On Demand
Neither Recession Nor Debt Nor Credit Crunch
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The United States Postal Service is in trouble. Dan Blair, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, an independent agency tasked with making recommendations to the USPS, talks about the challenges facing the mail system and his testimony before Congress yesterday.
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With overnight delivery services and email so commonplace today, is there really any reason that we need mail delivered more than everyother day?
Unfortunately, it means laying off tons of workers, but just like newspapers and albums, with all the new digital alternatives, big demand for these services just are never coming back.
The window service in post offices in most NYC locations is dreadful. Every time I go into my local one, the line is ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. You can easily wait half an hour or more to be served.
Why, in this day & age, do they not have stamp vending machines that take credit cards? Your only choice is machines that take cash, and give those coin dollars in change (another idiotic failure (and their second one for the same reason!) from a different branch of the Fed Govt.)
If any private concern provided such poor service, they' be out of business in a fortnight. The service in the post office is indefensible.
The only reason I would really mind is because of Netflix. I would be sad if I had to wait until Monday to get my next movie, that I really wanted to watch over the weekend.
What about Netflix? I get my DVDs on Saturdays for the weekend. Getting them on Mondays is not the same.
we need the post office! it's a wonderful service, i would fall apart without it. save the USPS!
charge more for all that junk mail
2 Points:
1) The postage scale is out of whack - Junk mailers/cataloguers get greatly reduced rates (see "lobbists"), while first-class mail is highly priced.
2) How many postage employees are gaming the system for their own benefit? Example: My building's letter carrier works on his official days off - for overtime, then takes two other days off because he "has to."
If the Postal Service were a private organization, it would have been out of business years ago.
Honestly, we have a dreadful postal system, at least from the view of someone in Brooklyn. Dirty, broken down offices, unreliable delivery...
Funny though... When I go to post offices outside of ny, they are clean and decent. Why does ny get the shaft?
why eliminate saturday rather than wednesday. I don't need to send receive every day but having a 2 day gap seems unnecessary
Also, I think the post office is quite efficient and lean. This is not like the DMV. Have you ever been to Italy?
Oh please. As in other countries, the post office here is one of the most powerful, land-wealthy and privileged institutions possible.
Think outside the box. Offices in every berg in the country? Sell some Treasury Bills! Ritas! Make the most of your position -- this is AMERICA, baby!
Why don't they raise the bulk rate? It's mostly used by junk mail that wastes paper and is thrown away immediately. Think of the environmental impact.
11211 has the worst PO in the city
they won't even try to deliver packages, i have to always pick them up and sometimes they lose my stuff.
Go Post Office! ! !
These guys do a great job at a ridiculously low price.
It's better service than we deserve. Go pay FedEx to send a letter and see fast you run back to the Post Office!
Stop your whining.
Dan
I agree with Michael B.
Why are the delivery people so nice and the window people so mean (literally mean). Is there any way to make this a merit system or is it too strong?
Also, are letter carriers paid differently from window people?
i need my saturday netflix delivery. i am willing to start a large scale letter writing campaign to keep the post office in business.
Bri--My grandfather delivered mail in NY fifty years ago. He delivered it TWICE PER DAY!
Part of the problem is branding -- the post office is still perceived as unreliable and slow while their new main competition -- UPS, FEDEX -- is (supposedly) fast and efficient.
In addition, email offers consumers way more control over their Inbox - you can filter spam, hilite important mail, etc.
If the USPS rebranded themselves and offered consumers products that gave them more options that mirrored and complemented our digital lives -- that would be good.
how about a moratoruim on unsolicited paper mail. I throw away 90% of my mail. It may not save money for the post office
I love getting mail!
in addition to all the tech eliminating mail i have contacted many catalog companies and asked them to stop sending me junk mail - i wonder if this kind of thing is also taking a bite out of mail revenue
What will this do to Netflix's business model?
I run a small business with and Internet component, and with the post office's online payment and pick up services, which means I never have to go to the post office--HALLELUJAH!!--I have found this to be an incentive to use the post office more than before for my shipping and mailing. In my case, my business with the post office is up.
Suggestion-
Keep the delivery for 5 days and on the weekends if you need your mail keep the option to pick it up on the weekends.
Prathna
I don't have mail service to my home -- we have to pick up the mail at the post office. I have gotten used to this routine -- picking up my mail on Saturday, chatting with other townsfolk, and I don't miss getting stressed out by new bills during the week. It almost feels like the pioneer days when everyone met at community places, like the general store and the post office:)
Isn't this just disaster capitalism? Closing down the post office and privatizing it by forcing people to use private deliveries?
Naomi Kline guys...
I wouldn't mind no delivery on the weekend, but I would mind the post office being closed. This is the one day that I can go to the post office in my own neighborhood to pick up packages - which is a horrendous enough outing as lines are always so long. The service at Brooklyn post offices is absolutely terrible - there are never enough windows open to service the long lines, at my post office we have no automated package machine. We need better postal service - if it takes cuts in actual delivery, fine.
I am the merry mailman, ring ding your bell with ring that's my very special ring and this is what I bring. A letter from your grandma to say she's coming to stay, now close your eyes for the big surprise, it's a present for your birthday.
People still look forward to checking that mail box, don't take that little joy away!
Love the post office. If I miss a package from UPS I have to go to Queens to pick it up, but my post office is a 10-minute walk.
People complain about the postal service, but no private company offers anything comparable. "Nobody goes to the post office anymore, it's way too crowded."
I certainly like getting things in the mail, though the only things that matter to me are paychecks and fun/useful packages I order. Eliminating one day would take that day out for delivery and, I assume, slow down movement on all deliveries by a day.
However, if this will save one of this country's basic services a few billion dollars, one day is a negligible price to pay.
Love the mail.
Love my carrier.
Love the post office branch in NYC -- beautiful WPA building. Nice people, helpful --except they just got rid of the vending machines for stamps???
Paying bills on line is nuts -- they just had a file sharing security failure, virus nightmare. What happens when the internet goes down? Five day is OK -- but no mail-- that is insane!
80% of what I get is junk mail anyway, deliver all the junkmail 1 day a week so I can deal with 1 day a week mail.
we don't pay ANY bills on-line! THey should do a survey of some sort if they want real numbers on that. Either way, I think dropping Saturday would be OK, but I'm interested to keep listening to how it would impact others.
I'll rather pay $1.00 to mail a letter than
to deal with those rude, despicable employees at the postal office!
DL
What role does junk mail play in mail delivery?
What about people who work long weekday hours, or 6 days a week? Saturdays are critical for them to do business at the post office and/or receive and mail packages. Why not do away with Wednesday?
I want to use the USPS office more for packages but the staff & carriers can be so rude. It's a small thing but stuff like that matters. So many times I have taken out crumpled envelopes out of my building's mail box.
The frustration, and waste associated with the post office has a lot to do with its bureaucracy. In particular, the general design, layout and function of the system itself. There is great opportunity here to reach out to architects, systems designers and product designers to help rethink the WHOLE system - starting with the layout of the offices like they did recently in Denmark and Switzerland. I have always felt like i was being punished for using the postal service and that needs to change.
If I can't get mail, and count on having it delivered six days a week, I want to cancel my subscription please. The service won't be worth it.
Instead of cutting Saturday delivery, perhaps the USPS should monetize it. Charge an additional fee for Saturday delivery just like Fedex and other couriers.
I like the postal experience. From letters
in the mailbox to the granite solidity
of the post office itself. Comparing
a typical post office to a UPS office is
like comparing an old marble Dime savings bank-
a pillar of the community- to the ATM vestibules
that Chase today calls banks.
I love the postal service. Our mail delivery people have been like members of the family and the window staff at our local branch are also friendly and know everyone in the neighborhood. Our main post office is very service oriented and goes out of its way to accommodate customers. The annual April 15 tax trek is like a party down there, supported by our Postmaster.
Unfortunately, I am one of the people who pay my bills online and rarely write letters or send cards. It is not because of the price of a stamp but the convenience of electronic delivery. However, if I have a choice of having a package delivered by USPS or another carrier, I will always select the USPS because they have the best service.
As to the rubber band comment, I recycle my rubber bands and return them to my mailman to reuse.
until broadband access and computer ownership are free, universal privileges enjoyed by every citizen, mail service should remain pretty much as it is--with perhaps something done to reign in the growth of unsolicited junk mail.
Suggestion-
Keep the delivery for 5 days and on the weekends if you need your mail keep the option to pick it up from the post office
Prathna
I suspect a reason for not having machines that accept credit cards (comment #2) is that the post office has to pay a fee to the credit card company for every charge, but that's just my guess. There's no fee that eats into your profit when cash is used. If I were in business, I would hate the credit card.
I'm waiting for a study to see how much the widespread use of credit cards contributes to inflation since one would think businesses would have to increase prices to keep the same profit when fewer people use cash.
Other than the annual holiday cards, all I get in the mail is bills -- and tons and tons and tons of junk mail!
Can we cut the junk mail and save the mailmen from hauling all that expensive (and environmentally unfriendly) paper waste?
Has the post office looked at cost savings by eliminating junk mail?
Checking for the latest stamp design is a sacred act. Placing the stamp in the corner of an envelope, whether to pay a bill or send a letter, is a small source of pleasure. I do a minimum of financial business online, and resent being forced to increase it.
Kill 2 birds with one stone... charge full fare for bulk mail, reducing the junk and raising revenue.
I wish there was more pride in the postal service, at least in NYC. I agree with Michael (#2) about service, and it makes me despise the thought of needing to go into the post office to get a package or held mail. (I was actually refused service once, and my mail was held hostage!! Is this legal??)
Anyway, it would be a shame to cut down on postal service out of principle since it's one of the few remaining outlets of human contact we have (excluding junk mail). But it's a Catch-22 as I see it, decreased service leads to poor service/poor morale that leads to worst service, etc. I think reality wins out though, and I'd be ok with one less day.
I don't want to do banking or bill-paying online.
I live in a wealthy area. When I remarked to our postal carrier one day that mail volume was down nationally, she surprisinlyremarked that mail is actually up in our town. She theorized that marketeers see mail as a good way of connecting with busy, wealthy people.
How about leveraging some of the properties that the postal services has in prime real estate locations around the country. And I agree with reducing delivery days.
Charge more for unsolicited junk mail. Treat it as paper spam!
I mail small packages every week and have generally had an excellent experience with the Post Office, they do a great job for a good price.
My one question for your guset is how do you get the Post Office to take back mail for people no longer at your address? They always just mail it back to me no matter what I write on the envelope or what I croos off?
The post office is "in the red," because of pension and medical benefits to retirees. It makes money on an operating basis.
So, like GM, let it disappear, and let the employees use their skills -- irritating customers, closing windows just before you get to them, etc. -- to work for the state at the DMV!!!!
How about mail 2x a week and if people/businesses want it more often, they pay for it.
For my purposes, I love the Postal Service. I send lots of large packages overseas (not heavy, but awkwardly-sized things like fine art prints), and the price difference is incredible; this stuff would cost three or four times more if shipped with UPS or FedEx. The Post Office is pretty much a godsend.
Removing Saturday service is a bad idea for lots of folks who do not have time to go to the Post Office during the week because of work.
Hasn't all the online shopping and delivery of products off-set a decrease in personal letters and bills being sent through the USPS? Or has all the online shopping delivery gone to FEDEX, etc.?
US Post Services need to delivery based on regional demands - like every other day, or even once a week.
Reduce trucks, close post offices, employees benefits, etc to balance the budget.
Start new unform rate 1st Class, 2nd class and third calss and gurantees dlivery time.
So cosnumers can save.
On your conversation on Post Office cutbacks, if one day a week is to be lost it should be a weekday, not Saturday. Many consumers who work or otherwise have a hardship getting to the Post Office during the week now go on Saturday. Would the post offices stay open even if delivery is stopped?
It always gets me when the City cuts back on library funding, Saturday closures usually happen cutting out a large segment of users. If you have to close one day, make it a weekday even if it varies from post office to post office.
The fact that you found the mail carrier's comment about rubber bands amusing indicates a lack of imagination on your part.
It's about mindset, not rubber bands.
Large savings can accrue from small savings around the country made by individuals. Your failure to recognize this does not speak highly of your ability to look beyond the obvious.
I understand that there are many people still pay bills via snail mail. That is ok. The Post Office is only suggesting losing 1/6 of their delivery window. Companies need to respond to the consumer dollar and if, in general, people are using other means to pay bills, etc., a business entity needs to respond to the decrease in demand. The way the economy works is that companies will put more resources in areas that show a higher degree of demand. At that, variable costs for the decreasing demand areas need to be cut unless another product that enhances demand within that company is created.
1. My mailmen work half day -- I know this because they are friendly with our super and spend the afternoon in his work room watching TV
2. How about dropping useless things like selling stationery, or unnecessary (for the post office) things like sponsorship of athletic events (Tour de france?)
3. They recently took the stamp machines OUT of my local PO (Perhaps that is temporary, I don't know)
And yes, I definitley think junk mail should be more expensive to send. It takes a lot to deliver something most people just don't want
I apologize in advance for the following rant:
Our carrier has left the mail for our three family building inside the gate of the ground floor apartment. Seriously. We've had bills found on the sidewalk, packages rained on, and mail just go missing. Every time I happen to see the carrier do this, I'm told "It's my first day" or "I didn't know there were mailboxes." Once I had the mail carrier indicate he didn't understand English.
After futilely complaining over the phone to the actual post office, I have complained only on-line via the general site. THEN the manager of our PO (11220) is apologetic, but nothing ever changes for long. We also happen to have at least three different mail carriers.
The 11220 post office is also ill-equipped with supplies. You have to wait in a horrible line (last Friday is was 43 people long when I entered and quickly left) just to get the supplies to mail something in an official box. The stamp vending is broken, and has been for weeks (months?).
The 11223 post office has all the boxes/envelopes/supplies needed and displayed. What's up with that?
I think the worst service I witnessed at a post office was in downtown Minneapolis on a Saturday last fall. It was exactly closing time when I was finished at the window. There was one guy coming down the hallway with a huge box in his hands. But just before he got to the window, the post office clerk shut it in his face.
I couldn't believe how rude it was. Sure, it was exactly the closing time--and having worked in retail myself, I know that too many people don't realize that closing time means it's time to leave the store--but I think this clerk could've handled another piece of mail, esp. if the USPS is losing money and needs customers. Maybe, to be fair, the clerk didn't see the guy coming down the hall, but it seems to me you should at least look down the hall before you close the window, especially when it's Saturday and the post office won't open again until Monday.
If volume is down so much, why is snail mail slower than ever? A first class letter to or from California can take up to five days.
Going to 5-day delivery will throw off my Netflix schedule of Wednesdays and Saturdays. With movies admissions at almost $12 now, I hate to think of a Saturday night without a DVD. Netflix is a real entertainment bargain in this awful economy.
I have routinely experienced 5 day mail delivery. My door is at the end of a walkway, and I am sometimes skipped. My guess is that this happens when my regular mail carrier is off. It is only a problem on the rare times when I am eagerly waiting for something in particular.
I like the idea of cutting out Wednesdays for mail delivery/PO as a money-saver. We need Saturdays for those who work full-time to do business and pick up packages (which never seem to be delivered anymore).
I'm also in Sunset Park (#65), and we've had very similar problems with mail left inside the ground floor gate instead of the mail boxes. We must be on the same route because I was also told that the mail carrier was on his first day and another said "No English" when I asked about it.
I've found the people who work in the 11220 PO to be very friendly, although the PO itself doesn't seem lovingly run.
get rid of the junk mail or raise the price of the junk masil. first class mail is subsidinzing the junk mail, which most people throw right in the garbage, what a waste of energy and resources to transport junkmail. wwe need a poll on junk mail and let the usps IG know about what we , the people that subsidize it think of it .
enable printing of postel charges vis internet and drop off boxes so people can avois the insane poor customer service at many post offices. some post offices are great.
i would rather be able to print postage via my computer and drop in a box i can walk to, including medium size packages. ups and fed ex have these boxes.
The USPS is practically a vestigial organ from a byegone era in its current state. Bulk mailings comprise the vast majority of mail I receive. Otherwise I receive bills (which I pay by mail, like the vast majority of people I know).
I don't think the USPS should cease to exist: but it needs to provide pricing and service that is in sync with the actual demand for USPS service. People that actually need the USPS's services will place a premium on service, whereas people who don't need it (me) will not.
Charge more for bulk mailing: and save a tree while you're at it.
Residential postal customers should be treated like customers: they should be charged for the service they receive, and they should be able to pay for basic/premium services, this way the postal service can make sure that they retain staffing that is commensurate with the *real* public need for their services. As it is, the actual demand for the USPS's services is very much out of sync with the service they provide.
Everyone must read this and contact your elected officials http://www.postalnewsblog.com/2009/03/26/the-postal-ponzi-scheme/
I think the USPS does an OUTSTANDING job, never once have I had a letter that didn't make it to me. I never know what time of day UPS and FEX is going to show up, the USPS is always on time.
Re: an early comment. Most large offices have an APC (Automated Postal Center). Min. purchase $1.00. You HAVE to use credit/debit. I have zero doubt there's one in your office. Look around.
You can purchase books of stamps. You can purchase postage for individual letters, etc., long as you spend a buck. You can send your Certified flat/tax return in 60 seconds, as opposed to 30 minutes in line. Wake up, dude.
1. The reason your mail is not being delivered properly is because the post office is extremely understaffed in the letter carrier craft. Routes are being split and carriers are carrying territory they are unfamiliar with. They are also being worked up to 60 hrs per wk and micro managed to death so they can be crabby.(i've never watched movies half a day!)
2. We do drop rubber bands. We use them to "bundle" our mail. Our hands are full, a bundle of mail in our hand and bigger bundle of mail on our arm and a satchel on our shoulder. Try to bend down with all of that and pick up a rubber band (with gloves on in the winter) and you'll understand why we don't always pick them up. Although in some offices we've run out of them because of budget cuts!
3. We're sorry we're crabby sometimes but some people REALLY like to chat and sometimes we have a 10 hour day and a dispatch time to make and don't have time to chat because we have a two hour cut from another route to do after our 8 hr route as there is a hiring freeze so there is no mailman at all for some routes. Mgmt just splits it up, resulting in some of you having a different mailman every day...we hate it more than you!!!
4. They took the stamp machines out because the company that made them went out of business and they can't get parts for them. Get a stamps by mail form from your carrier or usps.com and the carrier will deliver them to your mailbox (without a stamp!) and businesses and ebayer's check out our website usps.com for ways to have your parcels picked up FOR FREE. There are many ways to avoid going to the post office. If you get a notice for a package or "certified letter" you can arrange to have it redelivered when you will be home. Hope this helps! WE REALLY DO TRY! 23yr city carrier
The APC's are being removed from locations that do not generate enough revenue to pay for the labor to maintain and re stock the machines.Cost savings measure.
Mr Blair, when he stated that the first class rate is uniform, lied.
It is unfortunate that the program moderater was not cognizant of the postage rate structure.
Full rate first class is paying the cost of maintaining the overhead while the discounted rates of first class mail and the discounted rates of standard mail are not.
The postal service has, by the profligate use of mail presort discounts, become an auxiliary of the Mailing Industry, has shifted from identifying itself as existing to provide a government mandated service to the public to identifying itself as a component of the for profit Mailing Industry and as such identifies it customer as the Mass Mailing Industry.
Mr. Blair came across as a polite, sincere and knowledgeable fellow, but he flimflammed you the radio stationn and the listeners.
The thing is, he is one of the few people in the nation who would actually understand the current postal rate structure with all of its presort discounts.
The Postal Service has been used to build a parallel mail processing system that is and has been subsidized by the public that is diverting the mail processing revenue needed by the service to maintain the entire universal delivery platform. Now the USPS has manuevered itself into a position where it faces system collapse and the current Postal Executive leadership is being allowed to explain the situation off as a result of market conditions.
The USPS has been stolen from the US Public.
If the post office was to stop delivery on Saturday's the window service would still be open, they only wanted to stop delivery. I know, I work there, also netflix come out everyday not just on Saturday as I deliver them. There seem to be so many worried about unneccessary things on here.
window service would be open on Saturday it's the delivery that would be stop only
We need the post office. I trust the delivery and sanctity of the mail. All advertisements in my email box immediately go to "spam" to avoid identity theft.
we need the post office and i value the sanctity of the mail. every ad i get on email immediately goes to spam to avoid identity theft.
to chris from nyc, carriers work half a day before we hit the street,we sort it than deliver it!!! been doing it 23 years,we are entitled to a break!!!
some people want to cut a weekday delivery. do you not think that might cut your job some by not getting mail that day? most jobs are off on saturday now. it would make more sense to close saturday.
Have you forgotten how good it feels to get a letter or card from someone/ Especially without an occasion. If everyone wrote one letter each week, just because, the Post Office would be in great shape.
And for those that don't know - Standard mail is the only reason that the postage prices are as low as they are.
Say what you want about the US Post Office but I will say this, it is an amazing organization! Where can you send a letter from NY and have it arrive in Hawaii for 42 cents?! Think about this,US mail postage is either the cheapest or close to being the cheapest rate in the world. Also think of this, in 162 years, the price of a postage stamp went up only .37 cents!! Still a bargain!! MAILMEN ROCK!!!!
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