Save the Post office from our government

[OKTexas]

Yes, I would miss Saturday delivery. We have two post offices in this city of 84,000 people and they're are crowded every time I go, both of them and no parking spaces to be found. Usually have to park in the grocery store parking lot next door.

Don't know what post office you're driving by, but are you sure you're driving by when it's open?

It's in a little community called Dobin, TX which might have a sprawling population of 60 or so. As for you other question, I've been around long enough to know postal hours.

Do you think your small community should have no post office?

Yep, there are 3 other offices 8 -15 miles away. And in my rural area a 15 mile drive ain't squat. My carrier drives 18 miles to deliver my mail and she drives by that same post office every day she delivers.

 

[sfcalifornia]

The shrinking of the Post Office is completely inevitable. The internet permanently crippled it. Funny thing is, at my post office, the line is always out the door.

The Post Office will never become completely obsolete but it will have to reorganize. The Post Office provides lot of other services, they will just continue to capitalize on those services while cutting back mail delivery.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Cut executive salaries by 20% would be a major start and make their bonuses public.

 

[Duped]

Competition is what is needed - the gov. fiscally sucks across the board!

 

[Harry Dresden]

The point is they need to trim things, there are post offices all over the country that have very little business and have other offices within a few miles of them. These post offices need to be closed, but the union is fighting it tooth and nail. I drive by a post office on a regular basis and rarely see a car there, why are we paying to keep it open? Also would you really miss Saturday delivery, I know I wouldn't, so why pay for it. You can choose to stand up for union excess, I don't, so we can agree to disagree.

apparently it was mandated that there be a PO for every zip code.....

Funny my PO serves 2 zips, 77315 and 77316.

the key word is WAS.............i worked out of one that served two....then they moved us to the zip our routes were in ......now its back to the old one.....the main office in Anaheim has 3 zip codes there....the carriers have to drive 10 miles to get to their routes but i guess the gas is no problem....we had a PO out here in a town called Atwood....it had about 100 people living in it....they had a trailer sitting in a Parking lot at a strip mall for their PO.....and they had a Post Master....

 

[Harry Dresden]

The shrinking of the Post Office is completely inevitable. The internet permanently crippled it. Funny thing is, at my post office, the line is always out the door.

The Post Office will never become completely obsolete but it will have to reorganize. The Post Office provides lot of other services, they will just continue to capitalize on those services while cutting back mail delivery.

its not as bad as they make it out to be.....

 

[Harry Dresden]

Competition is what is needed - the gov. fiscally sucks across the board!

they have competition .....UPS and FedX and all the little guys scurrying around....

 

[thereisnospoon]

Our post office is not "broke," our government is destroying it. Please sign the petition to help save the post office.

Congress: Stop Destroying Our Postal Service

See, in 2006 George W. Bush’s Republican Congress signed a bill to effectively kill the Postal Service, requiring it to pre-fund their workers’ health benefits *75 YEARS* into the future.

No country, corporation or government service has EVER been required to fund the full retiree health benefits for workers that aren’t even born yet – there is literally no financial reason to do so unless you wanted to kill the Postal Service for purely ideological reasons.

I have a better idea. Save we the taxpayer from the notion of having to bail out the post office..
Better still..Let's gut the thing to the point where it is efficient and inexpensive. And with that we can save Saturday delivery. Not that I enjoy a 6th day of potentially receiving another pile of meaningless slick ad junk.

 

[thereisnospoon]

There is a ton of fat that can be trimmed before anything else is proposed. Saturday delivery and getting rid of the post offices that don't do enough business to cover their payroll would be a good start.

They wouldn't have to trim anything if they didn't have to provide 75 years worth of retirement and medical. Did you even read the link?

Who cares...it's a done deal....Try taking the pension fund away and see what happens..It's impossible.
So, discussing the pension liability is a moot point. Move on...

 

[thereisnospoon]

I favor doing away with Saturday delivery.
I think email, e-bill pay, and e-banking are killing the postal service more than Congress.
But on the bright side, a lot of e-commerce requires delivery.

Precisely...Pro union activists, union supporters and liberals ignore these and other facts.
Another fact is that First Class volume is down 25% in the last 5 years.
The issue is also pricing. It is not logical to charge the same amount for a one ounce envelope to go across town as is charged for one to travel across the country.

 

[thereisnospoon]

There is a ton of fat that can be trimmed before anything else is proposed. Saturday delivery and getting rid of the post offices that don't do enough business to cover their payroll would be a good start.

They wouldn't have to trim anything if they didn't have to provide 75 years worth of retirement and medical. Did you even read the link?

The whole thing stinks of the UPS/FEDEX lobby.

Aw hell. You forgot the internet lobby.

 

[thereisnospoon]

They wouldn't have to trim anything if they didn't have to provide 75 years worth of retirement and medical. Did you even read the link?

The point is they need to trim things, there are post offices all over the country that have very little business and have other offices within a few miles of them. These post offices need to be closed, but the union is fighting it tooth and nail. I drive by a post office on a regular basis and rarely see a car there, why are we paying to keep it open? Also would you really miss Saturday delivery, I know I wouldn't, so why pay for it. You can choose to stand up for union excess, I don't, so we can agree to disagree.

apparently it was mandated that there be a PO for every zip code.....

Get this...There are Three towns in northern NJ....07675..One zip, two post offices...
One in Westwood, corner Fairview and Westwood Aves.....Zip 07675...And the other in Old Tappan, NJ on Orangeburg Rd..The Westwood branch serves a third borough, River Vale.

I would imagine some kind of sweetheart deal was set up to pull off this little gem. The largest of these three boroughs has 8,000 people. Total POP for all three is about 16,000. Geographically it eve makes less sense. The total area of these three towns is maybe 10 square miles. My town of 30k people is almost 4 times as large.
In comparison, the town in which I reside has 30,000 people served by ONE post office.
Obviously logic does not reign in the USPS.

 

[Harry Dresden]

The point is they need to trim things, there are post offices all over the country that have very little business and have other offices within a few miles of them. These post offices need to be closed, but the union is fighting it tooth and nail. I drive by a post office on a regular basis and rarely see a car there, why are we paying to keep it open? Also would you really miss Saturday delivery, I know I wouldn't, so why pay for it. You can choose to stand up for union excess, I don't, so we can agree to disagree.

apparently it was mandated that there be a PO for every zip code.....

Get this...There are Three towns in northern NJ....07675..One zip, two post offices...
One in Westwood, corner Fairview and Westwood Aves.....Zip 07675...And the other in Old Tappan, NJ on Orangeburg Rd..The Westwood branch serves a third borough, River Vale.

I would imagine some kind of sweetheart deal was set up to pull off this little gem. The largest of these three boroughs has 8,000 people. Total POP for all three is about 16,000. Geographically it eve makes less sense. The total area of these three towns is maybe 10 square miles. My town of 30k people is almost 4 times as large.
In comparison, the town in which I reside has 30,000 people served by ONE post office.
Obviously logic does not reign in the USPS.

that is something every Carrier,Clerk and front line manager have known for quite a while.....

 

[Againsheila]

Congressman Finally Takes Action To Remove Needless Requirement Bankrupting The Postal Service | ThinkProgress

About 80% of USPS financial losses since 2007 are due to a Congressional mandate to prefund 75 years of future retiree health benefits over 10 years. In 2012 USPS lost a record $15.9 billion, but $11.1 billion of that loss went to prefund healthcare. This must change.

USPS shouldn’t move to 5-day delivery. This would only save 3%, risk further revenue losses, and slow mail delivery.

USPS needs to re-establish overnight delivery standards to ensure the timely delivery of mail and prevent the closure of mail plants.

USPS needs to generate more revenue by ending a 2006 ban prohibiting USPS from offering new products and services.

 

[tjvh]

The point is they need to trim things, there are post offices all over the country that have very little business and have other offices within a few miles of them. These post offices need to be closed, but the union is fighting it tooth and nail. I drive by a post office on a regular basis and rarely see a car there, why are we paying to keep it open? Also would you really miss Saturday delivery, I know I wouldn't, so why pay for it. You can choose to stand up for union excess, I don't, so we can agree to disagree.

apparently it was mandated that there be a PO for every zip code.....

Funny my PO serves 2 zips, 77315 and 77316.

I worked at several with three zips.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Congressman Finally Takes Action To Remove Needless Requirement Bankrupting The Postal Service | ThinkProgress

About 80% of USPS financial losses since 2007 are due to a Congressional mandate to prefund 75 years of future retiree health benefits over 10 years. In 2012 USPS lost a record $15.9 billion, but $11.1 billion of that loss went to prefund healthcare. This must change.

USPS shouldn’t move to 5-day delivery. This would only save 3%, risk further revenue losses, and slow mail delivery.

USPS needs to re-establish overnight delivery standards to ensure the timely delivery of mail and prevent the closure of mail plants.

USPS needs to generate more revenue by ending a 2006 ban prohibiting USPS from offering new products and services.

Due to the fact that under normal circumstances current workers fund the pensions of current pensioners, no doubt this will set up a battle between those who've retired and drawing pensions and those currently working.
I disagree. 5 days per week is enough.
The USPS should not be in the business of competing with companies that are set up to perform overnight service. Those other firms, do this much more cost effectively, more efficiently and with greater reliability.
Let the USPS do what it is good at. Delivering pieces of mail at a low cost to any destination across the nation for the same price.
The USPS should be downsized ,streamlined and run like a for profit business.
Cut out the fat. Get rid of the excessive number of supervisory people who really don't do anything productive.
The USPS CAN work. And work well. The federal government just has to get out of the mail business.
Workers should be contributing MUCH more toward their health insurance and pensions. They should also be contributing to Social Security.
Lastly but most importantly, kick out the postal worker's union. No public employee should be represented by a labor collective.

 

[thereisnospoon]

There is a ton of fat that can be trimmed before anything else is proposed. Saturday delivery and getting rid of the post offices that don't do enough business to cover their payroll would be a good start.

They wouldn't have to trim anything if they didn't have to provide 75 years worth of retirement and medical. Did you even read the link?

That's nonsense. And thinkprogress has a pro labor liberal agenda.
Come on now.
The notion that every place with a zip code must have a post office is ludicrous.
In densely populated areas, PO's can easily be combined. We don;t travel by horse back anymore. So there is no excuse for people who don't choose to get their mail delivered to home, to not go to the local PO...
There are so many aspects of the USPS that defy logic. The example above is just one of those.

 

[thereisnospoon]

There is a ton of fat that can be trimmed before anything else is proposed. Saturday delivery and getting rid of the post offices that don't do enough business to cover their payroll would be a good start.

They wouldn't have to trim anything if they didn't have to provide 75 years worth of retirement and medical. Did you even read the link?

The whole thing stinks of the UPS/FEDEX lobby.

Oh please.. Can we please keep out the conspiracy theories....

 

[buckeye45_73]

There is a ton of fat that can be trimmed before anything else is proposed. Saturday delivery and getting rid of the post offices that don't do enough business to cover their payroll would be a good start.

They wouldn't have to trim anything if they didn't have to provide 75 years worth of retirement and medical. Did you even read the link?

I thought that's what liberals liked, make sure they're taken care of their whole life......isnt that the point of Obamacare?

 

[thereisnospoon]

They wouldn't have to trim anything if they didn't have to provide 75 years worth of retirement and medical. Did you even read the link?

The point is they need to trim things, there are post offices all over the country that have very little business and have other offices within a few miles of them. These post offices need to be closed, but the union is fighting it tooth and nail. I drive by a post office on a regular basis and rarely see a car there, why are we paying to keep it open? Also would you really miss Saturday delivery, I know I wouldn't, so why pay for it. You can choose to stand up for union excess, I don't, so we can agree to disagree.

Yes, I would miss Saturday delivery. We have two post offices in this city of 84,000 people and they're are crowded every time I go, both of them and no parking spaces to be found. Usually have to park in the grocery store parking lot next door.

Don't know what post office you're driving by, but are you sure you're driving by when it's open?

WHY would you miss getting mail on Saturday?
You just stated you live with 83,999 other people. With two PO's....The problem is there are tiny towns that just so happen to have had a US House member get and maintain a PO for all 286 people...Close a whole bunch of those and places like yours can have enough PO's to handle the business.
Quite frankly, too many people go to the PO that do not need to go there to conduct business.