I leave a box of drinks and snacks (water, Gatorade, individually wrapped cookies, crackers, candy, granola bars, etc.) on my front porch starting at Thanksgiving. There is a note thanking any delivery person for making my holiday shopping easier and telling them to take what they want. I’ve had several thank me and need to restock almost daily, so I think it is appreciated. I’ve seen my mail carrier take a Gatorade several times (it’s been in the 80’s here in Florida).
I’m with Doschicos…our delivery is unreliable. I miss a lot of my mail and our neighbor’s mail ends up in our box fairly often. I was away in October during a heavy rainstorm and she left packages on the very edge of my front porch instead of taking the two more steps it would have taken to keep the packages dry. The contents of one box were destroyed ( books )
That being said , I also agree with Doschicos that postal workers earn a decent living so why tip them for doing their job ?
We don’t have a regular carrier so we do not tip them. However, since I live in a small town, I bring a plate of my assorted homemade Xmas cookies over to the post office for the folks at the counter, and in the back, to enjoy. I bring another plate over to the library staff, and also drop one off for our police/fire department. My late MIL used to do this in her town, and DH and I liked the tradition.
The newspaper carrier gets a large cash tip - I am sure it means more to her.
I know they’re not supposed to take cash, but ours has taken $20 in cash every year.
Side note: there was apparently a scam here in which people who weren’t actually the newspaper carrier were leaving an envelope for tips with newspapers. So if you have the option to tip your carrier online, you might want to do that. At least make sure it’s going to the real carrier.
We know our carrier personally, so we give him $25 in cash. Yup. Against the rules. But he is part of my daughter’s friend circle, so we give it to him outside of his official work.
We’ve tipped our mail carrier in cash for years, and he accepts it gladly. He hasn’t been as good as the guy before him (who was exceptional), but we don’t have delivery mistakes so we tip him.
Another issue with giving something to the postal carrier - in my area, they bring a lot of seasonal workers on this time of year so the person delivering right now isn’t the same person as the year round carrier. Instead of getting mail around 1pm per normal, our mail shows up around 6pm this month.
We had the same mail carrier for over 20 years, always the same guy except one or two days a week. I have no complaints although I can’t compare how he does against others.
We don;t have a regular carrier and our service is pretty bad. We are the 1st house on a short cul-de-sac and I often find mail for several of the neighbors in our box. I think the carrier just doesn’t feel like walking the cul-de-sac some days so dumps it all at our house. I have also found a trail of mail starting in our driveway and going down the street several times. I picture our mail carrier walking along with a hole in his (I have never seen a “her”) sack and the mail slowly trickling out as he walks. My BIL is retiring from the postal service next month after 30+ years. He started off as a carrier and I know he often received gifts in excess of the limits from his route. He was in a rural area with a lot of seniors and he went out of his way to help them out with little things- taking out trash cans, moving things for them, etc. I know he even went back and helped some of them in his off-time, so really went above and beyond.
I have no idea who my mail carrier is. I used to know the people in our local post office, who were lovely, but the USPS in their wisdom decided to have our mail delivery come out of another town.
So no, I don’t tip them.
@TheGreyKing, how do you tip your sanitation workers? Do you leave something by your cans on pick up day that is clearly not trash and hope no one else walks off with it? I’d be happy to leave something for them but am not sure how. Also, I’m not sure how many are on the truck. And, actually, now that I think about it, we have 3 different trucks that come by, one for trash, another for recycling and one for lawn clippings and compost. That one has always stumped me.
Thanks for this thread. I’m going to leave something for our postal guy. He’s really nice 
And I’m going to put your idea, @10smomlc, in my calendar for next year. I order just about all my gifts between black Friday and cyber Monday and those delivery guys work really hard and our front door is not all that close to the street. The idea of leaving a box of small goodies and a nice note on my porch is a great one. Thanks for sharing.
We used to but my mailman now is a complete jerk. I’m convinced he takes his breaks right in front of my house to taunt the dog.
Our sanitation workers (from a private company) leave a note explaining how to tip them.
I always tip our mailman. We’ve had the current one for 5 years or so. Our mail carriers have always been good, reliable, and friendly. I give $20 cash in a xmas card. I knew about the $ limit, but until I read this post, was unaware that actual cash was a no no! Some years when I have been especially organized, I have also given a plate of homemade cookies along with the card.
I have stopped tipping the garbage men after numerous missed garbage pickups (and then me having to clean up the strewn debris after the animals get into it). I also ignore the pre-addressed envelope from our newspaper carrier, ever since that delivery has become spotty (often late, or nonexistent). I only tip for good service. If it ever goes back on track, I’ll reconsider.
Do dogs not eat snacks left out? I can’t leave out Halloween candies in advance. Dogs love them as much as kids do.
For sanitation workers, I leave it out on collection day. So far nobody other than who it is meant for walked off with it. Since I give wine, I do watch for cold temperature. If it’s too cold, I don’t leave it out the night before. Our pickup is early in the morning and we leave trash out the day before. In our twonship recycle crew and trash crew are same people just change vehicles. If they are different, I would leave it for trash crew.
@Iglooo I haven’t had a problem with dogs in the couple years I’ve been doing it. I guess we do not have any unleashed dogs running around the neighborhood. We do have lots of deer in our yard who eat our flowers, but they have not bothered the snacks. I’ve actually been waiting for the kids next door to notice them, but don’t think that’s happened.
My trash guy is my husband so, yup, he gets a gift. He hauls everything to the transfer station for us.
@Iglooo - We don’t have any unleashed dogs in our neighborhood who would come on the porch, but I suppose they could eat the candy. I know if you have squirrels or chipmunks, they would go for it. Someone once sent us some baked goods and I caught a squirrel eating through the cardboard box left on our porch. They have also eaten right through pumpkins at Halloween, I assume to get to the seeds.
I assume it is raccoons who get in to our garbage when the pickup is missed, as that activity is at night.
I tape an envelope to the top of the can with ten dollars cash for each worker. I see three on the truck.
My concern is getting the gift to our regular mail carrier and not to one of the substitutes. The regular carrier is great and I wish I could clone her, but the substitutes frequently mis-deliver mail, throw packages from the truck, etc. I’m usually at home so I watch our security cameras when packages are brought up to the house and then dash out (hobble quickly) when I see the regular mail carrier.
Dh taped a ziplock bag with a card and cash in it to the large trash cart this week and I checked the camera playback to see if the regular guy got it. He comes too early in the morning for me to get up and meet him. The current guy is the first to be careful about replacing lids and putting the trash cans back where they were instead of leaving them in the way or where they can roll down the driveway. We have pick up at the house due to the length and steepness of our driveway but are not charged any extra. I tip the collector slightly above our monthly fee and have also sent an email to his employer about how he manages to be both quick and considerate.