Most of the blue mailboxes have single pickup time, which I understand.
However, mailboxes around post office or inside the post office have multiple pickup times listed, such as 7am, 11am, 4:30pm and 6:30pm.

My question is why?

Is it that they get emptied because they're full, and if that's the only reason, why post the intraday times, rather than the last pickup of the day?

Is it to ease people's mind that their mail won't sit in an exposed to weather, theft or hit-n-run (vehicle collision) mailbox all day long?

Is it because the mail is sorted as soon as its picked up and gets to the destination sooner?

I ask because I dropped off a letter on Sunday night into a mailbox that had a 7am pickup time. This letter is going to my local Netflix facility in same town. As of 2330 on Monday night, it hasn't cleared my que.
So if a post office mailbox that gets emptied at 7am can't deliver the letter to a large sorting facility (read: if any business gets mail delivered multiple times a day, Netflix would) in same town, than what's the point of multiple times pickup schedule?

Mario

As far as I know, that's usually for busy boxes - to prevent overflowing and to spread out mail sorting (so that facilities don't get 24 hours worth of mail all at once). And because of that, stuff picked up earlier in the day is more likely to get somewhere sooner (or even next day for local mail), which I guess is why they post the schedule.

So it's not just dear ol' blighty that has issues with the postal (dis)service.

yup and to add to what Daniel said, (and expand to what you said) the different times are there because the PO has fixed time routes so even if they make multiple stops at some locations those times are fixed and known before hand. So they post them to make decisions easier (why should I put it in the box marked 5:00pm when I canput it in the one that also has a 7:00 AM pickup and it will leave earlier.


That being said, don't forget that when it says 7AM (like your example) it does not mean it will reach destination at 7:00. The guy probably has a route and might, for example, not get back to a sorting facility before 9:00 AM then they are sorted and unless it is the same one, it will need to reach one or more sorting facilities.

Well, I think this is a scheme to make people think the post office works better than it does.
Hmm, my Netflix movies, the ones that I put in the blue box Sunday, to be picked up Monday by 7am, didn't clear Netflix until 4pm on Tuesday, which is later than any other time I've ever seen them clear. That could be because of X-Mas of course, but it definitely didn't get sorted and delivered any earlier than when I dropped off movies in mailboxes marked 3:15PM pickup, or even when I went inside the Post Office drop-off slot right before 7PM (might have been 6:30PM, can't remember for sure).

So the point it, drop letters off in any mailbox before that day's pickup time and your mail will get to where its going same time.

So my only question is, why even post the pickup times?
Just list the latest pickup time, and give the Post Office the flexibility to adjust multiple intra-day pickup times based on trends and historical data.
Or does that make too much sense and that alone would be a good enough reason for the government agency not to do it?

My father-in-law works at a post office and laid it out for me:
.Blue boxes picked up get delivered to local post office by different route drivers throughout the day.
.Pick-ups from homes and businesses get brought to local branch.
.Local branches sort all incoming in the afternoon/evening into bins/bags to be picked up in the evening by one of the big trucks.
.Local deliveries goto main post office in area, to be rerouted to other local branches, on big trucks in the morning.
.Then it get's sorted at local branches and out to the carriers.

You dropped off your movie Sunday night, it was picked up Monday morning around 7, but didn't leave the local branch untill that evening, then went to main branch to then goto Netflix's local branch Tuesday morning. It being the holiday season, I'm sure both the Post Office and Netflix were down some employees, so it took longer to get out of your que.


It's the government, they have to post everything irrelevant to confuse us.


That would require common sence, whcih the government does not have.


See above.

Happy New Years.

Cool, thanks.

So, find the latest pickup time box on your way to wherever you're normally going and drop it off there, because it all gets to where its suppos to go at same time. Got it.