JOHN RUCH
The United States Postal Service (USPS) has removed a half-dozen of its familiar big blue mailboxes from Jamaica Plain streets due to low amounts of mail, according to USPS spokesperson Ann Powers.
“Mail volume is down so much” in the e-mail and online bill-paying era, Powers said.
Powers could not immediately provide a list of the removed mailboxes or say when exactly they were removed. The Gazette observed one mailbox gone from Greenough Avenue at Storey Place. A JP resident told the Gazette that another mailbox was removed from Centre Street in front of the Hyde Square CVS.
Known as “collection boxes,” the mailboxes are used for outgoing mail. Collection boxes are reviewed regu-larly on a rotating basis for their mail volume, Powers said. The boxes need to contain a minimum average of 25 pieces of mail per day during one week to be considered worthy of keeping, she said. The removed JP mailboxes failed that test.
No locations are immune from the “density test.” Powers said a collection box recently was removed across the street from her home.
USPS letter carriers who bring mail to residents’ houses also accept outgoing mail. Mail can be handed di-rectly to the carriers, or left in the resident’s home mailbox.