Protect your mailbox and yourself. Remove mail daily from your mailbox. Never leave mail in the mailbox overnight (with or without the flag being up). Remember that the “flag up” means there is mail to be collected. Identity thieves will be enticed to pull your outgoing mail and obtain your identification—name, address, and perhaps other personal information.
During the summer months it’s especially important to remind children that for their safety they should stay away from mail carriers as they are delivering the mail. Letter carriers are instructed not to hand mail to children.
Keep bushes and foliage trimmed around mailboxes. Watch for wasps building nests under the mailboxes. Scorpions, snakes, and all types of insects and critters can make the mailbox their home. Flowers are pretty around mailboxes . . . but they attract bees!
Check for sharp edges on mailboxes; these could injure your mail carrier or yourself. And, please place trash and recycling bins on the opposite side of your driveway from the mailbox.
Remember to watch for approaching delivery vehicles when backing out of your garage and driveway.
For more information about purchasing stamps, stamps by mail, postal regulations, a free subscription to USA Philatelic magazine, Post Office events, the location of the nearest postal store or contract unit, or for answers to your specific Postal Service questions, contact USPS at 1-800-275-8777, or visit www.usps.com.
To schedule a presentation for your community, club or group on how the Postal Service brings the Post Office to your home or office computer, call 239-573-9638.
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Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at http://about.usps.com/news/welcome.htm.
For reporters interested in speaking with a regional Postal Service public relations professional, please go to http://about.usps.com/news/media-contacts/usps-local-media-contacts.pdf.
A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world ’ s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, the U.S. Postal Service was ranked number one in overall service performance, out of the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world, Oxford Strategic Consulting. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.
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