Does anyone tip their postie at Christmas and if what do you give them?
We have recently moved to a rural and isolated location and our postie is great and I feel that he goes beyond what “he” needs to.

Any suggestions appreciated

I’m not really sure you get how this rural living works, or the function of salary either.

Usually, yes. Always used to give the regular postlady a tip. Thing is, it seems we have had a different postie every day for the last several months. So seems a bit unfair to give something to whichever temp is doing the round on one particular day.

I’m not really sure you get how this rural living works, or the function of salary either.

I do hope you are contemplating giving up snidey comments on every STW thread for New Year, Mr Jones.

£20 each for postie, milkie & bin-monkeys.

Rural middle of sticks. Postie is ace, will sign for stuff for me and stash it out the way in the yard. I know him by name, and get a wave if we pass in the village. Milky I never see or hear him – just find his milky goodness on my doorstep every other day.

That works out at a 6p tip per day for postie, 10p for milky and 38p for the bins.

parents always used to tip the binmen at christmas

I do hope you are contemplating giving up snidey comments on every STW thread for New Year, Mr Jones.

Intention not snidey, apologies if it came across that way. In this rural community the postman has not been tipped in the last 30 odd years, most people know each other, we have worked together or been to school together and we generally work for each other throughout the year.
If said postie is having a bad day or has a breakdown he knows he’s more than welcome to come in for a brew and use the phone. If said postie requires something from another neighbour, it will happen without the expectation of a Christmas tip. That’s rural living round here.
The binmen are townies though and a different kettle of fish.

I have a tipping binmen chicken and egg catch 22 quandry. Are binmen tipped for the proceeding years service, or for the service they are yet to give. Would tipping enable them to…

….empty the entire contents of the recycling box, rather than leave the smaller items at the bottom.
….empty the garden waste without feeling the need to leave a trail if grass cuttings across the drive/pavement/road.
….place the food watse bin it back where it came from, rather than throw it across the drive and damaging it.

😕

Funny, I was only thinking about this yesterday.

Bin Service is pretty good here in BD11 and Postie is great; he’s been on the mobile before in response to a non-important enquiry and will always pester my neighbours instead of returning something to the delivery office.

I gave him a fiver last year and bought binmen a crate of Bud. Will do the same this year, but will raise postie money as thinking about it, a fiver isn’t jack for what he does and the faith he restores.

EDIT: Binmen have a rubbish job (no pun) – they are the front line victims of a barrages of media slating when it’s a slow news day, local council attempts at cost cutting and at the end of all that, they clear out our crap and unless string willed, must feel pretty low when they’re having a bad day. Not exactly like having to deal with an awkard supplier or trying to manage some crappy project risks.

the tip for my postie is to go back to school and learn how to count.

I’m going to give mine some red rubber bands. I’ve been collecting them for a while now. Not sure where they come from…….

I use to tip the postie every, cans of beer usually, year but now we have a different every day now so lost that personal touch.

My mother who has lived in her rural area for over 40 years and known the postie since he a wee lad tips him, as does most other people in their village.

No, they are paid a wage already for their service.

Our postie rarely seems able to find the hole in our front door to put letters through. Consequently RMG gets a phone call once a week complaining about how useless he is.

Kuco,

if you readf the post pro[erly I wasn’t intending giving a tip for doing the job but tipping for doing more than was reasonably expected.

Milky I never see or hear him – just find his milky goodness on my doorstep every other day.

do you have to clean up the mess 😯

No, they are paid a wage already for their service.

Go on then, I’ll bite.

Tosh.

It’s about tradition due to recognition that the service they provide is a particularly arduous one that we rely on. I have watched the bin lorry fly up my close in reverse on an ice laden road and the chaps slip about everywhere trying to empty my cat’s crap and my ridden chicken carcus from my house. On top of that, they make sure that the bin isn’t in the way of me accessing my drive.

I salute their attitude, but am never in to tell them and let’s face it, they wouldn’t care really.

Christmas, I can say a little thanks.

Maybe it’s because I’m a hard up student (so I’m tightish), but please tell me why they ‘deserve’ a tip as such? If it’s going to become common practice why not tip all warehouse staff who ensure that all our deliveries actually get sent out for Christmas delivery or the people who run around chasing turkeys ensuring it’s on your plate on the 25th?

It’s very kind of you and generous obviously, but maybe a donation to a local homeless or elderly charity would be more appreciated and actually help someone who is in need at what can be a lonely time of year for some people.

Flasheart, good job. I will consider this as a plan for “Postie Gift 2013”.

LOL dribbling 😀

I’m sure we had a “reminder” letter a few years back that tipping the bin men wasn’t “allowed” anymore! To be fair our bin men are pretty shite and stuff the wheelie bin back wherever they want, once resulting in me backing our bin into the main road as they’d stashed it behind the van!! Wheelie bin wash bloke gets a tip tho as he’s a nice guy. Postie, never see him and he only delivers bills so he’s got no chance!

Nothing, they are paid, they are not doing it for altruistic reasons. In the same way why should I expect someone at work should tip me because its Christmas.

I’ll tip him next time he has a parcel for me and I’m not in, so instead of posting a card telling me I have to wait 48 hours to collect from a ‘local’ depot at an exceedingly inconvenient time, he lingers outside my house to make sure I receive it in person.

As for it being ‘tradition’, once ypon a time it was tradition to burn people suspected of being witches, some traditions just fade away…

And as for bin men, I wouldn’t tip them a dog turd, the most miserable whinging bunch of jobsworths that ever existed, who like nothing better than to find your bin lid open by a mm or a blade of grass stuck to the outside of the bin so they can refuse to take it on ‘Heath and safety grounds’. They’re all a load of **** ****.

My tip to bin men, tell your kids to pay more attention in school than you did…

Great idea loddrik, so no one else on his round gets an item of mail because he’s outside your house, engage brain censored[/u]

My postie is excellent and gets a good tip. He looks after me and I acknowledge that every Christmas.

As for it being ‘tradition’, once ypon a time it was tradition to burn people suspected of being witches, some traditions just fade away…

Can’t argue with that logic…

I thought STW still enjoyed a good witch hunt.

Our binmen do an okay job, i.e. what they are paid for, get a road covered in snow and they can’t make it though. Post has gone downhill since our regular post lady retired, she used to know people and go the extra mile. Were lucky to get our post these days, it often comes via the occupier of which ever random house door it’s been shoved through. We had to sack off the milkman sometime ago. He thought delivering milk at 10 in the morning was fine and he couldn’t get to us any earlier. It was nice to have fresh milk on the doorstep for breakfast (previous milky managed it) and it was worth paying the extra for, getting it at 10 in the summer turned it into cheese by the time we got home.

So in summary the binmen do the job as expected (it’s not that bad a job these days, used to be worse when it was all black sacks and plenty of others do manual work outside), so no exceptional service worthy of tipping, if I could sack off the post peoples I would and we did sack off the milkman (reluctantly). Wonder if anyone will deem it appropriate to tip me this year for doing my job, probably not.

I’m going to give mine some red rubber bands. I’ve been collecting them for a while now. Not sure where they come from…….

I once took all mine back to the post office 😆

I’m a postie and whilst it’s nice to recieve some sort of tip at Christmas I agree with the above comment that it’s our job and we get a wage for it. However if you have a postie who regularly goes the extra mile to make sure you get your parcels/packets then why not.

Most years I recieve about £80-£110 and a few bottles of wine/beer/boxes of chocs. It’s appreciated but not compulsory and it’s as nice to get a card from a customer. I’ve been on the same round for 14 years and know most of the people I deliver to(700 addresses) by their 1st name.

700 addresses

I receive about £80-£110

Your round is either in Scotland or Yorkshire, or you leave you customer’s parcels in the wheelie bin 😉

I’d rather tip the bin-men than the post-MAN.

The post-MAN delivers most of my neighbours post to my house so god knows where some of my stuff ends up.

How ‘kin hard is it to deliver a letter with an address clearly printed or written on it to that said address…

700 addresses
I receive about £80-£110
Your round is either in Scotland or Yorkshire, or you leave you customer’s parcels in the wheelie bin

yep , Yorkshire , council estate with a lot of OAP’s who don’t have cash to flash about , parcels may sometime be left in the green bin but only where I know it’s ok. 😀

dont worry your wife is already looking after him ha ha

Bought myself a CK rear hub last year as I had a good year on tips!!Find it embarrasing when I see Posties writing outxmas cardsbegging lettters to their customers.I do not expect a tip but it is nice to be thought of I give mine whatever cheap lager I have gathering dust in the garage 😀
Bigger the house the tighter the owner ,old ladies are great 😀

Yep, i tip my postie, usually make his wife a big box of chocolates (i was/still am a chocolatier) and he gets a bottle of Balvenie malt whisky – if i have a delivery and i’m out which is 99% of the time he’ll either stick it in the shed and put the shed keys through the door or deliver it to my parents address or work address if i leave a note on the front door.

I do stay in a very rural/quiet area of Galloway and i guess it may be different if you live in a city/big town and your postie changes all the time but i’ve had the same postie for 12 years and he checks on all the old folk and knows them all by name and their families etc so he deserves something extra for getting up at stupid o’clock in all weathers and always being cheery.

Whatever you are talking about, tipping is for service above and beyond the normal expected stuff. Our postie goes out of his way to ensure we get things – he stops if he sees my van and knows he has a parcel for me even if I’m working in a different town. Comes running across gardens with them in his hand, so yes I’d like to tip him, but will make sure it goes to HIM and not a temp.

Binmen have a very cushy job and I fail to see how they can go above and beyond, provide more than excellent service. I mean, if the rubbish is gone, what else can they do? They generally don’t have a lot of respect for homeowners and just want to rattle through the rounds so they can go home early. I know this; I did the job for 2 seasons years ago. Loved it but tips are a bit odd for them. We did get a few bits of fruit and chocolate as a tip from a couple of people.

Rural middle of sticks. Postie is ace, will sign for stuff for me and stash it out the way in the yard. I know him by name, and get a wave if we pass in the village.

Do you always get the same postie then, Stoner? I’d have thought our postie operates out of the same depot (though maybe I’m mistaken) and we also live in a village, and we have several different ones – though it is a fairly small pool of regulars. We did used to have the same postie most of the time, though that changed a year or two ago.

I always tip the bin men as I did a summer on the bins once. Apart from the laugh it was the most awful, stinking under valued job. Ok for me it was temporary and I was off traveling.

Used to always give the binman a tenner – we downed that to a fiver last year as he only comes once a fortnight now!

postman would get fifty quid off every house in the street if he just dumped all the direct marketing crap in the bin to save us the trouble 😆

Wes is pretty regular, aracer. I might get a stand-in for a week every few months. But I think he briefs his standin’s well on who is happy to have packages signed for etc. I have a box out front for smaller parcels which helps. If I miss him, he’ll just scribble “Signed for by postie” on the package for me and leave it in the box.

Its very handy being able to count on a guy. MY Parcel force chap does it as well. I do most of my shopping online and work at home so I get to meet them face to face a lot. So when Im not in, their happy to go with things. Im pretty sure Wes comes down from the town depot. Are you sure yours doesnt come over from the city?

Tipped the postie before when we had a good one. It’s been while since then but we’ve got another good postie so she’ll get a tip. Binmen are a joke. Bin left in the middle of the drive is the norm, our bin has gone in the wagon twice so we’ve had to request another from the council and wait for it to be delivered. The Binmen will suddenly start to put the bin outside the house without blocking the drive and wish you a good morning when it gets near Christmas. If they could do that throughout the year then they would get a tip instead they can sod off. The bin cleaner and window cleaner get a tip too.