Canada Post no longer raising mailbox flags in rural areas!

Updated: August 06, 2025 at 7:16PM EDT

"Canada Post delivery agents will no longer raise the flag
because that was never what the indicator was meant for in the
first place. "

"The purpose of the Signal Device/Red Flag on rural mailboxes
is for customers to inform the delivery agents there is
outgoing mail to be picked up from the mailbox,"

https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/canada-post-no-longer-raising-flag-to-indicate-mail-in-rural-areas/

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../|ug

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"The purpose of the Signal Device/Red Flag on rural mailboxes
is for customers to inform the delivery agents there is
outgoing mail to be picked up from the mailbox,"

That is what it has always meant here in the states. I have never known of
the postman to raise the flag after putting mail in the box.

Apparently at some point in time in some (US) areas, the postman would blow a whistle if they left something in the box.

Mike


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"The purpose of the Signal Device/Red Flag on rural mailboxes

>> is for customers to inform the delivery agents there is
>> outgoing mail to be picked up from the mailbox,"

That is what it has always meant here in the states. I have never known of

>the postman to raise the flag after putting mail in the box.

I grew up in a very rural farming area - we didn't farm but we had
a few acres and horses - and the mailbox was a fair ways from the
house and the mailman used to put the flag up if he left you mail
saving you a walk out there for nothing..

---
* SLMR Rob * If turning it on doesn't help, plug it in
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That is what it has always meant here in the states. I have never known of

>the postman to raise the flag after putting mail in the box.

I grew up in a very rural farming area - we didn't farm but we had
a few acres and horses - and the mailbox was a fair ways from the
house and the mailman used to put the flag up if he left you mail
saving you a walk out there for nothing..

That makes sense except when you put something out, and raise the flag, how
do you know it is not still up because he's not been yet?

Now it is very rare that there is anything outgoing in the box but, back
when I was a kid, it seemed like we had mail going out and coming in almost daily... bills, letters, etc., that were commonplace before the electronic
age.

Mike

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Hello Rob Mccart!

** On Sunday 10.08.25 - 08:40, Rob Mccart wrote to MIKE POWELL:

"The purpose of the Signal Device/Red Flag on rural mailboxes

is for customers to inform the delivery agents there is
outgoing mail to be picked up from the mailbox,"

That is what it has always meant here in the states. I
have never known of the postman to raise the flag after
putting mail in the box.

I grew up in a very rural farming area - we didn't farm but we had
a few acres and horses - and the mailbox was a fair ways from the
house and the mailman used to put the flag up if he left you mail
saving you a walk out there for nothing..

Same here.. I've never known that the flag was to indicate
"outgoing mail only". Eversince we had a mailbox at the end
of the road, the flag was to indicate that something is inside.
.: after a mail run, a raised flag was the signal that "you've
got mail!" ;)

Anyway.. a walk out to the mailbox just to check doesn't do any
harm, only good.
--
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I grew up in a very rural farming area - we didn't farm but we had

>> a few acres and horses - and the mailbox was a fair ways from the
>> house and the mailman used to put the flag up if he left you mail
>> saving you a walk out there for nothing..

That makes sense except when you put something out, and raise the flag, how

>do you know it is not still up because he's not been yet?

That could be a problem I guess. I suppose we didn't go out to get mail
until quite a while after the mail would have been delivered.

Now it is very rare that there is anything outgoing in the box but, back

>when I was a kid, it seemed like we had mail going out and coming in almost
>daily... bills, letters, etc., that were commonplace before the electronic
>age.

Seriously!... Even quite a while after I'd moved out to my own place
I was sending out probably 60 letters a year, but when they decided
to double the price on stamps, that dropped to about 15 letters a year
and the next big raise in stamps had me hardly sending out anything.
I buy 10-packs of stamps to save money, and one of those usually lasts
me about 3 years now.. Obviously eMail and paying bills online made
that a lot easier.

Somewhere in there they stopped putting a value on regular stamps.
A first class stamp price was going up so fast there was no point.

---
* SLMR Rob * Got my head together... Now my body is falling apart
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I grew up in a very rural farming area - we didn't farm but we had
a few acres and horses - and the mailbox was a fair ways from the
house and the mailman used to put the flag up if he left you mail
saving you a walk out there for nothing..

Anyway.. a walk out to the mailbox just to check doesn't do any

>harm, only good.

Don't try to tell that to a mother/home-maker with 3 young kids.. B)

---
* SLMR Rob * If all is not lost, where is it?
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Seriously!... Even quite a while after I'd moved out to my own place
I was sending out probably 60 letters a year, but when they decided
to double the price on stamps, that dropped to about 15 letters a year
and the next big raise in stamps had me hardly sending out anything.
I buy 10-packs of stamps to save money, and one of those usually lasts
me about 3 years now.. Obviously eMail and paying bills online made
that a lot easier.

Sounds like the US! ;)

Somewhere in there they stopped putting a value on regular stamps.
A first class stamp price was going up so fast there was no point.

They also did that here. Here they call them "Forever" stamps. I buy a
couple of "cards" with roughly 20 stamps each on them. If the price goes
up in the meantime, I can just keep using the "Forever" stamps until I run
out.

Mike

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Somewhere in there they stopped putting a value on regular stamps.

>> A first class stamp price was going up so fast there was no point.

They also did that here. Here they call them "Forever" stamps. I buy a

>couple of "cards" with roughly 20 stamps each on them. If the price goes
>up in the meantime, I can just keep using the "Forever" stamps until I run
>out.

Yes, that's how it works here as well. If I sent out more mail I would
buy more than 10 at a time but, as I said, 10 stamps usually lasts me
for 3 years or so now. Usually that's for letters to the Gov't to
do with income Taxes, when a correction is needed.

---
* SLMR Rob * Health is merely the slowest rate at which one can die
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