Your post office’s blue collection box may be going away: Here’s why (2024)

FAQs

Why are blue mail boxes being removed? ›

USPS has been removing thousands of those a years going back 20 years before DeJoy and will continue removing them every year after DeJoy. These drive up mailboxes are called snorkels, and they're being removed in an effort to decrease mail theft.

📬 USPS Warns Not To Use Their Blue Mailboxes (KFI AM 640)

By Dave Basner. Mar 1, 2024. It has long been known that BAD people sometimes steal mail - from the USPS Blue Drop boxes but also from your own mailbox. So one should always be careful what they are mailing from those pick up points.

Collection Box receptacles are mail receptacles (usually either blue, freestanding units, post mounted units, or chutes in a building) where customers can deposit mail. Mail drop-off points and Collection Box receptacles may also be located at or inside a Post Office® facility.

However, a press release from USPS says the removal of the boxes was made in an effort to reduce mail theft and mail fraud – as well as protect employees.

Items weighing 10 oz. or less and measuring 1/2-inch in thickness or less with postage stamps can be deposited in Collection Boxes when: The correct postage, fees, and labels are affixed.

USPS spokesman Ernie Swanson explained: The reason we're doing it is because of declining mail volume… Ever since the pandemic came along, people are mailing less for some reason. Email, text messaging, online gifts and bill paying, social media, and other online tools have reduced the demand for mail service.

How Often Do USPS Drop Boxes Get Emptied? Every active USPS blue box is emptied daily. A USPS employee must scan the barcode inside the USPS drop-off location to confirm this pickup no later than 5 PM, Monday through Friday. Saturday collections vary depending on the average volume of parcels in that specific drop box.

If using the Postal Service's outside blue collection boxes, never deposit mail after the last dispatch time. Each box has dispatch times printed on a label, and it will point you to the location for the latest pickup time in your area. Avoid depositing mail during the night, Sundays, and federal holidays."

Bubble mailers are versatile, and protective, and come in a range of cool options. Whether you're mailing a heartfelt letter or a fragile keepsake, there's a bubble mailer out there with your name on it. And yes, most of the time, they can go right into your mailbox!

Airmail. In the 1930s special boxes were introduced for posting airmail letters, these were painted blue.

What is the largest box the USPS will accept? ›

Packages can't be larger than 130” total length (the longest side) + girth (the distance around the package, perpendicular to the length).

There are 139,409 iconic blue collection boxes in use on street corners across the nation. They weren't always blue. Before 1970, they were green, then red, then white, then green again, and finally — beginning in 1955 — red, white and blue.

READ MORE: Post office reveals stamps for 2024

“In specific locations where a blue box is a repeated crime target and/or mail density is very low, collection boxes may have to be removed entirely when access is not meaningfully diminished due to nearby access points,” USPS said in a statement.

Free Shipping Supplies Can Help Lower Shipping Costs

Shipping costs are never going to get cheaper, but there is a way that you can save money on packaging. USPS gives its customers free shipping supplies to send packages through certain classes of mail.

As of January 22, 2023, the United States Postal Service (USPS) will no longer offer Regional Boxes for shipping. This change affects online sellers who use these boxes to ship their products.

We don't remove boxes due to under-utilisation. There are, however, various reasons why we might have to take a box out of service: A risk to the safety of our postmen and postwomen. The security of the mail in a particular postbox may be compromised.

The court ruled that the blue mailbox design was unmistakably and uniquely associated with the United States Postal Service. In addition, the establishment of the postal service holds trademark rights for this design.