Disappearing Collection Boxes

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picture of a collection box with part vanishing to nothing

News about disappearing collection boxes is everywhere these days. Even BBC News ran a story on the decline of the blue collection box in the United States.

The Postal Service argues that picking up mail from collection boxes is expensive. Removing underused boxes is a cost savings move and a reasonable response to the economic crisis. The Postal Service is removing boxes with less than 25 stamped mail pieces per day.

Critics wonder if there is adequate analysis to support the 25-piece minimum and whether one reason for removing collection boxes — in addition to the minimal cost savings — is that the Postal Service does not want to be criticized for poor service. Fewer boxes mean fewer opportunities to miss a collection or to pick up mail too early.

Is the Postal Service thinking too narrowly and missing some of the value of collection boxes? The ubiquitous presence of the boxes is free advertising for the ailing agency. How much would a private sector company pay to be allowed to put a collection box anywhere it wanted to in the country? Millions? Billions?

What do you think? Is removing collection boxes a reasonable cost-cutting move or a strategic mistake that the Postal Service will later regret?

This topic is hosted by the OIG’s Risk Analysis Research Center (RARC).

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Permalink | Comments (60) | Nov 9, 2009

 

 

60 Responses to “Disappearing Collection Boxes”

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  1. 60
    earl Says:
    August 30th, 2010 at 4:11 pm

    you can give a box of rocks the best suggestions in the world but________ Get my drift??????????

  2. 59
    Vintage Adult2 Says:
    August 29th, 2010 at 9:29 pm

    All I want to know is what do they do with the drop boxes? I seriously would like to purchase an old one maybe from the 40′s or 50′s. Where can I get one? Does anyone know?

  3. 58
    Noel - Tricycles For Adults Says:
    June 4th, 2010 at 3:43 am

    I would say this is another stupid move from the postal service. Come on.. how much cost they could save?

  4. 57
    vintage adult Says:
    May 16th, 2010 at 11:57 am

    I may be showing my age, but people of my vintage have much to worry about. We do not put checks in the mail for fear of identity theft, nor do we pay online due to fruad. Now that secure mailboxes are being eliminated, we must venture further afield and waste more time and resources. This was not a good idea for us.

  5. 56
    postalsanity Says:
    November 23rd, 2009 at 7:50 pm

    Postal Sanity wonders if the right hand knows what the left hand is doing……

    We got the following quote from this article.

    “Mail theft is a federal crime,” warned Renee Focht, a postal inspector and spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Inspectors, a crime-fighting unit of the U.S. Postal Service.
    She advises people to not leave mail — especially negotiable documents such as checks and money orders — in their mailboxes to be picked up by the postal carrier.
    “Postal collection boxes provide more security because they’re locked,” Focht said.

  6. 55
    pilgrim Says:
    November 19th, 2009 at 6:00 am

    So now that the OIG has seen all these comments——what are you going to do about it? Is this blog a smokescreen, or do you really care?

  7. 54
    BornPostal Says:
    November 17th, 2009 at 12:49 pm

    This has been an issue for years. Postal should look at where these boxes are in proximity to an actual Post Office. The goal is to cut costs…maybe they should think about at what cost, costing costs will be…

  8. 53
    cc125 Says:
    November 15th, 2009 at 9:18 pm

    Being a supervisor under a midget general in Georgia, his first objective was to remove all collection boxes in a city of 45,000 and only have one in front of two post office locations. He didn’t want any missed and showing up on a report. He cared nothing about the customer complaints, only looking good on reports. What did they do with him? Why, transfer him to another office, of course!

  9. 52
    Andrea Jackson Says:
    November 14th, 2009 at 11:43 pm

    Change is inevitable, but this seems an all or nothing approach that has not been well considered. If we are looking to save government wastage, there are more lucrative savings and obvious places than in taking away the lines of communication of so many senior citizens in one fell swoop.

  10. 51
    Amazed... Says:
    November 13th, 2009 at 12:12 pm

    My parents are in their 80′s and when the USPS removed ALL the collection boxes in their neighborhood, they were left with unpleasant options. The collection boxes that remained were along busy streets downtown and always blocked by parked.

    They have never paid a bill via the Internet until now. Rather than risk leaving their bill payments in the mailslot for the carrier to pickup, they have starting paying bills via the Internet for the first time. That represents the majority of their outgoing mail.

    This boneheaded move is more likely to accellerate the demise of First Class mail than cut significant costs.

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