Goodbye, Saturday delivery

[Ferret_Herder]

@Ludovic

It’s a cost to the taxpayers for a marginal benefit (not to mention, in the bigger picture, a waste of resources.) Similarly, some people think that we shouldn’t get rid of the penny and think that people opposed to the penny just hate it for some reason, when the actual reason is also expense in the face of a lack of an actual need.

Taxes do not support the USPS.

Also, the union will not be able to force Saturday pay, to the best of my understanding. (My husband is a USPS letter carrier.) Carriers have 5-day work weeks, with the possibility of being called in on their off-day and/or working more than 8 hours if they sign up for the Overtime Desired list. They are not required to be called in on their off day or to be given more than 8 hours per day, however. All carriers will still have the chance to receive overtime, but will be limited to Monday through Friday as their work days unless they’re doing package runs on Saturday or Sunday.

Currently the postal worker’s work week runs Saturday through Friday, with Sundays and an additional rotating work day off (first week on Saturday, second week on Monday, and so on). Their off day on their route can be covered by them if they are working overtime, and otherwise will be covered by someone without a permanently assigned route. These “non-assigned” personnel will either be laid off or used to cover package-only routes/fill in for missing carriers/etc.

[Ruby_Slippers]

Seems to me that the Postal Service could begin reversing their current business model in which they deliver all over the countryside for free but charge rental for boxes inside the post office. They should make post office boxes the default for free delivery and charge extra for delivery.

[GrandWino]

@suranyi

In particular a lot of people have medicine delivered by mail. Elderly people and people in rural areas are likely to have a harder time finding an alternative, and medicine is often needed very quckly.

They specifically stated that they will continue to deliver prescription deliveries on Saturdays.

[Doctor_Jackson]

@filmore

What business are you in where you get 50000 pieces of mail a day?

I wonder if it would make sense for certain businesses to buy Saturday delivery. Most people and business don’t really require Saturday delivery. But for businesses like yours, it seems like you should be able to still have a way to get the mail. They’re already going to be out delivering packages anyway.

Perhaps they could allow you to pay for Saturday delivery or they could do it for free for businesses over a certain mail volume. The USPS would want to keep those kinds of businesses happy since they are probably subsidizing a lot of other mail.

Without getting too specific, we provide an outsourced funtion to the financial services industry. We receive contracts and insurance documents. Digital delivery has been slow to take root in this industry, though Lord knows we’ve tried. While 15MM sounds like a big number, that’s for only one of three sites in the US where my company has mail delivered. And we’re not the largest of the three.

It looks like the USPS will continue delivering to PO boxes on Saturday, which solves the issue for us.

[VinylTurnip]

@Bob Ducca

They specifically stated that they will continue to deliver prescription deliveries on Saturdays.

Cool.. so if you see a mail truck on Saturday, kids, it’s full of pills!

[Ferret_Herder]

@VinylTurnip

Cool.. so if you see a mail truck on Saturday, kids, it’s full of pills!

Or other packages.

First of the month has a lot of government checks in some areas, apparently.

[Musicat]

@Ferret_Herder

First of the month has a lot of government checks in some areas, apparently.

I imagine one of the reasons the USPO is going under is there are no longer many government checks to deliver.

[Ferret_Herder]

@Musicat

I imagine one of the reasons the USPO is going under is there are no longer many government checks to deliver.

Nah, it’s the pre-funding of the pension out to 75 years in only 10 years’ time. The USPS would have a $1.5 billion surplus if not for that.

[Musicat]

@Ferret_Herder

Nah, it’s the pre-funding of the pension out to 75 years in only 10 years’ time. The USPS would have a $1.5 billion surplus if not for that.

To sum up: The problem isn’t decreasing revenue OR increasing costs, but decreasing revenue AND increasing costs.

[alphaboi867]

@Peremensoe

From about the 1880s through the 1950s, there was twice-daily delivery to city residences, and as many as four deliveries per day to businesses.

It’s really noticable in old books or movies when a character does something like write his wife a letter to let her know he’ll be home late or they’ll be guests for dinner.

@dalej42

…I still get Netflix by mail, so I check the mail on days that I’m expecting a DVD. I’ll also check daily if it’s near my birthday or a holiday since I still get some greeting cards. Otherwise, I’ll check the mail every couple of days or so. But, I’d rather empty it out over a weekend than know i"m getting extra mail on Monday…

Me too, although given the size of my queue I’m always expecting a DVD. I’d be really pissed if delivery dropped below 5 days a week.