PO Box vs. Mailbox, which is the better choice for the environment?

So what is the best way to get your mail? It´s common knowledge that most city dwellers use a mailbox stuck to the side of their home or apartment, while rural folks use a roadside/curbside mailbox. Neither type costs much to use, beyond the expense of buying one and the effort to install it. Minimal maintenance is needed except in rare instances where a vehicle or some sinister means might damage one. Overall it´s a relatively inexpensive delivery system.

When postage is placed on a letter or parcel, the postal service is telling you they are prepared to deliver it all the way to your place of residence. Many people choose to forgo this free service and rent a post office box. Let´s take a look at some pros and cons regarding this decision.

Many PO box owners feel that receiving their mail at the post office is a more secure alternative, however locking mailboxes have been available for home use for many years. On the downside, they are usually more expensive and can be a bit intimidating to install. Since the PO box is easier in this regard, it earns the first point.

Another advantage of a PO box is that unscrupulous people cannot tell where you live because your physical address is not on your mail. For most of us it´s not an issue, however some people have legitimate reasons for trying to stay anonymous. Women hiding from wife-batterers are an unfortunate example. Point #2 also goes to the PO box.

Millions of us are using the Internet and catalog shopping with increasing frequency. Unfortunately companies will often tell you they are shipping via FedEx, UPS or a carrier other then the postal service. This is when we faithfully type our physical addresses into the order form. In this case the address will be different for PO box holders because these shippers will not deliver to a PO box. It´s the age-old shipping or billing address saga. Then Murphy´s Law kicks in and the company ships it through the postal service anyhow. All too often the postal service returns the item citing, no-such-address or no-such-number. Since the mail carrier does not normally deliver to this home, the item gets returned. Point #3 awarded to the mailbox

PO office boxes are expensive and rates vary wildly depending on the size of the post office and box size. Customers have the opportunity to pay bi-annual or annually. Failure to do so on time can mean mail getting returned to sender and your box being closed. Mailboxes have no such problem, which wins them a second point. All tied at 2 apiece.

Many older folks use the daily post office trip as an excuse to get out of the house. It also gives them a chance to socialize with neighbors and friends they frequently run into in the lobby. Often times they combine these trips with other errands around town. It´s hard to put a value on the socializing aspect of post office trips, however fuel prices can certainly settle this one. Let´s use a typical post office offering 400 PO boxes as an example. If the average person picks up the mail four out of six days a week, that´s 1600 trips to the post office for the town. If an average round trip to the post office is 6 miles, it means 9,600 miles driven weekly for the community. If all this mail were delivered by mail carriers six days a week, the total mileage would only be a small fraction of that, perhaps 1000 miles a week. If you consider the fact that these mail carriers are already passing the overwhelming majority of these homes on their daily rounds anyhow, the numbers are even more unbalanced. This is true even if the additional workload means adding another mail route. Just think of the fuel savings. This is a huge point for the mailbox.

Then there is the most obvious point, ease of pick-up. You can collect the from your mailbox anytime, whereas most post offices have limited lobby hours. Mail carriers are also obligated to perform services that many people are not aware of. A few examples are; selling stamps; supplying customs forms; supplying hold-mail forms and the like. In several ways they are like miniature rolling post offices, there to serve you. Many will even pick-up shipping boxes and deliver them to you if asked. Point #6 goes to mailboxes.

In a nutshell, mailboxes save significant time, money and effort. If communities can come together on this tiny issue, it will save countless gallons of fuel and help the environment. Companies such as