Postmaster General: Mail days may need to be cut

[DianaG]

And that’s a bummer, but the fact is that most people get very little important or meaningful snail mail these days. Such is life.

To me, no delivery on Saturday seems like a no-brainer. Businesses need weekday delivery, and residential customers can probably get by without their flyers and unsolicited credit card offers and Bed Bath and Beyond coupons for a day.

[Ferret_Herder]

@Atrael

Ok, I really don’t understand this. If you have less mail because more people are using email, then why don’t you…ohhh…I don’t know…cut back on your capacity in some way? I mean…is delivering mail harder now than it was in the 1950’s? Fewer pieces of mail means fewer sorters…or that the delivery person has to cover a larger area.

As I mentioned in my last post, they’re doing this - carriers are being cut and routes rearranged. The problem is that if you’re doing a delivery route, there’s only so much faster you can do a route due to less mail. You may be able to skip a house here and there, but you probably can’t skip a whole block - and even if an entire block has no mail that day, you’re still going to have to walk to the next block over for their mail. (They typically do a circuit of a block or so, returning to their truck between circuits to get the next ‘relay’ of mail, and move their truck to the next spot when they’ve delivered that general area.) Plus if you’re expected to pick up outgoing mail at houses, you still have to check them for that.

There’s also the problem that these workers get tired after a while out on the street. My husband and I hosted an Oktoberfest party at our place for his coworker friends and their families, and at one point they were comparing joint replacement surgeries that they’d had. I’ve already told my husband that when - not if - he needs his first joint (either knee or hip) replacement, I know where he should go. These aren’t elderly people; the ones with surgery are in their 40s and 50s. Now add longer routes.

And DianaG, I agree, most people don’t care too much about their mail, though package delivery, professional journals, magazines, and catalogs are absolutely huge parts of my husband’s residential mail load. Priority Mail is really cheap compared to UPS/FedEx, and some people still love paper magazines. Paper catalogs are still popular; a lot of people seem to like to page through them on the train/in the bathroom/wherever, and then head over to the computer to place their human-delivered order.

[Karyn]

Thanks for that explanation, Diana. Every government agency that I’ve worked for did it through attrition too, if only to avoid major union hassles.

I’d be fine if we only got snail mail once a week. What I really want is for them to stop contracting out rural deliveries to individuals that lose or steal our mail and give us real USPS workers again that do a good and consistent job at about the same time every day. If I get it at all, it’s between 5 and 9 at night and then it sits out by the deserted main road overnight.

[Dewey_Finn]

@dalej42

@Dewey_Finn

@dalej42

Just as Netflix is starting Saturday delivery, the USPS comes up with this stupid idea.

What do you mean starting? I’ve had Netflix for a few years and this is nothing new. The movies they send on Fridays arrive on Saturday (usually).

They are thinking of shipping on Saturday to arrive on Monday.

Story here.

Right now, Netflix only ships M-F. Any movies received on Friday/Saturday are shipped on Monday.

Oh, you meant shipping movies on Saturday, not delivering them on Saturday. That is new. And I would like to see them do it.

[Caffeine.addict]

@Atrael

Ok, I really don’t understand this. If you have less mail because more people are using email, then why don’t you…ohhh…I don’t know…cut back on your capacity in some way? I mean…is delivering mail harder now than it was in the 1950’s? Fewer pieces of mail means fewer sorters…or that the delivery person has to cover a larger area. I can maybe understand when the price of gas went through the roof having budget issues, but it’s come back down to reasonable levels. So how are they loosing so much money that they just can’t recover from without cutting days?

Additionally, since the 50s, the suburbs have really spread out. Whereas, if you have a lot of higher density buildings, with mailbox rooms or multiple post boxes in one place, now the mail carrier has to go from house to house which requires more people delivering less mail. It seems we have fewer items going to a larger geographic area.

[suranyi]

Geez, I must be the only person who LIKES my mail. I look forward to checking my mail every day after I come home from work. I still get plenty of mail that isn’t junk. Letters, cards, magazines, statements from lots of different financial accounts, etc. I even look forward to my bills!

And Netflix, of course.

Ed

[artemis]

I like my mail, too. And I can’t understand the enthusiasm for shutting down Saturday delivery; for a lot of working people, Saturday is the only day they can go to the Post Office without being late for work. (I’m assuming the Post Office buildings would be closed on the new non-delivery day, just like they are on Sundays right now.) Jeez, don’t any of you people ever need to go in to sign for a package, or put a vacation hold on your mail, or do other such business at the Post Office itself? No weekend hours at the Post Office would be a HUGE inconvenience to a lot of people.

[Atrael]

@Ferret_Herder

As I mentioned in my last post, they’re doing this - carriers are being cut and routes rearranged. The problem is that if you’re doing a delivery route, there’s only so much faster you can do a route due to less mail. You may be able to skip a house here and there, but you probably can’t skip a whole block - and even if an entire block has no mail that day, you’re still going to have to walk to the next block over for their mail. (They typically do a circuit of a block or so, returning to their truck between circuits to get the next ‘relay’ of mail, and move their truck to the next spot when they’ve delivered that general area.) Plus if you’re expected to pick up outgoing mail at houses, you still have to check them for that.

There’s also the problem that these workers get tired after a while out on the street. My husband and I hosted an Oktoberfest party at our place for his coworker friends and their families, and at one point they were comparing joint replacement surgeries that they’d had. I’ve already told my husband that when - not if - he needs his first joint (either knee or hip) replacement, I know where he should go. These aren’t elderly people; the ones with surgery are in their 40s and 50s. Now add longer routes.

And DianaG, I agree, most people don’t care too much about their mail, though package delivery, professional journals, magazines, and catalogs are absolutely huge parts of my husband’s residential mail load. Priority Mail is really cheap compared to UPS/FedEx, and some people still love paper magazines. Paper catalogs are still popular; a lot of people seem to like to page through them on the train/in the bathroom/wherever, and then head over to the computer to place their human-delivered order.

Thanks Ferret Herder, consider some of my ignorance fought. Added to Caffeine.addict’s post it’s a bit more clear on why they’re having issues. I guess I’ve just lived the past 10 years in locations that either have the community box setup or mailboxes down by the street. I haven’t seen a mailperson walking in probably 15 years.

[GingerOfTheNorth]

I never had home delivery as a kid, and the post didn’t move on Saturdays. When I was older, we got neighbourhood Super-Box delivery (centralized neighbourhood mailboxes where you had your own locking box) Monday-Friday. I’m still surprised, after living in the US for nearly six years, that there’s Saturday delivery.

[What_Exit]

I would go with Wednesday or Thursday. They have many Mondays off. I would rather avoid 3 straight days without mail. This is why I don’t think Tuesday makes sense. Or maybe just suspend Monday delivery completely and then they will have a two day weekend, just one day off and far less holidays stopping mail delivery.