A couple of years ago someone went along and stole the taped envelopes on the trash cans, containing tips meant for the trash haulers. I have not taped an envelope since Last year I managed to catch the truck and hand it in person.
I realize some of these people may be paid adequately, but my mailman does go above and beyond, IMHO, and the trash guys are good about taking anything left out and always returning the cans etc. I figure I’m happy to make their holiday a little better - it’s not a job I would want to do.
My paper carrier however, has not been up to par this year. Several wet papers, missing papers. So I doubt I will tip now.
I knew our old mail carrier but have had various different carriers since. I’m not thrilled with their service so no plans to tip plus we don’t get many packages and we do get other folks’ mail mixed into our box sometimes. I believe they are adequately compensated.
I always tip our news carrier when I pay our annual bill. He really doesn’t get paid much and does a decent job. I don’t tip the trash guys. They are union and I believe well compensated.
We give our regular mailman one of those $20 “gift cards” with Andrew Hamilton’s pic, and this year gave the same to the sub as I see him regularly on Saturday. Rural mail carriers do not receive overtime (pay is based on mail counts that are done periodically. I can’t be bothered picking out a gift card and getting a Visa card involves fees, I think, so I stick with what’s easy. Give same to newspaper delivery.
I don’t think either of those occupations is high paying and they don’t get end of the year bonuses from their employers. The post office is one those jobs that I hope sticks around - does not require a college degree but has a living wage with benefits.
My son handles other people’s routes when they are off or out. A couple of times, people have given him tips and asked him to get it to the regular. He has always done this. Once, he went back on the same route and the guy came out and said, I know you actually gave the tip to the regular, so here… and he gave my son $20. My son was shocked that people would think carriers would keep other people’s tips. As he says, it’s just too easy to be found out and theft is a firing offense. not to mention criminal. Until he started with USPS, I never thought about my carriers too often. When my son came home this summer and said people on his route left cold bottles of water out for him, I thanked them in my head and started doing the same for my carrier.
My husband tapes an envelope with money for the garbage guys. He duct tapes it in an envelope to the underside of lid. I think it’s about $20 per person. We give to the regular crew who may or may not be the same as the leaf/recycling crew. They work miserable hours on a miserable job - I don’t care what their benefits are, they deserve a thank you. My cleaning woman is driving me crazy she came for extra times “her present” for both Thanksgiving and New Years - so I gave her 3x normal pay for Christmas. I haven’t given to the postman, but our regular guy does a pretty good job. When he’s on vacation, we really notice the difference. We get a lot of mail from a house a block away - same number different street name.
I would never tip a city, state or federal government employee. Interesting that the rules for postal carriers are regularly ignored. (I know postal workers aren’t technically federal workers, but they might as well be.)
Of all the jobs mentioned, newspaper carrier is the only one that might deserve a tip.
My regular carrier retired, and the temporary sub is awful. Like Mathmom’s, my mail is going to a neighbor’s house with same numbers, but on a different street.
My son is upset that the gift he ordered for me from Apple hasn’t arrived yet.
With regard to taping an envelope to the inner side of the trash can lid (or anywhere on the can), the trucks have arms that lift the can and dump the trash into the back of the truck. No one would see an envelope under the lid and very likely anywhere else on the can!
If I were to leave anything for the sanitation engineers, it’d have to be 3 dimensional and very visible so one of the guys could get out of the truck to get it before someone moved the electronic arm to pick up my can.
It used to be a tradition to leave the trash crew a case of beer for the holidays. There were many houses on the route, so they got MANY cases of beer over the route and in a short time period. Haven’t seen anyone doing that In a long time. It’s mostly routes with just one guy and a truck with a mechanical arm these days.
We aren’t automated around here yet. But updating garbage delivery has been a big topic of discussion! Many of our streets are just too narrow for the modern truckes.
I don’t have a mailman–I got sick and tired of the snowplow or the high school kids destroying my mailbox so we got our mail at the post office. Box we rented is fairly large and I don’t have to replace it!!
Let’s see: It’s100 degrees…here comes the mail. It’s raining…and really cold…here comes the mail. We had an earthquake…but that was on a holiday. Next: day…here comes the mail. Yes, Sonja…Happy Holidays. Of course I’m giving her a present.
Never gave the postal carrier a gift, didn’t even think it was legal for them to accept it. He’s a cranky guy and has happily continued fraudulent forwards a number of times, so I’m not inclined to give him one.I don’t know, maybe if we gave him a gift card he would be more attentive. But I don’t even know how we’d give it to him, we never see him and he’d probably ignore it if we left it in our box.
Our newpaper delivery man, on the other hand, got $30.
Soooo . . . bottom line, as always, is, if you believe you get good service and have a customer-service oriented person, go ahead a tip. If my mail man was like @busdriver11 's I probably would not tip. Just like I am not tipping my newspaper delivery people because both of them are erratic and/or don’t always double bag on rainy days etc.
Our trash guys are nice and they take all the stuff we put out and we put out a lot so they get a tip. It’s my pleasure, not an obligation.
When I was a kid, we had the same mailman for years (Ernie). He delivered the mail on foot. He knew everyone’s names. Would stop and buy Kool-Aid when we had a stand set up. Talked with the parents in the neighborhood as well (pretty much all moms home during the day at that point). He knew what was going on in the neighborhood and we knew what was going on in his life with his family. I can see a tip in that situation (and I recall many in the neighborhood – including my parents – gave something to him).
I don’t think I have said 5 words to the people who deliver our mail in almost 20 years. Delivered at the curb in trucks. And they pretty much never deliver anything I need or want (all bills are delivered via email/online). Tipping in that situation doesn’t make sense to me.
Tipping is so arbitrary. Tip someone for giving good service. Every time? I got a rental car yesterday while my car is in the shop. Customer service wasn’t good. But had it been, should I give them a tip? To me the expectation is good customer service. Its part of the job. But for whatever reason limited groups of people have convinced society that they should get more for doing their job.
Last year I managed to catch the truck and hand it in person.