(Any guesses as to the movie?)
Posted on 01/24/2011 8:16:56 AM PST by Libloather
U.S. Postal Service to close 2,000 post offices
By Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal
Posted today at 7:13 a.m.
With red ink showing no sign of stopping, the U.S. Postal Service is hoping to ramp up a cost-cutting program that is already eliciting yelps of pain around the country. Beginning in March, the agency will start the process of closing as many as 2,000 post offices, on top of the 491 it said it would close starting at the end of last year.
In addition, it is reviewing another 16,000 — half of the nation’s existing post offices — that are operating at a deficit, and lobbying Congress to allow it to change the law so it can close the most unprofitable among them. The law currently allows the postal service to close post offices only for maintenance problems, lease expirations or other reasons that don’t include profitability.
The news is crushing in many remote communities where the post office is often the heart of the town and the closest link to the rest of the country. Shuttering them, critics say, also puts an enormous burden on people, particularly on the elderly, who find it difficult to travel out of town.
The postal service argues that its network of some 32,000 brick-and-mortar post offices, many built in the horse-and-buggy days, is outmoded in an era when people are more mobile, often pay bills online and text or email rather than put pen to paper. It also wants post offices to be profitable to help it overcome record $8.5 billion in losses in fiscal year 2010.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagobreakingbusiness.com ...
There is *one* I know of who is getting "the axe" although it's a forced retirement, and not the actual fired for cause, with prejudice, and without references she deserves. But since she is a senior manager, what else do you expect?
the infowarrior
The USPS could operate just fine without a single post office. Close them all.
http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/testimony/2010/pr10_pdonahoe1202.htm
“STATEMENT OF
POSTMASTER GENERAL/CEO-DESIGNATE PATRICK R. DONAHOE
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON FEDERAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT,
GOVERNMENT INFORMATION, FEDERAL SERVICES,
AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
UNITED STATES SENATE
DEC. 2, 2010...
Let me share just a snapshot of our overall performance for FY 2010. Mail volume declined 3.5 percent. Our total net loss for the fiscal year was $8.5 billion. This loss consisted of a $500 million loss from our controllable operations, plus $5.5 billion of pre-funding for Retiree Health Benefits (RHB), plus a $2.5 billion non-cash adjustment to our workers’ compensation liabilities driven mostly by changes in interest rates. “
Losses 8B workers comp, .5B other .
I am certainly not a big fan of the USPS and would wholeheartedly call for common sense reform and cost trimming, but???
Gadzooks! Tell me, who is going to put the mail into your box if there is not a staff at the post office to do so?
Surely you misspoke above? You cannot be both that stupid and a long time resident of FR. The two are incompatible.
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/st_postoffice0124_20110124.html
The latest ( as of end 2010) list of closings.
Next they need to raise the rates for all that junk mail we get each day. If the rate becomes high enough then the junk will be reduced and help control cost.
I also think they should go to three day week delivery of residential mail to unique street addresses [PO boxes wouldn’t be impacted]. MWF and TTS with Sunday off would help considate the work force, equipment and reduce cost.
JMOs.
I never send any checks via mail, I use online bank bill pay, it’s quick and smooth and no .44 cent stamp or check that costs something.
(Any guesses as to the movie?)
Not a bad movie, but a better book.
Obama is so incompetent he can’t even prevent losing federal jobs to unemployment.
That’s a gimme.
The Postman.
I have tenants that set up automatic payments for their rent payments with their banks. The few times that the payments did not arrive as scheduled, the banks paid the late fees.
The Postman
“Next they need to raise the rates for all that junk mail we get each day. If the rate becomes high enough then the junk will be reduced and help control cost.”
You have it backwards, that “junk mail” is what keeps “your” cost low.
Damn, it was supposed to be Crum Petree in Funny Farm. Didn’t know the same actor was in Postman, lol!
Biopic of John Ratzenberger?
That will hurt businesses who rely on mail advertising.
They should install good stamp machines. The ones at my local post office used to be called Las Vegas and Atlantic City. That was before they died completely after digesting lots of people’s money.
They could also get rid of Grand Central Station. That’s prime real estate. Erect a high-rise office building or office/residence building and that will support the rest of the system.
And USPS does a lot of the final delivery work for UPS and Fed Ex now. It goes both ways. UPS basic and Fed Ex Smart Post goes through the post office to the customer.
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