
3. Locations where circumstances not within the control of the Postal Service prevent extension of carrier delivery, such as town ordinances, private roads, gated communities, unimproved or poorly maintained roadways, or unsafe conditions.
4. Locations served by a delivery receptacle that a customer chooses to locate along a carrier’s line of travel and to which the Postal Service makes delivery.
c. A customer must pay the applicable fee for each PO Box requested in addition to the initial free Group E PO Box.
d. The online application tools described in 4.3.1b cannot be used for free PO Box service.
