With the Senate and House stalling on giving financial aid, the Postal Service plans cuts in May to over 260 mail processing centers out of the currently existing 500 centers. Only 41 of the facilities will not be consolidated or closed immediately as reviews continue.
Resulting in the loss of about 35,000 jobs due to declining mail volume, this cost-saving measure is said to be able to trim an estimated $3 billion from the agency's budget. This is so unfair to those mail workers who have been with the USPS for many years and have looked forward to an earned retirement and benefits as well as a continuing job.
Further cuts sought are the elimination of Saturday delivery and raising the price of a first class postage stamp another five cents. Is it any wonder that so many businesses and individuals have resorted to using the internet instead of the mail?
How does this closing of mail centers affect paying your bills or getting your business mail and invoices delivered? The chance of many letters getting to their destination the next day would be eliminated for the first time in 40 years, and an extra day or two would be added to the delivery time of first-class mail.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and 26 other senators have signed a letter addressed to the congressional sponsors of postal legislation in an effort to prevent these cuts to the delivery of first-class mail. Stating how counterproductive this move would be, Senator Sanders stated, "At a time when the Postal Service is competing against the instantaneous delivery of information from email and the internet, slowing down mail delivery service will result in less business and less revenue, and will bring about a death spiral for this institution."
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Comments: 2
Over the years there have been so many mistakes made with just my mail, I have to wonder what other people have experienced. Getting other people's junk mail is one thing, but I've gotten legal notices (judging by printing on the envelope), bills, personal letters, and even one Federal Income Tax Return check that were not mine. So how much of my stuff has gone to other people and I'm not aware of it? That's a troublesome thought.
In my current place, the front door faces perpendicular to the street and is recessed so there is a rather sizable area that is completely sheltered from view from the street. The UPS driver will leave packages there where they are out of view and offer no temptation in this relatively honest town. Not the postal carrier. She places a package, along with all the loose envelopes, on the opposite corner in plain view of the street and sidewalk, and subject to any gusts of wind that may come along. So which carrier do I consider the most trustworthy?
Because of the delay and the potential for mistakes, I turned to on-line billing and bill paying as much as I possibly can. If it isn't sitting in a mail box, it's much more difficult to steal. To that end, even before I moved the bulk of my financial activity to my keyboard, it was years earlier that I quit mailing checks from my home, opting to either drop them into a collection box, or more preferably to mail them from work where the carrier picked them up inside the building.
Currently, I get two bills in the mail because the companies have not yet moved technologically into the 1980s on their billing. Both I pay on-line. My rent check is dropped off locally at the management company's office and I am mailing payments to one company until the debt is paid, which will be in about three more months. My last batch of 20 stamps lasted me almost two years.
If the Post Office desires to survive, it really needs to stop acting like it has for the past many decades and vastly improve its performance and services. The dinosaurs are dead because they did not adapt.
When I was a letter carrier, someone 3000 miles away from me who had never set foot in my town was telling me how to deliver the mail on my route, EVEN THOUGH I WAS FORCED TO WORK LONGER HOURS TO GET THE SAME MAIL DELIVERED. Interference like that costs the post office millions of dollars every year.
I don't know what all of the answers are. However, I do know that postage stamps are way too cheap. My best calculations figure that first class stamps should be around 65 cents each, which is still cheaper than most mail elsewhere in the world. I have no clue how much other classes should be, but when the post office is delivering packages for $15 that UPS is charging $50 to deliver, there is something terribly wrong with the postal pricing structure. I use both the post office and UPS to ship packages, but even at the higher prices, UPS gets the major portion of my business.
If the post office was allowed to operate similar to UPS, I am sure they could garner more business at higher prices. I know that I would use them more often as many times my customers would get better and faster service via USPS instead of UPS.
The biggest advantage the PO has over UPS is that the mail keeps moving round the clock, even on weekends and holidays. Not so with UPS. A package from the West Coast to the East Coast takes 5 BUSINESS days by UPS. Sending the same package via the PO takes about 5 days regardless of holidays or weekends, or 2 to 3 days faster in many cases.
However, dealing with the PO is a pain in the butt to say the least. They don't pick up packages unless prepaid by a credit card and only then with 24 hours notice. If I have something to send today, I must go to the nearest PO, 3 miles away, and wait in long lines. Their COD service is confusing and hard to use, both for the sender and for the receiver. Basically, to get more of my business, the PO needs to accept company checks for the packages they pick up, needs to pick up on a regular daily basis of some sort, and needs to streamline their COD services. I don't see any of that happening, primarily because of Congressional interference.
And, yes, raising PRICEs will drive some business away. But if they improve SERVICE, and QUALITY, the net bottom line would turn positive. Basically, PRICE - SERVICE - QUALITY, pick ANY TWO, you CANNOT have all three. The post office needs to raise prices, improve quality, and improve service if it is going to survive. Nothing less will work. Hint: Congress, quit pricing the post office out of business.