BOISE, Idaho — If you shovel it, they will come. The Boise Post Office is asking customers to help keep letter carriers safe by shoveling a path to their mailbox as soon as possible after it snows.

“We want our carriers to return home to their families healthy each night,” said Boise Postmaster Dan Frasier. “Keeping a path clear to your mailbox will go a long way toward keeping our letter carriers safe and ensuring mail delivery each day.”

Boise letter carriers, who each make an average of more than 600 deliveries daily, will continue to do their best to deliver the mail, according to Frasier, but when mailboxes and approaches to mailboxes are buried in snow and ice it can make it difficult for letter carriers to make deliveries safely. Unsafe conditions such as unshoveled snow, icy sidewalks, or large amounts of snow blocking mailboxes can delay or even prevent mail delivery.

Postal customers who receive door mail delivery should ensure their sidewalks, steps, and access ways are kept safely clear of snow and ice. Customers receiving street-side mailbox or centralized cluster neighborhood mailbox delivery should also pay special attention to having a safe and clear pathway to their mailbox.

If access is not safe, mailboxes are blocked and streets are impassable, letter carriers must consider safety and accessibility first. They are instructed to refrain from delivering to locations they deem too hazardous.

“We want to thank those customers who have cleared their walks, steps, and approaches to mailboxes following each snow storm,” said Frasier. And encourage those who haven’t to do so as soon as possible.”

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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no direct support from taxpayers. With 36,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, the Postal Service relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $68 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 28th in the 2009 Fortune 500.