No more letter delivery on Saturday

[travelover]

I have never understood the hostility to the USPS at all....... .

Me neither. But I wish they could get Congress off their back.

 

[pb4uski]

I have never understood the hostility to the USPS at all. I think they have a great service at an unbelievable price. .....

+1 Where else can you drop off a letter or package locally and have it delivered anywhere in the country, typically within a few days, for less than 50 cents (or more for items larger than a letter or expedited service)?

 

[Redbugdave]

I don't understand the hostility, either. It is the best deal going. I have taken packages to UPS, and walked out of that place with my packages in hand. The good old Postal Service was just over half the price. Just because it's government doesn't mean it is always bad.

With no Saturday mail delivery...maybe my postman will get the weekend off...like normal people.

 

[Lazarus]

I have had mail lost and items stolen from inside envelopes. But this is very rare. I think the Post Office does a great job.

 

[meierlde]

I'm sure they'd open dinky local offices in every town in every congressman's district and run them at a loss, too. And deliver to every house everyday, no matter how rural or remote.

Actually its not quite to every house. In newer developments there is the cluster mail box concept, where a whole bunch of houses share a common location. Of course this also provides a locked mailbox so there is a benefit. I am surprised that the USPS does not propose to back fill older neighborhoods with this system.
Further in truly rural areas, its no longer to a mail box in front of the house, but rather to a mailbox where your dirt road meets a paved road, look on farm roads in Tx or in NM and you see clusters of mailboxes at such corners. Door to door stopped in the 70s and between then and the 1980s it was rural style mailboxes in cities, then the cluster mailbox.

 

[Midpack]

Actually, I had to step away from the computer and didn't even have time to look at the graphs - I just wanted to get some pig repellent out there before it was too late.

Time to post, but no time to look at the graphs you were responding too first? Got it...

Actually, I will say that the graph 2 is really slanted. They are showing all of that 'pre-funding' as part of the loss, when the loss is made up of ALL revenue minus ALL expense.

Now I understand, that makes no sense whatsoever...ALL revenues and ALL expenses are shown.

I stand by my content. But I realized late yesterday afternoon that I was just in a bad mood, winter cabin fever I suppose. For that I apologize.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I don't understand the hostility, either. It is the best deal going. I have taken packages to UPS, and walked out of that place with my packages in hand. The good old Postal Service was just over half the price. Just because it's government doesn't mean it is always bad.

With no Saturday mail delivery...maybe my postman will get the weekend off...like normal people.

I admit to not minding that the USPS is subsidized. It's a service that everyone can directly benefit from unlike some things our tax dollars go toward. And people can and do pay to upgrade to UPS, Fedex, whenever they want.

 

[Stanley]

I have never understood the hostility to the USPS at all. I think they have a great service at an unbelievable price. I have never lost a piece of mail. There current problems have several sources. First, e-communications have changed the pattern and volume of mail traffic.

+1

In fact when the weather has caused bad road conditions, the USPS still delivers the mail, while the private package delivery companies are nowhere to be seen. This certainly has happened in my community.

 

[aaronc879]

With no Saturday mail delivery...maybe my postman will get the weekend off...like normal people.

My dad is a postal carrier and his route was recently reduced in size. Because of that, he has been working every other saturday to make up the money. With no saturday deliveries he'll be making $5K less per year than before. Not a small sum for most people. He may decide to retire(age 64) rather than work for thousands less than in years past.

As for pensions which where mentioned earlier. Postal carriers don't get much. My dad has 20+ years service and his pension will barely cover the cost of retiree health care for him and my mom.

 

[Midpack]

I have never understood the hostility to the USPS at all. I think they have a great service at an unbelievable price. I have never lost a piece of mail. There current problems have several sources. First, e-communications have changed the pattern and volume of mail traffic.

For my part, I got a little overzealous yesterday, sorry. I get [-]hostile[/-] engaged when supporters or opponents misrepresent the facts, and plenty of that goes around from both "sides." Most of it happens outside ER.org, though those sentiments may spill over.

It's a great service, but by law it's supposed to be revenue neutral (see below). That's hopefully all that drives my POV.

The good news: The package delivery service battle has largely been fought, and USPS has maintained a share of that promising, growing market, that's great.

The bad news: Unfortunately on the mail/letter side of the business, online alternatives have reduced their volumes, and that will only get worse. The PAEA/RHB pre-funding has become a distraction. And under federal law, only the Postal Service can handle or charge postage for handling letters.

If the broad consensus is that USPS should be subsidized by taxpayers to provide conventional postal service at a below market rate, so be it. That hasn't been the law for more than 40 years. [BTW, I am NOT suggesting they're presently subsidized by taxpayers, for the most part (99.8%) - they are not.]
​

USPS is unfortunately between a fundamental rock and a hard place, but all businesses have to adjust - like providers of Palm Pilots, landlines/rotary phones/public pay phones, photographic film, VCRs/DVD/movie rentals, paper maps, long distance charges, fax machines, phone books/dictionaries/encylopedias, newspapers/magazines, floppy disks, CDs to name a few.

Until adoption of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, the U.S. Postal Service functioned as a regular, tax-supported, agency of the federal government.

According to the laws under which it now operates, the U.S. Postal Service is a semi-independent federal agency, mandated to be revenue-neutral, neither making a profit or suffering a loss.

In 1982, U.S. postage stamps became "postal products," rather than a form of taxation. Since then, The bulk of the cost of operating the postal system has been paid for by customers through the sale of "postal products" and services rather than taxes.

Each class of mail is also expected to cover its share of the costs, a requirement that causes the percentage rate adjustments to vary in different classes of mail, according the costs associated with the processing and delivery characteristics of each class.

Unlike other private businesses, the Postal Service is exempt from paying federal taxes. USPS can borrow money at discounted rates, and can condemn and acquire private property under governmental rights of eminent domain.

 

[ERD50]

I'm confused by the comment about hostility towards USPS and the four (or more) agreements.

Was any hostility expressed in this thread? What exactly are you talking about (but please, just skip it if it isn't relevant to the thread, or is just porcine pheromone). Do I get extra points for alliteration (or is it alliteration with different sounds?)?

-ERD50

 

[travelover]

Actually its not quite to every house. In newer developments there is the cluster mail box concept, where a whole bunch of houses share a common location.......

Yea, but you get my point. It is a huge burden that UPS and Fed Ex don't bear. In my rural neighborhood the mailman stops at every box, on both sides of the road.

 

[ERD50]

+1

In fact when the weather has caused bad road conditions, the USPS still delivers the mail, while the private package delivery companies are nowhere to be seen. This certainly has happened in my community.

Actually, in the last big storm here (FEB 2011) they suspended mail delivery for a day (maybe two?). Which was fine, most everything was shut down, and having more delivery vehicles on the street would have just been in the way of the clean-up. I'm pretty sure the other deliveries were postponed as well. But they really ought to change their motto about snow, sleet and all.

Wait a minute...

United States Postal Service creed - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The United States Postal Service has no official creed or motto.[1]

An inscription on the James Farley Post Office in New York City reads:

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.[1]

OK, maybe they need to take a chisel and hammer and do a bit of editing

Time to post, but no time to look at the graphs you were responding too first? Got it...

Now I understand, that makes no sense whatsoever...ALL revenues and ALL expenses are shown.

I stand by my content. But I realized late yesterday afternoon that I was just in a bad mood, winter cabin fever I suppose. For that I apologize.

I'd accept that apology, but the attitude seems to be continued even in the same post that you are 'apologizing' in. Maybe you do need to get out of the house?

Time to post, but no time to look at the graphs you were responding too first? Got it...

Yes, you got it EXACTLY. I can't imagine why you would question me on this. I guess I need to paint you a picture...

I was working on a project and I had to monitor an adhesive - I needed it to set to just the right point where it was sticky, but not cured. It was time to check on it and finish the project if it was ready, and I was about to get up from my computer to do so. I really did not want to take the time to post anything, but when I saw that 'fairness' thing slip in, and saw it might be tied back to my comments, I wanted to quickly clarify my comment, and hopefully not come back to a closed thread.

So I took the time to do that, but I did not want to take the added time to try to analyze and interpolate values from the scale on those graphs. It's not something I could do and respond to in seconds (I'm slow I guess), and I already was overtime on checking my project.

There, was that really necessary?

If any of my follow-up comments indicate I misunderstood something in those graphs or anything else, or misspoke, please correct me on a factual basis. I'm here to learn, and I sure could have got it wrong, and would appreciate any insights. Thanks.

-ERD50

 

[drb391]

haven't read all responses; may have been addressed.
being an ex-PO worker, I'll believe it when I see it. my opinion; PMG Donahoe is trying to light a fire under the a$$es of congress to get them to move on "reform". and if/when they do, they'll prolly mandate six-day

 

[tinlizzy]

Yea, but you get my point. It is a huge burden that UPS and Fed Ex don't bear. In my rural neighborhood the mailman stops at every box, on both sides of the road.

It's actually worse - instead of going to each house FedEx/UPS have to go into the same rural area and deliver perhaps just one house.

That's kind of how the SmartPost and SurePost concepts were born. To assist each other and share the cost/revenue of rural deliveries - since the USPS is going to every box every day, anyway.

IMO the biggest cost is walking to every house. Like meierlde mentioned, clustered mail boxes would cut costs tremendously.

I would miss mail and don't think we could really live without it. I also think being a postal carrier is a tough job and have a lot of respect for what they go through outdoors.

 

[obgyn65]

It seems this thread was wrong after all. Saturday deliveries will continue

 

[seraphim]

No difference - everything is electronic so all we get is junk snail mail...

 

[MBAustin]

I find it very odd that so many people are up in arms about eliminating Saturday paper mail delivery (my understanding was that packages would still be delivered on Saturdays which should mitigate most business impact). I can't think of any piece of mail that has come on a Saturday that would have been less valuable on Monday. And if you are timing birthday cards that closely, why?

 

[Midpack]

Disappointing outcome, but just another step. Chalk it up to politics and special interests giving us a result most Americans didn't support. http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...7640-a21c-11e2-82bc-511538ae90a4_story_1.html

Overall 80% of Americans support moving to 5-day/week delivery..."by the People" doesn't seem to mean much anymore (vs special interests/campaign funding). I'd be fine getting my junk mail 5-days a week instead of 6 days. There's almost nothing we really need that comes via USPS anymore, our "leaders" are just forestalling the inevitable.

http://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2013/ipsos-saturday-delivery-poll-results-130214.pdf