diff --git a/usr.sbin/periodic/etc/daily/440.status-mailq b/usr.sbin/periodic/etc/daily/440.status-mailq
index 515f9f42ead9..80f2ada21a3b 100755
--- a/usr.sbin/periodic/etc/daily/440.status-mailq
+++ b/usr.sbin/periodic/etc/daily/440.status-mailq
@@ -1,66 +1,66 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 #
 # $FreeBSD$
 #
 
 # If there is a global system configuration file, suck it in.
 #
 if [ -r /etc/defaults/periodic.conf ]
 then
     . /etc/defaults/periodic.conf
     source_periodic_confs
 fi
 
 case "$daily_status_mailq_enable" in
     [Yy][Ee][Ss])
 	if [ ! -x /usr/bin/mailq ]
 	then
 	    echo '$daily_status_mailq_enable is set but /usr/bin/mailq' \
 		"isn't executable"
 	    rc=2
 	else
 	    echo ""
 	    echo "Mail in local queue:"
 
 	    rc=$(case "$daily_status_mailq_shorten" in
 		[Yy][Ee][Ss])
 		    mailq |
 			egrep -e '^[[:space:]]+[^[:space:]]+@' |
 			sort |
 			uniq -c |
 			sort -nr |
 			awk '$1 >= 1 {print $1, $2}';;
 		*)
 		    mailq;;
 	    esac | tee /dev/stderr |
 	    egrep -v '((Mail |m)queue is empty|Total requests)' | wc -l)
 	    [ $rc -gt 0 ] && rc=1 || rc=0
 
 	    case "$daily_status_include_submit_mailq" in
 	    [Yy][Ee][Ss])
-		if [ -f /etc/mail/submit.cf ]
+		if [ -f /etc/mail/submit.cf ] && mailq -Ac >/dev/null 2>&1
 		then
 		    echo ""
 		    echo "Mail in submit queue:"
 
 		    rc_submit=$(case "$daily_status_mailq_shorten" in
 			[Yy][Ee][Ss])
 			    mailq -Ac |
 				egrep -e '^[[:space:]]+[^[:space:]]+@' |
 				sort |
 				uniq -c |
 				sort -nr |
 				awk '$1 >= 1 {print $1, $2}';;
 			*)
 			    mailq -Ac;;
 		    esac | tee /dev/stderr |
 		    egrep -v '(mqueue is empty|Total requests)' | wc -l)
 		    [ $rc_submit -gt 0 ] && rc=1
 		fi;;
 	    esac
 	fi;;
 
     *)  rc=0;;
 esac
 
 exit $rc