Post Office to stop Saturday mail delivery in August.

[techs]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...stal-service-delivery-mail-saturdays/1895277/

Postal Service to stop delivering mail on Saturdays

The cut begins in August, but six-day package delivery will continue.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The financially struggling U.S. Postal Service says it plans to stop delivering mail on Saturdays, but it will continue delivering packages six days a week.

In an announcement scheduled for later Wednesday, the government agency is expected to say the cut, beginning in August, would mean a cost saving of about $2 billion annually.


I wonder how this affects Netflix?

 

[EagleKeeper]

Netflix will pay a premium rate to have the delivery or get a special package classificaiton

 

[highland145]

a cost saving of about $2 billion annually

good


streaming.

 

[Thebobo]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The financially struggling U.S. Postal Service ...

But are they really struggling?

 

[IronWing]

It's a start. Three days per week delivery are really more than enough. The USPS also needs to better align its services with its customers. Staffing thousands of underutilized rural post offices while having lines out the door at underbuilt and understaffed urban post offices is ridiculous*. Yeah, I know, Congress always blocks the USPS on this.


* I use one of those rural post offices and it is a stupid waste of money for it to even exist.

 

[IronWing]

But are they really struggling?

Yes, yes they are. Congress has a chokehold on the USPS, demanding it provide money losing services, guaranteeing it can't break even.

 

[highland145]

Yes, yes they are. Congress has a chokehold on the USPS, demanding it provide money losing services, guaranteeing it can't break even.

Isn't there something else about paying pension $$ to funds that have nothing to do with the USPS?


I want to know where they find all the slow as molasses employees. Some lazy people at my local office.

 

[Pardus]

They should deliver mail Mon, Wed and Fri.ONLY which would get them out of debt. Most people would say 90% of the mail they get is prob junk anyway.

 

[Naeeldar]

They should deliver mail Mon, Wed and Fri.ONLY which would get them out of debt. Most people would say 90% of the mail they get is prob junk anyway.

The previous Postmaster was fired last year (or it may have been 2011) for telling Congress they had to stop Saturday delivery. Apparently it was unAmerican. Stupid but that is what USPS is dealing with. I would hate to be in charge there - it would be like fighting with both hands tied behind your back.

 

[highland145]

They should deliver mail Mon, Wed and Fri.ONLY which would get them out of debt. Most people would say 90% of the mail they get is prob junk anyway.

Yep but it's income.

 

[techs]

They should deliver mail Mon, Wed and Fri.ONLY which would get them out of debt. Most people would say 90% of the mail they get is prob junk anyway.

I don't know. They could fire maybe 40 percent of the mail carriers but the rest of the infrastructure would stay the same. Though they would probably lose some income as people would start driving to say, a place they can pay their electric bill when its late.

On the other hand each carrier would now have a far larger route and it would take away a lot of the personal knowledge of each route.

Better that Congress should remove the restriction on requiring zip+4

 

[Jimzz]

Isn't there something else about paying pension $$ to funds that have nothing to do with the USPS?


I want to know where they find all the slow as molasses employees. Some lazy people at my local office.

Military; you hate veterans?

And no I am not joking. You have to be a Vet to get just about any post office job, or even Fed Gov, now.

 

[highland145]

Military; you hate veterans?

And no I am not joking.

Hell yeah, I hate veterans. They carried guns, killed babies, raped women, looted the wealth of invaded nations. Disgusting.

 

[nehalem256]

Yes, yes they are. Congress has a chokehold on the USPS, demanding it provide money losing services, guaranteeing it can't break even.

Its pretty much the worst possible combination of public and private enterprise.

The Post Office doesn't receive subsidies, but is required to do what Congress says.

 

[Thebobo]

Isn't there something else about paying pension $$ to funds that have nothing to do with the USPS?

.

Exactly they would not be if it were not for the advance pension requirements that congress put on it.

No other public or private business in America" except for the U.S. Postal Service must fund 100 percent of employee retirement and retirement health costs in advance.

And unlike with a typical business, Congress can pass laws that directly dictate how the Postal Service spends billions of dollars.

One of these is the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. It requires the Postal Service to do what’s called "prefund" 100 percent of the health benefits for its future retirees. The cost: About $5 billion a year until 2017.

This is how it works. Each year, the federal government estimates how much Postal Service employees earned in pension and health retirement benefits and calculates what the USPS needs to save to pay these bills in the future. By law, the USPS has to store that money in a trust fund.

The federal Office of Personnel Management, which oversees pensions for federal workers, acknowledged in a Feb. 28 study that among federal employers, the retiree health benefit funding rule is unique to the post office.

http://www.politifact.com/georgia/s...-signs-letter-saying-post-office-faces-big-p/

 

[EagleKeeper]

Hell yeah, I hate veterans. They carried guns, killed babies, raped women, looted the wealth of invaded nations. Disgusting.

And they have also made it you you can express your opinions

 

[IronWing]

I don't know. They could fire maybe 40 percent of the mail carriers but the rest of the infrastructure would stay the same. Though they would probably lose some income as people would start driving to say, a place they can pay their electric bill when its late.

On the other hand each carrier would now have a far larger route and it would take away a lot of the personal knowledge of each route.

Better that Congress should remove the restriction on requiring zip+4

A lot of that infrastructure has already been outsourced. Fedex, UPS, airlines, and freight lines move a bunch of mail. Private contractors already deliver the mail in many rural and exurban areas. The USPS, faced with over-the-top Congressional mandates on retiree health care funding, has been shedding jobs to the private sector as fast as possible.

 

[surfsatwerk]

And they have also made it you you can express your opinions

I would love to inhabit your overly simplistic world of good guys and bad guys.

 

[lxskllr]

They should just use tax money to keep them going. USPS is an important service, and is one of the few that should be government run. I propose eliminating the domestic spying program, and domestic drone deployment to pay for it. That would make the service essentially free, and wouldn't require any increase in taxes or postal rates.

 

[Anubis]

It's a start. Three days per week delivery are really more than enough. The USPS also needs to better align its services with its customers. Staffing thousands of underutilized rural post offices while having lines out the door at underbuilt and understaffed urban post offices is ridiculous*. Yeah, I know, Congress always blocks the USPS on this.


* I use one of those rural post offices and it is a stupid waste of money for it to even exist.

sorry but rural post offices are not staffed for shit, its like 1 dude and the line can be hours long

 

[IronWing]

Its pretty much the worst possible combination of public and private enterprise.

The Post Office doesn't receive subsidies, but is required to do what Congress says.

Market Place had a story about some guy who chooses to live out in the middle of the Idaho wilderness with no road access. The USPS has to hire a weekly flight to deliver mail to this guy. When the USPS proposed dropping the service, suggesting he could get a PO Box, this guy's congress critter screamed, forcing the USPS to back down. Congress has been utterly irresponsible wrt the Post Office.

 

[IronWing]

sorry but rural post offices are not staffed for shit, its like 1 dude and the line can be hours long

Not in my experience.

 

[highland145]

And they have also made it you you can express your opinions

And I have tons of them.

 

[surfsatwerk]

And I have tons of them.

Hopefully you don't have a similar quantity of assholes because that could get messy.

 

[Sluggo]

They could easily drop residential delivery to one or two days a week, but I think they should still do business delivery five days a week.