Reuse of U.S. Post Office priority mail boxes is illegal

My goodness! What a fun name! I'll find it :D Thanks!! how nice!

Cis

The Post Office is one of those "quasi-governmental" agencies. When it comes to following governmental rules.....they have to do it.

However, when a perk comes along for governmental agencies, they become a non-governmental agency and don't get the perk.

(DH retired from the PO after 40 years.)

Wouldn't be surprised if some of the other big shipping companies followed along soon.

I have read sales material, where salespeople are instructed to pick up a free overnight envelope, fill it with sales propaganda and leave it on the porch for the homeowner to find. The homeowner thinks they have received something very important. Instead, it's just another sales person trying to get their listing. This is done to for sale by owners or expired listings.

If the salesperson will misuse a overnight envelope, what else will they do to make a sale? Integrity isn't just for things that cost.

I too am guilty of covering priority boxes in brown paper wrap ... But .... The PO doesn;t use the global priority boxes for international shipping anymore ... They don't want them back .... they tell me just to trash them ... I'm sorry but I can't just throw them out ... You know whats really bad ... My DH and his sisters have this thing where they try to send odd stuff through the mail ... His sister just sent him a roll of Toilet Paper that had the addresses on it ... We sent a toilet seat back to her with the addresses on it and she got it ... as long as its 3" X 5" ... is what I've been told ... my mail man told us that if its a wrapped box ....its an don't ask don't tell type thing ...

Thanks all for your comments and sharing your experiences. I think we have all learned a lot about the "dos and don'ts" of using post office materials for mailing.

Here's a new experience I had recently. I was returning some Netflix CDs in the wrappers provided by Netflix, but for some reason the edges tore on each of the wrappers when I opened the Netflix envelopes. I didn't want to send the wrappers through with rough edges because I thought they might get jammed up in the mail moving automated equipment. I forgot to tape them up before I left home. I asked the post office clerk if there was any plain tape that I could use to seal the envelopes, and was told the post office no longer provides plain, clear tape. My solution was to step away from the counter and tear the edges off short pieces of the Priority Mail tape so that no printing for Priority Mail remained on the tape. The clerk took the envelopes after I made this adjustment.

Jeremy

Jax, that's crazy isn't it? Where I worked, it was the same thing. You see, at one time we provided free tape all the time. It became so expensive to be giving away, that we had to tell our customers to buy the rolls of tape, which can be expensive. That's the reason they gave us. Many people would come into the post office with their package untapped so they could use the P.O.'s free.

Oh well, times - they are a-changin' :-P

I always came in with my package unwrapped, because I thought the clerk was supposed to see what was in the box before it was sealed. Not because I wanted free tape, how silly is that anyway. It says on the posters not to mail perfumes, spray cans yada yada I dont remember what all but a really long list of things NOT to mail. Now how do they know you are mailing any of that or not if they don't look in the box?!

Yes, I for one REALLY miss that tape. I guess you just don't appreciate anything until it's gone. For years I never had to worry about tape. Got it on line for free delivered to my house. I WAS spoiled. Now I have to buy my own tape and RATS don't I forget to keep some on hand! LOL!

FrillyLily, it would take way too long to look in everyone's box, then wrap and tape it. The clerks, believe it or not, are on a time schedule. They must take care of the customer fast and move on to the next. They are actually timed if a secret shopper is standing in line....plus supervisors watch all the time. So, by asking if it contains certain articles, they take the customer's word for it. By and large, the post office rarely has a problem. Most customers are very honest.

Today's clerks just can't take the time to wrap and tape packages for customers. The package is expected to be ready for the postage only. Sigh...we live in a go go go society. The stress of being a postal clerk is why I left there before actual retirement age. I couldn't take it or tape it! LOL.

It's outrageous not to allow re-use of mail boxes, priority or not. I can see how masking the priority box can be illigal, but once priority shipping was charged and the box shipped it's nothing but recyclable material. We are encouraged to recycle most of the trash and not just collect it, so how could anyone object to recycling cardboard boxes for shipping more than once? Of cause I can compost all of them, but why waste resources and energy over and over?

I agree, when I pay the shipping, they don't want it back, so it's mine! We should give them ALL back to them to dispose of!

You can re-use the priority box! You just have to mail it as priority. You can't mask a priority box and use it for parcel post or 1st class when the weight is below 13 oz. I have reused priority boxes. I just resend them as priority postage!. :D 'Course, if you wrap that used priority box completely and you can't see through the paper, i.e. heavy brown paper, then no one is going to know. :)

The rule is to re-use, but change the address labels, I believe. And yes, not wrap it or send it any other way but its original intended use.

I usually note on the box that the box has been re-used and also if there is any box damage prior to sending, so the recipient does not think that Kind Miss Postal Carrier has mishandled it.

Sis_E ... I have a lot of the global priority boxes ... I was doing alot of shipping to Canada ... since the USPS no longer uses these boxes is it ok to cover them up when mailing them & pay regular shipping? I really need to learn all the shipping rules.

I love my postal clerk. Its always nice to be on a first name bases. She's one that'll say hi to you in the grocery store :D

It seems the only time I ever get a box/package damaged is when it says Fragile .... Live Plant ... do not bend ... etc ... LOL ... seriously ...

I hear you about the damage, bsgardens! LOL. Now....pssst, you didn't hear this from me. IF you cover them completely and the graphics on the box absolutely cannot be seen, then I'd say go for it. Don't tell your clerk!! LOL. That would put her in a bad spot :)

I had some lovely customers that were nice to all of us. We knew there first names and they, us. The customers didn't drive me away by any means. The postal system did ;)

I worked for a few months part-time at UPS, pulling oversize boxes off the conveyor belts to measure them and add the additional fees (if the packages were larger than allowed). I don't know if it is true with the post office and other package delivery services, but where I was working, it didn't matter how many "extremely fragile" "special handling" etc. messages someone might have written on the package, all the packages went through the same conveyor belts and machinery and received the same handling.

The lesson for me was, if I don't want something damaged in transit, I should package it VERY carefully with the thought in mind that it is very likely going to be tossed, pulled, thrown, and dropped all along the way.

Postal insurance is probably worthwhile if you have something valuable enough to insure and you can document the retail value of the item. I once bought an egg cup off eBay for about $1 and the seller insisted that if the item was broken in transit without postal insurance, the buyer had to eat the loss. Sure enough, the egg cup arrived broken. Filing the insurance claim was far more trouble than it was worth. The postal insurance only covered the cost of the item, so I got back $1 with no refund of postage or the cost of the insurance, and the post office inspector kept the broken egg cup. All summed up, I lost a few dollars in that transaction and had noting to show for it.

Jeremy

I try to insure so they'll be a little careful, anyway!
What do you have to get to print your own postage? Do you have to buy a scale? I'd think so.

I wrapped a very reused priority box in brown paper and used it to ship something first class. You could tell it had been reused multiple times it had been retaped with several colors of tape and it had several layers of address labels on it.

At the PO I got the postal clerk who is the big stickler for details and she could tell it was a priorty box by the dimensions. She asked me if it was one and I said yes, but reused not a new one. She said she'd let it go through but that you aren't supposed to do that. I haven't done it since then.

So I guess it's wrap at your own risk.

I sell on eBay an pretty much keep all boxes, they're like gold. But even I on occaision will get a priority box in the mail and toss it out. I think most people who don't do eBay or something silmilar like trading just throw them away.

It seems to me after the initial use of the box for its intended purpose, reusing it for any kind of mail would be gravy for the PO. It's better than having them thrown away.

Looks to me like if you reuse it, you're "saving a tree"!

Doe41 - to print your own postage labels, you do need a postal scale. I got a scale on eBay for about $14 and it works great. After you have the package ready for mailing and have weighed it, you can go to the USPS website, put in the weight, dimensions, return address and delivery address. Once that info is input, you can pay the amount of postage by credit card or PayPal (if I recall correctly). You can then print the label which will come out on 8.5 x 11 inch paper with the printed label being about 4 x 6 inches. The label will have a "bullseye" routing code symbol which will speed it along. The advantage of printing your own label is that you get free delivery confirmation and can track the package through its travels (or it was that way the last time I printed my own postage labels).

Jeremy

Edited to add -- the eBay seller from whom I bought the postal scale listed it as "free after rebate." That was partially true -- if I signed up for a postal meter for about $20 per month from one of the companies offering the poostal meters, they would refund the price of the scale. Definitely not worth it for the few packages I mail.

This message was edited Aug 11, 2008 9:40 PM

On the other hand, if you print out your labels at paypal, the delivery confirmation is only 18 cents for first class. Priority, the delivery confirmation is free. I sell on ebay, so I print using Paypal. Gotta love it, either way :)

What I want to do is buy the postage on line, along with the labels, etc! You can buy a postage scale for $34.00, I think! It would save going to the PO, on very hot or cold days! But I only have a debit card. I used to have paypal, but I forgot how to use it!

I wonder if you could use eft?

This message was edited Aug 11, 2008 9:23 PM

Let me tell ya'll a funny one....a while back one time I was putting up some deer meat in the freezer I'd wrapped it in freezer paper and taped it with the Pir M. tape....because I didn't have any other tape at that time....my DH had a fit....that's against the law!!! ....so who's gonna know..the the freezer police?

There's your govt at work for your tax money. It was some congressman with nothing better to do...medling...

Also, did you know that your mailbox is the property of the post office. You are not supposed to put anything in the mailbox that is not going to or from the post office. There is a fine for using the mailbox for anything other than mail going to/from postal service. Even thought you PAID for the mailbox. More BIG BROTHERS medling...

I can understand the post office reasoning behind not allowing people to turn them inside out and using them and I have seen the boxes with the stamps on the inside - great idea BUT it is so wasteful, not reusing the box when everyone is trying to be "green". I guess the problem for the post office is - how do you know that the box has been used and being re-use or that people are abusing the system and taking a 'free' box intended for Priority mail and using it as their own in 'first class' mail?

Personally, I prefer the pasta boxes - lasagne, macaroni, might even try some cereal boxes. They are much lighter than those post office boxes. Especially when you're trying to send your package first class (under 13 oz.). Save where you can when you're spending all that money on GAS!!!

This message was edited Aug 13, 2008 7:22 PM

If you buy a mailbox at ...say....Orchard Supply. I do believe that would be your own. You can decorate it, paint it...and put it in your back yard with flowers spilling out of it. I am sure NO ONE can say it isn't yours. :-P

I found your hiding spot Cissy a few days ago......My mail carrier is a sweetheart...It's the Postmaster thats a witch...
Sorry Cissy..
If I have to go to the post office I go to the next town over....That Post Master is a sweetie..
She's even opened a package that was addressed to me....Was told I could have had her job...

Nope - it belongs to the Post Office. Here's a recent study as to whether the law should remain. I didn't read it all, but the conclusion from a survey was that 84% of respondents didn't want "just anything" in their mailbox.

http://www.gao.gov/archive/1997/gg97085.pdf

and here's a less formal article, a bit of a rant perhaps, but it mentions you can get reimbursement for improving your mailbox? That needs some further research, I think.

http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=5394

By the way, and just as a reminder of the DG policies, I started this thread simply to convey information so that no one mailing plants got a surprise when they got to the post office using a Priority Box for something other than Priority Mail. We should all be careful on DG about accusing government agencies of anything or taking up any other controversial discussion , else we risk a "virtual" slap on the wrist by Dave or the Admins. (I know from experience -- a virtual slap can sting! LOL)

Jeremy

LOL Phyllis! Being a former postal employee, I found this thread interesting. I view it as a nice discussion about the post office. I am sorry if I offended anyone. I didn't think we were bashing the government.

As far as mailboxes go, I no longer know the policies regarding uses. :)

Censorship... hmmm. Didn't know I live in China.

I wasn't intending to coerce censorship upon anyone. I only wanted to provide a friendly reminder of the DG Terms of Service (TOS) http://davesgarden.com/aboutus/tos/ to which we all agreed to accept when we became members or subscribers. I am grateful that the site has been set up with policies that restrict discussion of political and religious topics (and I felt we might be about to stray into "politics," but that is just my perception). For the most part, all of my frequent visits to Dave's Garden are pleasant, and I think the TOS helps ensure that we all have an amiable discussion.

Jeremy

It's a very good thread.

The great thing about this thread is it did not go into a heated discussion as most politics and Gov. threads I have seen can do. We have all been on the same page without an argument.

I must thank all of you as this is adults at their very best. We have behaved and not tried to put our opinions on anyone else. I think that is why topics are banned is because some can not act like adults and let others have their opinion with out challenging it. I do appreciate this thread and the grown up manner we have all presented our feeling with.

(to anyone who wonders on here and wants to express a negative about what I just said) Please don't. I am sincere when I thank the ones here for a job well done.

I have seen the other types that took innocent threads and caused chaos. Proud to say I have not seen one in a long time. DG rocks

Blessings,
Sandy ^8^

WOW lots of information on shipping. Its always good to here the stories and rules ... its harder to try and look up the laws and rules. Asking q's to my clerk only works 1/2 the time : / .... I've learned alot from everyone so far !! Thank you.

Ok I have a question - To label the box -Live Plants- or not to label? Whats the rule for that? I had one person I traded with she had a hell of a time when she went to the PO and had 'Live Plants' written on it. They told her that she had to have a permit and they opened and looked and all that stuff ... I know each state is different but a permit?? I need to understand this rule/law. :D

Brandy

bsgardens, I went to USPS.com and could not find any information on that. You need "special handling" for live animals, but no informtion on plants. I have received several priority packages with live plants and nothing like you mentioned above was needed. Just don't label the box. When the clerk asks if any fragile, liquid, parishable or hazardous, just say no...because live plants are none of those. Parishable pertains to food stuff.

I think some clerks are just over zealous. All the boxes I have received had no mention of "live plants" on them. Therefore, no reason for the box to be special handled. Like I said, I found no information at USPS.com.

Good question and something I had also wondered about. A Google search for "laws for shipping live plants into state" turned up some factoids"

There may be specific state laws governing what plants can or cannot come into the state, and what condition the plants need to be when shipped (some states specify only bare root plants, I think, California, Arizona, and possibly Oregon?)

Kansas: may require a certificate to ship http://www.ksda.gov/plant_protection/content/186/cid/899

Hawaii: mentions the difficulty in inspections if plants are shipped by First Class mail
http://www.hear.org/books/apineh1992/pdfs/apineh1992vii1higa.pdf

Digging a little deeper, I found out that it is the National Plant Board that regulates interstate shipment of plants (who even knew that such an entity existed??!!). At this website, you can find your individual state requirements and those for other states.

http://www.nationalplantboard.org/laws/index.html

Most of the laws and regulations are aimed at nurseries and plant catalog companies and may or may not apply to individuals. The restrictions, though, are primarily aimed at preventing the spread of diseases and pests between states. As good stewards, I think we share the responsibility of trying to control the spread of disease vectors by following the guidelines to the extent that is practical.

I'll be looking at the Florida laws to see what they say. The problem of course is that if you are shipping to another state, then you would also need to be somewhat familiar with those requirements. I think as long as we are aware of the major problems (like accidentally shipping fire ants out of Florida, which I just saw a post at another website that said that is illegal) and the green ash borer in western states and some of the other most virulent and hazardous pests and diseases, then we will be doing our part.

I never label boxes I am shipping as "live plants" except if I happen to be shipping to Canada or other foreign country. I've shipped plants out of the U.S. only once and decided to follow all the Customs requirements for mailing plants through the postal service, rather than risk a federal fine.

Jeremy

Don't know if this was covered further up the thread but brown paper wrapping is sometimes refused as well.
If the paper comes off duering shipping the original address is lost as well as the return address.
The box goes in the waste I'm sure.

I know that any kind of string, wire, or rope wrapping will make a package refused. I've not had trouble with brown paper, but I take the step of wrapping ALL the edges in clear packing tape so that the paper is less likely to tear.

I just scanned through the plant laws for Florida. This really struck me as fairly extreme. An individual cannot bring a houseplant into Florida in luggage or when moving without a certificate from the state where the houseplant came from! Something to keep in mind if you are coming to visit a DGer in Florida and want to bring them some plants. Interesting that the rule only specifies "houseplants." The Dept. of Agriculture failed to take into account all of us plant junkies that sometimes stuff more outdoor garden plants than clothing into our luggage. LOL

Jax You are right about securing any edges with tape.
I had pakage refused with tape over the seam only.
Thanks for the clearity
Jo Ann

I bet they are just trying to reduces the chances of us bringing in an "invasive" type of plant, since everything grows so well in Florida.

USDA governs the flower/plant/seed/ poultry/ egg ect. laws each state would be different for import and export.most usually have to have an inspection certificate and poultry and eggs npip or vet papers to accompany. if they r sent without anything written on box or have perishable and fragile they r not checked, no reason to but mailing at ur own risk none the less if they don't have proper papper work it is illegal also. however most people don't know it is regulated by usda not usps.

i'm an ebay seller and always use priority boxes and for trades also, here is some more tips to save money and not buy supplies. i use paypal shipping it is cheaper like mentioned above, u also can order supplies free on usps or ebay for priority mail delivered to ur house free.

u don't need to buy special labels ect. print them on paper and use clear tape over label except the barcode. i've also used prority stickers(god i so miss the tape,lol) to just sticker around the label to hold it on also. don't buy clear tape to tape boxes together us PM stickers, u need stuffing don't use peanuts use newspaper or tyvec PM envies. u get packages in save the bubbles, save the peanuts ect and reuse them. i'm sure i can think of others but last one off top of my head is use the free carrier pickup services it saves on gas too.
silkie