Posted on 02/17/2012 1:10:30 PM PST by Java4Jay
The U.S. Post Office, facing financial losses of up to $18.2 billion a year by 2015, wants to charge more for postage, more for services, and to suspend Saturday delivery.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Using the most economical means:
For a package weighing .3 lbs
USPS $74.95
Fedex $91.15
Dunno when it stopped, but for a long time the postcard companies had people hand-color the photos.
Walter Wyckoff, when he walked/worked across America as a social experiment in 1891, ran into a guy who was conned in Chicago (where else?). It seemed to be a variation of the "stuff envelopes at home" scam. For a "fee" the person would buy a group of photos to hand color at home, then sell them back to the company. Unfortunately, they always found "flaws" and wouldn't pay or else gave such complicated photos that it took too much time to be profitable.
A post office is a dilapidated, dirty building that is owned by the government and staffed with angry union workers. You can stand in line there for a good part of an hour to purchase an overpriced shipping service. You can purchase envelopes for an extra fee. Once your package is sent you have no record of its existence until the recipient tells you that it arrived. There is nobody to call regardless of the need. An option exists where for extra money you can purchase a number, and you can track your package by that number once per day, whenever the USPS worker can be bothered to scan the barcode.
Alternatives include FedEx and UPS. These services send you free envelopes and labels; you can set up your account on their Web sites and print shipping labels on your computer. When you are ready the driver will stop by your place and collect the package for free. The driver will typically not curse you for using their service. Once the package enters the UPS system (or earlier!) the package will be scanned and tracked whenever anyone touches it, and you can track it in real time. In case of change of plans you can call these companies and talk to a live person who will assist you.
http://stampsmarchingforth.blogspot.com/2011/10/usps-will-increase-first-class-postage.html
When I first looked at the postcard I thought it was a color photograph and wondered how they managed it back then.
I had scanned it at high resolution and decided to enlarge a portion and sure enough, it was clearly hand colored.
Fedex - ups wage/revenue difference is due to ups being union.
Ups - usps wage/revenue diff is difference btwn private union and govt union.
Hint - think about your govt union teachers....
I was thinking that packages might give the post office a chance of surviving in some form, now, not so much.
Why not just glue a dollar bill on the GD envelope?
(Full disclosure: I’m a postal worker)
>>I just paid $4.00 per gallon for REGULAR gas.
Think of all the postal vehicles out there, trucks, jeeps,
etc. Think of how much gas has gone up. That has to affect
the price of postage. Of course things like postal salaries and the _mandated pre-funding of retirement and health care
decades into the future, in a short time frame_ is another reason.
Yes, fewer people are mailing but there’s still quite a bit of mail to be processed. Facilities are being cut in half.
My big sorting center already is jammed with mail and soon
when another center closes down, even more mail and some
employees from that center (the ones who won’t be taking
early retirement) will be coming in. Our pay is frozen
(only the military among govt. workers don’t have their pay frozen). Eliminating Sat. delivery, getting rid of the
pre-funding mandate (only govt. agency to be forced to do so), and a small postage increase (50 cents won’t break your bank) will help.
$1.45—price of 20 oz. Pepsi in a vending machine at work.
For less than that (45 cents per), you can send three
letters 3,000 miles away.
When costs increase, they have to be passed along. Yes a lot of people say “make everything go by e-mail”. But there’s still a need for:
—birthday cards (non e-cards, physical ones)
—wedding invitations
—tax forms
—advertising mail
—Valentines, Christmas cards, etc.
—etc.
We need a streamlined and effective postal service. Cuts are
being made to weed out the fat.
I suppose it would be nice if a stamp cost a quarter
but see the prices of things around you; factor in
gas, electricity, etc. Eventually stamps do need to go
up but they’re still affordable. It’s not like we charge
$1.50.
There have been great reductions in force. In fact big sorting centers like where I work are going from 500 to
about 200.
Maybe we should stop delivering to every single address in
the country. So you live in Pawlet, Vermont, on the NY
border? No longer will you get mail in your mailbox. Instead,
drive 30 miles to Rutland and pick it up there.
That would help...right? (/ sarcasm)
>>email, electronic bill pay, etc., that it would make sense to go to a MWF delivery system
Yes. It is true that more people do pay online (even I,
a postal worker, do). But a lot of people still do pay
by mail. I see lots of credit card and utility payments
being sent to NJ, Delaware, etc.
No, people in Pawlet, VT would still get their mail delivered into their mailbox just like they do now ... it would just be Monday-Wednesday-Friday or Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday, instead of six days a the week.
Whatever their schedule is, on their “off” days their mailman would be delivering to some other small town.
I was agreeing with you; what I meant was the USPS is required to deliver to all addresses. Under privatization that might not necessarily continue. As for retail post offices some are being closed down but hopefully it won’t be too much of a hardship. (There are options like stamps via
your PC printer etc...or would it mean driving 30 miles
away to mail a package via USPS if smaller offices
were to be shuttered?
The facilities I was talking about that are being consolidated are big distribution facilities not the smaller
offices.
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