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The U.S. Postal Service Nears Collapse

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Sanity Check May 28, 2011 10:32 PM GMT Cost savings. First, limit home delivery to Monday, Wednesday & Friday in normal delivery areas. For remote areas (bottom of the Grand Canyon, etc.), delivery one day a week. Second, all post office locations in towns of less than 10,000 are operated out of convenience stores, etc. In urban areas create a formula to limit post offices to one third of the number we have now. Third, create ways to obtain services via our home delivery that we currently have to go to the post office for (sending registered mail, etc.)The only thing standing between the USPS surviving and its death is politics. Unions=votes. I hate to see anyone lose their job but we can save some of the jobs or none of the jobs - its up to the politicians. In the meantime, I'll continue to both receive and pay my bills electronically.
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bunnybearhll May 28, 2011 10:31 PM GMT The federal government expects the USPS to operate like a private business, yet it excessively regulates its activities and business methods. This includes requiring regulatory approval of postal rate increases (for very inexpensive first class mail) and other issues such as the number of days mail is delivered. Congress has created a situation where the USPS cannot survive under current regulations. Let the USPS compete!
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taxed May 28, 2011 10:26 PM GMT Where is the half page summary without all the yak, yak, yak?
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PR May 28, 2011 10:22 PM GMT I work for the Post Office. I have friends who are drivers for some of the other delivery services (UPS, FedEx). Ask a UPS driver if they want to take over the delivery of mail (instead of only packages) next time you get a chance to visit with one...likely the answer will be no. They are "leaner...more efficient" because they are able to handle the easier parts of the delivery process. It's not always an efficient system...I am a part of it and see examples that make me scratch my head every day...but the Post Office is much more than a business that people perceive as failing. To think that anyone would want to "rush in to fill the void" is naive.
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terry May 28, 2011 10:18 PM GMT There is a very nice Postal Museum in Washington, DC, located next to Union Station. The irony is that pretty soon the ENTIRE postal service will be an exhibit in that same museum. I sincerely believe that most Americans will be happy when the postal service closes. The reason is because for years we have received awful service from our post offices, which treat us like we are dogs & children. I HATE going to a post office, to stand in line for an hour to buy a stamp, and in the case of my local post office it also closes its doors even before its posted closing time. They are only open when the rest of us work. Honestly, I cant wait to celebrate their closure. P.S. I did not even know the current price of a stamp, till I read your article, it has been that long since I have been willing to stand in line to buy one.
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ObamaGone2013 May 28, 2011 10:16 PM GMT Simple Solution: The USPS cannot raise its rates without Congress's approval--get the government out of the USPS and let the USPS rise or fall based on the market--let it charge what it needs to do.
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Pat May 28, 2011 10:16 PM GMT End the monopoly. I'd invest in a competing business next week if it wasn't illegal.
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Levon Tostig May 28, 2011 9:55 PM GMT Where are the environmentalists on this? Why aren't they here, begging, PLEADING for the USPS to be shuttered? All the CO2 they're spewing into the air... all the forests that are being destroyed by the JUNK paper the USPS moves around (isn't it better, after all, to NOT produce the junk mail, instead of producing it, only to send it to landfills or recycling?)... and, without all that gas being consumed, we'll surely have a whole lot more supply, so... gas prices will be cheaper, too!Let it fail like GM and Chrysler SHOULD HAVE. Then FedEx or UPS or some newer, leaner, efficient organization will rush in to fill the void.
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Bill Wood May 28, 2011 9:52 PM GMT There is a very workable option. Right now, we all get bombarded with junk mail that mass marketer send to us at dirt cheap rates. The USPS should dramatically raise those rates to 10 times the current cost. It would stop most of the junk, which reduces the cost of delivery the USPS faces, and the ones that still ship will bring extra revenue. We all get far less junk mail -- which we all universally hate anyway -- and we save lots of trees in the process. Everybody wins.
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liberosveritas May 28, 2011 9:44 PM GMT "In contrast, the USPS operates all of its post offices." This statement is false. There are small post offices run by third party companies in the US. They're called contract postal units.
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