U.S. POSTAL SERVICE PLAN: Delivering for you: 5 days a week

[babylonsister]

http://www.freep.com/article/20100302/NEWS07/3020328/1001/NEWS/Nation/world-news-briefs-Postal-service-to-deliver-5-days-a-week

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE PLAN: Delivering for you: 5 days a week


The U.S. Postal Service will move this month toward reducing mail delivery from six days a week to five, a change Postmaster General John Potter has said is critical to reducing the agency's massive debt.

Potter said Monday he'll submit a formal request by the end of this month to the Postal Regulatory Commission, which must issue an advisory opinion on any change in mail service that would have national impact.

Once Potter makes the request, the commission plans to hold public hearings around the nation and seek expert testimony. Even if the commission approves the dropped day, the Postal Service also needs congressional consent: Federal law requires six-day delivery.

Potter is to release the details today of a $4.8-million study that projects how steeply mail volume will fall and how deeply the Postal Service will be in debt by 2020. The Postal Service already has borrowed $10 billion from the U.S. Treasury. Potter said it expects to borrow another $3 billion this year, leaving it just $2 billion under the $15-billion cap set by Congress.

[Joanne98]

1. Thirteen billion isn't bad.

[Occulus]

50. New OIG Study Estimates USPS Has Been Overcharged for the CSRS Pension Fund by $75 Billion

A study just released by the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) shows that the current system of funding the Postal Service’s Civil Service Retirement System pension responsibility is inequitable and has resulted in the Postal Service overpaying $75 billion to the pension fund. The OIG estimates that if the overcharge was used to prepay the Postal Service’s health benefits fund, it would fully meet all of the Postal Service’s accrued retiree health care liabilities and eliminate the need for the required annual payments of more than $5 billion. Also, the health benefits fund could immediately start meeting its intended purpose -- paying the annual payment for current retirees, which was $2 billion in 2009.

The report further illustrates the inequity in the methodology used to determine the Postal Service’s contribution to the CSRS fund. Key findings from (PDF WARNING)the report:

If corrected, this will solve all of the financial problems plaguing the USPS, and then some. Call your Congressman and ask why this has not been corrected; USPS management is using this totally spurious financial "shortfall" as a reason to cut employees, close processing facilities, consolidate operations, and cut delivery days. In short, upper USPS management is acting like a bunch of Republicans. This can stop them, but only if Congress knows that we know.

Full disclosure: I am an employee in a USPS Processing and Distribution Center, and my facility was on the chopping block until just recently. We may still be, I don't know, but we're buying new equipment and moving a retail office into our building, so I think the danger is passed... for now.

[qanda]

2. I think five days a week is more than enough

[Barack_America]

25. That's how it's done in Ontario, Canada.

They seem to be surviving just fine.

[Number23]

52. Five day a week mail is what we have in Australia. It was hard to get used to at first

but then you adjust.

[Fire1]

76. I think I'd actually like it. Fine with me! n/t

[newfie11]

3. So does that mean the places in SD

that only get mail delivery 3 times a week now get cut to 2. Pony express might be an option :) :) :)

[wolfgangmo]

66. SDakotans don't read anyway

So it's no great loss. Just sayin'.

My wife is from SD - she had a clause put in the prenup saying that if I forced us to move to SD then it was grounds for a no-fault divorce.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x438686

[happyslug]

84. No Place in the US gets mail less then Five days a week

Even Supai Arizona, the most isolated town in the US gets mail five days a week. It goes by mule to this day, but they get mail five days a week.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supai,_Arizona
http://www.ceol.com/vvpo/history.html#MULE

[ThomWV]

4. Better Plan: Charge full postal rates for junk mail - then they go back to twice a day delivery

[happyslug]

8. What and hurt a profit center?

Junk mail makes money for the Postal Service and has for years. From a "Profit" point of view it is more profitable then first class WITHOUT any of the problems with first class (i.e. "Junk" mail if undeliverable is just tossed out, NOT returned to sender as is First Class Mail).

Sorry with more and more people paying their bills on line (And getting their bills on line) you will have less and less First Class Mail. The last big users of First Class Mail are bills, going to customers or being paid by Customers and over the past decade you have seen a massive move to E-mail for both. The next user of mail are Checks, but with Direct Deposit that is almost gone. Personal mail died out with the advent of relatively cheap long distance phone calls in the 1960s. The only thing that has increased over the last few decades has been junk mail AND most Junk mailers do not care what day you get the Junk mail as long as it is a week they want you to get it. For that reason I suspect the Postal Service will go to 3days a week service. A carrier will do one route Monday, Wednesday and Friday and another Route Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. That would be more productive then cutting Saturdays (for your information Carriers only work Five days a week, each carrier get Sunday Off and one other day of the Week. The day "floats" i.e. one week its Monday, the next Tuesday etc. A "floater" does the route on the day the regular carrier of off. Each "floater" covers five routes (And does the route when the Carrier is sick or on vacation). This permits almost instant back up on all routes. You can continue this practice by doing to delivery every other day, the "Floater" will have to back up ten routes instead of just Five but you would see a reduction of Six Carriers for every five routes, to the same six carriers for Ten Routes. Most people will NOT notice the difference given that most mail is NOT time oriented (i.e. if time was of the essential it be sent by Fax, E-mail or even Phone Call). \

Sorry, getting permission to do every other day delivery would be better then dropping Saturday for everyone. Most business centers would gladly give up Saturday Mail service, other then retail, almost all are closed on Saturday. On the other hand most businesses still get a good bit of mail through First Class Mail and will complain of lost of every other day service. On the other hand, most home owners would gladly go to service every other day, for most people only check their mail when their arrived home after work so a one or two day delay it getting the mail is no big deal.

A better solution would be to drop Saturday service in business areas (mostly older Downtowns) and go to every other day service in Residential areas. The Post Office did such a split when it dropped twice a day delivery starting in the late 1940s, most residence lost it by 1950, but some businesses had it till the 1990s (and some areas may still have it as far as I know, but mostly the older downtowns where a lot of offices are located).

[customerserviceguy]

9. If junk mail is such a winner for the USPS

then raise its price! I still can't believe that tens of thousands of junk mailers think some silly piece of shit paper stuffed in my mailbox is going to make me buy their overpriced, underperforming product or service.

Let the USPS cover its bills from their stupidity.

[Tailormyst]

16. Raising the prices would put many small businesses out of business

Our biggest weekly expense is postage. If it were raised to first class rates we would shut down, especially in these difficult times.

[Scout]

28. why do businesses insist on paying to send mail that just gets thrown away

after delivery? i can't think of anything i bought that i became aware of through just junk mail. hell, we have trash cans at the mailboxes, most of that crap doesn't even make it to the house.

eliminate that expense, and maybe you could charge less for your product :shrug:

[Tailormyst]

42. Obviously it doesn't all get thrown away

And obviously it is cost effective to continue mailing. Just because you throw it away doesn't mean that everyone does. And no, if we eliminated mailing we would be completely out of business, the cost of what we sell would not be effected.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

55. My wife told me that the redemption rate is only about 2%-4%

so 96%-98% of junk mail end up in the trash.

She is an account coordinator for a large advertising agency.

[Statistical]

37. What is the difference between bulk and 1st class rate?

I am sure it can be raised some and still be cheaper than 1st class.

As you said cost is lower (no return for undeliverable).

[Tailormyst]

41. here is how it breaks down for us

.357 cents per regular letter with return envelope included. Then for each one returned there is a cost of .74 cents.

First class rates are .42. The bulk rate also allows that we only pay return rates on those returned instead of a prepaid envelope of .42 cents each.

It might not seem like much of a difference but there is, especially for a small business. And frankly, these mailings are what keeps the Post office going and what lets you send a Christmas card for .42.

I would rather see them not deliver on Saturday, it makes more sense.

[Statistical]

43. There are lower rates.

At least your junk mail is addresses.

There are rates where bulk mailers simply put something in every single mailbox in a zipcode. The USPS truck will have a stack of flyers with no address on them and just puts one in each box.

The cost of that is something like $0.14. Your mail is being crushed and buried by the massive amount of bulkmailings.

Those are the ones I hate the most. Sometimes my mailbox is stuffed full of that crap. It isn't even addressed to me and there is no stamp, postmark, or cancellation on it. It simply is trash that goes in my mailbox.

Grrr.....

[Tailormyst]

44. But again still, that junk not only keeps your postage cheap, but:

It also keeps people employed. Just toss it or better yet, burn it for heat!

I would suggest to you that the mail is less inconvenient the telemarketers :)

[Statistical]

45. Sorry. I will support a do not mail registry.

All that printing, mailing (involves transportation by fossil fuels), throwing away does not help the environment.

Many businesses had to adapter after do-not-call registry. Businesses will need to adapt after a do-no-mail registry.

It isn't sustainable to send out thousands of mailings with the expectation that only a small % won't be thrown away.

[Tailormyst]

47. You are free to support whatever you wish

And I will continue to politely disagree. What you propose would dismantle the post office. It is not financially viable without bulk mailings.

[customerserviceguy]

75. For the few greeting cards I bother to send

I'd gladly pay a buck, I'm probably paying about a buck for the card in the first place, and there's often a $20 gift card in there as well (at least for my nephews) so a couple of bucks as a 'wrapper' isn't that big of a deal.

Anything that stems the flow of paper garbage in my mailbox would be a good thing. But I'd bet you're making enough from stupid people to continue sending out your flow of liquified forests even if they doubled the postage rates.

[customerserviceguy]

71. And what do you mail? Packages of product, or landfill fodder?

If it's the former, you have alternatives with FedEx and UPS, and if it's the latter, then I just don't give a damn. You should be discouraged from sending out litter.

[rufus dog]

88. I would be more than happy with mail three days a week

The US mail is similar to writing a check for me. Use them both less than five times per year.

[Tailormyst]

15. The junk mail is what keeps rates as low as they are

If you price small businesses out of mail order, you hurt not only them ( since they can't really call people anymore) but you take away good steady income for the postal service.

[anigbrowl]

58. I'm not so sure about this

I used to live in the Netherlands, where they bulk mail is optional - residents can put a sticker on their mail slot that says yes or no to to two kinds of bulk mail - commercial to named addressee, and commercial to 'household'. You don't want to receive it, you put a 'no - no' sticker and the post office updates their address database.

Delivery is subcontracted to a private company (TNT), but postal rates are still low. One key difference is that the Dutch post office, like many European ones, operates a limited kind of banking service (Girobank), and post offices also act as distribution centers for pension, unemployment and other benefits. Like you can apply for a passport at a US post office, European ones have the paperwork on hand for a lot of minor administrative stuff that you might otherwise have to go to city hall or DMV for. Maybe we should consider closing some customer-facing government offices whose main purpose is simply collect or issue standard paperwork and folding that functionality into the post office network instead.

[customerserviceguy]

73. And it can keep subsidizing the few old people

who insist on paying and receiving bills by snail mail.

If we boost the junk mail rates, it won't even stop half of the flood of dead-tree crap that fills my mailbox daily, and will let poor Granny and Gramps have the joy of receiving their utility bills on Saturday, since that seems to be important to them.

I'm perfectly fine getting my books and electronics toys Monday through Friday.

[Urban Prairie]

21. Bulk mailers have strong lobbys in DC.

USPS gives them huge discounts for the degree of presorting prior to pickup,such as carrier walk sequence, when the MOST that is necessary is to each 5 digit zip code.

[Statistical]

5. 5 days a week plus allowing me to opt out (under $5000 penalty) of bulk mail would be great.

I hate going to the mailbox and getting a pile of junk mail. Not just the junk mail sent to me specifically but the bulk, doesn't even have my name on it, we throw it into every mailbox, the same lame directv ads for the 48943490384903 day straight junk mail.

What a huge amount of wasted resources. If they need to raise price of stamp 10 cents to eliminate revenue from bulk mail I got no problem with that.

[blueamy66]

6. Sounds good

one less day of bills

And, like others have said, do something about all of that stupid junk mail.

[KittyWampus]

7. How about cutting salaries and bonuses of top executives? Controlling relocation costs for employees

[Cerridwen]

23. What relocation costs? n/t

[KittyWampus]

31. Postal Service to pay less for homes to relocate workers

Postal Service to pay less for homes to relocate workers

Investigation found Postal Service was buying homes for more than $1 million
USPS will set a limit of $800,000 for a home to relocate employee
Inspector general report says $73 million spent for relocation benefits last year
"In our view, some of the relocations ... were exorbitant," the report said

(CNN) -- The U.S. Postal Service will reduce the amount it pays for homes of employees who are relocating in the wake of a CNN investigation that found it was buying large homes for more than $1 million.

The new policy, which is expected to take effect June 14, will set a limit of $800,000 for a home. The limit is now $1 million, but before February there was no maximum.

In a statement to CNN, Postal Service spokesman Gerald J. McKiernan said, "It became apparent at the height of the real estate bubble that a number of relocations involved high value homes, thereby moving the Postal Service to reevaluate and change its policy."

A CNN investigation revealed in February that the Postal Service had no limit on the amount it would pay for a home of a relocating employee. It paid more than $1 million for 14 homes in the past five years. That included $1.2 million for an 8,400-square-foot, six bedroom lakefront home in Lake Wateree, South Carolina. The South Carolina home belonged to Ronald Hopson, the former postmaster in Lexington, South Carolina, and his wife, Evelyn. The property includes 5 acres, four bathrooms, two half-baths and an indoor swimming pool.

The CNN investigation prompted Sen. Chuck Grassley to request a review of the relocation policy by the USPS inspector general's office. That review, completed this month, found that "while Postal Service relocations are generally comparable to other federal and private sector companies, the benefits it provides to relocating employees are very costly to the Postal Service."

The inspector general's report found that the Postal Service spent $73 million for relocation benefits to more than 2,000 employees last year. "In our view, some of the relocations that occurred during this time period were exorbitant," the report states.

For example, the report cites a home in Indian River Shores, Florida, that was purchased by the Postal Service for $2.8 million in November 2007. The home was sold eight months later for $1.1 million, a $1.7 million loss.

snip

[Cerridwen]

33. Thanks! I doubt this is being done for the rank and file, regardless of

the fact the article says "employees" and "workers" to give such impression. It's also talking about 0.003048780487804878048780487804878 percent of the 656,000 "employees" and "workers" of the USPS.

McKiernan said the Postal Service relocation policy "is to enable highly qualified employees to relocate as quickly as possible to where they may provide the best use of their skills in support of the organization's goals."

He said in the statement to CNN that the Postal Service has purchased 2,646 homes in the past five years as part of the relocation assistance program. All have been resold.

Weird. Was it 2000 last year and the remaining 646 over 5 years or what is actually 2646 over 5 years?

Looks like another smear job to me. The upper management and well connected are getting great deals on relocation costs and the article is written to make it appear that your letter carrier is living in a mansion. *sigh*

eta link I used: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/05/postal.service.relocation/index.html

[wolfgangmo]

67. While I agree with the basic idea.

I mean who needs a huge house for an employee. They could certainly afford to cut the costs.

But honestly this is gotcha yellow dog journalism. It has nothing to do with real savings. 14 houses over 5 years. That's peanuts.

[anigbrowl]

56. How much do you think that amounts to, in dollar terms?

[customerserviceguy]

10. Just part of the death spiral of snail mail

The only thing I use it for is getting stuff from eBay, and that's only for the shippers that don't use FedEx or UPS. Once we get the transporter beam perfected, then I won't need it at all!

[Blues Heron]

11. This is really going to mess up Netflix

You'll have to send your movies in by wed. to get new ones by the weekend. I think they should go the other way, add sunday delivery!

[Jokerman]

14. That's the only real downside I see.

90% or more of the stuff I get through the post office is junk. Netflix is one of the only things left that makes snail mail useful. As internet speeds improve and movie downloads get better, even that will go away.

[Toasterlad]

49. I Hope Your Right. Currently, the Streaming Selection on Netflix Is Pretty Shitty

You'd think that they'd be happy to eliminate mailing charges, not to mention all the fucking DVDs they have to buy. There must be something cost effective about shipping out DVDs; otherwise, they'd have more choices available for streaming.

[customerserviceguy]

77. Go to Redbox

and get a movie for dirt cheap without waiting. You're less likely to get one that's scratched up by some kid tossing it like a Frisbee to the dog, since you have to be an adult with a drivers' license to make it to the Redbox location (in most cases).

[mac56]

12. Sell advertising on postage stamps.

They'd be solvent in a week.

[Statistical]

38. Good idea. n/t

[gvstn]

13. A dropped day sounds ok to me.

I haven't received a first-class piece of mail on Tuesday in years.

That day seems reserved for leftover postcard advertising in my town. Half the time I get nothing at all on Tuesday.

I can definitely wait for those pieces until Thursday the other junkmail day.

[pipi_k]

17. Five days wouldn't work for me because

of where I live. We don't just get mail delivered, we also get full rural post office services, including the convenience of having the mail picked up (while she's on her rounds anyway) as opposed to having to schlep down to the post office in town...a ten mile round trip over dirt roads, etc. just to mail a package or something else that has to go out immediately.

So that's a big problem.


Besides which...I like walking out to the mailbox six days a week and getting all the catalogs and stuff. It's like Christmas every day. How easily we country folk are amused...

:7

[customerserviceguy]

78. When you folks get broadband Internet

you won't be so easily fascinated.

[pipi_k]

85. We do have DSL here...

But I still prefer looking at printed matter over reading it on the computer...even if it's catalogs.

There's this whole ambiance with paper that just isn't there with the internet...

:)

[customerserviceguy]

86. Call me blase

but I get sick of the pile of crap that I find in the mailbox every day.

On the other hand, if there's a Draft magazine, a Beer Advocate magazine, or a Wine Spectator magazine in there, then I'll admit to being happy about the mail!

[cbdo2007]

18. Geez - I would be fine if they moved regular mail down to once a week.

It's mostly advertisements that I throw out anyways. All my bills and everything I do online.

Here's an idea:

Why don't they let those of us who want to, Opt-Out of mail except for once every two weeks. So they'll deliver all of my saved up mail on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month. The rest of the time they could probably skip 50% of the people as I'm sure quite a few people would sign up for it.

What y'all think?

[Urban Prairie]

20. How about a little pity for the carriers?

They would have to carry all of that heavy junk mail, and where does the USPS store your and every one else's backed up mail??

Besides the Direct Mailers Association has a strong lobby in DC, they would never accept that.

[happyslug]

22. Actually, just have Congress change the law to require at least one day a week delivery

With that change the Postal Service could adjust its delivery schedule so that it can cut out Saturday Service NOT needed in certain Business centers (Most such offices are closed on Saturday) while going to a three day delivery in residential neighborhoods (See my previous post above to see why). I do NOT see the Postal Service doing either right off the bat, but slowly phasing it in over the next 20 years (As the Old Post Office did when it dropped two delivery a day postal service in urban area right after WWII).

[Urban Prairie]

26. Except for Thanksgiving through Christmas Day (residential) n/t

[happyslug]

35. Oh, I agree, just once between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas so be enough

Through I would make it till after New Years Day, for Tax Season only starts after the first of the Year.
As to retailers, what retailers ordered had been ordered before November (If not before August) thus no need for mail service till tax season. As to Residential customers, just remind people to send their Christmas Card before Thanksgiving and the Post Office would delivery on the one day of delivery between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yes, your improvement makes sense, and cost effective given the increase load during that time period and the harshness of the weather during that time period.

[Occulus]

51. Can't be done

We're not a warehouse. Sorry. We just do not have room for mail to be piling up like that. Even a single day delay will make overall delivery suffer.

Really. I work in a Processing and Distribution Center; we're the ones that run the sorting machines and actually get the mail out the door. Every single P&DC would have to be expanded to accommodate the mail that's just sitting there (and trust me, we already have enough of that for the next delivery day!). There just isn't room in the brick-and-mortar building for the extra mail.

I think you'd have to actually visit a P&DC and request a tour to really get a handle on why this isn't feasible. We go through a truly amazing amount of mail every minute. If I didn't work there myself, I'd be totally clueless as to how it gets done.

Let's follow a single letter- say, a birthday card- through my building.

The card comes in to the loading dock from the local office (for my purposes, I'm assuming a local overnight delivery) in a large, orange plastic tub full of other local collections. This tub gets dumped into a big, purple machine we call Barney. The card travels through a series of hoppers that "fluff" the mail to make certain as few stick together as possible (due to poorly-sealed envelopes, self-adhesive address labels that partially come off, etc.).

Once the mail has been separated, it goes into an Automated Facer/Canceler/Sorter (AFCS). The AFCS uses (very sophisticated) optical character recognition software to literally read the handwriting on the card. If the image taken by the camera in the AFCS is resolved by the software (this is why you should always use block lettering on your hand-addressed envelopes), a barcode is sprayed at the bottom and the card is sent on for further processing. If the software cannot resolve your handwriting, a two-bit image of the front of the envelope is sent to a Remote Encoding Center (REC site), where employees manually enter the information in code. The resulting information is then sent back to the originating P&DC, where yet another machine on yet another operation uses that information to spray the barcode.

The barcode is necessary for fast delivery, because later on, the envelope goes through a two-pass operation, in which it is eventually placed into the walk sequence the carriers use on their routes. Assuming all goes well, you birthday card will go through probably five or six different machines, all on different operations, before it finally gets into the carrier's truck.

And that's one letter going through one sequence of processes, and there are multiple process sequences letters go through depending on what type of mail it is. The machines that process the mail are capable of running upwards of 40,000 pieces per hour, and we have seventeen of those machines in our facility, all of which are in operation during the two-pass process, which occurs from around 10PM to after 2AM in my facility.

And the facility in which I work is one of the smallest in the country. That's one hell of a lot of mail being processed each night. We simply cannot hold out much.

Now, what I would like to see is a set standard for "Standard Mail" (used to be called "third class"). Lots of that is chunky, bulky mail that doesn't process quickly or well, jams the machines, falls off the feed belt onto the floor, and causes no end of headaches for us. I'd like to see Paralyzed Veterans for America and their ilk be forbidden from mailing nickels in their solicitations, for example. I'd like to see tighter controls on ink color, paper type, use of plastic address windows, and tighter restrictions on weight and size.

Those are the issues that cost us (LOTS OF!!) time, and for us, time is quite literally money.

[happyslug]

53. That is why I mentioned it would take 20 years....

As my father observed as a Letter Carrier from the 1940s till the 1980s, second delivery of mail was still the norm in the late 1940s even for residential addresses in urban areas (Rural areas NEVER had two deliveries a day, just urban areas). Starting in the late 1940s the second delivery per day of mail was slowly eliminated in most residential areas for more and more people had no use to getting mail twice a day (The big change was in residential urban areas then a much longer time to convert business areas). Do to this slow conversion most business areas still had twice a day delivery as late as the 1980s (and to my knowledge some business areas may still have it). It took almost 40 years to phase out the second delivery per day of mail, it will take 20 years for the Postal Service to phase out daily delivery. Some areas can do it now, for they have the space, others places like your may NOT be able do to lack of space. It will be a slow conversion. Rapid in some areas where it can be done today, longer in others where new facilities will have to be built, but the first step in getting Congress to end the requirement of six days a week delivery and that is all I suggested. The every other day delivery is something the Postal Service can work they way up to, but you need to change the underlying statute first THEN start the change.

[anigbrowl]

57. +1 for some great factual data.

You have some great ideas about standardizing things like address labels etc. It's impossible to make every private letter compliant with that but such requirements can certainly be targeted at bulk mailers like businesses and nonprofits, whose communications are effectively subsidized by the taxpayer. Times are changing (I don't need paper or a stamp to post this on DU or email it) and the best way to preserve the postal service is to give it the freedom to modernize properly. Just because it's a national institution does not mean it has to stay the same way forever. Overall I think the USPS is doing a good job here, and moving to a 5 day week may be an idea whose time has come.

[Occulus]

65. The mailing standards are a *big* issue for me.

I run the machines that actually process the letter mail, and you would not believe some of the crap that goes through them. Haband! and Paralyzed Veterans for America are some of the worst offenders, but Publisher's ClearingHouse is pretty bad too, and don't even get me started on credit card offers that put the card on the wrong side. Church offering envelopes are often pretty bad, too.

The machines use a paddle/conveyor system to push the mail into the feed area of the machine. If there is anything bulky in the envelope, the mail has a bad habit of squirting out all over the floor.

The thing is, even moving to a five-day delivery schedule would impact operations during the week. We only have a set amount of time to get the mail on the trucks, and that time period is in its own turn set by- and this is a serious problem- the airline industry. We have to get the mail on the planes according to their schedule, because we don't own a fleet of airliners dedicated to mail and mail alone. That dictates, in large part, our operational schedule and our dispatch times.

Were we to move to five-day delivery nationwide, we would have to process more mail per hour than we currently do in order to meet our dispatch times, again, because some mail has to make the plane. The airline industry most assuredly is not going to alter its departure/arrival schedule for the USPS; it either gets on the plane, or the mail gets delayed. Because there is so little leeway, even missing a single flight means that the mail can be delayed by a day or more as it is.

Trust me- 5-day delivery would cause more problems than it would fix.

[anigbrowl]

68. Interesting - I'll keep that in mind.

Good to get an insider's perspective on the logistical challenges.

[customerserviceguy]

79. Yes, thanks for the insider's eye-view

And I agree that standards need to be set for bulk mail. Even the IRS has required magnetic media for firms that file large amounts of tax-related data.

It's time to recognize that the USPS is pretty much the delivery boy for the junk mailers of the country, and have them pay 120% of the costs of hauling that garbage around. I add the 20% to pay for the old folks who stubbornly insist on using snail mail to pay and receive bills. The forest rapers can subsidize the fogies, as far as I'm concerned.

[cbdo2007]

24. Well the details would have to be worked out..... :)

Just brainstorming here, but it does seem like MORE could be done to lessen the amount of mail delivery out there. The USPS just needs to adapt better to the changing times. Maybe just deliver mail to people every other day? That would cut the delivery schedule in half!

[customerserviceguy]

87. They'd still be stuck with warehousing the stuff

Why not double the junk mail rates, and let the advertisers figure out who to cut off the mailing list?

[HopeHoops]

19. I can do without mail on Saturday. There's NO better deal than the USPS.

There's no way anyone else can touch $.43 to send a letter from any address to any address in the US, picked up and delivered door-to-door. As for packages, Priority Mail is almost always less expensive than any other option. I check the mail on Saturday, but it wouldn't hurt me to wait until Monday. There aren't many pressing issues you can do anything about until Monday anyway.

[Maru Kitteh]

27. OMG!

OK. I'll have to admit it. I'm not actually outraged.

[Urban Prairie]

29. LOL!! n/t

[Urban Prairie]

30. So no failsafes needed in the US of A huh?!?

The USPS is the last physical means of communication. So lets turn it into a mere shell of its former self, so that we rely almost entirely upon electronic means only. After all, nothing will ever shut off our power grid, fry our satellites, or disrupt the internet..lol!!

[Statistical]

46. How is reduced deliveries losing all failsafes.

Hell if something that apocalyptic happens I would be happen for once a week mail.

[customerserviceguy]

80. Did you forget UPS and FedEx?

They're still operating in the physical world, the last time I checked.

[Nye Bevan]

32. Good. Snail mail is mostly a pain in the ass.

One fewer day to sort through all of the junk mail sounds good to me.

[ParkieDem]

34. They should keep Saturday delivery,

but make you pay extra for it. This is what FedEx and UPS do; it would allow the Postal Service to reduce costs but maintain some level of competition.

[bikebloke]

36. Been happening with our building already.

Our postal carriers skip our building at least one day a week. Then they tried shortening the route by saying they didn't like the locks on the mailboxes. Our mail wasn't safe. As soon as everyone replaced the locks, they just dumped the held back mail in a pile on the floor. A bunch of skivers.

[flvegan]

39. I blame the horsepower and luxury-heavy postal delivery Jeep/trucks.

This summer, my postal carrier had a FAN running on the inside of his! Why should I pay for such extraordinary luxuries???!!1

[Urban Prairie]

40. UPS dark brown delivery /collection vehicles

What brain-dead moran thought of that color scheme instead of beige box color?

Those vehicles are like ovens on wheels in the summertime, I feel bad for the sweat-soaked drivers who have to load and unload them.

[happyslug]

54. Hay, the trucks are NOW Automatics, in the 1970s they were all Standard Transmissions

I do NOT know when the conversion occurred but when I work for UPS in the 1970s all the trucks were Standard Transmissions. When I look at the truck used by my local UPS Driver recently it was an automatic. Why the conversion? To lazy to train people to driver Standards? Even the US Army has converted to Automatics for the simple reason the Army did NOT want to train people to drive Standards (Automatics have worse fuel economy, require a larger engine but most young American Drivers have driven nothing else).

[Toasterlad]

48. What About My Netflix Subscription???

Seriously, I'm okay with switching to five days, as long as the days off aren't sequential. Make the day off Wednesday.

[Romulox]

60. Netflix will be streaming only some day soon. Mark my words! nt

[Toasterlad]

61. The Only Problem With That Is There's No Access To Special Features

Sometimes I want the subtitles on for a movie with thick accents, like, say, Trainspotting. Can't do that with streaming. Not to mention all the deleted scenes, blooper reels, behind the scenes, and commentary tracks that make DVDs so wonderful.

I certainly hope Netflix plans to address that and improve their interface before they switch to an all-streaming format.

[Romulox]

62. You make an excellent point. I think they will eventually provide all of that, too.

But postage has GOT to be a huge expense for Netflix.

[Romulox]

59. Fine by me. My mailbox is essentially a garbage pail for junk mail as it is...nt

[DailyGrind51]

63. I hate getting incorrect bills or other bogus statements on Saturday anyway,

because you usually can't do anything about them until Monday and you are pissed for the balance of the weekend.

[southernyankeebelle]

64. I can remember when we got mail 2 a day when I was little. If this

is going to help the post office then am all for it.

[happyslug]

83. Technically that ended for Residential mail in 1950

But my father was still doing it in the 1980s in the Downtown Pittsburgh. Twice a day mail service was kept for business districts long after it was phased out for Residential usage.

[PATRICK]

69. As a postal employee

The end of the road of all of this, including breaking the USPS by giving huge rate breaks and discounts to bulk mailers that completely ruin the idea that bulk mail subsidizes the service:

The GOP appointed Postmaster General and the Board of Governors is systematically, by incompetence or sweetheart business deals that totally miss the point of service, is driving toward complete privatization(and profitization) of the mail as has occurred in other countries. I guess you can get used to anything, but in the deep dark past people valued the service, their local post offices so much that politically it was not viable even in GOP administrations to shut down Podunk P.O. Branch which would raise holy hell in some representative's district.

The trouble here is that as usual the mailbox system for this story is from the devil's mouth to the media. The NPR simpleminded story could have been written by Potter and the board and in effect was, without knowledge analysis or other voices as per MSM usual. I can't do better than the www.apwu.org website in refuting this typical bs from failed management.

Budget killing bulk mail discounts, raising first class rates, closing localities, killing service standards and whole services, making in essence the typical distribution center into a model of the bulk mailing industry(surprise), phony books, lies. It all conveniently matches the needs of corporate bulk mailers whom I am sure are waiting at the end of the trough for the whole "business" to spill into their laps and you can get damned used to doing without the whole concept of service, pal. And it these welfare discount queens who you be paying directly instead of subsidizing them in reverse fiscal sense through your rising in cost stamps.

Most of the constant, regular and perpetual misinformation crap spoon fed into and from the MSM is not geared to anyone's benefit except the corporate bottom line and banal innocence of needful facts.

[hobbit709]

70. When Ben Franklin was postmaster, it was delivered 7 days a week.

[Thothmes]

81. was up to some time in the late 1950s.

[happyslug]

82. Daily delivery of mail only started during the Civil War and in Urban areas only.

Rural areas did NOT get daily delivery till AFTER the rural areas had some sort of "Improve Roads" starting in 1896 (And most rural Areas did NOT have such service till the Great Depression and its Public Road Projects). Please note most Americans lived in RURAL areas before the 1920 Census, thus when daily delivery was first introduced in urban areas it was for a minority of Americans NOT the majority.

The concept of seven days a week mail service during pre-Civil War days is based on the fact that mail was delivered whenever the mail arrived by whatever ship, stagecoach etc delivered it (and then only to the Post Office, you went to the Post Office to pick up your mail prior to the Civil war). Thus it was possible to get mail on Sunday, if the ship that carried the mail arrived that day and you went to the Post Office and it was open do to receiving the mail.

Also prior to the Civil War (but the change started in 1837 in Britain) when a letter arrived for you, you had to PAY FOR IT. Britain invented the concept of the Postage stamp in 1837 and reformed its mail system at that time, postage was paid via a stamp when it was dropped off at the Post Office NOT when it was picked up. The US followed suit as to stamps in 1847, but only required such stamps only starting in 1855. Most of the World followed the British Postal Reform about the same time.

The US Post Office first issued a stamp in 1847, but no basic reform of the US Postal System took place till the Civil War.

US Post Office sight on its History:
http://www.usps.com/postalhistory/stampsandpostcards.htm?from=PostalHistory&page=Center_StampsandPostcards

Important Date in Post Office history:
1775 - Benjamin Franklin appointed first Postmaster General by the Continental Congress
1847 - U.S. postage stamps issued
1855 - Prepayment of postage required
1860 - Pony Express began and ends
1863 - Free city delivery began
1873 - U.S. postal cards issued
1874 - General Postal Union (now Universal Postal Union) established
1893 - First commemorative stamps issued
1896 - Rural free delivery began
1913 - Parcel Post® began
1918 - Scheduled airmail service began
1950 - Residential deliveries reduced to one a day

For more dates see:
http://www.usps.com/postalhistory/significantdates.htm?from=PostalHistory&page=Center_SignificantDates

More on Home Delivery:
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blmailus2d.htm#CITY

The Postal Service even still uses Mules to Delivery mail:
http://www.ceol.com/vvpo/history.html#MULE

[katty]

72. fine with me-most of my mail i don't want

[earth mom]

74. This plan would save a ton of money but the powers that be don't want to let it happen

because the plan is to make the Postal Service look as bad as possible so that it can be privatized and sold off to UPS and Fedex. :puke:

[PATRICK]

89. An easy winner

and judging by the WH approach to teachers we have no friends there.