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Patch's Poll: Can The U.S. Postal Service Be Saved?

Monday's announcement of the closing of mail processing centers means 'next day delivery' could become a thing of the past

For years the U.S. Postal Service's financial woes have been discussed and there have been cutbacks in an effort to reduce the agency's staggering deficit.

"Patrick Donahoe, the postmaster general, has repeatedly said that by 2015 he hopes to cut $20 billion from the agency’s annual costs, which are now about $75 billion," the New York Times reported Monday. "He has called for closing up to 3,700 of the nation’s 32,000 post offices, while reducing deliveries to five days a week from six, and cutting the agency’s work force of 653,000 employees by more than 100,000."

On Monday the USPS announced it will shut about half of its 487 mail processing centers across the nation. This could mean that "next-day delivery" becomes a thing of the past.

What do you think? Can the USPS be saved? Should it be saved? Take our poll and add your thoughts in the comments - do you ever go to the post office?

Lari December 5, 2011 at 09:00 pm
As rude as they are... Not without all new fresh blood...
tim December 5, 2011 at 10:48 pm
For the most part, the employees work very hard to deliver our mail and do a great job. The best way to save money is to have fewer stops and make customers drive to central locations to pick up their own mail.
Brett Vondeck December 5, 2011 at 11:09 pm
Customers will not drive to cental locations to pickup mail. Letters are out when you have email and cell phones. Parcels are delivered by Fedex and UPS. Maybe the post office should go the way of the pony express.
Elissa Bass (Editor) December 5, 2011 at 11:31 pm
Posted on my Facebook by my dear aunt: "USPS is a quasi-business sanctified in the Constitution but Congressional supervision has mandated that it do something no other business is required to do ... i.e., maintain a fund for 75 years ahead of pension/health funds ... that is rid...iculous and Congress needs to change ... at which point P.O. will be on more stable footing ... and yes, I go to a post office or postal station OFTEN and maintain 2 p.o. boxes in 2 different places ....."
Bree Shirvell December 5, 2011 at 11:39 pm
I actually love the idea of central locations to pick up mail. I live on a dead-end street with only seven other houses and yet USPS constantly delivers our mail to various neighbors who bring it to us once every other week at best. Not exactly efficient of USPS and we have to walk around trying to track down our mail.
B-Mom December 6, 2011 at 12:52 am
Driving to get the mail from a central location is not possible for many - think of the elderly or disabled. Not everyone is connected to the internet so there will always be a need for snail mail.
My suggestion - close on Sunday and Monday. Keep Saturday hours for those who work during the week and cannot get to a post office to mail packages and other stuff. Make the USPS user friendly!
There is NO business case that the Post Office will survive. Congress does not have the ability to create demand for its services. The problem will only get worse over time. Our aunts will have to figure out email and PO boxes will be a thing of the past. The best we can hope for is an orderly demise of the post office
jody December 6, 2011 at 02:02 am
Don't forget also that the post office also has postal inspectors , policing . Along with special safeguards that go along with mail delivery . Would the prosecuting choices be the same with fed ex etc . Some things are hard to replace online , especially with those other municipal budgets being cut too. As a side note I usually find the staff in clinton helpfull
John Sheehan December 6, 2011 at 02:43 am
The Post Office is required by the; Constitution. It must be made to survive. Taxpayers have to recognize that this service is expensive because it delivers to every person in the country, regardless of ability to pay. It is not cost effective for private companies to provide that detailed a service every day. If the post office is required to provide for a retirement fund that is not a requirement for all other government agencies or the private sector, then that legislation should be changed. It may require a mix of contract renegotiation and legislative change to keep the post office solvent.
Thomas Cornick December 6, 2011 at 03:24 am
In the US, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 44% of junk mail is discarded without being opened or read, equaling four million tons of waste paper per year .
Raising the fees for junk mail would be an environmetally sound solution The lobbyists at the Direct Marketing Association won't allow the Post Office to raise the rates for junk mail. I believe the solution is to sell the Postal Service to the Direct Marketing Association which is in effect who thay have been working for all along and require them to subsidize and deliver first class mail for the privellege of delivering the junk mail.
Andrew Barber December 6, 2011 at 05:56 am
I agree that it should be the right of every citizen to send and receive mail no matter whether they can afford to use UPS etc. or not. The U.S. Postal Service provides this service where private companies are not required to do so. I have live in a very rural location in South Dakota and cherished the mail I was sent from back home. I doubt that UPS makes regular visits to this town of 38 in the middle of nowhere.
Louie Ladrone December 6, 2011 at 11:32 am
The Waterford Post Office is a perfect example of why the postal system is where it is. Years and years of MISERABLE, unfriendly people who would have been fired by any other company, but are protected by the union. Mail being delivered to everyone else in the neighborhood, getting wrong mail from streets blocks away, priority mail being left on street curb mailboxes, etc etc and on and on. START by closing the Waterford post office and doing away with the front staff. Try making a turn around and use the photos of those miserables on huge billboards stating that "we've got rid of them, we are trying to be customer friendly, give us another chance"
Dannyboy December 6, 2011 at 12:38 pm
The US Mail system needs to be privatized and it could work. Very angry people work there and this would not be tolerated by a corporation that needs customer service. Yes it would probably be UPs or Fedex that will eventually take it over.
Cindy Eilenberger December 6, 2011 at 01:45 pm
I'm a little confused at a business who lessens their services as a way to build their business. I ship packages on a daily basis and can't see why USPS has never tried to compete with UPS or FED Ex ground services. My options with the USPS are Priority for most items but if weight or size causes it to be too expensive I have to opt for Parcel Post which can take 5-10 days for arrival and have had it take longer. As this is too slow, I usually opt for UPS Ground that arrives in 6 days or less. I would happily ship with USPS if they could offer a ground service that wasn't so slow and can't understand why they haven't tried to step into that market.
Another area that the USPS is very undependable on is their delivery confirmation and its tracking. Offer a service that tracks, again like UPS or Fed Ex, that lets the shipper and the recipient know where their package is at during its journey, not just when it is delivered. The only true tracking that the USPS offers is with Express Mail and its price is so ridiculous most can't consider it. Even with delivery confirmation, postal workers may or may not scan it. And if you opt to create and pay for your shipping labels online, most postal workers will refuse to scan your packages. Again, another service the USPS has decided is not necessary. Most of these post offices are working with a skeleton crew creating long lines, slow deliveries, and unfriendly customer service. Wake up USPS..you are creating your own demise.
BJ December 6, 2011 at 01:50 pm
John Sheenhan wrote: "The Post Office is required by the; Constitution." John, where exactly is that in the constitution? Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 gives congress the power to establish a postal system but how can that possibly interpreted as a "requirement" to do so? Clause 11 gives congress the "power" to declare war, but does that mean that they are "required" to declare war even if there is NO REASON to go to war?
R Lee Balderdash December 6, 2011 at 02:53 pm
Most postal service should be put out to bid, what should be retained is a USPS that deals with correspondence between the states and federal government, official legal correspondence between jurisdictions,anything that needs to be delivered pertaining to government. The rest of the mail service that is being conducted by the USPS- bills, letters, packages between private parties should be sold to the highest bidder.
Waterford Rez December 6, 2011 at 04:16 pm
Gee, another union run business going bankrupt...humm...one plus one equals two, fire burns paper, water runs down hill...some indisputable facts we all know backed up by simple empirical evidence. Here is another one: Unions destroy businesses. Proof is in the pudding as they say....have one person deliver one piece of mail once a year and fulfill the USPSs constitutional duty. Fire the rest. Let the private sector (driven by profit, not unions) take over.
John Sheehan December 6, 2011 at 05:32 pm
BJ - Actually it is Section 8 - The Founding Fathers recognized the necessity of having a reliable method of sending information between citizens. Only government will insure that "ALL" individuals are served, even when it is a "money loser" because there is insufficient population or business to support the service. That is the role of government, just like funding infrastructure (roads, etc), and providing police protection.
Edward Kolar December 6, 2011 at 07:15 pm
I think that if all Junk Mail's were just charged an extra 1 cent that the USPS would be rolling in clover for years and years.
BJ December 6, 2011 at 09:46 pm
John:
Interesting interpretation of what the founding fathers were thinking; but if they were thinking that why did they write something else? Are you also saying that the founding fathers envisioned that "ALL" individuals are entitled to receiving mail six days a week no matter where they choose to live? The constitution was established to limit the power of government, that is NOT what we have today. There MAY be an argument to save the USPS (though I have yet to hear it), but if you want to make it a constitutional argument, that is a lost cause
John Yannacci, Sr. December 6, 2011 at 10:31 pm
I think that any "franked" mail from politicians should be placed in the category of junk mail. As I'm writing this, there are five pieces of junk mail next to me that will go into the trash unopened.
Patsy Crothers December 7, 2011 at 01:40 pm
They should have changed delivery to 5 days a week along time ago and they are still 'thinking' about it,go figure. Most people work 5 days a week why them 6 days,it's unnecessary.
BJ December 7, 2011 at 03:32 pm
PC:
Why do we even need mail 5 days a week? Cut the staff and trucks by half and deliver the mail every other day, or cut the staff and trucks by 70% and deliver every third day. There are endless solutions to the USPS problems, the point is that if the government is involved there is no innovation or common sense; they have but one goal: PERSONAL POWER (burning through money is just a bonus for them). Add a union to the equation and service, successes, and profitability is not only NOT the goal, the are impossible.
Lynda J. Jean December 7, 2011 at 04:45 pm
I rely on the post office, seeing I have a business on a street that mail deliveries do not offer and must have a PO Box so that I do get my mail. So I am without a doubt relying on the Post Office to delivery my mail for our business.
Laura December 7, 2011 at 05:13 pm
I'm with you Thomas - they should raise the fees for junk mail! Advertising costs are increasing everywhere else - why should it be different with the post office?
Josephine Mokriski December 9, 2011 at 04:06 am
I agree with most things John Sheehan has to say, also congress should get out of the way of the Postal Service and let it run its self. Regarding the service and friendlieness of the workers I have never had a bad experience in either Branford,Guilford or Madison. If you have a problem how about reporting it to the manager who in turn can rectify the situation.
Nancy December 9, 2011 at 08:20 am
as much as it might seem irrelevant, it wasn't so long ago that rural areas not only did NOT have daily mail, but it was iffy and unreliable as heck.
what has changed was the means to transport the mail bags (they still use them!) across distances, and rather than go as far back as horse and carriage, they claimed great success when railroads began hauling the TONS of mail from east to west. now each competitor uses air freight services to move TONS of parcels completely around the planet. now we use internet to move our many of our messages (encrypted and secure) in fractions of seconds to each other. the old concept of having 'paper in hand' is usually only for LEGAL/CONTRACTUAL purposes (the blasted lawyers!) or sentimental lovebirds separated by no good reason. the business of moving parcels (boxes, weighty stuff) around efficiently, was hijacked by use of dirt cheap fuel (for trucks/planes) combined with smart use of technology by Fedex, UPS, and the 'other ' mob of wannabe delivery services. the commercial parcel/courier have unions, but they also work their people like hell. they trim business fat like it was poison and they show a profit. they also only deliver 'on demand', not on a guaranteed schedule as the post office does. they would sink if they had to provide the same service the post office does, on every street, every day, everywhere.
Nancy December 9, 2011 at 08:22 am
until those plump mouthpieces we call legislators in Congress actually feel any pain, will they assist the citizens.
but don't hold your breath waiting, as they have control of all the hot air space available.

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Scotty B June 11, 2013 at 07:15 pm
You facts are correct Kathleen, Since Chief Ackley was promoted in June 2009 - Close to 40Read More Officers have left the department! 13 retired 22 went to other police departments 3 resigned or were terminated Survey says...! Instead asking about the nice artwork, lets ask why they are leaving...?!
Rick Lushay June 12, 2013 at 08:07 am
Scotty B. If you know or even speak to any police officers or any NLPD employees you would know theRead More reason why the officers are leaving. The police administration is terrible, no leadership at the top and a city administration and four city councilors driven to gut and destroy the police department. These well educated and ambitious young officers know that there is no career opportunity here in the Whaling City so they are doing what is best for themselves. You would do the same.
Kathleen Mitchell June 12, 2013 at 06:02 pm
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