Let's make up our mind about the USPS

[UncleRojelio]

USPS delivers packages on Sunday now. Who pays for that?

[billfish678]

The same people that pay for Monday-Friday?

[Chronos]

We did make up our mind, back in 1789. The Constitution specifically mentions delivering mail as something for government to do. Unfortunately we’ve got a bunch of politicians now who are completely clueless about the Constitution.

[sevenwood]

@UncleRojelio

USPS delivers packages on Sunday now. Who pays for that?

According to their web page on the subject it’s a deal between the USPS and Amazon - and Amazon is paying tor it.

FedEx and UPS also have deals with USPS for “last mile” delivery. After all, the USPS is going past your house everyday anyway, so it’s reasonable for its competitors to drop off their packages at the local USPS office and pay them to make the final delivery to your house.

[not_what_you_d_expect]

@Dewey_Finn

More like once a year.

Okay, not as often as I thought. I guess it just seems that way to me.

[BrotherCadfael]

@Chronos

We did make up our mind, back in 1789. The Constitution specifically mentions delivering mail as something for government to do. Unfortunately we’ve got a bunch of politicians now who are completely clueless about the Constitution.

The Constitution says the government MAY run a mail service. It doesn’t say it HAS to.

(I’m OK with it doing so, just clarifying the ambiguity.)

[Quimby]

I just want to remind everyone the only reason the USPS is losing money is the Republicans during the Bush administration forced it to fund it’s pension for the next 75 years in advance. This was done to make it looks inefficient and useless so it could be privatized (and as a giveaway to UPS and Fed ex). This could be fixed but no one in Congress cares (except Bernie Sanders who complained about it long before he ran for President).

If they had a realistic Pension funding requirement, they would at the very least turn a profit.

[running_coach]

@Quimby

I just want to remind everyone the only reason the USPS is losing money is the Republicans during the Bush administration forced it to fund it’s pension for the next 75 years in advance. This was done to make it looks inefficient and useless so it could be privatized (and as a giveaway to UPS and Fed ex). This could be fixed but no one in Congress cares (except Bernie Sanders who complained about it long before he ran for President).

If they had a realistic Pension funding requirement, they would at the very least turn a profit.

I’d like to know who would take over the delivery of mail.
In 2014, the USPS moved 155 billion pieces of mail.
2012, Fedex and UPS combined, only moved 6.5 billion pieces.

[excavating_for_a_mind]

As far as I can tell, the OP is not suggesting the USPS be shut down, privatized, or anything else many of the posters seem to be defending. He was just pointing out that by being both a federal agency (subject to Congressional meddling) and a commercial entity (subject to the pressures of competition) seems to be working to the detriment of the service.

Personally, I see the OP’s point.

If the intent is to be a profitable venture, then it shouldn’t take an act of Congress to make business decisions. As a rule, Congress is filled with people who are good a bureaucracy but poor at business (if they weren’t good at bureaucracy, they couldn’t function as a lawmaker and if they were good at business, that is what they would do).

If the intent is to provide a useful service for all citizens, then it should be supported by taxes. The US Coast Guard is not expected to turn a profit, why should the US Postal Service?

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

@running_coach

I’d like to know who would take over the delivery of mail.
In 2014, the USPS moved 155 billion pieces of mail.
2012, Fedex and UPS combined, only moved 6.5 billion pieces.

And Fed Ex stinks at it.

[Mr.Miskatonic]

@excavating_for_a_mind

As far as I can tell, the OP is not suggesting the USPS be shut down, privatized, or anything else many of the posters seem to be defending. He was just pointing out that by being both a federal agency (subject to Congressional meddling) and a commercial entity (subject to the pressures of competition) seems to be working to the detriment of the service.

Personally, I see the OP’s point.

If the intent is to be a profitable venture, then it shouldn’t take an act of Congress to make business decisions. As a rule, Congress is filled with people who are good a bureaucracy but poor at business (if they weren’t good at bureaucracy, they couldn’t function as a lawmaker and if they were good at business, that is what they would do).

If the intent is to provide a useful service for all citizens, then it should be supported by taxes. The US Coast Guard is not expected to turn a profit, why should the US Postal Service?

I would disagree. As a private company the USPS has no obligation to service areas that show less profitability. You can see this by sending a small package by UPS/FEDEX to a residential home in Bumfuck, Wyoming. The cost is almost prohibitive for the average person or small business. Thus the mandate to service the people of the United States equally is crucial.

However, without the borderline private company flexibility that the USPS has vs. other government agencies it would not be able to compete as well as it has: Their advertising is much less stodgy, Priority Mail is an impressive innovation for what is often seen (sometimes unfairly) as a clunky institution.

That said, yes, there are issues with them having interference from Congress and the like, but I don’t think the solution is to demand they be one extreme or the other.

[Lord_Feldon]

@Mr.Miskatonic

As a private company the USPS has no obligation to service areas that show less profitability. You can see this by sending a small package by UPS/FEDEX to a residential home in Bumfuck, Wyoming.

The current USPS has no such obligation either. You often can’t send a letter to a residential home in Bumfuck. The closest it will be able to get is the free PO box the residents of that Zip Code get…in the closest town.

[WildBlueYonder]

I just about have a comment on every post in here

As far as I know they dont even hire full time but temps these days further saving money

I have a suggestion; the people who want Saturday delivery pay more, along with all the people that send junk mail. Hike THEIR prices.

@not_what_you_d_expect

I don’t agree that it needs to be a private corporation, but I do think some changes are called for.

Stop Saturday delivery already. Seriously, there is no good reason for it that I’m aware of.

And figure out what the price of a stamp needs to be, these one cent increases two or three times a year seem stupidly inefficient to me.

I bet there are a lot of other ways that the USPS could be improved, but I’d at least start there.

Yes stop Saturday delivery. Why not?

Yes lots of other improvements but “they” (idiots who line their pockets in DC)dont listen to us

@sevenwood

Good point. The USPS should change their prices more like once a week, like the private gas stations do.

30 cents up one week, a penny down the next, then 40 cents up the next week, 2 cents down the next day and just in time for payday, a buck more, just wait, it’ll happen. Used to be the gas would go up a dime, then 20 cents, then 30 and then 40. Goes down so very slowly. Also with the corn fuel, used to be a buck cheaper, then slid down until 50 cents difference now. Started when gas prices started taking a dip…

@Skywatcher

That’s not entirely true. USPS does get $18 billion in annual subsidies.

And their profits are?

@Dewey_Finn

I think this PDF analysis is the source of that claim of $18 billion in annual subsidies. It arrives at that number by valuing the monopoly on delivering mail and having access to mailboxes at billions of dollars. It also values the exemption on property taxes that the USPS gets at about $1.5 billion. Finally, it assigns a value to the low cost of money the USPS borrows from the Treasury Dept.
So, in summary it’s not $18 billion in direct subsidies.

Red tape and its hard for us to interpret as so many laws (or proposed) are in this country

@Lisaren

USPS is very important to rural communities. There are areas of our country that do not receive deliveries from the private companies and the only way for them to receive packages is through the USPS. There are also areas of the country that do not have reliable internet services so can not switch to electronic bill paying if bills and payments can not be mailed. My guess would be these areas overlap significantly. Private package delivery companies are not required to deliver to every household in the US; the USPS is. I have no problem with eliminating Saturday delivery day, but as a former USPS employee, there are some logistical problems with ending Saturday delivery. Still those problems could be addressed and some savings realized.

Cant be that many rural areas. If it were up to individual states responsibilty then they can decide which communities need the daily mail. What about free post office boxes so every one in rural areas can get their mail there. Or even multiple boxes at the end of the road like they do in trailer parks or apartment complexes. Lots of money saved. And if they cant afford that, we can pay a small, and I MEAN small charge but maybe thats too much for our old folk on fixed incomes, I KNOW, let congress pay for it!

Boxes in non rural areas even and free boxes in the PO. Free because they would be saving all that money out on the routes

@Chronos

Unfortunately we’ve got a bunch of politicians now who are completely clueless about the Constitution.

Definitely true, and most collecting as much money for their pockets as well

@running_coach

I’d like to know who would take over the delivery of mail.
In 2014, the USPS moved 155 billion pieces of mail.
2012, Fedex and UPS combined, only moved 6.5 billion pieces.

How much of that 6.5 billion pieces of mail is junk and therefore placed in the trash bins as soon as they arrive and unread. Wanna talk about trees?

@Mr.Miskatonic

1. Not everyone can have their bills electronically delivered.
2. UPS and FEDEX have horrid pricing structures for home delivery of packages. Their pricing is Byzantine beyond compare. The thought of what they would charge for a letter is scary.
3. The Post Office actually runs pretty well, albeit a bit ad hoc
4. They have been losing money due to having to prepay retirements benefits. Painful now but once done they at least won’t be like other groups kicking the can down the road.
5. Many people and businesses depend on USPS 3rd class mail rates or package rates to ship things affordably.
6. It would be nice if they were more flexible managerially, but they get the job done.

1. Why is it more expensive to send packaging to Florida much less any other portion of the US? The stamped envelope item goes there with the same price as any other states plus letters take more than a week and sometimes about 5 days.

2. Who said the pricing would change that much? Their packaging prices are climbing all the time. Plus you have NO freaking idea whether or not they are shipping packages with the express or just that cheap one. Sure you can tell them to do the right thing like cheapest way but how do you know? I go to several different post office because of my travels and prices sure change a lot between them.

3. Here and there perhaps. Cutting hours and half days are a big pain in the ASS. Our rural post offices all have different lunch hours too so which one to choose. Is this one open in the AM or PM, is this one on which lunch hour?? Gotta be a better system either a take over or they need to get their heads out of their asses and figure better fixes

4. So congress are the only ones that deserve a great retirement package?

5. And that goes directly in the trash and there fore wasting trees again. (And I am not worried about trees at all except for the multi hundred old aged trees and the rain forests!)

6. Gets the job done? Uh yeah right, maybe in 50% of the time…or less.

@sevenwood

So I looked it up. According to Wikipedia, the price of USPS postage has only changed five times in the last five years.

Since when was Wiki the end all of truth?

@Dewey_Finn

More like once a year.

Sarcasm much? (I rarely catch it either but NotWhatyouExpect was employing this tool) or not.

@sevenwood

And with the new “forever” stamps, once you’ve purchased a stamp it’s good enough to mail a letter forever even when the stamp price increases

Yes I like this new forever stamps but how many can you buy to last for years of price increases?

@UncleRojelio

USPS delivers packages on Sunday now. Who pays for that?

People who want/request Sunday delivery

Ahh I’m tired of commenting…I do not like the current system, cant you tell?

[WildBlueYonder]

Oh and why do they need to make a profit??

[Lord_Feldon]

@WildBlueYonder

Yes I like this new forever stamps but how many can you buy to last for years of price increases?

How many people send so much mail that the possibility of the price increasing is something they have to carefully plan and save for?

Forever stamps are so that you don’t have to buy 1 cent stamps to go with the half a book of old stamps you still have. Hoarding them so you can save a whole dollar or two off of your future mailing expenses is not rational.

[Jophiel]

@Mr.Miskatonic

You can see this by sending a small package by UPS/FEDEX to a residential home in Bumfuck, Wyoming. The cost is almost prohibitive for the average person or small business. Thus the mandate to service the people of the United States equally is crucial.

And FedEx/UPS will just pass it off the USPS for the “last mile” anyway since it’s cheaper than driving a brown truck out into the sticks for one box.

[Mr.Miskatonic]

@WildBlueYonder

30 cents up one week, a penny down the next, then 40 cents up the next week, 2 cents down the next day and just in time for payday, a buck more, just wait, it’ll happen. Used to be the gas would go up a dime, then 20 cents, then 30 and then 40. Goes down so very slowly. Also with the corn fuel, used to be a buck cheaper, then slid down until 50 cents difference now. Started when gas prices started taking a dip…

I’ve been dealing with USPS price changes my entire life and they have never changed on a week to week basis.

1. Why is it more expensive to send packaging to Florida much less any other portion of the US? The stamped envelope item goes there with the same price as any other states plus letters take more than a week and sometimes about 5 days.

More expensive? Not in my experience. TRy shipping stuff to Hawaii or Alaska sometime, or just ship something coast to coast.

2. Who said the pricing would change that much? Their packaging prices are climbing all the time.

They do climb, but not all the time and not as fast or as recklessly as UPS/DFEDEX.

Plus you have NO freaking idea whether or not they are shipping packages with the express or just that cheap one.

Speak for yourself. When I ship items I know exactl what the deal is, and the times I have had to ship at the post office they tell me what I am getting and what my options are.

Sure you can tell them to do the right thing like cheapest way but how do you know? I go to several different post office because of my travels and prices sure change a lot between them.

The price differences would be prety minimal and not worth the gasoline burned dong price comparisons. The only time I see price differences is that the USPS’ web pricing is less than at the Post Office.

3. Here and there perhaps. Cutting hours and half days are a big pain in the ASS. Our rural post offices all have different lunch hours too so which one to choose. Is this one open in the AM or PM, is this one on which lunch hour?? Gotta be a better system either a take over or they need to get their heads out of their asses and figure better fixes

Like I said, they can be a bit ad hoc, but in my experience they get the job done and get it done pretty fast.

4. So congress are the only ones that deserve a great retirement package?

For the next 75 years?

5. And that goes directly in the trash and there fore wasting trees again. (And I am not worried about trees at all except for the multi hundred old aged trees and the rain forests!)

Yet many succesful businesses still depend on catalogs for their company. Not as many as in the past but they still need them. Just because you don’t like them doesn’t mean they aren’t supporting a business somewhere.

6. Gets the job done? Uh yeah right, maybe in 50% of the time…or less.

If you are losing 50% of your mail you have a serious issue. I expect that you are exagerrating minor issues.

[WildBlueYonder]

@Mr.Miskatonic

I’ve been dealing with USPS price changes my entire life and they have never changed on a week to week basis. .

I never said it was. I said gas prices were

@Mr.Miskatonic

More expensive? Not in my experience. TRy shipping stuff to Hawaii or Alaska sometime, or just ship something coast to coast. .

I’m not shipping there at all. I am talking the continental states. Not like I am stupid. I’ve worked shipping all of my adult life as well. In fact I even know where those two states are!

@Mr.Miskatonic

Speak for yourself. When I ship items I know exactl what the deal is, and the times I have had to ship at the post office they tell me what I am getting and what my options are. .

Nice to you they are. We live in Podunk USA

@Mr.Miskatonic

The price differences would be prety minimal and not worth the gasoline burned dong price comparisons. The only time I see price differences is that the USPS’ web pricing is less than at the Post Office. .

Could you use spell check so I can figure out what you are trying to say

@Mr.Miskatonic

For the next 75 years?.

Why not, aren’t the politicians set for eternity?

@Mr.Miskatonic

Yet many succesful businesses still depend on catalogs for their company. Not as many as in the past but they still need them. Just because you don’t like them doesn’t mean they aren’t supporting a business somewhere. .

Catalogs are not junk to me

@Mr.Miskatonic

If you are losing 50% of your mail you have a serious issue. I expect that you are exagerrating minor issues.

haha I fricken exaggerate on everything I complain about-when my check doesnt arrive when it should or my legal papers that I want to serve take 10 days to arrive which should only take 2 days tops, yeah, they have serious issues up and down the chain

@Lord_Feldon

Forever stamps are so that you don’t have to buy 1 cent stamps to go with the half a book of old stamps you still have.

Didn’t I read that earlier? I really am not stupid/ignorant, my posts might look that way, but yeah. Not.

[enipla]

@Lord_Feldon

The current USPS has no such obligation either. You often can’t send a letter to a residential home in Bumfuck. The closest it will be able to get is the free PO box the residents of that Zip Code get…in the closest town.

Yup. That would be me. I have a USPS box and a UPS box in town. It get’s kinda confusing since some shippers won’t tell you if it’s going UPS/FedX or USPS. And UPS/FedX usually won’t ship to a USPS box.

I send everything but regular mail to the UPS box. Works pretty well.

Oh, and we pay for the USPS box since we don’t reside in the zip code that the PO is in. That’s OK though.

[The_King_of_Soup]

Take it Federal, bring back postal banking, watch as the P.O. flourishes and the predatory payday loan industry dies horribly.