Posted on 09/19/2011 12:33:59 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Obama's Postal Service plan would cut Saturday mail By Emily Stephenson 15 mins ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration's plan to rescue the U.S. Postal Service would allow the agency to end Saturday mail delivery and sell non-postal products, according to documents released on Monday.
The plan, introduced alongside a deficit-reduction package, also would restructure a massive annual payment to prefund retiree health benefits and refund $6.9 billion the mail carrier says it overpaid into a federal retirement fund.
The White House says its plan would save the Postal Service more than $20 billion in the next few years.
"The administration recognizes the enormous value of the U.S. Postal Service to the nation's commerce and communications, as well as the urgent need for reform to ensure its future viability," the White House document said.
The Postal Service has watched its core business of delivering mail erode as consumers send email and pay bills online. The agency has said it needs to downsize drastically or it will be unable to deliver mail by the end of next summer.
The agency has said it needs to reduce payrolls by about 220,000 by 2015 and is studying thousands of post offices and about 300 processing facilities for possible closure.
(Excerpt) Read more at old.news.yahoo.com ...
That 2/3 of the mail comes to them all presorted, requiring minimal handling. In fact, “junk” mail is the only thing holding the cost of 1st Class postage down to where it now is.
[ why not allow other companies to compete with the post office so that we can get our mail? ]
Yeah, or move the ownership to the states and they can effectively deal with it.
At minimum, a major restructuring.
Maybe people don’t need Saturday delivery. Maybe a PO box at the post office for everyone — no home deliveries or pickup. Don’t the rural areas do this?
Something that might be painful for me but I might get used to it.
Probably long lines and how close would the post office be and larger facilities would be necessary? Never mind.
Didn’t the scandal come out sometime ago that US Postal Office paid some workers to be idle?
Imagine that, being paid not to do actual work in order to save (company) money. What a gig. Why would any honest/decent person derive self-satisfaction being one of those workers?
Just like any gubmint waste, the deadwood would never be trimmed, the solution has always been to have the rest to ‘share sacrifices’.
Privatize it and put it up for auction.
It can sink or swim.
you wouldn’t believe some of the things i’ve seen postal workers do.
[ That 2/3 of the mail comes to them all presorted, requiring minimal handling. In fact, “junk” mail is the only thing holding the cost of 1st Class postage down to where it now is. ]
Advertising is nice, but libs don’t like it.
“Great to cut services, but what if you have to mail something that needs to be there, with delivery confirmation ASAP?”
Funny you should mention that as just the other day I was at the library looking through the card catalogue when I found a book that claimed that one day most Americans would have access to something called Electronic Mail.
Apparently, all one would need to do is to buy a computer machine and from there they could type a letter push a button and that letter would be delivered across the country in a matter of seconds!
I know it all sounds a bit far fetched and it may not be available to you and I, but perhaps our great grand children would have one of them electronic mail machines.
Do you mean treat them like those of us in the private sector?
You're a heartless bast*rd, aren't you? :->
Cutting Saturday delivery won’t fix anything.
How about 2 day per week service and eliminating the USPS exclusive right to handle letter mail, so that for-profit companies can provide this service?
They’re going to have to reduce the number of workers by much more in order to come anywhere close to creating a viable operation, and they know it.
Why thank you
Think how much $$$ could be saved if delivery occured every other day.
Some would get there mail Monday, Wed. & Friday. Others on Tues. Thurs. & Sat.
THE USPS would need half as many delivery workers, vehicles & gas.
The people who will be really unhappy with these changes are the bulk mailers who stuff your mailbox with taxpayer subsidized garbage every day. And they are about to show their displeasure with K Street lobbyists. I would not hold my breath waiting for these changes to take place.
“How about makeing the a holes work harder for less pay and benefits”
how about paying them less if they work less and pay them more if they do a really great job? Just like they do in the real world.
“I know it all sounds a bit far fetched and it may not be available to you and I, but perhaps our great grand children would have one of them electronic mail machines.”
only if the USPS had competition. They’d rather have cuts in service for everyone instead of allowing competitors to bother them.
SHUT DOWN PUBLIC SERVICE UNIONS... NOT THE USPS!
LLS
Sorry, but I doubt anyone is going to start a business where they will hand deliver a letter from Miami, Florida to Anchorage, Alaska for forty four cents.
Small packages are indeed the lifeblood of USPS revenue. Without eEbay and Amazon there would be no more Postal Service. The USPS lock on PO boxes and mail boxes keeps Fedex Ground and UPS from being more competitive on the smaller packages. There is no financially viable future in delivering 1st class letters and junk mail and the USPS will never be competitive in delivering heavier packages (over 5 lbs). It’s time to let the chips fall where they may.
It’s called FedEx.
Please, some of those “aholes” are fellow freepers, and they do work hard.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.