Gifting the mailman.

[rich_big]

Although a lot of people who know me know I am real cheap, I am also an over tipper. I usually give my mail carrier a card with a $20 bill. I am not sure if this is appropriate or not. I would like to know what others do. What do you give your mailman for the holidays?

[ph4ever]

Envelopes and packages to take to the post office to deliver to my friends and family.

[Lightning Bolt]

I never have the same mail carrier through a full year for quite a while now... so I tip zip.

[Snowparrot]

I never have the same mail carrier through a full year for quite a while now... so I tip zip.

me too... but then, I don't think I've ever tipped a Canadian letter carrier.

In France, the way they get year-end tips is to come and sell you a calendar. The post office one is usually nice, but the one sold by the garbage collectors went into the recycling.

[nutmeg]

Our mail carrier gets a gift certificate to Lowes. One year we gave her a Bed Bath and Beyond certificate. But mostly it's Lowes. Our lady retired and we have a guy carrier now.

[thebeachbumm33]

I too am guilty of gifting the mail carrier, he get's $20 from us in a generic card. He is great though, we can always count on getting our bills at 12:30pm daily except Sundays

[pair8head]

We have a private mail box (think Post Office Box in a non post office setting).
Never see an actual mail person.

[karat]

We have not tipped in the last 15 years. But usually I put a bag of cookies with a little card in the box for him. Many times he has trecked up the drive and walkway to bring things in...

[blackjack]

When we had a regular carrier, we tipped $20 in a card.

He retired two years ago and I've seen a few different people delivering to us and I wouldn't know my new carrier if I tripped over him/her. So probably no tip this year.

I used to tip the garbage guys and service would be good for one week and then back to heaving the empty cans here, there and everywhere instead of sitting neatly along the curb like they found them. No more tips for them.

[flyboy55]

Isn't this a little like tipping an air traffic controller or a firefighter or a cop or the IRS investigator? They're all public servants and it doesn't seem quite proper to me for some reason.

Likewise doctors, lawyers, dentists, etc. Professionals should never get tipped and I'd never offer a tip under these circumstances. "Hey Doc . . . nice appendectomy! Here's a twenty!"

Business owners don't usually get tipped, unless it happens to be a really small business like a hotdog cart.

I tip service workers of all kinds (waitpersons, shuttle bus drivers, some hotel staff, courteous cab drivers, etc.) and generously. Personally I don't think most of them get paid enough for what they do.

I don't remember where I learned these rules - maybe I made them up.

Call me cheap but if your letter carrier is an actual federal employee and not a subcontractor then I wouldn't tip them.

I think pilots should be tipped for early arrivals and exceptionally smooth landings.

[citcat]

It is supposed to be against the rules for a mailperson to take money....cookies, etc. are ok. Of course, who would know at the post office?

[chippewa]

We've talked about this in an old thread....the consensus was a dollar.

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=72991&start=0

[Bicycle Bill]

if your letter carrier is an actual federal employee and not a subcontractor then I wouldn't tip them.

Actually, the United States Postal Service (USPS) is sort of a subcontractor in and of itself. The USPS was created as "an independent agency of the US government" back in 1970, and is responsible for providing postal service to every address within the US. It took the place of a cabinet-level department called the United States Post Office Department (the cabinet member was called the Postmaster General, btw) which had been around since the days of Benjamin Franklin and the Revolution.

Although the concept of a postal service was authorized in as significant a document as the US Constitution, the USPS is still somewhat of a strange duck. Since its creation in 1970, the USPS has been charged with operating on its own income; it does not receive direct subsidies from tax dollars, and hasn't since the early 1980s. Faced with challenges from entities such as UPS and FedEx, as well as email and electronic data transfer, it has been forced to continually come up with ways to generate addition revenue in order to operate within the black.

Depending on your source, you will find the USPS described as 'the second-largest civilian employer (emphasis mine) in the US' — Walmart is #1, and references to its being the operator of the largest civilian vehicle fleet (again, emphasis mine) in the world. The workers of the USPS are allowed to unionize and something like 90% of their workforce is represented by either the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), the National Rural Letter Carriers Association (NRLCA), or the American Postal Workers Union (APWU).

In conclusion, postal workers are *NOT* federal employees, despite the long-standing erroneous belief to the contrary.
They're not exactly working for starvation wages, either, so it's your call as to whether to tip 'em or not.

It is supposed to be against the rules for a mailperson to take money....cookies, etc. are ok.

I think that's from the days when they were a Federal agency (pre-1970); it may still be in force if for no other reason than to reduce any possible claims of impropriety or preferential treatment....much the same way uniformed police are not allowed to accept reward monies.

-"BB"-

[SMLCHNG]

We have a private mail box (think Post Office Box in a non post office setting).
Never see an actual mail person.

Yep. Same here.

[HULA GIRL^]

Gotta say lots of thought goes into the mailman gift.

[rich_big]

We have a private mail box (think Post Office Box in a non post office setting).
Never see an actual mail person.

Yep. Same here.

I have never actually seen my mail person either. But I know someone delivers it and gave me a thank you card for my gift. Should that have an effect on my gift? I really don’t know…..

[SMLCHNG]

I've 'seen' someone deliver our mail over the years, and don't think I've ever seen the same person more than twice.

[nutmeg]

We live in Michigan. These people slog through some pretty tough conditions to deliver mail right to my door. Icy sidewalks, porches and -10 temperatures....The gift card is deserved. I always get a thank you note.

We always gift our paper carrier too. In fact our carrier just won a carrier of the year award...he is a super young man and I gave him an extra gift as congratulations on winning the award. (I want to encourage him to continue with the route...the last kid was awful!)

[sonofabeach]

I'm sure whoever delivers my mail already gets paid so they get jack squat.

[SeattleParrotHead]

I've thought about giving him a couple of rumpled and torn dollar bills, with maybe a mangled magazine tossed in for emphasis ...