Post office to end Saturday delivery!!!

It's about time. I've suggested this as a cost savings alternative for years. I can do without flyers, junk mail and bills on Saturday.

I always wondered why this wasn't done before.

Keep the post office open on Saturdays but who needs their mail that day?

Besides, now I can park my truck on the street, right in front of the box, without getting yelled at by the mail carrier.

Mine would bring it up to the house and see if I broke down. Neighbors would just drive around thinking I was coyote hunting. My neighbor down the hollow was sitting in his pickup waiting for the hounds when a local kid came around the bend too fast and slid sideways into him. Kid t-boned himself and smacked his head through the side window.

So here we have a USPS that loses billions of dollars a year but still found enough taxpayer money to fund juicy endorsements for that rat fink Lance Armstrong.

They need to end Tuesday and Thursdays as well. Or maybe have businesses on Mo, We, Fr and the residences Tu and Th.

You seriously do not need mail every day. It's the stupidest idea ever.

waybomb said:

They need to end Tuesday and Thursdays as well. Or maybe have businesses on Mo, We, Fr and the residences Tu and Th.

You seriously do not need mail every day. It's the stupidest idea ever.

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I think my neighbors would be lost without daily delivery. They'll pull up to the mailbox, shut off their vehicles (including his diesel truck?!?!) and sit there on the side of the road and read their mail. They'll sometimes sit there for close to 10 minutes. I assume it's because they got a magazine that day.

Personally, I grab the mail and throw it on my desk. Once or twice a week I'll go through it.

It's unclear, though, how the service can eliminate Saturday mail delivery without congressional approval.

For the past 30 years, Congress -- which oversees the otherwise independent agency -- has included a provision insisting on Saturday delivery. That provision still stands, leaving some on the Hill bewildered about the announcement Wednesday.

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It is uncertain whether this proposal is subject to Congressional approval. As in previous attempts to revamp the postal service, Congress won't vote for anything that will direct eliminate jobs or reduce work hours of their constituents.

waybomb said:

They need to end Tuesday and Thursdays as well. Or maybe have businesses on Mo, We, Fr and the residences Tu and Th.

You seriously do not need mail every day. It's the stupidest idea ever.

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I agree. Mon, Wed, Fri are enough.

Bob

I caught on the news last night that the postal unions are having a fit and calling for the ouster of the Postmaster General.

I'm wondering what they are going to do with the fruit shipments they handle. My oranges from Florida are moldy when I get them as it is. ( It's why I don't order them any more but recently got a half moldy box for a present)

And what about all the drop shipped stuff from UPS and Fed-ex ? Will UPS have to deliver thier own packages, now ?

ETA: I read that they will still be open Saturday and you can get packages.

How does that thing work between the UPS/FedEx and the USPS where the USPS does the final delivery?

UPS never delivered on Saturday's (at least around here).

bczoom said:

How does that thing work between the UPS/FedEx and the USPS where the USPS does the final delivery?

UPS never delivered on Saturday's (at least around here).

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USPS parcel service will not be affected. It will still operate on Saturdays.

AndyM said:

It is uncertain whether this proposal is subject to Congressional approval. As in previous attempts to revamp the postal service, Congress won't vote for anything that will direct eliminate jobs or reduce work hours of their constituents.

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So Congress considers only the postal, government, and union workers are their constituents now, right?

I been sayin' that for years.

This is how the govt fixes a $16,000,000,000 problem, by cutting $2,000,000,000 in costs.

Fix the phukin thing already.
Nobody needs delivery 6 days a week.
Nobody needs delivery even 4 days a week.
Cut everything in half. Close every other post office.
Make everybody put road side mailboxes up, or, better yet, a big box for the entire neighborhood.
How stoopid is having some person walking 8 hours a day delivery envelopes?
If the neighborhood wants door service, let them pay for and hire a valet to pick it up at po boxes.

Kane said:

So here we have a USPS that loses billions of dollars a year but still found enough taxpayer money to fund juicy endorsements for that rat fink Lance Armstrong.

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Government almost always picks losers. They know no other way.

is wise in most ways, financally. except that affects a few things. medicines & testing supplies sent via mail may arrive late, payments overdue as the mail was not running.

i leave mail in my box on junkmail days, & get the mail when my box is full or i'm goin' somewhere & passing by the boxes, anyhow. or see a package.

waybomb said:

This is how the govt fixes a $16,000,000,000 problem, by cutting $2,000,000,000 in costs.

Fix the phukin thing already.
Nobody needs delivery 6 days a week.
Nobody needs delivery even 4 days a week.
Cut everything in half. Close every other post office.
Make everybody put road side mailboxes up, or, better yet, a big box for the entire neighborhood.
How stoopid is having some person walking 8 hours a day delivery envelopes?
If the neighborhood wants door service, let them pay for and hire a valet to pick it up at po boxes.

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That is actually not entirely feasable.
Some areas have street parkig so the street box is not workable.

Then there is the high density areas with multi level structures.
Some solutions have been tried. Gang boxes for subdivisions or at the end of rural streets for example.

Here's the thing, 80% of the mail volume is junk mail that does not pay the same rate per piece as personl mail. Partly because it is preprocessed, pre-sequenced for delivery, and partly because it is not a gauranteed delivery. There is always room for improvement yes. And cutting Saturday deliveries is a major cost cutter.

Our mail system allows someone to place an envelope mesage in a box anywhere in the USA and have it delivered in a reasonbly timely and assured fashion, to anywhere else in the USA. All for 46 cents. Incredible value. The USPS works. One of the few Gubmint programs that actualy does.

I dare you to try setting up a bussiness on that model. So quit picking on the USPS. They are suffering the same as the Dept. of Defense. Something useful our nation needs. Something dependable upon which our prosperity has been assured. Something that is required by the Constitution for logical reasons very intelligent men implemented at our founding. But Ciongress will threaten to cut it instead of pork.

All these neccesary functions of government must compete for the precious dollars now being diverted and earmarked for social justice programs, welfare moms and Corporate subsidy pork programs like Solyndra and ETOH production.

The real problem for the U.S. Postal Service is that Congress ordered the post office to pay ahead 75 years of expected pensions. In other words, pay ahead for pensions for people not even hired yet. No other corporation or government agency has to work under such an unfair burden.
The solution to this strictly political, manmade “crisis”? Undo the 75 years’ advance payment requirement. We could also give the USPS some profit centers that would help theworking man. For instance allowing the post offices to also handle such tasks as notarizing papers, having coin machines available for making copies, selling maps or the like.

The problem with the post office is that for some reason congress has a say in how they operate. Take that away and I dare say they could come very close to breaking even. Does any other business pay 75 years ahead for pensions?

I agree with Fred that no one needs mail 6 days a week. Times have changed. To bad Congress will not allow the post office to make a reasonable business decision all because they are worried about themselves getting reelected. More BS from the politicians who are destroying our country.

They do it for 46 cents? How about 46 cents PLUS 1,600,000,000,000 cents.

They can put boxes on corners. Or the dead side of a fire hydrant. No, there is a low cost solution. And walking door-to-door is not one of them.

The USPS certainly does not need television, radio, and billboard ads, they don't need to print and send me pamphlets on USPS services, they don't need to print and send pamphlets about buying stamps through the mail.

Cut the damn costs.

waybomb said:

They do it for 46 cents? How about 46 cents PLUS 1,600,000,000,000 cents.

They can put boxes on corners. Or the dead side of a fire hydrant. No, there is a low cost solution. And walking door-to-door is not one of them.

The USPS certainly does not need television, radio, and billboard ads, they don't need to print and send me pamphlets on USPS services, they don't need to print and send pamphlets about buying stamps through the mail.

Cut the damn costs.

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You clearly do not understand the USPS. Why we have it. Tht's OK. but the walking around stuff, sure some can be cut. But that is not thefical issue with the USPS.

My business has been tangentaly involved with bulkmail operations of the USPS for many years. And I have more than once dealt with local post masters. My grandfather was a USPS postmaster in Independence MO. So was one of my Uncles.

USPS was going into the black until Congress decided to use it to smoke screen pension funds with USPS dollars. It is probably one of the best run government agencies out there. Which may not be saying much.


So,,,,, when you want to talk seriously, look into it a little more, get some facts and come back I'm open to honest, and hopefully calm, discusssion.

BTW, As a former firefighter, I can tell you with some authority, there is no "dead side" to a fire hydrant.

Doc said:

The problem with the post office is that for some reason congress has a say in how they operate. Take that away and I dare say they could come very close to breaking even. Does any other business pay 75 years ahead for pensions?

I agree with Fred that no one needs mail 6 days a week. Times have changed. To bad Congress will not allow the post office to make a reasonable business decision all because they are worried about themselves getting reelected. More BS from the politicians who are destroying our country.

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You pegged it prtetty fair there DOC.

USPS has problems because of the Congress.

Aside from management decisions, the USPS is also the labratory for affirmitive action initiatives and othe social justice agendas. The Congress and the Unions make it very difficult to make needed changes to adapt to modern technology and modern customer preferences.

Hell,automated readers weren't allowed until the late eighties early nineties because the unions wanted more employees to continue processing just like they did it in 1789.

And Congress wanted those contibutions and those votes so they wouldn't authrize modernizations. That one instance alone should tell you who your Congressman thinks he works for.

Door to door delivery works fine for UPS and Fed-Ex. So much so they often pick up the slack for the USPS. For a while there FED-EX was vying to get the whole enchilada. Literaly take over the USPS. But then a first class stamp would have been $4.00 and how would that sit with the public.

The USPS does fill a vitalneed. Just as does the Dept of Defense. And look, the progressives want to cut that one down also. But don't touch the money sent to, Planned Parenthood and alternative energy boondoogles.

Or Section 8 housing and the Food stamp program which makes good people ultimately dependent on Uncle Sam for their very shelter and food sources.