Post Office & Saturday Delivery

[jimnjana]

Not only our wages too high, but retirement benefits are as well. I wonder how many billions they need to cover future pension costs. My pet peeve is the number of post offices, not necessarily in rural areas but in suburbs as well. In Atlanta, we live within three miles of three different post offices. They are trying with the self service machines etc... but they really have to do away with longevity based raises and tie raises to productivity and contribution to the bottom line.

 

[Coach]

I'm pretty amazed with the USPS. For 47 cents they'll pick up a piece of mail at my house in Colorado and deliver it to my brother's house in New York. In a few days. I have a Post Office a few blocks away and since I'm an early riser and can get there early I can usually get whatever taken care of without waiting at all. My carrier gives me a wave every time I see him, and I've never tipped him. They seem to be doing a little better at competing in package delivery, just based on how my mail order stuff is being shipped lately.

They do have problems and I expect the letter delivery business to wane -- like a lot of people I'm signing up for paperless statements right and left. I'd be perfectly happy with every-other-day letter delivery, but I suspect package delivery would have to stay at daily to compete.

It was 60 years ago that the post office quit twice daily delivery.

Coach

 

[Westernskies]

Not only our wages too high, but retirement benefits are as well. I wonder how many billions they need to cover future pension costs. My pet peeve is the number of post offices, not necessarily in rural areas but in suburbs as well. In Atlanta, we live within three miles of three different post offices. They are trying with the self service machines etc... but they really have to do away with longevity based raises and tie raises to productivity and contribution to the bottom line.

Heresy! This is the federal government we are dealing with- an established bastion of bureaucracy, cronyism, entitlement programs, and bloated budgets. Nope, the Post Office will soon be on the dole like the rest of the Feds...

 

[DangerMouse]

I can't think of any reason why I or most other people would need mail delivery 6 days a week. I get so little real mail these days that it wouldn't cause any drama in my life if suddenly nothing came on a Saturday.

USPS is not one of those organisations I have much faith in. Whenever I post a document which I want to be sure will arrive at the other end in a timely fashion I always go to the Post Office and use Priority Express.

 

[Glo]

I've said for years that 3 days a week for mail delivery is plenty. Our local PO closed and we have to drive to the next town to use the PO. Lots of small-town POs have closed here in Ohio.

 

[clifp]

It is interesting that you often hear that reason the government can't cut XYZ is the public will scream. Yet on this thread not only didn't anyone scream about losing Saturday, lots of people suggested slashing the service levels in 1/2.

 

[Ronstar]

I vote for mail delivery once a week. There is nothing in the mail so important that it can't wait a few days.

 

[WhoDaresWins]

Every other day for mail delivery would be fine with me. Our postage rates are a bargain as I understand it compared to many European countries. I have a whole bunch of forever stamps. I don't know why one would buy any other kind.

 

[Walt34]

Maybe not, but they are basically a quasi govt organization that enjoys a monopoly...

Well, not exactly a monopoly. Just a few days ago UPS delivered an envelope from Citibank inviting us to take out a six-figure loan on our house ("No, thanks.") so there are alternatives. The UPS driver even rang the doorbell and left the envelop on the front porch. For US mail we have to walk all the way out to the mailbox at the end of the driveway.

As another pointed out, I think first-class postage is a good deal. For 47 cents I can mail a letter to my niece across the country and it'll be hand-delivered there in a few days. Although we use E-mail a lot there is something to be said for a hard-copy letter and we still write them.

 

[MichaelB]

This is one of those "doomed to failure" experiments -- "downsizing" to success rarely succeeds.

What the USPS needs is change. For the past five to ten years, I have used the USPS less often than in the past. In fact, I go through the mental exercise of considering all other options before selecting them. (I even select a much less desirable option if visiting an USPS station is called for.)

There, of course, are some things that the USPS does better than UPS or Fed Ex and that is what they should concentrate on. For instance, the ability to print shipping labels on Priority mail and have them pick up the package is one thing on the plus side. (This is also true with other postage-paid mailings that can be place in your mailbox.)

Of course, by the time those Weasels on Capital Hill finish the job of running interference, most people, like myself, will have completely given up.

(I should add that I ship/mail enough that I have an account with both UPS and Fed Ex.))

Well said. I agree with everything except the part about weasels on capital hill. They're not weasels -- they're blood sucking parasites.

 

[Nords]

Yet on this thread not only didn't anyone scream about losing Saturday, lots of people suggested slashing the service levels in 1/2.

The characters in Rex Stout's old Nero Wolfe novels spent a lot of time dashing around to make the morning & afternoon mail pickup/deliveries. I wonder how people of that era handled the transition to just once a day.

Now it's like firing the town criers or the lamplighters... or disconnecting the land line telephone service. If I was selling hardware for broadcast TV systems I'd be buffing up my résumé too.

It's been interesting watching our kid learn about colleges over the last three years. She did 90% of it online, and probably only grudgingly put up with our entreaties for the 10% that happened in hardcopy. She signed up for college mailing lists like all the other kids at school, yet about 99.9% of that mail went straight to the trash. It was only parental eye candy and a colossal waste of bulk-mailing budgets. The few pieces of actual paper required by Rice could have been reduced to e-mails and a few scanned PDFs.

The USPS may be a victim of its own efficiency. The things I used to "need" from the post office can almost all be done online now. Even if I could save a couple bucks by driving to the post office, it's usually not worth the hassle of hauling my butt out of the computer chair when I can do priority mail right from the printer. Remember when post offices used to have huge lines out the door of people hauling eBay packages on hand dollies? Now it's all done on the website and pickup is scheduled online.

Some days I wonder why I have a mailbox. It's a troubling source of identity theft and one more thing around the house that needs cleaning/maintenance. Almost everyone I care to hear from contacts me online or by voicemail. I get a handful of personal letters each year, and I'd even prefer to do holiday family letters online. All my bills are received online, and most of them are on autopay. Once or twice a year I mail a package (usually a gift) that doesn't quite fit in our mailbox or the USPS mailbox slot-- and I actually have to go inside the post office to drop it at the bucket by the automated kiosk.

I'm going to have to monitor what incoming mail that I actually care about. (It's not Midweek!) I bet it's only monthly magazines. I could probably have the post office hold my mail for monthly delivery and I still wouldn't miss anything.

I'll have to ask the carrier if they'd still do pickup for people who have their mail held...

 

[TromboneAl]

I'm pretty amazed with the USPS. For 47 cents they'll pick up a piece of mail at my house in Colorado and deliver it to my brother's house in New York. In a few days. I have a Post Office a few blocks away and since I'm an early riser and can get there early I can usually get whatever taken care of without waiting at all. My carrier gives me a wave every time I see him, and I've never tipped him.

I know. We'll let them run healthcare!

 

[target2019]

Haven't done a deep analysis of this, but is there anything I really need the post office for? I can't think of anything at the moment.

In 1960 we had a bread man, milk man, and postman.

USPS - Postal Facts

 

[WhoDaresWins]

Haven't done a deep analysis of this, but is there anything I really need the post office for? I can't think of anything at the moment.

In 1960 we had a bread man, milk man, and postman.

USPS - Postal Facts

And Fuller Brush man and family doctor who made house calls, and department stores that delivered purchases the next day or so(free), etc. Yes, nothing stays the same. We pay more money for things but personal service has gone the way of the Dodo.

 

[ziggy29]

And Fuller Brush man and family doctor who made house calls, and department stores that delivered purchases the next day or so(free), etc. Yes, nothing stays the same. We pay more money for things but personal service has gone the way of the Dodo.

And because of "substitution," less service for the same price doesn't show up as inflation on the CPI even though it is less bang for the buck...

 

[RonBoyd]

But that's how an "economic" system works -- they become more and more efficient (ideally). Eventually, they have no fluff built in for silliness like a "bread man" and a "milk man" and a "postman." Eventually, there is no one left who is willing to pay for such a luxury. You asked for "lower prices." Now, you got them -- no more coddling by a knowledgeable clerk because you will only pay for [-]no face-face hand holding [/-]Internet shopping. Get over it.

 

[freebird5825]

...In 1960 we had a bread man, milk man, and postman.

And ALL 3 looked equally guilty.

Sorry, it was that darned low hanging fruit again...

 

[Danny]

We have a PO Box and go there whenever a netflix is due to show up

so maybe 2-3 times a week we show.

I've relentlessly eliminated junk mail, get info via email and bills are automatically paid - so not a lot of mail.

How about getting rid of delivery completely and everybody go to a PO for their mail....delivery for invalids, etc.

of course they'll have to have a heckava lot more boxes

That should save some dough...

...just a thought .