Did you know a first class stamp, as of TODAY, is 44 cents?
Those of us with the Forever Stamps (yes, it's the one illustrated here) can use those until you're out of them.
Here's my question: Would you rather they keep raising the stamp price or would you rather they not deliver on Saturdays?
UPDATE: NO wonder they have problems...........
42 comments:
This is a difficult question. I think given the choice, I'd give up Saturday deliveries, particularly if there was a guarantee that stamp prices would stabilize for a long period of time, and not just until the regularly scheduled increase.
I didn't hear this until this morning when I went to the post office to buy some stamps.
I guess it was decided in the middle of the night like everything else.
The post office is becoming archaic. Most of the letter mail processed is junk mail.
With bill pay over the internet and email...it's no wonder that the post office is losing money.
Add to that the inefficiency of a large government bureaucracy and you have a 44 cent stamp.
What people should be demanding is that the post office become more efficient.
Righto, EB!
But will they? Can they?
Nah!
So drop Saturday delivery.
tmw
Privatize the postal service!
Elmers Brothers is correct that PO efficiency should be the overall goal; however, that ain't happening as long as the PO is run by the gubbermint'.
How many trillions are we wasting on the plethora of credit card apps delivered by "Newman"?
I think it's about time to eliminate home delivery and return to a post-office centered business model.
tmw..et al. you're probably right...but here's some things you may not know
the post office spends money repairing equipment it never uses...
this includes the hardware and the man hours to repair and replace
it takes mail that is already in carrier delivery order sorts it out of carrier delivery order and back into carrier delivery order just to be able to jusftify the fact that it processed it
these are just a few examples
not too mention the fact that it's a microcosm of socialism
it also cuts businesses and bulk mailers a break on the postage...WE'RE TALKING LESS THAN 15 CENTS a mailpiece...compared to the 44 cents you're paying
I vote for a little competition....let some private companies see if they can do it better.
I'm sure private companies can do it cheaper because they're not paying custodians or clerks $20-$30 an hour.
I don't want to get mail on Saturday anyway.
I don't get mail on Saturday's significance. WHO CARES? Imagine how much money that would save?
But, no...got to charge more..
I say put FedEx in charge.
They do EVERYTHING better!!
Elbro, thanks for all that info...it's important people hear the truth. Are you SERIOUS about loading and unloading bags to keep busy?
And nobody will speak up....imagine?
Isn't paying more for the cost of government today being upheld as the new American patriotism of President Obama? The way business is vilified, especially those that try to avoid paying more taxes by going offshore, are considered worse than those who openly avow hatred for America and call for its destruction in "Overseas Contingency Operations".
All part of the upside down world we live in now, I guess. Saturday mail delivery sound like a luxury, though. Must be uniquely American.
Waylon
Waylon..hi.! And, yes, I forgot you don't have Saturday mail up there. And, look, YOU LIVED TO TELL US!!
Thanks for coming by! Excellent points in your first paragraph there..
it's hundreds of thousands of pieces of mail...
valupacs, they're called...coupon laden junk mail.
About Fedex...how do you think the USPS gets their overnight mail where it needs to go?
this includes the hardware and the man hours to repair and replaceWhy do they do this you ask?
Because one set of thugs (the unions) decided that it justifies having people on staff...
you need people to maintain equipment that goes either unused or underused.
I say put FedEx in charge.
They do EVERYTHING better!!
-------------------------
Think they want to deliver the money losing junk mail?
Post Office is still being forced to subsidize so we can expect they have some cost problems.
Think they want to deliver the money losing junk mail?It's a catch-22 duhkkky...if they don't they will lose most of their business...
mail volume is down by the billions in the last year
I opt for continuing delivery of mail on Saturdays. If the postal service discontines this, they'll simply find other reasons to raise the price of stamps.
When it comes to government service, there's no such thing as efficiency, and it will ever be so.
We'd just end up paying more for less service. Count on it!
Pris
I think they may as well stop Saturday delivery. The post office is all but obsolete. The only mail I ever receive that is not junk mail is an occasional card from my 92 year old Grandmother who doesn't own a computer. Most people do just about everything online now. Anything I physically send goes out through UPS because A) it's actually cheaper and B) they track it and rarely lose it.
Z,
Much as I would like to see the PO stop mail delivery at least on Saturday, should be more, it won't happen because the union will scream bloody murder at the layoffs. It all comes down to politics and the unions have very sympathetic executive and legislative branches. Never happen.
Z-we're dealing w/ those who believe our money is theirs (government)..
Believe me- the rates will go up whether we have Sat. delivery or not...
They - the THEY - will find a 'reason' to take more of our $$$...
I firmly believe we should have NO SATURDAY DELIVERY if it would help keep costs down. BUT....
I believe Pris and Carol (Christian Soldier blog) are absolutely right. The more I think of it, the more I realize they'd stop service AND, in six months, they'd be saying they need to raise the stamp cost YET AGAIN.
See Elmer's Bro's comments; he knows.
Huge-O-Chavez...you living in MAYBERRRY?
not deliver on Saturdays
How about they don't deliver on Wednesdays, then there wouldn't be two days in a row without mail.
Seriously, deliver Mon, Tue, Thur, Fri, and Sat. Any important business mailings are going Fed Ex, DHL, etc (because they want it to get there), so not delivering one day during the week isn't a big deal.
Nope, just outside of Mayberry. The mail goes into a box at the curb, ala RFD.
Itr's time to kill the offspring of the National Grange. Communism is dead. Today would be a good day to start.
Besides, Junk Mail was born with the advent of RFD.
"On January 1, 1897, free rural mail delivery was established here, and in the three and one-half years that have intervened the second class business of the Post Office has increased more than 300 percent," the article said.The Post Office permitted the rapid expansion of the newspaper, periodical and catalogue mail-order businesses. All of these businesses today are faultering and have been "replaced" by internet equivalents. Congress even wants to subsidize newspapers now...
Some history from Wikipedia:
Originally, mail was not delivered to homes and businesses, but to post offices. In 1863, "city delivery" began in urban areas with enough customers to make this economical. This required streets to be named, houses to be numbered, with sidewalks and lighting provided, and these street addresses to be added to envelopes.[63] The number of routes served expanded over time. In 1891, the first experiments with Rural Free Delivery began in less densely populated areas.
To compensate for high mail volume and slow long-distance transportation which saw mail arrive at post offices throughout the day, deliveries were made multiple times a day. This ranged from twice for residential areas to up to seven times for the central business district of Brooklyn, New York.[64] In the late 1800s, mail boxes were encouraged, saving carriers the time it took to deliver directly to the addressee in person; in the 1910s and 1920s, they were phased in as a requirement for service.[63] In the 1940s, multiple daily deliveries began to be reduced, especially on Saturdays. By 1990, the last twice-daily deliveries in New York City were eliminated.
Today, mail is delivered once a day on-site to nearly all private homes and businesses. The USPS still distinguishes between city delivery (where carriers generally walk and deliver to mailboxes hung on exterior walls or porches, or to commercial reception areas) and rural delivery (where carriers generally drive).[65] With "curbside delivery", mailboxes are at the ends of driveways, on the nearest convenient road. "Central point delivery" is used in some locations, where several nearby residences share a "cluster" of individual mailboxes in a single housing.
Some customers choose to use post office boxes for an additional fee, for privacy or convenience. This provides a locked box at the post office to which mail is addressed and delivered (usually earlier in the day than home delivery). High-volume business customers can also arrange for special pick-up.[66][67]
Another option is the old-style general delivery, for people who have neither post office boxes nor street addresses. Mail is held at the post office until they present identification and pick it up.
Some customers receive free post office boxes if the USPS declines to provide door-to-door delivery to their location or a nearby box.[68] People with medical problems can request door-to-door delivery.[69] Homeless people are also eligible for post office boxes at the discretion of the local postmaster, or can use general delivery.
My local Post Office asked me to stop writing "Return to Sender" on my junk mail and dropping it in the pick up boxes.
beamish...you SLAY me!
Like they say, the devil is in the details. I retired from the Postal Service 12 years ago and I am certain things have changed considerably since then. I am aware of some of the changes.
The postal service calls the flow of mail as “the mail stream.” It never stops. What is not delivered on Saturday must be delivered on Monday. Typically Monday volumes are heavier. Delaying Saturday mail could cause overtime and other system stresses.
Rate changes are never decided “in the middle of the night.” There is a rate commission, laws and procedures involved to set new rates. There are two important things about rates. Looking at other countries our rates are very competitive. Because of politics rates rarely reflect real costs. “Junk Mail” – Bulk Business Mail (BBM) is the true money maker subsidizing the rates of other services. First Class rates would certainly be considerably higher if not for BBM. The delivery of BBM is not, nor has it ever been, a money losing proposition.
Over the past fifteen years or so the Postal Service has made quantum leaps forward in efficiencies in the processing of mail. Problematic areas for further improvements are unions, Equal Employment Opportunities and Affirmative Action programs. The Peter Principle has been redefined in government bureaucracies. The Peter Principle states that an employee will rise to their highest level of incompetence. In government service employees tend to rise two or three levels above their highest level of incompetence.
I personally perceive the Postal Service as a pillar of our democracy. Ben Franklin believed in the power of communication in a democracy and realized that the fledgling service could be a prime deliverer of communications. Delivering newspapers was not an afterthought of the final years of the 19th century. Franklin used the mail to deliver his newspaper establishing what is undoubtedly the longest running communication partnership.
The Newspaper Association of America in 2008 advised members that small market newspapers could respond to the rising cost of gasoline by switching delivery on rural routes or areas with low market penetration from their own carriers to the United States Postal Service, a move that has created significant distribution savings.
The partnership between Fed Ex and the Postal Service is obviously a shining example of increased efficiency and economy. You say you want improvements then you ridicule a strategic partnership. I know how hard it was for the old guard to accept such an arrangement so I am really impressed.
Many years ago I attended a management training course in Memphis, Tennessee. One of our instructors informed us that we would be welcomed to look around the Memphis Bulk Mail Center (BMC). I told him that what I really wanted to see was the Fed Ex distribution hub. I think they thought I was joking, but, I was dead serious. You’ve come a long way baby.
As an afterthought I don't know how you take mail that is already sorted in delivery sequence, "unsort" it, and resort it back to delivery sequence. "Unsorting" is not possible unless you play 52 pickup with the mail.
When your sort is numeric based I don't care how often you run it through a sort the sequence will always be 1-2-3-4-5-6 - - - -etc., etc.
I personally perceive the Postal Service as a pillar of our democracy. I think it's a pillar of union thuggery and systemic abuse. My experience may not be as extensive as Big Bubba's but my own perception/experience is that it's exactly what people think government workers would be like. There are good employees certainly but the system is run so that hard work is actually punished and initiative is a no no.
It's a microcosm of socialism.
perhaps another way of explianing it might be like this:
the value pacs come in order 1,2,3,4,5, etc.
it is run on first pass of the DBCS where all the 1's are sorted together, all the 2's, 3's etc
then on second pass it is sorted back into 1,2,3,4 etc. order
to top it off the valupacs rarely meet the standard for machineable mail yet it's run on the machines anyway. The valupacs are more often then not shredded in the machine. That's not customer service it's a bean counter trying to make the numbers look good.
Thanks for finally writing about > "I'm doing a POLL on the Post Office:" < Liked it!
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