No more Saturday mail

[MBAtarga]

Originally Posted by URY914

Should have done this years ago but I'm sure the Letter Carriers Union had something to do with it.

Oh- they are already complaining about this announcement too!

[Evans, Marv]

Seems like I remember something years ago about Congress taking $5B yearly from the USPS to put into their coffers. If it was true & still is, it's another example of Congress' blood sucking policies contributing to the demise of a reasonably revered old institution. They could have cut back to 5 days/week a long time ago.

[tooms351]

Yeah, congress has been milking the Postal Moo for a long time, it"s a shame they"re cutting jobs instead of expanding services and hiring veterans like they used to! Oh well, who says ya can't eat good on a walmart paycheck and an ebt card!

[jyl]

You need to read up about the Postal Service's problems.

It is absolutely ridiculous. Basically, Congress controls the major decisions of the Postal Service - what postage to charge, whether it can close post offices, what days it must deliver, etc - and also mandated it fund 75 years of future retirement pay in ten years - a requirement no govt agency (or for that matter private company) has to meet.

Naturally every podunk rural town wants its own post office and six day delivery so its Congressperson resists letting the Post Office close or cut back.

On top of that, the volume of first class mail is declining for obvious reasons.

The Postal Service could probably deal with the decline in mail volumes, but not when Congress won't let it run its own business how it makes sense to do it.

[Gogar]

Originally Posted by jyl

You need to read up about the Postal Service's problems.

It is absolutely ridiculous. Basically, Congress controls the major decisions of the Postal Service - what postage to charge, whether it can close post offices, what days it must deliver, etc - and also mandated it fund 75 years of future retirement pay in ten years - a requirement no govt agency (or for that matter private company) has to meet.

Naturally every podunk rural town wants its own post office and six day delivery so its Congressperson resists letting the Post Office close or cut back.

On top of that, the volume of first class mail is declining for obvious reasons.

The Postal Service could probably deal with the decline in mail volumes, but not when Congress won't let it run its own business how it makes sense to do it.

Sounds like the future of health care.

[gamin]

jyl nailed it. Congress as usual is the real culprit in this mess. Believe I read recently that USPS would actually be profitable but for the pension fund 75 year prefunding mandate from the idiots in Congress. The unions again. And who cares about Saturday delivery? Not me.

[quaz]

Way back in November I ordered a Christmas present for my daughter from Amazon. It was coming from the UK Royal Mail. It showed a projected delivery date of Dec. 18th. Well Christmas comes and goes and no delivery. So I go on to Amazon look up the tracking number and it shows it was delivered on 12/6. I never received it and it had to be signed for. Email the original sender to verify address and try to get a copy of the signed confirmation from USPS. They have no record at my local office of the package. Doesn't exist, never delivered.......but reported delivered on the website tracking.

WTF now? Can't get a refund from Amazon because the tracking shows delivered and I can't return it. I am SOL.

Monday it gets delivered. The label on it shows it was sitting at the post office since 12/6. ?????

Then you wonder why they are running a deficit. Poor management and outdated policies. Ending Saturday delivery is just the beginning.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Anybody care to predict the year of the demise of the USPS?

It will happen when UPS delivers to every house in the country for 50 cents an ounce.

[widgeon13]

99% of what they deliver to my PO Box is junk. They could stop delivering entirely and I wouldn't care.

[KFC911]

When did "home delivery" start (...to lazy to google )? Why not "outsource" packages too (ala the military "outsourcing", since it seems to pass the "constitution" test), and eventually eliminate home delivery altogether? Can one also opt out of junk mail (probably 90% of what goes in my mailbox), and why is it at a lower rate if the USPS is in the red? Just throwing out .02...opinions???

[widgeon13]

Here is someone who thinks it's all about the customer, now that is a laugh.

Anthony Duckett, a Clinton, Md. resident, said he doesn’t approve of nixing Saturday from the normal delivery schedule. “They are increasing Postal Service prices but decreasing the services they are offering,” he said. “I don’t see where that benefits us as customers.”

[VINMAN]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

It will happen when UPS delivers to every house in the country for 50 cents an ounce.

I baffles my mind when people complain when the price of a stamp goes up. I can send a 10 pound package across the country, through USPS cheaper then it cost me to drive a letter a few towns away.

Wouldnt miss mail on saturdays in the least bit. Nothing i look foward to in the mail anyway, other then the few magazines I get. Everything else is either junk mail or something with a return envelope that i need to put a check in anyway.

[asphaltgambler]

I just shipped a set of 4 SRT8 rims that weighed in @45lbs apiece through USPS. Their rate waaaay cheaper than F'd or UPandS - by about $50 total AND had it there quicker than the other two..........

As for the Saturday deal....................................my dog will miss barking and pawing at the ground when he stops by!

[intakexhaust]

Its not as much as relying on revenue from the end user, its the bulk junk mail accounts. The era of marketing by mail is fading fast. Have you ever tried to use the request for your name removed from the 'do not send' junk mail? Its a joke. Then, take a basket load of junk mail to any post office with each piece marked - return to sender - refused - remove name / address from list .... good luck as they won't do a damn thing. The only piece of mail they MIGHT return is a First Class.

In other words, the Post Office begs for the bulk junk mail business. Good riddance.

[herr_oberst]

I've been known to take a postage-paid return envelope from inside junk mail and fill it full of other junk mail (making damn sure my name is nowhere to be found) and send it back to the origin. You can fill those babies full, full, full, and they can get hea-vy!

[weseeeee]

Hope it's not be a big deal for most people. It won't bother me.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

I've been known to take a postage-paid return envelope from inside junk mail and fill it full of other junk mail (making damn sure my name is nowhere to be found) and send it back to the origin. You can fill those babies full, full, full, and they can get hea-vy!

or fill a box full of rocks and tape it on that

the most extreme example of one factor jyl posted is that you can mail a letter from or to a remote Alaskan village, reachable only by air, for the same price as a letter from Queens to Flushing

I don't say it is all bad - that sort of thing knits the country together (which is why the Founders inscribed the postal service and postal roads provisions into the Constitution) but there is a cost. The P.O. (federal funds) and the local elementary school (state funds) are community meeting places for those rural podunk hamlets. They love them. They love having electricity too, and the Rural Elec. Act is the only reason they have it.

Like any subsidy, you have to ask if the costs justify the benefits.