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Old 02-07-2013, 09:41 AM   #21
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Will we get a discount from Netflix ?
Barring treks to a P.O. Box, it means no more squeezing out two-Netflix-DVDs per week on the one-DVD-at-a-time plan. Netflix could upgrade everyone to a two-DVD plan...
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Old 02-07-2013, 10:00 AM   #22
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One less pound of glossy catalogs to throw in the trash. No wait, they will just deliver it Monday. Bummer.
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Old 02-07-2013, 10:02 AM   #23
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Now that I'm pretty much 100% ebills and am on all the "no junk mail" lists my mailbox is pretty much empty. Might check twice a week max. Maybe they ought to go to three days a week
How did you manage that? We use Catalog Choice and contact sources via phone or email, and new sources "find" us all the time. We HATE all junk mail!!!
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Old 02-07-2013, 10:02 AM   #24
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As far as I'm concerned going down to a four day week or even a MWF delivery schedule would be just fine.
Me too, but the USPS has a bigger problem.

One of their big expenses is paying the pension/benefits for all the retired and soon to be retired employees. Downsizing the business doesn't help with those fixed costs. The costs savings from reduced delivery days will help a bit, but just a bit.

That's the problem with these pension 'promises' (public and private). You just can't count on the business/entity being able to fund these in the same manner over long time periods. But people do count on it.

USPS needs to find a way to efficiently expand their business, not downsize it further. Good luck with that. Must be something a bunch o small trucks and people driving a route each day could do in addition to mail delivery? OK, I'm stumped.

edit/add after reading the cross posts: Maybe I'll take notes for a few weeks, and track how much mail or how many days we get mail that really was best handled by snail mail. Probably incredibly small.


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Old 02-07-2013, 10:08 AM   #25
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One of their big expenses is paying the pension/benefits for all the retired and soon to be retired employees. Downsizing the business doesn't help with those fixed costs. The costs savings from reduced delivery days will help a bit, but just a bit.
Though lots of articles still blame the 'unfair pension expenses', by their own admission they're losing money now even without the PAEA payments, so the "accelerated" payments have been a red herring for several years.

It's time to stop beating that drum...
"Initially, the effects of the PAEA’s mandatory payments to the Postal Service Health Benefits Fund on the USPS’s profitability were considerable. This may be illustrated with a hypothetical—if the USPS did not have to pay into this fund each year, it would have experienced no operating losses until FY2009. However, despite Congress’s reduction of the RHBF payment owed in FY2009 and its delay of the RHBF payment owed in FY2011, the USPS’s expenses exceeded its revenues these years."
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41024.pdf
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File Type: png USPS.png (420.1 KB, 3 views)
File Type: png USPS2.png (479.4 KB, 4 views)
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Old 02-07-2013, 10:56 AM   #26
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This is fine with me, and I am far from paperless on the bill-receiving side although many of my bills are paid without mailing out a check. It does mean our Monday mail deliveries will be bigger.
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Old 02-07-2013, 11:06 AM   #27
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As far as I'm concerned going down to a four day week or even a MWF delivery schedule would be just fine.
I was about to post the same thing. I think Monday, Wed, Friday would be more than sufficient. I actually only pickup my mail once per week as it is. I get a few statements and things in the mail, but pay 95% of my bills online now. I mail maybe 12-15 items per year these days. Last week I stopped by the post office to pickup stamps and it dawned on me that it had been 2 years since I had purchased any.

I think the end of the US postal service is something I will see in my lifetime (45 now).
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Old 02-07-2013, 11:08 AM   #28
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+1

I'd even be good with once a week. All of my bills are online, all of my finances online, all of my entertainment online. Can't think of anything I really need to get via mail anymore. Don't need the solicitations/junk.
The junk is how they try to subsidize the fact they are grossly undercharging us all for mail delivery. A stamp should cost something like $3.40, not $0.40.
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Old 02-07-2013, 11:16 AM   #29
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Something tells me that longterm this will not really save money. They are lowering their level of service which is usually the wrong thing to do. Are they talking about seriously cutting back on the number of employees or cutting the hours (and pay) of current employees as a result of this cut in saturday service? They will probably actually get less productivity out of their employees with this change. I personally do not care whether I get saturday home mail delivery but it might be important to some people, including some who are running businesses from their homes. Some of those people are probably already exploring other options, like Fedex and UPS. If they take their business to those carriers instead of USPS the USPS will be losing the rare part of their business which actually makes money for them. Who knows? I could be completely wrong about this.
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Old 02-07-2013, 12:02 PM   #30
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OMG! It's The End of the World as We Know IT (and I feel fine)
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Old 02-07-2013, 12:15 PM   #31
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In addition to eliminating Saturday delivery, the USPS is also consolidating their handling centers. As a result, starting a few days ago mail from Dayton, Ohio (Birthplace of Aviation! And the automatic transmission, NCR, etc.) stopped getting a Dayton postmark. It is now marked "Columbus". It's a small indignity, another kick in the butt for a town that deserves better. Oh, well.
I figured mail was cancelled at a much lower level, maybe even at the local post office. I guess not.
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Old 02-07-2013, 01:19 PM   #32
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Doesn't bother me. They can cut down on other days for all I'm concerned. I rarely if ever get personal letters or cards anymore, and I get only a couple of bills that I can't pay online. I've cut out all catalogs, etc. So the rest is just junk mail.
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Old 02-07-2013, 01:41 PM   #33
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I am sick of being ripped off! I sent a small brochure to a friend who only lives about 3000 miles away from me. I had to WALK to the mailbox in front of my house where the envelope was picked up by the USPS, then it took 3 days to get to my friend's place, where it was delivered to his mailbox which is about 100 feet from his front door. He had to WALK to his mailbox and back to get the envelope!!! And I had to pay almost 50 cents for this lousy service!!!!!
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Old 02-07-2013, 01:49 PM   #34
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stopped getting a Dayton postmark. It is now marked "Columbus". It's a small indignity, another kick in the butt for a town that deserves better..
I don't believe it is the Postal Service's business to make the citizens of any town feel better about themselves, or compensate them for past indignities. There job is to deliver the mail. If they are doing that well, that should be enough for anybody.

However, if people really want their home town postmark, maybe the USPS should offer a special service to the town: For an extra fee (maybe $1-$2 extra) they can deposit the mail in a special mailbox where somebody will hand cancel it with the town's postmark. Perhaps these jobs could help reduce local unemployment.
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Old 02-07-2013, 02:08 PM   #35
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[COLOR=black]Though lots of articles still blame the 'unfair pension expenses',...
Before this gets out of hand and porky shows up... I want to make it clear that I didn't express any opinion regarding the 'fairness' of the pensions.

I was only commenting that they are a relatively fixed cost and that downsizing doesn't change it - That stream is already committed. I was under the impression that it represented a sizable portion of the budget. I'll look at your link and research that a bit later...

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Old 02-07-2013, 02:15 PM   #36
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I welcome the end of Saturday mail delivery. It's just one less thing to think about when I want to take off for a few days without submitting a mail hold.
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Old 02-07-2013, 02:18 PM   #37
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Before this gets out of hand and porky shows up... I want to make it clear that I didn't express any opinion regarding the 'fairness' of the pensions.

I was only commenting that they are a relatively fixed cost and that downsizing doesn't change it - That stream is already committed. I was under the impression that it represented a sizable portion of the budget. I'll look at your link and research that a bit later...

-ERD50
And my point was they've lost money by their own admission for 4 years straight if they'd had ZERO retirement prefunding, you need only view the graphs (theirs) attached. Reading the pdf is optional.

You brought up "their big expenses paying the pension/benefits for all the retired and soon to be retired employees" - and many have claimed their unfair, common refrain. After 4 years it's time to stop beating that drum, that was the central point...
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Old 02-07-2013, 02:18 PM   #38
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I don't believe it is the Postal Service's business to make the citizens of any town feel better about themselves, or compensate them for past indignities. There job is to deliver the mail. If they are doing that well, that should be enough for anybody.

However, if people really want their home town postmark, maybe the USPS should offer a special service to the town: For an extra fee (maybe $1-$2 extra) they can deposit the mail in a special mailbox where somebody will hand cancel it with the town's postmark. Perhaps these jobs could help reduce local unemployment.
As you'll note, I didn't say the postal service should leave the Dayton center open nor that they are responsible for maintain high morale in this fair city. Welcome to the board.
I've trumped your plan: I'll go into business manufacturing stamps that Daytonians Daytonas Daytonites people living in Dayton can use to add their own Dayton "cancellation" at the top of the letter. Just don't cover the stamp and it's legal.
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Old 02-07-2013, 03:19 PM   #39
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mailbox - is that where you get your 8track tapes delivered to?
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Old 02-07-2013, 03:25 PM   #40
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Must be something a bunch o small trucks and people driving a route each day could do in addition to mail delivery? OK, I'm stumped.

-ERD50
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