Mailbox product is intended to alert customers — not startle letter carriers!
A letter carrier delivering mail near Annapolis, MD, opened a curbside box recently and saw a small transmitter inside. When a red light on the device illuminated, the carrier — thinking it was a bomb — retreated and alerted his supervisor.
Happily, the device was not an explosive. It was a transmitter that alerts customers inside their homes that the mail has arrived. But the Postal Service™ has not approved the product that alarmed the Annapolis letter carrier. In fact, the Postal Service hasn’t approved any electronic signaling devices that emit sounds or turn on lights inside a curbside box.
What can customers use? Delivery Operations says the Postal Service has approved a product that uses a transmitter inside the curbside box to alert residents inside their homes when the mail has been delivered. The mailbox accessory is transparent to a carrier delivering mail and does not set off sounds or lights inside a curbside box when anyone — especially a startled letter carrier — opens it.
Employees who see a device or item in a mailbox that alarms them should immediately contact their supervisors, who will notify the Postal Inspection Service and other appropriate authorities.
— Safety and Environmental Performance Management, Employee Resource Management, 6-7-07
