Postal Service broke

[UserRemoved1]

UPDATE 1-US Postal Service loses $3.5 bln in third quarter | Reuters

Well let's keep spending all kinds of huge money on tv spots, and radio spots. I'm willing to bet if they dropped 1/2 their advertising they be making money. What a load of horse%$%$%$%$

[BigFish]

Here in Hanover we have 2 PO branches, both on the same stretch of rt. 139.....about 2 miles apart??? That makes good financial sense right?? One only has 1 clerk working there??? Make fiscal sense to close it and move the employee to the main branch...wouncha say???

[striperman36]

I say but out a bid to outsource it to the private carriers, watch how quickly service would improve. The USPS is still working with 1960's logistics.

And then lets do the FAA so we can have UAV's deliver the mail between DC's

[Raven]

bring back the Pony's....!!!

no fuel , creating assisted walking from

pony express ..less vehicle maintenance

pony's convert grass to a methane producing fuel

the post office should be the first to go green

good place to make use of the wild horse's
that are non native to America

[stcroixman]

maybe Obama should start working on Postal Service Reform.

Isn't that what he does best?

[Raven]

great idea ...can't wait to see him in Postal shorts with the presidential seal.....

[PRBuzz]

USPS did drop sponsorship of the US Cycling team (Tour de France)! Probably saved a few million $?

[PaulS]

The price of mail is too inexpensive. For $.44, I can have someone come to my house, pick something up and deliver it to Calif. in 3 days.

[PRBuzz]

The USPS survives on 4th class/bulk mail now a days, not the personal mail sent at $0.44. Go email! FaceBook! and all the other networking sites. Cell phones (verbal/txting) too cut out much of the mail. I think "we" communicate more with each other today than ever before (not saying all is good). Just look at the driver in the car next to you!

[fishbones]

Originally Posted by PaulS

The price of mail is too inexpensive. For $.44, I can have someone come to my house, pick something up and deliver it to Calif. in 3 days.

It's not so much the price per piece of mail, but the quantity being sent. People pay bills online now, they send e-cards, they write emails instead of letters and businesses are doing much more via email or through intranet. The postal service is becoming obsolete because of technology.

[PaulS]

Originally Posted by fishbones

It's not so much the price per piece of mail, but the quantity being sent. People pay bills online now, they send e-cards, they write emails instead of letters and businesses are doing much more via email or through intranet. The postal service is becoming obsolete because of technology.

agree, other than holiday cards, I prob. sent out 3 stamped env. a year. I pay all my bills online and if I have to send someone $, I do it online thru my bank.

[detbuch]

Originally Posted by fishbones

It's not so much the price per piece of mail, but the quantity being sent. People pay bills online now, they send e-cards, they write emails instead of letters and businesses are doing much more via email or through intranet. The postal service is becoming obsolete because of technology.

It's pretty much true that email has replaced the simple first class letter, but the USPS "business" model was flawed early on. It subsidized the cost of sending a letter from Boston to Fairbanks, AL by charging the same fee to sending a letter to a local destination. It's a nice, egalitarian idea, but . . . And it was able to deter private competition by making it a Federal crime to place anything other than USPS delivered items in mail boxes. What really made it economically difficult (before the email problem--which the PO is smart enough to offer as a service for a fee) is the absurd growth of benefits the postal workers got as various Government employee unions bargained with compliant Government officials in the 1960s and thereafter. That's when the postal rates began and since have continued to steadily rise. As PRBUZZ says, the 4th class junk mail is what now keeps the USPS afloat. And it is a worldwide problem. Not only has the cost of running the system become unsustainable, the quality has collapsed. It is much safer to send items to foreign destinations by private courier than by Government POs. Registered Mail is still pretty safe, but not assured, and often takes up to a month to arrive. It is not uncommon to get your neighbors credit card statement delivered to your box.

[JohnnyD]

I haven't mailed out a letter in almost a year. Electronic Bill pay and FedEx for me.