by FatFreek 2005 9 Replies latest social physical
Here in the states most folks I know put the flag up to alert the carrier that there's mail to pick up.
Interestingly, I watched a British film, early 1940's, where the carrier placed a letter in the box and raised the flag, that to alert the resident that he had mail.
The more I thought about that the more the British way makes sense (is that how it's done today in Great Britain?).
Len
We don't have flags like that in UK. Just put the mail through the door!
Post outgoing in here
The flag goes up both to alert the carrier to pick up mail and to alert the resident that s/he has mail.
We have a flag but don't use it. Why signal to a burglar that we might not be home...we just drop it off at the post office to or from work since we go by it every day.
We put the flag up when we have mail to send. If we don't do it, the mailman just piles it on top assuming that we didn't take the mail out of the box the previous day.
I don't see any reason for a mailman to put the flag up when delivering mail. I can't think of a day in the last 10 years when we didn't get something. Sort of redundant and more time consuming to put up the flag.
Rub a Dub
Thanks all.
Len
A lot of places in the US have gone to locked centralized mailboxes. There are ten to twenty addresses per box. there is a separate box for outgoing mail. The postman opens all the boxes at once with one key, distributes the mail and picks up any outgoing mail, no flag needed. The disadvantage is you have to walk a little bit to pick up your mail. The advantage is you don't have to worry about anyone stealing your mail, plus its more efficient for the USPS.
In Australia, no flags are on the letter box.
These are examples of a standard letter box:
If you want to post a letter, you take it to a post box:
