Several hundred times a day, five days a week, year after year, Ferndale mail carriers reach below the window ledge of their truck to put mail in mailboxes set below the required height. The result of this repetitive exertion is often chronic pain requiring surgery to relieve.
This is why many neighborhoods served by the Ferndale Post Office’s mail carriers have found or will be finding a note asking them to raise their mailboxes (between 42″ to 46″ from the roadway to the bottom of the mailbox) or risk not getting their mail delivered.
Ferndale Postmaster Diana Ehlers told Discover Ferndale they quit using private vehicles for mail deliveries about 4 years ago. Private vehicles were lower than USPS delivery vehicles, so there wasn’t a problem until the private vehicles were phased out.
At the time, Ehlers asked mail carriers to send out notices to their mail delivery customers with instructions to bring their mailboxes to the required height range. But since many of the carriers had been on their routes for so long, they did not want to be seen as the one to imposing this on their customers and let it slide in many cases. “But it is time to get everyone on board, for the sake of the mail carriers,” said Ehlers.
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Click for more informationIn most cases, raising a mailbox usually means adding a few more inches of wood beneath the box, said Ehlers.
Carriers have left or will be leaving notices on a route-by-route basis throughout the service area and eventually everyone with low mailboxes on all routes will receive a notice.
BONUS As a reward for reading this far, here’s a tip from Postmaster Ehlers.
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Click for more informationEhlers told Discover Ferndale she wants post office customers to know about what seems to be a best-kept secret at the Ferndale Post Office. While mail pickup slips explain how to, rarely do customers take advantage of a service made available at the Ferndale Post Office.
Customers who come in between 7am and 9am on weekdays (before the retail service area opens) or Saturdays from 10am to 12:30pm can go to the will-call area just outside the retail service area. Simply ring the buzzer on the wall (see picture below) and someone will attend to you. Much better than having to come back hours later or another day.
Will-call is limited to picking up undeliverable items (e.g. postage due or oversize), items needing a signature and vacation holds. If picking up postage due or other items requiring payment, exact change or a check will be required.
