The Postal Service spends $10 million a year to purchase new flat tubs.
Some studies show that 68 percent of the tubs we give out, never come back. That's not a good return.
I've seen them holding panhander's coins, bakery supplies, recycling containers and even dog food holders. What's the strangest place you've seen a flat tub. I had a couple of stories here, but I'm sure there are many more out there. Tell me here.
And while I'm at, employees are being couraged not to give flat tubs to customers for hold mail and caller service mail and to avoid leaving them with business customers. What do you think? Too extreme? Comment here.
10 comments:
Grocery stores often sell fabric shopping bags with their logo and market it as a "green" concept. Why don't we? Good advertising as well as bringing in some revenue.
I saw a customers Jeep lined with them in the back. He used them to store all his power tools and assorted hardware for his garage door service. I reported it, PM said "I" should ask for them back!! I don't think I would want to chance ticking someone off on a lonely backwoods road!!
I saw a few flat trays in New York on a man's truck.
Where are these customers getting the tubs if they have enough to line their trucks with them? I only use them for hold mail if it's a huge amount of mail and I've always told them to bring them back and they do. I know carriers use them to drop mail off at businesses; are those businesses returning them, using them or are their employees taking them home? Maybe we need to use the plastic parcel post bags to deliver mail to businesses (I think they are less expensive) and keep flat tubs for intra postal use only. Or it may get to a point that a tracking device may have to be embedded in them so we can locate and retrieve them.
My family was at DisneyWorld and watched a 3-D "short" film and on the way out were told to drop off the 3-D glasses. We put them in a US Postal Service tub!
I saw the tubs being used by Town employees to gather the weeds out of the town flower beds.
I noticed during a past visit to Manhattan that just about every street corner has multiple newspaper and magazine vendors that use our flat tubs to hold their publications. They even use them as tables and booths by duct taping them together. I was tempted to say something but I'd have to take on the whole city. The last thing I want is a confrontation with a bunch of angry New Yorkers!
I went to a church rummage sale and our tubs were being used to hold paperbacks they were selling.
I too have seen the US Postal Service tubs being used at yard sales.
Watch TV for any hour during the day and you can see our flat tubs somewhere. Sitcoms, dramas, soaps, local or national news they are all over the place. Any time that I see them locally being mis-used I take them and bring them to work. We can't worry too much about ticking people off when they are esectially using stolen property. I worry about the USPS future.
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