Do you tip/gift the garbage and recycling collectors? Postal carrier?

[Green22]

We got a happy holidays card with "recycling" stamped on the inside. No names, no signatures, nothing. I found myself a little annoyed at what seems to be a lame reminder to tip the recycling people. I do not intend to leave a holiday tip for them.

The only people that I would not mind leaving out something small for is the postal carrier and the ups guy, because I order a ton of stuff through amazon subscribe and save and just through online shopping in general- I feel like these people have to do extra work to accommodate me. (But how do I know which ups carrier is the one regularly delivering my packages? I didn't think it was always the same person.). I do it feel like the garbage and recycling people, who literally drive the truck up to my house and let this giant mechanical arm do all the lifting and sorting, are really doing anything extra that requires tipping.

I am not making a judgment on the occupation or how hard the job is, just that I thought tipping was something you do to show appreciation for good service and/or going above and beyond.

Just wondering what others do.

[carolinacool]

I don't tip any of the above. I suppose if I got a ton of packages all the time, I would tip UPS/FedEx or the postal carrier. We average maybe one package a month. And a few more this time of year, but certainly not what other people seem to get during the holidays. And definitely no for garbage and recycling. I posted in another thread last week how the recycling people would not get out the truck to get some boxes that didn't fit in our bin. Even though we had flattened them and folded them neatly and put them right beside the bin. I just put an old baby gate beside our garbage cans tonight. I'm curious to see if they will get out of the truck and pick it up. But heck no to a tip.

ETA: I called our city after the incident with the boxes happened for couple of weeks. I guess it's a city rule that they don't get off the truck, so the recycle guys didnt do anything wrong. And that's fine, but it certainly doesn't encourage me to want to tip.

[Rainbows&Roses]

No way would I tip our sanitation people. They went on strike a few years ago and we found out how much money they made which was triple what I was making as a teacher.

I would tip UPS/fedex but we have different drivers all the time. I was planning on leaving one for our normal mail carrier but she has disappeared.

[KLD313]

We leave a bottle wine for ours. They're a small company with a little truck that runs to the big truck. He gets out and physically puts everything in the truck. My father always tipped his trash collectors $100 at Christmas time and he could put out any garbage he wanted and they would take it. Ours will take stuff from us that he won't take from other houses and that's why we do something for them.

[azzeps]

I've never thought about tipping the trash/recycling people. I have thought about UPS and our mail carrier. I think I'd be more inclined to do it if I knew their names, so I could label what I leave them. Or I guess I'd have to try to catch them when they're making a delivery. I think usps can only have small gifts, not cash, but does anyone know about ups?

[hwin708]

I never knew this was even a thing until reading about it on these boards several years ago.

No, I do not tip the garbage/recycling collectors. There isn't even a way to do so. No envelopes are distributed, and taping something to the lid is a near guarantee to have it stolen. Or to the inside of the lid, to have it tossed in the dumpster with the rest of the trash. And my trash pickup is between 4-5am, so no way am I handing the tip to anyone.

I have wondered - does anyone who does tips live in a city? I see how tipping could be possible in a suburb, where there is less of an issue of the occasional trash picker who might find the tip. And where people might develop more personal relationships with their regular maintenance people. But I can't imagine how anyone can do this with ease in the city.

My mail person rotates, so that would be out too. The only person I would consider tipping - and actually would quite happily do so because this guy is great - is my UPS man. But during Christmas, we have a rotating crew of people dropping off packages multiple times a day, and they drop, ring and literally run to the next house or their truck. By the time I'm at the door, they are long gone. No way for me to catch my regular guy and give him any holiday bonus.

[azzeps]

What I may do, now that I think about it, is get them something and give it in January when they're easier to catch. I especially owe our mail lady... I was babysitting my 3 nephews, when my two kids decided to go on a walk alone - they were out and down the block to the end of the cul-de-sac while I was tending to the baby. The mail lady rang the doorbell just as I was looking for them and realizing they were not in the house. She recognized them and knew which house they belonged in. Anyway, I'm extremely grateful for that, so I do think I need to make the extra effort to give her something! Just had to share my funny mail lady aside.

[queenmama]

I have never considered tipping the sanitation workers. I'm wondering how one would, since, as PP said, there is no ideal place to leave a card.

I would love to tip our regular postal worker, but what do you give when they can't accept cash? Gift cards?

We have an extra awesome UPS guy but they seem to rotate quite a bit lately. Not that all couriers aren't worthy, I just particularly love the one who looks like Tyrese. :D

Lara

[Dream]

We do. Our garbage get picked up Wednesdays and Saturdays so in December we try very hard to keep an eye on when they come to pick up and we gift $25 cash. There's usually 2 in the truck and one driving and one putting the garbage into the truck. The trucks don't have huge arms that pick up the trash cans, the workers do it. Its hard work picking up those containers. I feel they do similar work as the UPS/USPS drivers do. I will tip our UPS driver too, same amount but not the USPS guy as he rings the bell and leave, doesn't wait even a few seconds for us to get to the door, never leaves the slip so I can pick up from the post office. I really dislike this guy. My mom is always home but not sitting by the door. Couple of years ago we had a great USPS guy which we used to tip, not anymore.

I don't think about what they're getting paid. I gift to say that I appreciate my garbage being picked up:)

[army_mom]

I do not tip any of those. I am not even sure how to tip the garbage collectors other than stalking for when they arrive. Our garbage guys pick up anything we leave and I honestly had not thought before to tip them. I have gifted the USPS in the past when we had a good carrier but now we get more mail for our neighbors than for us multiple times a week!! Not to mention that we still get mail for the previous tenant 6 months later...I have to write on it she no longer lives here and raise the red flag. If I don't do BOTH of those, they won't take the letter out of the box! It's like they barely look at the names anymore.

I see tip jars EVERYWHERE nowadays. I have to say I am a little turned off when I see them at Subway or gas station register operators and places like that where they are simply doing the job they were hired to do.

[Sweetsunshine]

I voted yes because I tip both the mail carrier and UPS guy. Both people are regulars and we're on a first name basis because we get so many packages. Love my UPS guy! in December he hides packages that are obviously toys by my shed so the kids won't see them.

We don't have curbside trash but if I did I probably wouldn't tip unless they go out of their way to provide great service somehow.

[crayonblue]

No, I don't tip them. I have never seen the garbage/recycle collectors cause they pull up and the giant arm picks the garbage can up. I also have no idea who the mail carrier is because our mailbox is down the street with a row of other boxes.

I do want to leave something nice for the gardener though. Our gardener died in a terrible accident (fell out of a tree) a few months ago and his teenage son has taken over the business. The son is doing a fantastic job but I know this is got to be HARD for him. :(

[hellokitty]

Our newspaper carrier does that (leaves a xeroxed note with her name and address), which I think is tacky. We only get wknd papers and I've never felt the need to tip her, esp with her adding in that huge hint. I have tipped our garage guys before, when we lived in another state. They were great. The three different companies that we have been through, since we moved here? UGH! Awful! One used to frickin' show up at 3am in the morning and make ALL sorts of racket, they would wake me up every night. Then we signed up with new ppl and they were so picky about our trash, some times, they would take some things and if they somehow decided that it was, "too much" trash, they would just leave it! So, we tried another company and the ones we have no, actually have, "normal" daytime hours (although I'm still pissed that my neighbors use the ones that come through at 3am, I told dh I think that they stop and crush the trash RIGHT in front of our driveway, just to be annoying), but they are flakes. Sometimes they show up at 6, sometimes they show up at 9, they have NOT shown up before, always with some sort of excuse. They are a new and small company, so I have given them a pass, but I told dh that one more screw up and we are switching to another company.

[carolinacool]

Our newspaper carrier does that (leaves a xeroxed note with her name and address), which I think is tacky.

Our carriers do this as well. In the past, some carriers have left cards I assumed they purchased themselves. For the past two or three years, I've noticed the carrier has left a postcard that has the name of our newspaper on it, so maybe they print them up and the carriers have the option of using them. I've finally going to tip this year. We've had this carrier for a couple of years now, and he's good and dependable, which wasn't always the case. DH works at the paper, and there were many times he would have to bring home a copy of the previous day's paper because we didn't get it in the morning.

But now that I think about it - how else would you find out the carrier's info if you want to tip? Calling the paper won't help because ours won't give out addresses. And I'm not getting up at 4 a.m. to hand it out personally. LOL

[SnuggleBuggles]

I should since maybe it'd make the recycling people a bit nicer. I think they are peeved that my car is in the way (I often park in the street in the AM for car shuffling reasons). They toss my recycling can back on our property but everyone else's is neatly put away.

Back when we had a regular mail carrier I tipped. But, now we seem to have a new one each day since the old one passed away. :(

[westwoodmom04]

We tip the mail carrier (they can accept gifts up to $15, we give a gift card in that amount) and the newspaper carrier. I did tip the sanitation guys for a few years; however, stopped doing that as they don't do a particularly good job (leave garbage in cans, throw lids all over the place, etc. . .).

[3isEnough]

Our regular UPS guy is beyond awesome - he's super friendly, always has a smile and goes out of his way to hide my packages if I'm not home. We give him a $20 Target GC every year. The occasional replacement UPS guy is a total a** so he gets squat from us. Our mail person is really nice & friendly also, so he'll get a Target GC as well. I don't know our trash & recycling guys because I'm never out there when they come, but I often forget to pull my trash cans out for them and they have to get out of the trucks to get them, so they'll get GCs as well.