I would finally have to agree to electronic bill paying... I would lose a source of fire starting paper.

 

"They" are not going to let it fail.

The liberal PO unions are fighting it out with the conservative government. Trying to scare everyone so you make phone calls/email, put pressure to cave to unions.

I have worked at a PO facility for quite some time. When I started it was not uncommon for some employees to clock in and spend 5 hours in the cafeteria playing dominoes. They have eliminated a lot of that but a LOT of pork in the program.

 

The Post Office isn't going to collapse. It may be restructured and the unions throttled (a good thing) but it's not going anywhere.

The PO in my AO work their tails off. No sitting around playing dominoes. 90% of all the local Amazon shipments come through it. Other local post offices may be way different, but I like mine. I even gave them all a Christmas gift last year.

 

If the post office stopped delivering mail, I wouldn't have to throw out a stack of junk mail on Thursdays.

I bank electronically
I pay bills electronically
I shop electronically
I communicate with friends electronically.
I get deliveries of stuff that isn't mail by UPS or FedEx.

Without exaggerating, if the post office shut down tomorrow, I probably wouldn't even notice for a month or more.

 

If the post office “failed “ It would only get amazon and junk mailers. It would be good for other people , you know tax payers.

Really it would be a hassle for a few months since I order a lot from amazon. I’d still get my deliveries , just slower.

It would hurt the gun industry. Since some shippers don’t ship guns. .

 

..Since some shippers don’t ship guns. .

True, but.. That could Also present a niche Opportunity for an entity a) 'non-triggered' by them b) with the bux, interstate-regs savvy, and logistics.. Could be a real windfall for someone who could ramp-up quick enough..

.02
jd

 

We’d all have to buy a lot of copy paper, printer ink etc. to print out all the contracts receipts etc. that we usually get by mail.

 

I noticed recently that the substitute gets to my house
earlier in the day than the regular carrier.
That could mean -
- she walks faster (actually true!)
- starting with a smaller load
- doing the route in a different order

 

We've been having an alternate person do the route by my house a few days a week now. Very much worse than the regular.

Many times packages are scanned as "delivered" around 2pm. Sometimes they are delivered later that day, sometimes they are not delivered until the next day or the day after. That's frustrating.

When I get packages too large for the mailbox, they've always brought them up to the porch (I have a half circle driveway so they can drive right up and then right back out to the road, no backing up or anything). Last week the alternate left them right by the mailbox pole, right on the road. Luckily I got home before someone stole them or it rained.

 

The Postal Service is not going away anytime soon. Lagnar is on track about a restructuring. But it is not going away.

 

It should go away. It’s a complete boondoggle, it’s not competitive, and we have other better sources for the services provided.

 

It actually is competitive. And, in a number of cases, no, you don't. I know of routes that UPS, FedEx, Amazon, and even my own employer don't go. But the USPS still does.

 

You, are thinking only "I". There is no "I" in "team". There are, however, I's in "Second Great Depression", "Revolution", "Riot", and "Dictatorship". Expand your thoughts beyond your own very narrow boundaries and consider how much of the US economy is still dependent on the mail. Packages, bill payments, stimulus checks, the billion and one requests from political parties, charities, the NRA for money... Ballots, magazines, bills, correspondence, insurance solicitations... All for the price of a stamp. Take that away and the US economy tanks way worse than when things shut down for Corona. People get furious. People lose faith in government. People listen to demagogues telling them they can fix this if given absolute power. People wind up with the full weight of a dictatorship on the backs of their necks.

If that's what you want...

 

Thank you Moccasin. Your list of dependencies is what I was trying to evoke.

 

The PO will not collapse unless the country does.

 

There are plans within FEMA to continue postal deliveries. So.. the nation can fail just keep an eye out for Kevin Costner to show up

 

I would wonder why instead of delivering to every address every day, why not do every other day? At least for rural addresses.

I'm rural, and it sure seems like a lot of wasted gas for the mailman to put a piece of junk mail in my mailbox.

 

2 or 3X a week is okay for me, unless something is urgent, which 90% of the time it is not. But the load per house would be larger. They would have to do something about junk mail first.

The big question is, who right who does closing the post office system benefit? Why is Pelosi and company rushing back to Washington to keep it going? Hint, hint... mail in voting.

 

The government would be in trouble without the post office.

How would they collect taxes from 1/4 of people.

Send out jury duty notices.

Fines for speeding.

100 other billing things.

Before you say internet I argue. Every single person would need access to it and everyone needs to know how to use it. A fair amount of people over 55 have no idea how to use a computer. I suppose in 30 years the government could issue everyone a federal email address in substitute of mail.


My business would be screwed. I would need to reprice my inventory if no one replaces USPS service of shipping 4 ounce item for 3 dollars. Or change the items I sell or make people buy X amount of dollars before agreeing to make a sale.


I dont see the post office going away. A lot of people actually like the post office. Probably one of the top 5 government programs/services. Still not great but nothing the government has ever ran has been great.

 

I agree. A functioning national government needs a reliable mail system, period. however, the government needs to decide to either let the post office operate totally independent or make it a clear government entity. this blend is destructive and hampers the post office's operations.

The post office wont make money and it shouldn't be expected too. It provides a needed service. The fact I can send a letter from Maine to California in 3-4 days for 55 CENTS is absolutely amazing.

Now, I do think there are cost cutting measures they could and should implement

1. closing down small post offices and distribution centers that are in low volume areas

2. Residential mail limited to Mon, Wed, Fri

3. Business mail limited to Mon-Friday

I am sure there are literally hundreds of other ways they could save money. for years I had a PO box for my home, as with my job I travelled often, sometimes gone for a week plus at a time.

everytime i would go pick up my mail my box would be full. the postmaster would tell me i had to get a bigger box or pick up more mail. I asked him what the point of picking it up every day was, if I wanted that I would just have them deliver. he didn't care, they couldn't "hold" the mail in the back.

so i got a private box, they can hold the mail. they don't mail much on PO boxes, however, it is an investment that just sits there. in my town it looks like 30-40% of them are empty. that's just money lost. civil servants seldom care

 

I ordered three 5 gallon gas cans and one packet of catnip seeds from Amazon. The envelope of catnip seeds was delivered by UPS. The three 5 gallon gas cans were delivered by USPS on the same day. Go figure?????

 

Closing the post office would be good for the environment. I only get junk mail and lots of it.

 

USPS is required, by law, to deliver 3rd class bulk and junk mail at below market rates. They are forced to deliver that stuff at a loss of revenue due to lobbying in congress.

They're also forced by law to give Chinese companies a lower shipping rate than domestic their customers. So a package shipped from China costs less than the same package shipped from Boston to St Paul.

 

Is the backlog at the post offices the reason why the IRS didn't get my payment I sent 2 months ago? They never cashed the check (yet) and I got a letter telling me to pay, with interest and penalty, by September 7th. Do I trust the post office to deliver the second attempt?

 

The USPS reported a net loss of 3.8 billion dollars last year, making it the most profitable branch of U.S. Government.

 

I actually thought it was 8 BILLION in 2019....

 

One thing that could help would be to close redundant post offices. I live in a rural area and there are two 4 miles apart. Together they serve less than 1,000 customers. The second is more of an extension of the other. They only have PO boxes and a counter. Any mail sent from there is trucked to the other one for delivery. Any mail that should be delivered by it is actually delivered by the other one. There is always 3 staff members on site.

The reason given for keeping it open is that many of the people don't get mail delivered to their house so need the PO boxes. That feels like the "not everyone has ID" argument. BS in other words. Even if true, driving 4 miles further isn't going to be a hardship for anyone. The closest store is 20 miles anyway and the main office is along the way. It's certainly not just to keep old employees on until retirement - 2 employees are in their 20s and it's the easiest, relatively high paying job. They could save rent, salaries and utilities which wouldn't make a dent in the $3.8B but I'm sure this is repeated all over the place.

One alternative would be to completely privatize it like many countries in Europe have done. I don't have any knowledge of the outcomes they have had so don't know if it has ended up being better or not. Plus it would take an amendment to accomplish it and I don't really see enough people agreeing to it.

 

One thing that could help would be to close redundant post offices. I live in a rural area and there are two 4 miles apart. Together they serve less than 1,000 customers. The second is more of an extension of the other. They only have PO boxes and a counter. Any mail sent from there is trucked to the other one for delivery. Any mail that should be delivered by it is actually delivered by the other one. There is always 3 staff members on site.

The reason given for keeping it open is that many of the people don't get mail delivered to their house so need the PO boxes.

I suggest you get a street map of your town or city, and mark the two post offices on it, and then overlay the home addresses of every civil servant who lives in the area, and every business that depends on mail. The one time I did it, the results were very revealing.

 

None. UPS would just take over.

 

I heard that the PO has gotten rid of 676 mail "sorting" machines, and of course it is being blamed on Trump who is suspicious of mailed-in ballots for Nov General Election.

I dunno but it seems like a lot of things are being cut back, streamlined, consolidated, or even canceled altogether. 676 mail sorting machines in a country with 50 states and who knows how many mail soring machines, seems about the same as the reduction in McD's drive thru menu!

 

we will not be getting any more junk mail.

 

Probably 80% of my mail is garbage. The only things I get in the mail that are relevant are my utility bills, credit card bill, and mortgage, and once every six months my car insurance bill. Everything else is garbage.

I wish the post office allowed you an option of declining junk mail.

 

A big part of the PO's problems are the massive discounts given to junk mailers. Another hidden subsidy given to big business. If business had to pay the actual cost of delivery we would get a lot less junk mail.

 

The biggest problem is texting is instantaneous globally, as is emailing and social media. The money is in pkg delivery from online purchases.

 

Demise of the USPS will have a profound impact on the elderly, more than young people who seem to manage everything "on line". Where it affects me is medicine, and some purchases like ammo through the mail.

But lets not forget that the USPS has been propped up for a long time, and losing business to UPS, FedX, and others. One problem has been it's now a political football.

It was opined on the morning show (radio) that perhaps we need to go back to a system where you pick up your mail from the Post Office, or pay a fee to have it rural delivered. I know that won't work for a lot of people, but like AMTRAK, the USPS has flaws in it's operations.

 

We often have threads here talking about saving American jobs and a cashless society and now I see the same people wanting to throw out the postal service, which would not only do away with MILLIONS of jobs, not just at the post office, but the people who process utility payments and so on.
SS, disability, IRS refunds, stimulus checks will be sent electronically to banks, bypassing even more workers and marching towards that cashless society you *say* you don't want.

 

Not to mention all of the partnerships that have been put in place to move mail on behalf of the USPS. FedEx, UPS, DHL, Kalitta, and all of the commercial airlines move mail for the USPS. The commercial airlines are required to. The routes are lucrative. None of them want to become postal delivery businesses.

For those of you who don't know; my current BU works very very very closely with the USPS as well as their counterparts around the world. I know this business very well.

 

Regional people and potentially the old and the poor suffer.

You can make money delivering post. You just can't and make it the sort of service that caters to everyone.

So a private company could do it. But they would go where there is enough money in it.

Or you just get your letters once a week or once a month.