I’m with Zorn. The Postal Service should not only cut Saturday delivery, but one or two more days a week as well. (See the poll in the right sidebar to vote your preference.)
With America’s reading and writing habits going electronic, most of the daily mail is both unsolicited and unwanted. I easily toss 75 percent of whatever winds up in my mailbox, and have for years.
Nor do I make regular use of snail mail. I pay my bills online. E-cards ensure that birthday greetings will arrive on the very day you wish. As for mass-mailings like Christmas greetings, those became a luxury when stamps hit 44 cents.
Now days, I pretty much send mail to elderly relatives who remain steadfastly opposed to e-mail — and that’s about it.
And don’t get me started about the “service” aspect of the Postal Service. My block seemed to encounter a new carrier every week until our current, hard-working “Q” came on the job. We also seemed to be an afterthought to the day’s delivery, frequently getting mail after dark.
Things have since improve, I’m happy to report, but no one would call the Postal Service a model of efficiency or transparency. A few years ago, it began surreptitiously began removing mailboxes without announcement or explanation. My efforts to track down an official who could address my questions were an exercise in futility.
So, too, my recent attempts to find out how mail volume in Downers Grove has fared and whether any mailboxes are in danger of disappearing with this round of cuts. The downtown PO referred me to a district spokesman. After dialing the number numerous times, this was all I got:
“You been forwarded to a voice-mail system. However, the person at 7763 has not subscribed to this service. Call answering cannot be continued at this time. Transferring to an attendant. One moment please.Your session can not be continued at this time. Please try again later.”
Maybe they cut that position?
Getting rid of Saturday is no big deal. But not everybody can afford a computer to receive/pay bills electronically, so I would hesitate to cut any more.
If you get rid of the junk mail you could go to a 2 or 3 day delivery week easy. I was estimate that 90% of the mail I get is junk. Some many people on this blog want to “Go Green”. Cutting mail delivery may help with that.
2-3 days per week is all we need. Times have changed. Chad we can’t get rid of junk mail, it gets good response for companies looking to make sales.
As far as going green…paper is the the most recyclable product we make, and is a renewable resource. In fact, all the online reading, browsing and spam mail consumes more energy than the paper industry…and growing. Server farms are energy hogs.
Scott,
You in the mass mailer biz? LOL I chuck em! LOL
Sue is correct, there are many people that not afford a computer or online services. Many people don’t like to use the internet for any number of reasons.
The problem with the post office is the same as any other government agency – it is highly inefficient and wastes incredible sums of money. Don’t give them a free pass by letting them charge the same amount for a stamp and letting them deliver half as often. Cut the price of a stamp 40% and then we can talk about reducing delivery to three days a week.
Chad, I’m not…but a client of ours is a paper company…who plants more trees annually than they harvest.
Here are some good reasons why to only cut Saturday delivery. First, a lot of people get their medications via mail order, because employers find it cheaper to go through a company like Medco to supply prescriptions for chronic ailments, rather than letter insureds go to a drug store.
If someone forgets a refill until the last minute, then with only 1, 2, or 3 day a week delivery, then being without a prescription for a even a couple of days can be problematic.
Second, if we cut deliveries to less than 5 days a week, can you imagine how packed a postal truck would be during Christmas. There are days in which the letter carrier rings my door 4 out of 6 days, between gifts I’ve ordered mail order and gifts that relatives have sent.
Third, who decides what days are the days for delivery? Would 60515 get Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, while 60516 gets Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday? Someone who depends on mail delivery on specific days may not like the days that he gets his mail.
Fourth, some people simply don’t like dealing with computers for bill paying and greeting cards. I still prefer to pay bills by mail, rather than by computer. I’m willing to let my credit card numbers float around in cyberspace, but not my bank account numbers.
Considering that I once had someone hack into my eBay account, change the password, and start buying cell phones in Australia, I’m very leary of paying bills on line.
As for greeting cards, I still like going to Hallmark and buying cards. And yes, I still send Christmas cards by mail. I just have gotten to the point where I do the single letter for everyone on my list. I used to write a master letter, then customized it for each recipient.
Do I get a lot of junk mail? Yes, but I prefer to page through paper catalogues rather than look at them on line. My alma mater keeps asking if I would like my alumni magazine on line. The answer is no, because I would rather read it whereever (sofa in the living room, recliner in the family room, back deck, in the cellphone lot at O’Hare, rather than read it on the desktop computer in the basement.
Last, if FedEx and UPS still plan to offer 5-day-a-week delivery, why shouldn’t the Post Office? If the Post Office will only deliver mail 2 or 3 days a week, some of that volume will go to the overnight package service, thereby reducing mail volumes even more.
The US Post Office is estimated to Lose $280 BILLION over the next 10 years. I think all of us need to start learning to deal without a broken system. If that means people need to plan there medication orders a little better…then so be it. I suggest we all start learning to use new methods of doing everything. Cause the old ways are broken and too expensive. OR…get used to $2.00 stamps.
I agree ckfred. I order a lot of items online including using mail order medicine services so I do not want to or could not for medical reasons wait 5 or six extra days to recieve those items. Many people I know enjoy paper catalogs and prefer paying from a paper bill because some places still charge a fee to pay online, like the DMV. Just as not everyone has $50 a month to spend on two neat and perfect garbage cans and $100 for lawn service, not everyone has the internet at home or the extra fee money. How could paper payers ever mail thier bills in enough time to have them arrive when due if there are only a few delivery days?
Cutting stamps 40% wouldn’t reflect what really costs the postal service: travel/gas bills.
Thanks for offering some perspectives I overlooked. That’s why I appreciate my commenters — I learn a lot from you guys.
DGDAD,
If you think about it, $2 for a letter that gets from Downers Grove to Naperville, even if it takes 2 days, is still a lot cheaper than what UPS and FedEx charge for 2nd day delivery for a letter-size envelope.
Here’s the idea that no one likes, but would be certainly be fair: zone based first class. After all, it’s a lot cheaper to get a letter from Downers Grove to Naperville than from Downers Grove to New York or Los Angeles.
In the long run learning how to do your banking online and opting out of the mail is far cheaper. Stamps are up to $8.80 per (20)booklet. My family at its peak sent out 2 booklets per month. thats over $200 per year. My PC only cost me $800. So with in 4 years you could buy a PC and start saving on stamps. Seems simple to me. People who are not computer saavy it would be difficult.
No Saturdays would mean a 3 day gap during 3-day holiday weekends, which is excessive. I’d prefer a Wed. or Thur. break instead.
Oh, I’ve had great experiences with the DG PO for vacation holds, oversize postage mailings and registered letters.
CKFred…
Can you imagine how packed an xmas truck would be? Seriously? If we had no post office, the nation would be packed with competition offering free delivery with every order. The Post Office distorts the market by offering a service that is incapable of sustaining itself without taxation!
The Postal system doesn’t work, because it doesn’t know how to make a profit. It cannot determine the proper number of employees and equipment needed to sustain delivery and service in lean and heavy times. As a result, it pays too many employees too much money for services (in Walz’s case…) not wanted. The Post Office benefits from laws and subsidies, and still it cannot sustain itself.
It is bankrupt. Like all bankrupt things…it should go away, and let someone else invent an idea that works. You want a postal monopoly! Did you want AT&T to provide all your phone service decades ago? How well did that work for you?
The very idea of a Government mail monopoly is ludicrous today. Even when ol Ben Franklin was around it was circumspect. Goodbye Post Office….hello something new.
Mr. Kelly,
The no saturday thing is going to happen sooner rather than later. Its all over the news. Its almost a done deal.
Elaine, do you have any special greeting cards or letters from friends or relatives that you’ve saved over the years? Hard to do that with an e-card! That’s why I still mostly prefer to send real greeting cards through the mail. (I used to custom make and print most of them from “Print Shop” on my computer, but now that I work for a card store, I usually buy them!)
And my Christmas greetings are both a chance to re-connect with family and friends as well as hope that people will slow down and spend some time thinking about family and God at a special time of year. (I’d be more likely to send these greetings electronically except for the point ckfred brings up–reading letters and magazines online is not nearly as convenient. Perhaps if the iPad and other tablets catch on more…)
But we have shifted most of our bill paying online–actually, we’ve been doing that for 15 years or so.
And the other reason NOT to cut out “junk” mail is that it keeps the cost of first class mail down! A first class stamp would cost much more if the volume of commercial mail was significantly reduced. And many charitable organizations rely on commercial mail to gain new contributors–there are many worthwhile organizations that I only found out about through “junk” mail.
Scott,
Service providers will go where they can make money. So, where does that leave people in rural areas?
I had relatives who lived on a farm in Kansas. For years, UPS and FedEx wouldn’t deliver, because they were 20 miles from town. Parcel Post was the only way to send packages.
Think of all the isolated towns in Alaska. Do you think someone will undertake the time and effort to deliver letters and catalogues?
I’m all in favor of smaller government, but I still think a government-run postal system is essential. If you can show more other countries that have gotten rid of their systems without making mail service tough on people or rural and very remote locations, I would be willing to listen.
By the way, I’m not sure that getting rid of the AT&T monopoly was such a good idea. The idea of free local service and long distance charges based on distance, time of day, and length of call was a lot easier to understand than some of the calling plans today. And it kept my friends and relatives who lived several hundred miles or more away from calling several times a week and talking my ear off.
When I was in college, I used to set a timer for 5 or 10 minutes, when I called my parents, and I wrote down the important things that needed to be discussed. Now, people call me just to tell me a joke and wind up griping about this, that, or the other thing.
If you want a land line phone in your house that works when the power goes out you have to get AT&T then you have to get a phone that does not plug in – do they still make those? Not everyone recieves the internet in “rural” areas either.
I think it is time that the Postal Service just declares bankruptcy and reorganize…. I say do it 3 or 4 days a well but bring it back up to 5 Days a week during the Holiday Season. If you really need something fast ship it via UPS or FedEx.
Oh my. CKFred…don’t you get it? THE POST OFFICE DOESN’T WORK! Its bankrupt, insolvent, failed, ruined, in debt, belly up, broke. It is unsustainable…unless we all pay more so that they can continue to pay people outrageous benefits. Rural, schmural…New Zealand and Sweden have privatized their Postal Services to great success. Check em out. NZ’s postal costs have gone down and people are happier with the service.