A (legal) question about Mail Boxes, mail, ups, etc

[Heddi]

Okay.

I live in a pretty rough neighborhood and we have a large (locked) fence that surrounds our yard. Our mailbox sticks out through the fence, and the house itself is several hundred feet away from the fence.

Because it's Christmastime, and because we get alot of things shipped, we try to keep the front gate unlocked for UPS/Fed-Ex, etc, but we're not always home when they come by, and we always lock the gate when we're away.

The other day, UPS came by when we weren't home and put one of those sticky notes on the front gate. That usually works, but it's very cold and windy here and the note blew away into the tree inside the yard. I didn't even know UPS had been by until the guy came by the next day and I found the note in the tree.

I asked the UPS guy if, during the winter, they could put the notes inside the mailbox so they don't blow away, and he said no, that it was against the law to put anything in the mailbox that isn't USPS mail.

Okay, I guess. I don't really understand that because we didn't buy our mailbox from the post office--we got it at Lowes. So I asked our mail carrier if it would be okay if I put a note on the mailbox expressly allowing non-mail to be in my mailbox during the windy winter months. He said no way, it was against the law, and that if he came by and saw a UPS sticker, or box, or Fed-Ex envelope inside the mailbox, he has the LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY to turn that company into the Postmaster General and fine them for something or other.

So, knowing that we get alot of packages, adn knowing it's absolutely not safe for packages to be left on our step, and knowing that any UPS or FedEx stickers that are put on the fence will either fall off because the fence is frozen or blow away because of the wind, I asked the mailman if I could construct a box that wasn't a "mail box" but a "Package AND mail box" for all my mail AND package notes to go in.

He said that it's against the law to deposit mail into any recepticle that isn't certified by the USPS, yar yar yar.

So my question is:

Why is this legal? Is my post office guy setting me straight? Is there really no way for me to be able to (legally) get non-mail things put in my mailbox legally?

If the mailman can't put mail into non-USPS certified mailboxes (and I see that my mailbox does have USPS on it),how can they deliver mail to people's front door with the slots? THose just have "post" or "mail"--not USPS like my streetside box does.

This seems really silly. I guess I could understand if I was 'renting' the box from the post office. But I'm not. I bought the damn box, and even according to this post guy, I couldn't MAKE a mailbox, it would have to be purchased and "certified" in order for mail to be delivered in it. Now I"m sure I've seen people that have made mailboxes before.

Is this guy giving me the shaft? How can I make sure I get my UPS slippy-things without having to hunt through the trees every day (or god forbid they fly into the street) if they can't go into the mailbox?