Defeat the beast - 44 cents a whack.

[Pstmstr]

Good points. If it were privatized, it could be ran like a company and the units not making a profit would be closed. A letter going across town would cost less while one going across the US would cost more. If you moved, you could pay to have your mail forwarded instead of free for a year. The hard to get to places in the country would get mail once in a while instead of 6 days a week (5 soon). All things to be considered when one thinks privatization is the fix. The govt isn't delivering the mail......yet. I'm sure congress will find an answer...if they ever quit bickering back and forth on the deficit.

 

[Shadowrider]

pstmstr, I was going to point most of that out and congress is the real cause of their issues, but I've retired from beating my head against a wall.

 

[Pstmstr]

Congress is a large part but there are some genuine idiots in parts making some very poor decisions as well. If I were going to change it, here is what I'd do:
1. Abolish all unions, craft, Postmaster associations, the works.
2. Close all small post offices within 20 miles of each other and offer service in consolidated post offices, or other retail stores.
3. Eliminate 50% of worthless administrative jobs, especially those in area and headquarters offices.
4. Tell Congress to either put us on tax supported revenues and make us a govt organization or f--- off.
5. Monitor ALL employee performance. Fire the losers and promote the workers.

Oh and I'd like world peace while I'm at it. Also, how come no one ever complains about the hundreds of govt workers who hang out at Tinker doing basically nothing all day? Maybe USPS could use some of that cash being flushed down the rathole. Just sayin. Ok, I'm done.

 

[peanut]

2 things,
1, stop Saturday service altogether. Close the P.O. on Saturday.
2, charge the junk mailers .44cents(or current rate) for every piece of junk mail, NOT .04CENTS!

That should help even things out a bit, no?

 

[Pstmstr]

1 maybe
2 actually no, it's more than 04 cents but mailers prepare the mail so well now that it cost almost nothing to deliver to the house the carrier is going to anyway. First Class mail used to be the biggest percentage of revenue but email and online bill payment have reduced that so much that standard mail now does.

 

[reddog1]

The post office sucks, but i cant do business without them or FedEx, or UPS. It's just the way it is.

 

[SoonerStatePawn]

5. Monitor ALL employee performance. Fire the losers and promote the workers.

+1000 to this....

 

[Pstmstr]

You could, just cost you a lot more time and money.

 

[Pstmstr]

+1000 to this....

You would not believe all the time and money spent operating a daycare center for adults among some union and management personnel. My only hope is I see some of them in the same unemployment line together as I drive by to spend my retirement check on new guns and ammo.

 

[DPI]

2 actually no, it's more than 04 cents but mailers prepare the mail so well now that it cost almost nothing to deliver to the house the carrier is going to anyway. .

90% of what goes in my mailbox goes directly in the trash. If the carrier didn't have to put that spam in my mailbox or everyone else's, productivity would go up and errors would go down. So when you say the carrier was stopping anyway, that is incorrect and as time goes by with the availability of doing almost all mailing transactions online that becomes more so everyday.

The opportunity cost with spam mail is very expensive. But that is one way for congress to justify postal jobs. I would bet that 1/2 the residential delivered mail is spam.

Oh and my post office story, the last package I will ever mail was a couple weeks ago. My wife securely boxed 4 wrapped gifts and one unwrapped gift in one well package and securely taped box. She took it to the post office and had to wait 30 minutes in line for the 3 people ahead of her. She paid and the box was off. A week later the recipient calls and says the box was opened and only 4 items were in there. One was missing, and that was the $150 Spyderco I had purchased for my long time friend's Christmas gift. We had no recourse since insurance was not purchased.