USPS to cut Sat delivery starting August

[Chuck_v]

http://news.yahoo.com/postal-seeks-end-saturday-mail-delivery-132211069--sector.html?.b=

About time. I expect they will eventually drop more days, maybe Thursdays in a decade or so? So much mail is a waste of paper. They are doing a lot more package work but will increasingly compete with other carriers in that space.

Hell half the time the moron who delivers mail to my cul-de-sac can't seem to read address numbers worth a damn and delivers mail to the wrong houses. The post office seems to not give a rats ass that their moron can't get it right very often as numerous complaints have been registered. If the USPS wants to terminate Saturday delivery of mail fine...that would be one day less many of us have to do the morons job of getting the mail to the right address.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Hell half the time the moron who delivers mail to my cul-de-sac can't seem to read address numbers worth a damn and delivers mail to the wrong houses. The post office seems to not give a rats ass that their moron can't get it right very often as numerous complaints have been registered. If the USPS wants to terminate Saturday delivery of mail fine...that would be one day less many of us have to do the morons job of getting the mail to the right address.

I think the problem is that he just isn't heavily armed enough. Mount a heavy machine gun on his truck and I think you'd find that you'd be a little more polite about it.

 

[zephyrprime]

http://news.yahoo.com/postal-seeks-end-saturday-mail-delivery-132211069--sector.html?.b=

About time. I expect they will eventually drop more days, maybe Thursdays in a decade or so? So much mail is a waste of paper. They are doing a lot more package work but will increasingly compete with other carriers in that space.

The waste of paper (junk mail) is actually the one of the most profitable parts of mail. It's high volume and doesn't require sorting since it goes out to everyone. What's not profitable is delivering bills and personal letters.

It's not the posts offices fault they are losing money. They're just obsolete now through no fault of their own is the only problem.

 

[zephyrprime]

Then around here there are numerous little post offices serving very few people that employ a post master to sort mail for a half hour and not do much the rest of the day. The northern part of the county probably has maybe 2 or 3 thousand people and has at least 5 maybe six post offices

Congress is preventing the post office from closing small offices. They like to keep those little post offices in their districts.

 

[Pray To Jesus]

congress is treating a private company like a public company and screwing with it hard so whatever can we expect except to give taxes to it in the future

 

[FerrelGeek]

The only reason they are struggling is that Congress asked them to prefund the next 70 years of USPS worker retirements. At a cost of $5B per year (of which they have been making full payments) they have little left over for modernizing and restructuring their operations. Without that ridiculous requirement the USPS would still be in the black and still be doing Saturday deliveries.

This. If we'd demand that they work til 65 and had a retirement plan like us peasants, this wouldn't be such a big problem either.

 

[Chuck_v]

I think the problem is that he just isn't heavily armed enough. Mount a heavy machine gun on his truck and I think you'd find that you'd be a little more polite about it.

Well apparently you are a bigger moron than my mailman or YOU are my mailman...either way you are a moron.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Well apparently you are a bigger moron than my mailman or YOU are my mailman...either way you are a moron.

LMFAO! :awe:

 

[MovingTarget]

True. But maybe we just want the USPS to make enough money through user-fees to mitigate its cost. It provides a valuable service to the people of this country. The value of a government service should not be based solely on how profitable it is. The problem is, Congress has crippled the USPS with its reforms and fails to take action that would allow the USPS to continue floating on its own (without tax dollars).

This. People complain about junk mail, etc. all the time but when you think about it, services like the mail are part of what sets us apart as a first world nation. People take the mail for granted precisely because it is so ubiquitous. Could the USPS operate more efficiently? Sure. Should they be reducing services in the name of efficiency? Absolutely not. There are many ways to improve the postal service, but those in power have them pretty much locked down on what they are allowed to do.

 

[tracerbullet]

And then you could go and check your mail at your convenience. It would reduce the cost of fuel and labor.

Heck no, for many reasons. Convenience? It is not convenient for me to drive 10-15 minutes to my closest post office, which I sometimes have to do on a Saturday to pick up a package needing a signature. If I had to go get my mail it might happen a few times a year. Not convenient. And while that might reduce fuel and labor costs for the post office, it'd dramatically increase the total time spent and fuel used by every person to go to the post office themselves.

They are doing a lot more package work but will increasingly compete with other carriers in that space.

Actually the USPS often delivers for UPS and Fedex. Not sure how that'll work out in the future but currently they often work together.

 

[lakedude]

Actually the USPS often delivers for UPS and Fedex. Not sure how that'll work out in the future but currently they often work together.

This is true. They call it "last mile" when a package starts off with one carrier and gets handed off to the USPS for final delivery. The private companies don't really like delivering to home addresses, they prefer B2B.

The USPS is going to pretty much every private address every weekday anyhow so they pick up that "last mile" business.

I understand that this can be an efficient way of doing things but I personally hate when they ship using that "last mile" method.

When I order a package online it will start out with UPS in Tennessee, get sent to Louisville KY where it is handed off to the Post Office with the message "Package tendered to USPS", get sent back to Tennessee and then maybe back to Kentucky again adding 3 or 4 days to the process. UPS's big hub is evidently in Louisville...

I wish they would just give the package directly to the USPS in Tennessee.

 

[tracerbullet]

UPS's big hub is evidently in Louisville...

I think you're right, and Fedex is in Memphis. I did a report on Fedex a long time ago for an MBA class and Memphis was chosen because (at the time at least) it was basically the center of the population density in the US, so they figured it'd be the best place for it. I imagine Louisville was chosen for similar reasons by UPS, or at least the area chosen for similar reasons, and possibly a final decision made considering tax benefits and etc. offered by any cities looking for the business.

 

[GWestphal]

I think MWF would be optimal. Post office boxes for low population areas. Electronic communication should be the norm at this point anyways. Maybe have parcel and urgent (additional cost) still deliver everyday, but the volume would be greatly reduced.

 

[Xonim]

I think MWF would be optimal. Post office boxes for low population areas.

The low population areas are the ones that value door-to-door delivery the most. They would have the furthest to drive to their local PO boxes. They would also be the most likely to still be using the post office on a regular basis. And they likely don't have a UPS Store or FedEx drop location within a reasonable driving distance (under 20 minutes or so).

Electronic communication should be the norm at this point anyways.

Look at how many people are still on dial up though. It'd have to be a pretty long phase-out period. Plenty of people (not always in rural areas) still send things like pictures through regular mail instead of email, because a good picture takes forever to download on dial-up.

As an example, my grandparents live in an area that has DSL available, but it's $50/mo for the basic speeds compared to her free dial up. On a fixed income, $50 is a lot each month. Even if they had DSL, they don't have a photo printer, and we all know the older generation prefers hard-copy stuff over digital. It's a quality of life thing. I'm not saying the PO should exist solely to keep old people happy, it's just an example.

Maybe have parcel and urgent (additional cost) still deliver everyday, but the volume would be greatly reduced.

Package delivery is definitely going to be the future. And if USPS can land even ONE major major client that deals with packages (think Amazon scale), would pretty much be all it would take. TBH, I'm assuming the reason Amazon went with UPS was for the better tracking. I can't be the only one that's noticed USPS's tracking has been improving over the last couple years.

 

[Throckmorton]

USPS doesn't have tracking... only destination confirmation

 

[Acanthus]

Obama strikes again.

What? The obligation to prepay ALL of their entitlements was not done under Obama.

However, making the postmaster general go to congress every time they want to change rates needs to be fixed.

 

[Xonim]

USPS doesn't have tracking... only destination confirmation

You haven't tried it recently. It's still delivery confirmation, but they scan at every exchange now. At least, they have on the last 5-6 packages I've used it on.

 

[lakedude]

USPS doesn't have tracking... only destination confirmation

You haven't tried it recently. It's still delivery confirmation, but they scan at every exchange now. At least, they have on the last 5-6 packages I've used it on.

Tracking is much improved at the USPS for sure. It still may not be as good as what UPS or FedEx has but it is much more than just delivery confirmation.

 

[GWestphal]

I think this explains what i meant better.

Regular: MWF $1 , Rural areas deliver mail to the door once or twice a week, otherwise leave it in the PO boxes for people to pick up at their leisure.
Mail and Parcel
- what most people will use, they can still send a CD or box of photos via parcel.

Urgent: M-F $3
Mail and Parcel
-what much fewer people will use, because most things don't need to be next day.
Delivery to the door everyday, even in rural areas.

But the majority of all documents being sent should be done digitally.

The low population areas are the ones that value door-to-door delivery the most. They would have the furthest to drive to their local PO boxes. They would also be the most likely to still be using the post office on a regular basis. And they likely don't have a UPS Store or FedEx drop location within a reasonable driving distance (under 20 minutes or so).



Look at how many people are still on dial up though. It'd have to be a pretty long phase-out period. Plenty of people (not always in rural areas) still send things like pictures through regular mail instead of email, because a good picture takes forever to download on dial-up.

As an example, my grandparents live in an area that has DSL available, but it's $50/mo for the basic speeds compared to her free dial up. On a fixed income, $50 is a lot each month. Even if they had DSL, they don't have a photo printer, and we all know the older generation prefers hard-copy stuff over digital. It's a quality of life thing. I'm not saying the PO should exist solely to keep old people happy, it's just an example.



Package delivery is definitely going to be the future. And if USPS can land even ONE major major client that deals with packages (think Amazon scale), would pretty much be all it would take. TBH, I'm assuming the reason Amazon went with UPS was for the better tracking. I can't be the only one that's noticed USPS's tracking has been improving over the last couple years.