U.S. Postal Service Decides to Respond to Inefficiency with Inconvenience
Troy Senik ·
April 7, 2011 at 5:31am
Really, do the travails of public-sector monopolies come in any clearer form? Per the Associated Press:
The Postal service could save a substantial amount of money by reducing mail delivery to five days, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday.
The post office, which lost $8.5 billion last year, has proposed eliminating Saturday delivery as one of several moves aimed at reducing costs.
Postal officials have estimated the change would save $3.1 billion annually, and a new GAO study agreed that savings would be large, depending on how efficiently the cutback is handled.
Exactly what the USPS needs to survive: a mandate to be less service-oriented. Somewhere the spirit of Lysander Spooner is stirring.
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Comments:
Dec '10
Re: U.S. Postal Service Decides to Respond to Inefficiency with Inconvenience
If one day must be eliminated, it should not be Saturday. Perhaps a day toward the middle of the week, but for a lot of people--including small businesses--Saturday is Post-Office day.
May '10
Re: U.S. Postal Service Decides to Respond to Inefficiency with Inconvenience
Privatize. Now.
Apr '11
Re: U.S. Postal Service Decides to Respond to Inefficiency with Inconvenience
My (admittedly limited) understanding of the situation is that the Post Office can't so much as switch brands of toilet paper without Congressional approval, and this is contributing heavily to their bankruptcy. Every time they want to make a change that would improve their service or cut their costs, they are blocked by Congressional inaction. In addition, Congress uses them shamelessly for political purposes: the whole "you can't cut that post office, it's near my best donor's summer house" kind of thing.
As for the Saturday service, I have a small business and I won't miss it. Thanks to technological advances, I can print the full range of USPS postage from my computer through an online service. The monthly fee is less than the price I'd be spending on gas to get to the post office all the time.
Nov '10
Re: U.S. Postal Service Decides to Respond to Inefficiency with Inconvenience
Many of us have privatized already. Billing and payment for my mortgage, various insurance policies, home maintenance services and even Saks 5th is done via Internet. Anything else of importance is handled by the ever reliable Fedex.
The only mail I still receive postally... Weekly Standard and National Review.
Nov '10
Re: U.S. Postal Service Decides to Respond to Inefficiency with Inconvenience
The only thing the post office should do is regulate addresses and zip codes. And then it should be called "The Office of Managing Addresses and Zip Codes", or OMAZC. Pronounced "oh-mahz-ik". Not to be confused with any drugs used to treat acid reflux or depression.
Oct '10
Re: U.S. Postal Service Decides to Respond to Inefficiency with Inconvenience
This is classic government. We are not meeting the needs of our "customers", so lets make an effort to further reduce our costs but further reducing services. I use non-unionized FedEx for everything I can. The US Post Office here in my sleepy NC town is a drab, understaffed, filthy, and wholly ineffective "enterprise". On contrast, the FedEx location is efficient, clean, friendly, and supplemented by a fantastic online service that lets me do almost anything from my living room. Its quite shocking the difference.
A little aside... When I watch the TV commercials about the "flat rate shipping" for anything under 70 lbs by the USPS I have to laugh. Without the billions of supplemental redistribution from taxes they wouldn't have a chance to compete with the private carriers. I wonder how much that "flat rate" parcel really costs us to ship? Close the USPS!
Oct '10
Re: U.S. Postal Service Decides to Respond to Inefficiency with Inconvenience
Fedex and email, supplemented by websites and phones, what else is needed? Occasionally I receive something via the post office, but. apart from government business... IRS, etc. (I prefer not to use electronic communication with them), it must be years now since I've been in a post office.
Jun '10
Re: U.S. Postal Service Decides to Respond to Inefficiency with Inconvenience
Troy, I love your headline!
I don't even use the post office in my town. It is staffed by the rudest goldbrickers on the planet. The surliest woman of all was always insisting I fill out customs forms when mailing anything overseas.....I quickly found that the next town over required no such silly form. Their servce is a tad slow, and the caliber of the counter workers is uneven, but at least one on the ball person is always on duty.
PayPal has been a blessing with the PitneyBowes labels I can print from my home. Any way to decrease human contact with government workers is a plus in my book.
Mar '11
Re: U.S. Postal Service Decides to Respond to Inefficiency with Inconvenience
I don't see anything in the paragraph above that says they would close the Post Office on Saturday. The proposal is to not deliver mail on Saturday. I would not miss getting the usual load of junk mail on Saturday.
Sep '10
Re: U.S. Postal Service Decides to Respond to Inefficiency with Inconvenience
I live in a 20 year old neighborhood that has communal boxes (like an apartment building but outside on the street) rather than the individual mailboxes at each house. That has got to be a lot more efficient than walking or driving to each house, but I never hear that offered as a solution to cut costs. And while we are at it, the new boxes could have compartments for other carriers to use.
Oh and regarding Saturday delivery...sounds fine to me what are they waiting for?
I will admit that the incremental destruction of the post office's monopoly has long been a pipe dream of mine.
Jun '10
Re: U.S. Postal Service Decides to Respond to Inefficiency with Inconvenience
Privatize! Like UPS and FedEx. They have no problems delivering on Saturday. Some places. If you pay extra.
Yes, the Post Office should be open on Saturday. It's likely to continue to be open on Saturday. But I don't see much reason for home deliveries on Saturday, and even less for business.
There may be many things wrong with the management of the Postal Service. They may have onerous work rules and patronage jobs galore. But this does not prove that.
This is about reducing a service that should be able to go away entirely. We just need to get you luddites to buy a fax machine. The kind with that nice curly paper.
May '10
Re: U.S. Postal Service Decides to Respond to Inefficiency with Inconvenience
Just eliminate the Postal Service monopoly on First Class Mail delivery. The rest will follow.
Aug '10
Re: U.S. Postal Service Decides to Respond to Inefficiency with Inconvenience
Canada's postal workers are currently conducting "rotating" strikes.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the response of Canada Post's management:
"Canada Post announced Wednesday it will reduce the number of staff in its processing plants and cut down on delivery days in response to the decline in mail going out during the rotating strikes...
...On Tuesday, Canada Post said Canadians are mailing as little as half of their average amount since postal workers first went on strike last week. Along with fewer staff in plants, mail in urban areas will be delivered only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays."
I can't get enough of this.
I am really impressed that Canada Post management had the cohones to pull this excellent stunt.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/06/08/canada-post-to-reduce-staffing-delivery-days/