Newbie here, please pardon me if this has been asked before. Did a search and didn't see it.

My wife and I are both members, and had around 10 books in route to us at the same time between our accounts. Most were mailed on different days over the last two weeks. Several were listed as "delivered" several days ago in the tracking info but we had not seen them yet.

Then today we got 7 of them all at once!

Is this kind of batch delivery common? Is it a Media Mail thing based on space available in the mail carrier's truck or something?

Just curious. Still learning how this whole thing works :)

Media mail is based on space available every step of the way....in the sorting facility, on the truck that moves it from state to state, etc.....not the fastest, but, that's why its cheap!

It doesn't happen all the time, but just before Christmas I got something like five packages of books I'd ordered over the previous week or two, from all over the country, all at once. They each contained multiple books and were pretty big individually. All together it made a BIG pile - the carrier brought them to the door in one of those big plastic bins. (He probably wishes I never moved here - by volume I must get at least ten times the mail my roommate ever does!)

I tend to get my books in clumps too.

I usually get mine in groups too.. And only on certain days.  I rarely get any packages on Tuesday or Thursday.

We don't have a box, we have a mail slot.  And if it's wet out, sometimes my maillady will just carry my packages around until the next day so they don't get wet.  It bums me out when I come home to no new books, but not as much as it would bum me out to have a pile of wet books on the floor just inside the door!

Now that's fascinating, I tend to get mine in groups also.  I'm going to ask about it next time I visit.

I think that space availble is a subjective thing. When my regular delivery person is off, usually on Thursdays, I rarely, if ever get books. They come every other day of the week though. I usually get my neighbors' mail on Thursdays though, and have to go delivering myself.

I think it depends on your PO. Mine are scanned as delivered at my mail box and usually trickle in one or two at a time.

The packages are not to be scanned until they are actually delivered. For a long time there used to be a practiced where carriers were scanning packages delivered while still in the office. That was to cease about 6 years ago.

As for them not being delivered the same day, each place the package arrives at have the right to curtail (hold) standard mailpieces up to the third day. Usually a carrier curtails them based on mail volume and how much time the total amount of mail will take to be delivered. All first class and second class (magazines) mail is to be delivered the same day the office receives it. Standard (i.e.-catalogs, parcel post, media mail) can be held up to three days. In my experience, parcels are rarely held. And they are more likely to be held by city carriers as opposed to rural route. (The reasons why involve pay and is too long to get into here).

Personally, my carrier gets them to me one at a time so I haven't seen the batch thing at my house. At the Post Office where I work they are delivered the day we get them unless the parcel is to large for the mailbox and there isn't a secure and protected place to leave them.  

Connie, that makes sense.  They sometimes bring stuff to my door for various reasons, and was sure I'd seen them use the hand held scanner right there in the vehicle.