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?
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!
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
but don't hold your breath waiting, as they have control of all the hot air space available.