Mail carrier and delivery person gifts

[Spryte]

I think I start this thread every year, and end up hearing from people who don’t do anything for the mail carriers and delivery people, oops.  🤣

So, if you leave a little gift for your mail carrier or delivery drivers - what do you leave them? And how do you deliver it to them?

 

In the past, we’ve done small gift cards tucked into little gift bags with nice candy, little bags of cookies, that sort of thing.

 

The mail carrier is easy - I put it in the mail box.

 

Getting the gifts to the delivery drivers is trickier.  Any ideas?

 

 

[Beth S]

I do leave a pkg of fun-size "Fast Breaks" or Snickers for our mail lady in our box . . . and a card.
The month of December is always tough on the USPS employees, but this one has been the roughest.
My mail lady just loves a little note that says I'm praying for her, or counting down the days until Dec 24 (last delivery day for her).

You could have a treat for your other delivery folks by the door, ready to hand them when they deliver a pkg or pizza or whatever.
I need to keep gifts small, so I make sure to attach a note of gratitude!
 

[Emba]

I have never done anything for the UPS guy, but for the Mail carrier I leave a small, usually edible, treat in the box, with a card.

[Kassia]

I stopped doing this years ago because there were so many subs delivering during the holiday season and we suspect that the card/gift we left for our mail carrier was taken by a substitute carrier who filled in while she was out.  Unless you hand it to them, how do you know they receive it?

 

 

[Katy]

We currently don’t have a regular mail carrier, she’s out on medical leave and judging by the randomly changing time the mail gets delivered we don’t have a regular substitute either. 
 

Several people I know have been putting out a basket with a laminated “thank-you to our delivery drivers! Take something for now of later” sign.  They put soda, waters, fruit snacks, chips, granola bars, and nutty buddy little debbie snacks. The water, protein bars, and nutty buddies seem to go first. 

[Spryte]

58 minutes ago, Kassia said:

I stopped doing this years ago because there were so many subs delivering during the holiday season and we suspect that the card/gift we left for our mail carrier was taken by a substitute carrier who filled in while she was out.  Unless you hand it to them, how do you know they receive it?

 

 

Well, pre-pandemic I would either hand it to them or leave it in the box and keep an eye out to see if it was our regular carrier.  I don’t mind giving to a sub, but would also want to leave something for our regular carrier.  
 

We know they receive it because they leave a thank you note every year.  😊 They also leave sweet notes about our over-achieving clematis flowers in spring, which makes me smile.  
 

For the Delivery drivers, I have left a small basket on the porch with a note to take one for each person on the truck.  

[Spryte]

Adding that we also give little gifts to the trash guys.  We leave them on top of the can, usually three gifts because they usually have three guys.

 

Are we weird?!?

[Familia]

I don’t think you are weird, fwiw=)

Leaving gifts for the aforementioned service people was, my whole life, a sign of having arrived at grown-up organizational skills.  Hence, I only began a few years ago.  I am still not that organized, so it falls by the wayside some years.  Usually only for the mail carrier, but I really don’t know who it is anymore since the curb is down away from the house.   The years I have done this, I give a sample size Hillshire Farm package...those small ones are hard to find!  

I would like to give something to the garbage people, I do not know how many there are!  So, I think to each year, and give up b/c I do not know those bits of info.

Package people...again, way down at the curb, so there is no personal interaction/consistency with drivers that I know of.  Most of our Amazon deliveries come from personal drivers, and it seems never the same car.  (I know when they come b/c the dog goes crazy seeing them from the window)

[Nanax6]

This year we've given our garbage guys a card, Starbucks gift card and a box of chocolate.  They always seem happy. 

We love our postman and he gets the same plus little goodies at each holiday. 

 

[MEmama]

These are such nice ideas! I have a note on my mail box thanking them for their service, but I’d love to leave out a little something. Of course, it’s cold here so water/sodas etc would freeze...prepackaged cookies in a basket should work.

Following for more ideas! 🙂 

[Acadie]

We give our mail carrier a card with a $20 bill several times a year for different holidays. Usually we hand it right to her, but she does leave Christmas cards with her address so I have occasionally mailed it. 

Yes, I know there are restrictions on what they can accept but have never heard a complaint 🙂 And she rocks--service is perfect when she's working, and most people in my neighborhood don't shovel their sidewalks (grrrr) so she has a really tough job in the winter. 

This year in particular I think we can't give USPS workers enough words and tokens of our appreciation.

[mominco]

I catch our mailman when he delivers my mail and hand over a box of candy like a box of Whitman's or Russel Stovers. The mower gets homemade cookies. I give the trash collectors giant candy bars.The cleaning person gets a gift card. I have 2 fedex and ups drivers that are regular to my area and they love homemade cookies so I give them both assorted cookies I bake. Pre covid years I used to buy giant candy bars or coke in a bottle for random people who came to fix things during the holiday season and gave those.

[MEmama]

30 minutes ago, mominco said:

I catch our mailman when he delivers my mail and hand over a box of candy like a box of Whitman's or Russel Stovers. The mower gets homemade cookies. I give the trash collectors giant candy bars.The cleaning person gets a gift card. I have 2 fedex and ups drivers that are regular to my area and they love homemade cookies so I give them both assorted cookies I bake. Pre covid years I used to buy giant candy bars or coke in a bottle for random people who came to fix things during the holiday season and gave those.

Wow! I really need to step up my game! 

[CTVKath]

We love to put out a small table of drinks and snacks for our delivery folks. This year the favorites are apple juice, OJ and Snickers bars. 

[MEmama]

1 hour ago, CTVKath said:

We love to put out a small table of drinks and snacks for our delivery folks. This year the favorites are apple juice, OJ and Snickers bars. 

This is seriously next level! 🙂 

[mominco]

1 hour ago, MEmama said:

Wow! I really need to step up my game! 

 I don't spend more than $20 for the cookies and candy/drinks. I buy the candy like the M&M candy bars, Russel stover and Whitman's go BIGI free at Kroger. The only significant amount($50) I spend is on my cleaning woman.

[mathnerd]

7 hours ago, Kassia said:

I stopped doing this years ago because there were so many subs delivering during the holiday season and we suspect that the card/gift we left for our mail carrier was taken by a substitute carrier who filled in while she was out.  Unless you hand it to them, how do you know they receive it?

 

 

In a day, we get 7-8 delivery persons and they differ by shifts and types of delivery. The USPS guys start delivering amazon packages and such at 6:30 AM and it goes into the night until 8:30 pm. My area has families where both work and hence everyone orders everything online (including meals etc). So, there are tons of delivery people and they keep changing every few days. 

[mommyoffive]

2 hours ago, CTVKath said:

We love to put out a small table of drinks and snacks for our delivery folks. This year the favorites are apple juice, OJ and Snickers bars. 

That is so sweet.  I have seen a lot of people on boards doing a table like that.  Do you not live in an area that gets really cold?

[bookbard]

wow, that is wonderful. I've never heard of people doing that - how kind. I bet you make their day.

[Drama Llama]

My mail carrier changes.  We don't seem to keep one.  I've given them baked goods if I've just made something, but I don't give them a Christmas gift.  I don't think I've ever seen the same delivery guy twice.  Is that because I'm in a pretty urban area?  

The ones I tip are the garbage guys.  I don't give them food, because I wouldn't want to eat food that had been in a garbage truck, but on the last garbage day before the holiday I keep my ears open and when I hear them coming up the street, i go out and give each one an envelope with a card and a little cash.  I forgot this year and we left town today, so I guess they'll get New Years cards instead. 

[CTVKath]

12 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

That is so sweet.  I have seen a lot of people on boards doing a table like that.  Do you not live in an area that gets really cold?

We are in Georgia so we're unseasonably cold at the moment. Grrrrr. And brrrrr! I bring everything in at night between 8-9pm and put it back out at 7am but I've done that every year no matter what the temps are.

[Lanny]

The Trash/Garbage truck comes to our house 3X each week. Next week, before Xmas, we will give them $ for a "tip" or Xmas gift.

I tip delivery drivers from local stores each time they deliver something. This morning I will order Pet Food and when it comes I will do that.

Mail is almost never delivered to our house (we live in Colombia) and I hadn't thought about the employees from the Shipping Carriers. If we have an Apple or something we will offer that to them.

 

 

[TravelingChris]

20 hours ago, Kassia said:

I stopped doing this years ago because there were so many subs delivering during the holiday season and we suspect that the card/gift we left for our mail carrier was taken by a substitute carrier who filled in while she was out.  Unless you hand it to them, how do you know they receive it?

 

 

I know are mailman and our UPS driver- our regular ones.  Fed Ex, etc I do not know.  

12 hours ago, mathnerd said:

In a day, we get 7-8 delivery persons and they differ by shifts and types of delivery. The USPS guys start delivering amazon packages and such at 6:30 AM and it goes into the night until 8:30 pm. My area has families where both work and hence everyone orders everything online (including meals etc). So, there are tons of delivery people and they keep changing every few days. 

What I do is get Publix gift cards put them in cards and have little markings- UPS, USPS, FedEX,  (and now I have to consider if we are getting any DHL-- that is very rare.  I am not able normally to catch them before Christmas.  But I give them to them when I do see them.  I have a large yard and they have to walk down stairs and path with me being able to see through windows if I get close and if it is quite, I can hear there vehicles on the street because I live in a residential street that our part has probably that only about 35 houses that you can access and no business, schools, etc so we do not have such large traffic. 

I can't really any trash haulers here- all of them do not get out of the trucks normally because the regular trash truck and the recycling have a special arm to pick up special trash bins and the yard waste and large waste trucks both use large mechanical grabbers that the man inside the truck manipulates.  

When I had a regular cleaner, I did give that person an extra payment equal to their regular payments.  I may do the same for the lawn team.  I also send a check with the regular monthly charge as a gift to the newspaper carrier.