Do you tip your mail carrier...etc?

[TiggerPiglet]

Does anyone tip their mail carrier and/or their sanitation workers during the holidays?
I was born and raised in the Bronx, NY and it was just something most people did. Now I live in a suburb of New Jersey and it seems like no one tips.
Am I nuts to tip them or do most of you tip? If so, how much? I tip the mail carrier $10 and sanitation $20.

 

[pumba]

we could not tip the postal carriers......I often wondered about this......thanks for bringing this up again at this time of the year

 

[PamOKW]

I live in the NY suburbs (CT). We have always given the mailman something. When we knew him personally it was often a "bottle". In recent years, we have given cash. There is a restriction on what they can get but if you give them cash, they can use their own discretion on what to let the bosses know.

I'm not sure if we tipped the private sanitation people. We now have city service and I do not tip them. (They do as little as possible.)

I also tip the people who deliver the paper. When it was a kid I would tip during the year as well. Now, it's an adult who delivers by car. Last year I gave $50. This year I cut back to $30 for one and $25 for the other.

 

[mrsapalm]

I live in an apt complex - we have one huge mail kiosk. I never even see our mail carrier and would have no way to tip him/her (without fear that someone else would steal the money). Same goes with the paper hurler -- we never see him and I'm not going to tape money to my door (again the stealing thing) plus he stands at the other end of the walkway to hurl the paper (50 points for denting the door, I hear).
-MrsAPalm

 

[TimeforMe]

Yes, we tip both our mail carrier ($20) and newspaper delivery person ($10). By the way, DH is a mail carrier and sooooo appreciates getting tipped. Thanks for asking.

 

[DVC-Don]

Nope. I've never met our letter carrier. He/she zips around in a little truck and never gets out here. The trash guy? Wakes us up at 5:30 AM every Wednesday. There is only 1 guy on the truck now and he never gets out of the cab. Big arm just grabs stuff. If it drops anything, I get to pick it up later.

The paper we do tip, but that's another person I've never met. I just add on a tip to the quarterly bill.

 

[alabamaalan]

I'm doing it for the first time for my mail carrier since he left an envelope for it in my box!

I thought it was incredibly tacky, but he does always bring larger packages to my door instead of making us go to the PO for it, so I think he's deserving.

My paper deliverer (weekends only) left a card with his address in it with my paper last week.

I suppose that was a subtle hint..

 

[nativetxn]

We don't tip the garbage collector or the paper person (I never see those people)

Our Mail carrier has a little routine he does every year. He takes a week or so of vacation that begins 12/25 and he's gone through the first week of January. He leaves us a little card telling us when he will be gone. I sort of think of this as a reminder to tip him. He also has little preprinted thank you cards. I leave a $20 bill in an envelope with his name on it in the mailbox and he leaves me the preprinted thank you card.

He is a little blatant about it but he's a nice guy. He has delivered our mail since we moved into this house in 1986 and he will carry the mail to our door if it is really nasty weather so I won't have to go out or if there is a package too large for the mail box. I should probably give him a larger tip, now that I think about it.

 

[EROS]

$20 for our letter carrier .......

 

[Dan Murphy]

We tip our mail carrier, newspaper carrier and sanitation folks, two regular refuse and one recycling.

 

[snoopy]

I only tip the newspaper guy.

How does one go about tipping the letter carrier? I definately want to tip him! I have new found respect for the post office and the mailmen/women after the Anthrax virus in our Post Offices after 9/11. Should I just contact my Post Office? I feel bad knowing this is a common practice and I have never tipped him before.

 

[TiggerPiglet]

Snoopy, I put the envelope with the tip right inside the mailbox. I usually put a bow or some decorative item on the envelope so it stands out and he doesn't mail it.

 

[snoopy]

So then you leave a cash tip, TiggerPiglet? Hmmm, he hasn't arrived yet, let me run out there and put something in the box for him.

Thanks for bringing this up, I surely don't want to neglect our mailman, of all people.

 

[CourtasanSatine]

I actually got a holiday tip as a babysitter.It was a night's pay plus a small gift from the two little girls I took care of(cute earrings)

 

[KimRaye]

I tipped my mail carrier just today. I just hope he's our regular guy. He shook my hand and wished me & my family a Merry Christmas. He's handled a lot of packages for me this year.