Post Office Cuts 25,000 Jobs This Year

cbsnews ^ | May 18, 2009

[rgboomers]

Fedex and UPS both have a certain percentage of their mail delievered by the USPS. It is highly unprofitable to make delieveries into rural areas. Hence, both Fedex and UPS transfer some of their delieveries to the USPS for areas where it would cost too much to profitably make the delievery. The USPS helps Fedex and UPS to make money. It is a good deal for both.

The primary problem for the USPS is the US Congress which constantly gets in the way of cost cutting and efficiency. The USPS is supposedly independent but the Congress interfers frequently. Efforts by the USPS to have laws passed further limiting what Congress can do to get in their way have failed.

[clee1]

That’s what happens to government-run or quasi-government organizations.

There is almost NOTHING that government does that cannot be done more cheaply and/or efficiently by private business.

Can you say Amtrak?

[rgboomers]

It is true that government can do almost nothing cheaper than private interests. What I’m pointing out is that a merging of the two, private and public, sometimes can work out very well. One more example is the private contractor mail carriers utilized by USPS. I use to be one. I delievered the US MAIL for about 1/3 the cost of a government employee. I’d like to see the government greatly expand the use of private contractors. The USPS could probably reduce the postage costs of a first class letter to about 30 cents if contractors were used to the extent they should.

[proudpapa]

By having nationalized postage rates, it protects the smaller communities in the middle of nowhere.

If you’re in Boston, it costs the same to mail a letter to Wasilla, Alaska as it does to Portland, Maine.

Since most small towns in the middle of nowhere vote the same way I do, I won’t complain to loudly, that they’re getting a “break”.