I can see why the USPS is losing customers. I've had 4 packages returned to sender in as many months. Tracking information shows "out for delivery" at say 7:00 am and returned to sender undeliverables at 7:20 am. Really? Post Office said they can't comment since the package has left the building. Mean while never had same experience with UPS or FedEx. Want to really get annoyed sign up for "informed delivery" with the Post Office and see how much of your mail actually never reaches you.

Junk mail for profit?
 

Junk mail would actually help the USPS IF they were charges the same rate as business mail. We pay 55 cents to mail a bill or to communicate with a politician. The politician or the company that wants out business pays a small fraction of the actual cost. And how about Amazon? It's a big laugh how they're delivering packages using the USPS at a DISCOUNTED rate. Then add everyone else's magazines and store ads.

If all those companies, and there are many others, actually paid the real cost to deliver, the Post Office would be in the black. It can stay a federal "service," so remote locations can stay connected, but RUN IT like a business.

Thanks. Things I had not considered before myself. And they could cut the 75 years to 35-40 and save a bundle. Very few retirees are going to out live that, right?

I still get my bills by mail! I pay them online, but I'm of the old-school and like the paper for my records. I also get prescriptions by mail. Now, if they could figure out a way to get rid of the JUNK mail, I would be all for that!

Postal service
 

Most people know nothing about the postal SERVICE. YES it is a service. They do not know what the postal RATE commission is. Back in the mid 80s when gas increased from $1.00 to $3.00 and ups & fedx tacked on a 'gas surcharge' to cover the increase in costs CONGRESS would not all the service to charge an extra penny. When i performed an EXTENSIVE return on investement (roi) and an economic determination annalyss on two offices and drtermined that the income from BOTH barely covered the costs of one office. I had strong evidence that a consolidation was needed. I met 3 times with community leasers and residents. Then "THE POLITICAL part kicked in. The senator and congress person said NO NO NO because they may lose a few votes....

I think if they privatize it with a condition that every address in the US be served it would become much more efficient.

It took till post number 32 to state the obvious. Thanks. There are a lot of pros and cons to going private or to stay governmental. Either get the government to fix the problems (i.e., charge more for junk mail) or negotiate with the private sector. Private sector - If you want this then you've got to take care of this as well. No one says it would be easy.

Why they are so far in the hole. They need to get rid of the layers of management. To offer that at low price they need to be efficient, not just another federal agency.

The USPS is the ONLY US agency that generates money. It does not get money from our taxes, it makes money for our government through postage. Which is why -to me- people in government are trying to get rid of it. This way they can privatize it and make money themselves. Stop them if you care about your rights. Delivering of the mail to every person in America is guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

I used to work for the Post Office and your suggestion would be a logistic nightmare and would not be possible. The biggest problems with the USPS is for many workers who have longevity, they pay is astronomical. They get 10% for any hours after 6:00 pm and an additional 25% for any Sunday pay. I used to work on Sundays and so they could say back then they did away with all Sunday workers, they pushed my hours back to that the majority of them were after 6:00 pm so they could count it as MONDAY pay. Now because of that move, I now got that 10% night pay AND 25% Sunday pay, so I was making my regular wage plus 35% more. And that's how they push the numbers to say they saved money by eliminating Sunday workers.

They also have many bad workers who sit around and do nothing, go to breaks and never come back unless a supervisor gets them and because of the Union, nothing can ever be done. We had a woman who worked the stamp counter so she had a lot of responsibility and got her daughter a job there. The daughter was stealing credit cards out of people's mail and going out and using them to charge stuff and then throw the cards away. Of course the postal inspectors caught her eventually and all they did was ask her to quit. No fine, no prosecution, etc. There are horror stories like this all the time there and nothing can be done about bad workers because of the union. You never hear about these problems.

You can't privatize the system either because the big companies would take the cream of the crop (aka big cities) and leave the small towns and rural routes to somehow get their mail elsewhere.

So, basically there is no solution, but to keep a lousy, corrupt system.

I think that, if I was allowed to remove my mailbox, the Post Office would figure out a way to deal with it, and companies would stop sending me mail, especially if they had to pay for the returned mail postage. Also, people who live in small towns and rural areas receive letters and packages from UPS and FedEx all the time.

Usps
 

The USPS doesn’t receive any money from the Federal Government. Your tax dollars do not go to the USPS. In fact, the money goes the other way. The USPS is the only Federal agency required to Prefund its post retirement benefits. (No one in private industry does this either.) Everyone else is on a pay-as-you go basis. They have prefunded almost $6 billion per year since 2006. All this money goes back to the Federal budget to reduce deficits. That’s why this requirement was originally saddled on the USPS. It’s also the main reason for their losses.

The US mailing industry consists of 7.3 million jobs, 4.3% of all US jobs. The USPS is only 8.7% of the 7.3 million. The industry contributes $1.6 trillion to the US economy. That’s as big as the US auto and airline industry combined.

There’s been a postal reform bill floating in Congress for years now. It would give the USPS flexibility to solve their problems including the ability to set rates that are now regulated. They just can’t raise rates to Amazon without it being approved by regulators.

WRONG.


It runs a deficit.................it does not "generate money."........it burns money.


$160,000,000,000 in debt. Who do you think will have to pay it???

Yes......the someone is you. They are self-sinking, not self-funded.


:ohdear:

i vote to privatize it. You'll still get your mail and your prescriptions. Very remote areas will have to drive to a central area and pick up their mail. That's the way it should be. It's ridiculous how much the PO loses and has to be propped up by the taxpayer. One less political football for politicians to play with.

Would think it could be privatized under conditions that we all have to get our mail.

A quick search of fact-checking sites...would show this to be patently untrue.

I can't link any of them, for obvious reasons (re: the folks spreading this false rumor), but in the immortal words of the X-Files...the truth is out there. :ho:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....AC_SL1500_.jpg

You have went right to the heart...of the argument/issue. :thumbup:

USPS compared to our Royal Mail is so much cheaper.
We always bring all our Christmas and New Years Cards with us from UK to post to all our friends and family abroad when we come over.
At least 50% cheaper!

The Bill of Rights? Well, either way, the Gov’t is already taking money from the revenue the USPS generates. Much of the money from the future 75 years of retirement funds is being used by the Gov’t in their own budgets. Also, if a private company had to provide everything the USPS does (including delivery to every address in the nation), it would constantly have to be bailed out or it would fail. Seems to me that we are better off figuring out how to fix some of the bigger problems instead of throwing out the baby with the bath water.

You are totally wrong. Buy something from Amazon for say $ 8 and it is shipped by air cross country for the same price. How can the post office make money on their share of the sale?

I believe most of the "mail" is packages like Amazon and Kohl's. These companies should be supporting the mail system and not taxes.

Postal service costs
 

After reading the thread, mostly negative, I looked up "Is the postal service a government agency?" The answer is normal government confusion but the postal service is an independent agency of the executive branch. It receives NO tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and service to fund its operation. However it also is protected by 200 federal laws enforced by the Postal Inspection Service. So what the devil is it? The govt requires it to provide retirees funds for what 75 years but its not a true government agency (this changed many years ago). But when it fails to properly fund itself it calls on the taxpayers to bale it out? By the way, lets talk about fake news. A few weeks ago there was an ad on Facebook recruiting all levels of postal workers. At the beginning of the ad it stated that entry level salary was just over $72,000 a year (yes, 72k) but then at the end of the ad it said $17 an hour. Perhaps this is why its so messed up. They can't multiply. $17 an hour for a full year is $35,360 not $72,000. I'm sure we can all gone on about our experiences. Meanwhile lets throw away those pieces of junk mail. Discussions are very difficult on how to fix the system.

The postal service does a great job at a fair price. Leave it alone!

I second that. !!!

I had a contract for painting 3 Post Offices in the 90s. There was a least 3 people sitting on their A$$ for every person working. The most supervisors per worker I had ever seen. The Moral was in the Dumps. We completed our contract and turned down all future offers from the Company that owned the buildings. The management has spent the Pension Money and the Federal Government has been supporting them every since. The workers were nice but it was still the most depressing place with the most miserable management of any place I've ever worked. At least a Private company makes sure management has more than seniority. Ask your mail carrier in the Villages if the have Retirement? The answer in No. This has been a poorly run business for decades. These are my OPINIONS from experience and are not to be construed as POLITICAL.

Cut out the government pensions like corporate america did.

USPS reform
 

First there is absolutely no need for Saturday delivery. Look at the millions that would be saved. Stick to two day delivery on important matters and not overnight. That could go to one of the other shippers. There isn't a lot of money to be made because there isn't that much shipped overnight. Make the responsibilities of retirement totally an employees business. No federal backing. A good majority of big industry no longer supplies retirement to its' employees. Most of the mail people here in TV are independents and is what it should be. They too should be paid a decent wage which I know they are not.

If you have been in a large facility that sorts and distributes mail you would see a lot of people not working. Some employees of these f postal facilities have side gigs they run while on the job. It's not like Miracle on 34th street anymore. I have more than a few stories about the inefficiency on the PO. (Relative was a postmaster)

You sure you’re not taking about teachers union retirement plan?

Privatize the policy

All the good officers are requesting retirement or resigning.

That's what was said about the stage coach.


:1rotfl:

we're starting the last life end of month in tv so will delay opinion of fl's local dmv til then,,, have to admit fruitland's p/o personnel were pleasant,,, however, what i express mail'd to my office took 8d to arrive,,, rather slow, eh ?

UPS and FedEx do NOT deliver to rural the packages are passed on to the Usps who delivers what’s called “ The Last Mile” they don’t go anywhere outside of big city where they can make a profit - if the Postal Service went private, they too would only deliver to the “cream at the top” and you may start paying over 100 to mail a package!! Right now USPS is mandated to deliver to every American, goods and services.

uninformed fake news
 

just how many hundreds of millions of pieces of mail is junk make that goes directly into the shredder or trashcan every day without being read? My dad retired from the PO in the 70's, I left PO employment in the mid 70's after deciding turning into an alcoholic to endure the stupid management wasn't worth the job. This was a time when the main Jax post office at west bay annex was not air conditioned at all and the parcel post was manhandled on the top floor. But I am still on the side of funding the PO with the hope that changes might occure but the union needs to tune down their demands.

How much of it was junk main?
I recently spoke with a postal employee at Lady Lake PO. I was complaining about my desire to stop some of the garbage mail I get. She summed it up this way, "That junk mail keeps us in business.

If it was privatized with the requirement that all mail must be handled at a profit and delivered to all address in the US posts office might have a shot

Obviously a poor analogy. The USPS flounders in red ink every year. There are several healthy private companies that would likely keep prices low. Ditch the USPS!

Man, if I could hit that thumbs up button a hundred times...

It's very simple. You create a contract with Fed EX, UPS and other private carriers that mandate that they deliver to every address in the country.

There is very little that the government does that private industry doesn't do better, less expensively and more efficiently.

There are somethings that need to be handled by government but they are few and far between. Police, fire and military are the basics.

Many of the other programs have been established to give more power to elected officials.