I am getting nervous about gift cards for delivery people. Normally I give one to the mail carrier, and in recent years I’ve started putting one out for UPS. But this year is different, OBVIOUSLY. I have been getting a LOT of things shipped. Here are my anxieties:
• Even the top amount I’m thinking of tipping a delivery person seems pretty flimsy at a time like this—almost insulting. Like, *tossing coin, making them catch it*
• Also, I just went to double-check what the rules were, and for USPS mail carriers the maximum gift they may receive is something valued at $20—and they may not receive ANY cash or gift cards in ANY amount. (Source.) Er, I have been (1) giving gift cards and (2) at times exceeding that value. And I got a nice thank-you note from the mail carrier, and she did not give the gift card back to me saying she couldn’t accept it. So I am guessing those rules are not followed/enforced, but now that I KNOW the rules I hesitate to deliberately break them. But. They strike me as…not-good rules. And maybe…I will just continue to break them, pretending I don’t know? I WOULDN’T have known, if I hadn’t deliberately looked it up! It’s just, I am QUITE SURE my mail carrier would rather have a gift card than a Thoughtful Mug or whatever. (Perhaps I could leave a giant bottle of hand sanitizer, and a package of toilet paper?)
• According to this AARP article, Fed Ex drivers are not allowed to accept anything. But…quite a few of our packages have been coming Fed Ex. (We’re not choosing Fed Ex: the company that ships the packages is choosing.) Do I leave out a card anyway, on the idea that, as with USPS carriers, Fed Ex delivery people might just…go ahead and accept anyway?
• Wait, what about Amazon delivery people? It’s different ones all the time! Maybe put $5 in an envelope on four separate expecting-a-delivery days and just hope it works out?
• That worries me about UPS, too: I am pretty sure we have one main driver who does our route (that’s the way it was at our old house)—but during the holidays, maybe it would be an extra holiday person running the packages up to the house, and THEY’D get the gift card! (I realize I could…I don’t know, call UPS and ask or something, but let’s be at peace with the idea that I am just not going to do that.)
• I have just realized to my dismay that I must have missed the Target 10% off gift cards sale. I remember seeing something about it, I remember INTENDING to act on it…and now, I don’t see anything. Well. Into each life a little rain etc.
[Edited to add: I should mention that we tried to do the good idea of setting out a big basket of snacks/waters, and the squirrels absolutely destroyed it. So that is now out of the running.]
Maybe you have gift cards for your normal/every day people and set up a holiday basket area with a sign “thanks for your help, happy holidays, etc.” that has things like soda/water/holiday themed (and some little hand sanitzers!) on the go snacks for the other folks?
Whoops – meant to say holiday themed-on-the-go snacks AND some little hand sanitzers …
I would get several $10 gift cards and leave one out each time you know you’re going to receive something from FEDEX/Prime/UPS to cover each different driver; and just do what ou would normally do with your postal worker.
And thank you for reminding me to do this.
I tip our newspaper person because she leaves a Christmas card in our Sunday paper with her home address and it’s the same carrier every time. But apart from that, we have different mail and delivery people all the time, so it’s impossible to tip anyone at all.
I am SO GLAD you posted about this because I have a post in my drafts folder titled “what are we doing about gifts for delivery people???” that I can’t seem to nudge past the hand-wringing stage. The thing that I am having the hardest time with is the unknown number of different drivers. We don’t have A Regular UPS Person, etc., so I am not really sure how many gift cards/boxes of candy to have on hand. PLUS, I don’t know about you, but mainly the delivery people are just dropping things off on the porch and are gone before I even know they’ve been here! So how do I GET them the gift? Tape it to the door? I could potentially do the basket-of-treats thing but we have had a spate of worrying car break-ins in my neighborhood over the past few weeks and I know my porch isn’t a CAR and bottled water/snacks/handsanitizer/whatever isn’t TANTALIZING CAR CONTENTS but it makes me nervous nonetheless.
Oh please I need the answers to all these same questions. I have no relationship whatsoever with our USPS carrier, UPS/FedEx person, sanitation workers…I don’t know how to get a gift to the right person at the right time, they are all so fast and gone before I even know the package has hit the doorstep. The sanitation workers barely stop the truck long enough to chuck everything in and keep going. Which is great! Everyone is very efficient! But I never see or speak to them! If I tape them to the door or the trash can lid, will other people steal them? WHAT DO I DO??
For sanitation workers, if it’s possible to know approximately when they will be at your house (or to keep an anxious eye on the street, or listen for the sound of them getting other houses in the neighborhood), I would skitter out and try to tape an envelope to the trash can lid very shortly before they arrived—even if this were very awkward and involved them seeing me skittering and then seeing me give a nervous ridiculous wave before skittering back into my house. But perhaps you have 4:00-in-the-morning sanitation workers, in which case my only idea is to mail a Happy Holidays card (with gift card enclosed) to “The Much-Appreciated Sanitation Workers for [Your Address]” at whatever the name/address is of your sanitation company and hope it gets to them. If you are braver about the phone than I am, you could call the company and ask what their names are, to make it more likely they’d get it.
For delivery drivers, I put the gift card inside a Happy Holidays card, write “UPS” or whatever on the envelope, and tape it to the outside of the door—but I aim for a day I am pretty sure we’re getting a delivery, and when possible I aim for approximately when we usually receive our deliveries. For the mail carrier, I put the card-with-gift-card inside the mailbox, and I stick a stick-on bow to the envelope so it’ll catch their eye as not being regular mail. I am, of course, wracked with nerves over the whole thing.
I ended up using a cooler for our drink and snacks box because of Florida and all the critters and it has worked well, just in case that is something that might defeat your squirrels. But then I suppose we’d see squirrels out there with tiny chain saws, cutting squirrel sized doors in the sides of the coolers.
I have no idea how I’m going to tip this year. Plus we have the added complication that our regular mail delivery person is…awful. Like we are lucky if we get mail at all.
Hahaha, the image of squirrels with little chainsaws! I once lost a an entire suet cage to a squirrel. Like, it couldn’t break in, so it just unhitched it and took the whole thing. My husband later found the suet cage stashed in a tree.
Our newspaper delivery person is not great either. He solicits for a tip (via an insert) every December, and I wish there was a tactful way to suggest that more consistent delivery might lead to a larger tip (there’s not).
I am also in Florida and used a cooler, too. And because last year was so warm in December I iced the drinks and skipped the snacks. The neighborhood critters weren’t interested in having a coke, but my UPS guy waved one day as he picked out a coke and said “best part of the day.” Thanks for the reminder to set it up again!
Oh Swistle. I adore you and your thoughtfulness and the eloquent way you express so many of the same frets/anxieties I would also have. Especially the feeling like I’m tossing a coin for someone to catch. BUT I think since there are limits you have been unknowingly exceeding even in the before times, you can rest assured that you are being quite generous and not tossing coins. And I would not underestimate the power of a small thoughtful gesture and a heartfelt note. If I were to receive a $5 gift card with a thankful note, it would make my day. Plus, if everyone were doing what you were doing it would all add up. All that to say, I would probably go ahead and give the gift cards in whatever amount you want and trust that it will be received with the same level of thought and kindness with which you gave it.
And also, thank you for your casual refence about into every life a little rain… I don’t know if you meant it to be funny, but it tickled me and I enjoyed a boisterous laugh out loud when I very much needed it. Yes, into all of our lives this year there has been a bit of a sprinkle and that is just our lot. Part of the reason I would not snub a small gift card and note.
When I lived in the country and had a mailbox at the end of the driveway and the same mail carrier every day it was not unusual to leave a small Christmas gift for them in the mailbox. But I haven’t heard of anyone doing that here in the city, either for the Canada Post workers who fill our community mailbox stations where we all pick up our mail, or for any delivery people who drop off packages mailed through any company/service unless we’re talking getting delivery of items like groceries or hot food. I had no idea this was even a thing.
The Target 10% off deal ended on Sunday, the 6th :( I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
Ohhhhhhhh nooooooooooo I have dropped another ball!! Welp. Onward. We must be strong at such times.
I like the idea of setting out little bags marked “UPS,” “FedEx,” etc. on your front porch with water, mini hand sanitizers, and maybe a $5 Dunkin Donuts or Target or Sonic gift card.
Also, squirrels have always been jerks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjU3stxlI9w&ab_channel=PinMoneyMaker
New fret! I had to make a Target curbside order and this post was fresh on my mind so I figured I would add some gift cards to my order but they only have email or mobile gift cards available? Is this just a thing with my Target? Do I have to go inside Target to get gift cards? (If so I may choose another gift card source.)
I had to go to the gift cards link on the site, scroll down to Gift Card Help, and choose “mail” (among choices of how I wanted to receive the cards). THEN it let me choose some to be shipped (not many choices; I went with silver-glitter Merry and Bright, though was also tempted by the dog with the pine antlers and the dog with the little hat). But it did not seem to have a pick-up option: just mail, email, or text.
Thank you! I will check!
I’ve seen on Tiktok that people leave big baskets of snacks, chocolate, gatorade, etc for delivery people to choose from and they seem to really appreciate it.
I have been fretting about this very same thing and usually missing my window. I did think about doing the drinks/snacks thing but we have a massive squirrel and bunny problem, so thanks for test-driving that for me. Maybe drinks would work because they can’t chew through those? Would they try, though, and the poor driver would end up getting a bunny-or-squirrel-spit-ridden bottle or can? Would I end up giving hanta virus to the package deliverer? My friend just got ripped off buying gift cards that were somehow already used (I have read about it but don’t really understand it), so I am again leery of gift cards now too. It’s a conundrum.
If there’s anything that we’ve learned this year, it’s that everybody poops just like the Taro Gomi book said… and therefore toilet paper is a universal gift to show you care. Basically, toilet paper is the new gift card.
Swistle, I was just wondering this same thing. We always give our mail carrier a gift (usually a Starbucks gift card along with a card and some chocolates) but we have received so many packages from other drivers. And they are all different! Especially Amazon. They are all working so hard. I remember seeing something in the summer that a person left a cooler with soft drinks in it and a sign that the delivery person could take one, but that doesn’t seem appropriate/ seems cheap for Christmas. So, I’m just saying I don’t know. I don’t know!!
I must ask my dad about this – he is a delivery driver!
Oh, that would be GREAT!!! One of the things I love best about An Internet Community is our WIDE REACH: like, if we ask, SOMEONE will know someone who knows something!
Looks like I won’t be much help. My dad primarily works delivering from city hall to different places all the time so he said the only regular people he sees are the receptionists at the municipal building. He did mention they give him a Christmas card and chocolates every year and it’s always much appreciated!
We’ve had a different mailman lately and he leaves mail for others in our box. We are waiting to see our regular man. As for ups, fedex and recently, amazon, the workers vary. I’m not even going to try to tip them. I do give a nice gift of money to the paperman. He has been so reliable for years. Tipping actually drives me nuts. Tipping is a nice gesture but I’m thinking that they do get a regular, usually very good, paycheck. As for the $20 limit….were those rules made by the CEO’s of the companies? The ones who make multi millions of dollars per year?
I just wanted to share that we started leaving a basket of different hand sanitizers on our front porch with a note that says “Thank you essential workers! Please take one if you’d like!” We have pretty aggressive squirrels who even eat through the plastic lids of our trash and recycling cans in the alley, but they have not messed with the hand sanitizers on our porch, so that could be something you can leave out for all the random delivery people if you’re still looking for a way to “tip” the random people that bring your deliveries. Whenever my husband or I place a Target Drive-Up order I just make sure to add an assortment of hand sanitizers with at least 60% alcohol to replenish the stash on the porch (people seem to take the little Mrs. Myers lavender spray ones and the 8oz pump bottles of Purell or Germex brands the most). Today we actually got a sticky note on one of our packages delivered by FedEx that just said “Thank you!!”, not that I’m looking for thank yous, I’m just glad whenever I notice a bottle disappeared after we get groceries or dinner or packages delivered.