US Postal Service to end Saturday letter delivery

81

chadwick wrote:

the radio channel i was listening to today had contradicting information. they said no more mail will be delivered on saturdays. then they said all post offices will remain open & all po boxes will still receieve their mail on saturdays :?

doesn't sound contradicting. the mail trucks will be off the road, the office's will still be open so you can mail shit and do other shit that requires people

know1

lukin2006 wrote:

Our postal service (Canada Post) had 16 straight years of profitability up until 2011 ... they are also unionized. As usual some prefer to blame the unions.

Isn't the mail in Canada delivered by horse and dogsled anyway? It's not difficult to be profitable when you don't have to pay the animals.

even flow - question mark

know1 wrote:

lukin2006 wrote:

Our postal service (Canada Post) had 16 straight years of profitability up until 2011 ... they are also unionized. As usual some prefer to blame the unions.

Isn't the mail in Canada delivered by horse and dogsled anyway? It's not difficult to be profitable when you don't have to pay the animals.

That's as good as a Yank saying you don't have a gun problem.

lukin2006

know1 wrote:

lukin2006 wrote:

Our postal service (Canada Post) had 16 straight years of profitability up until 2011 ... they are also unionized. As usual some prefer to blame the unions.

Isn't the mail in Canada delivered by horse and dogsled anyway? It's not difficult to be profitable when you don't have to pay the animals.

it sure is ... its always funny watching americans crossing the border with ski's on the roof of their cars in August

Or maybe it's easier to be profitable when you charge the appropriate amount for a service instead of always running debt ...

Kel Varnsen

lukin2006 wrote:

Our postal service (Canada Post) had 16 straight years of profitability up until 2011 ... they are also unionized. As usual some prefer to blame the unions.

Canada post does a lot of shit that the USPS doesn't seem to bother with. Like I said we don't do Saturday delivery (and haven't for over 40 years). Plus when was the last time anyone in Canada went into an actual post office. For the most part there aren't any more. Instead there are postal outlets in the back of Drug Stores and 7-11's. Those places are run like post offices but instead of being owned, staffed and managed by Canada Post they are owned staffed and managed by the owner of the store they are in. That to me must save a ton of money since Canada post gets fees from the outlet owners (plus money when things like stamps are sold), but they don't have to own and maintain buildings, or have pay staff to work in them. But in the US it seems that every town I go into has a separate post office that is a USPS building. Not to mention you can buy stamps in all kinds of places that aren't the post office. You can buy giant rolls of stamps from Costco.

Plus my understanding is that in Canada if you buy a new house in a newer sub division, you don't get service to your door. There will be say a bank of post office boxes at the end of your street and you will get a box in one of those and a key. Does the USPS do anything like that? These things seem super simple but it would seem obvious that they are huge money savers.

know1

even flow - question mark wrote:

know1 wrote:

lukin2006 wrote:

Our postal service (Canada Post) had 16 straight years of profitability up until 2011 ... they are also unionized. As usual some prefer to blame the unions.

Isn't the mail in Canada delivered by horse and dogsled anyway? It's not difficult to be profitable when you don't have to pay the animals.

That's as good as a Yank saying you don't have a gun problem.

I hate the post office in America.

My comment was a slam on Canada in general.

rollings

cincybearcat wrote:

Jeanwah wrote:

Most of the mail agency's financial woes come from mounting mandatory costs for future retiree health benefits.

Bingo.

I seriously doubt bingo is the financial answer to this problem.

Bingo and a bake sale.... maybe
but not just bingo alone.

cincybearcat

lukin2006 wrote:

Our postal service (Canada Post) had 16 straight years of profitability up until 2011 ... they are also unionized. As usual some prefer to blame the unions.

And as usual, some prefer to ignore the issues that some unions bring.

brianlux

I'll never understand the vitriol against the US Postal Service. I can write a letter to a friend in Maine and for a mere 41 cents ( I have "Forever" stamps) it will arrive there in a few days. That alone is effin amazing. I know people who have worked for the Postal Service for many years. Their bodies take a beating like a professional athlete but no way do they make the salaries of an average pro sports athlete. Mail carries beat the pavement in my town everyday (except Sunday and maybe soon Saturday) in weather that varies from snow in the winter to blast furnace heat in the summer.

I just don't get the bad rap these people get. Never will.

know1

brianlux wrote:

I'll never understand the vitriol against the US Postal Service. I can write a letter to a friend in Maine and for a mere 41 cents ( I have "Forever" stamps) it will arrive there in a few days. That alone is effin amazing. I know people who have worked for the Postal Service for many years. Their bodies take a beating like a professional athlete but no way do they make the salaries of an average pro sports athlete. Mail carries beat the pavement in my town everyday (except Sunday and maybe soon Saturday) in weather that varies from snow in the winter to blast furnace heat in the summer.

I just don't get the bad rap these people get. Never will.

I have my reasons. Most of them have to do with dealing with the miserable, grumpy folks who work there and don't deal with people well. Also, a line of 3 people shouldn't take 25 minutes to get through.

fife

Kel Varnsen wrote:

lukin2006 wrote:

Our postal service (Canada Post) had 16 straight years of profitability up until 2011 ... they are also unionized. As usual some prefer to blame the unions.

Canada post does a lot of shit that the USPS doesn't seem to bother with. Like I said we don't do Saturday delivery (and haven't for over 40 years). Plus when was the last time anyone in Canada went into an actual post office. For the most part there aren't any more. Instead there are postal outlets in the back of Drug Stores and 7-11's. Those places are run like post offices but instead of being owned, staffed and managed by Canada Post they are owned staffed and managed by the owner of the store they are in. That to me must save a ton of money since Canada post gets fees from the outlet owners (plus money when things like stamps are sold), but they don't have to own and maintain buildings, or have pay staff to work in them. But in the US it seems that every town I go into has a separate post office that is a USPS building. Not to mention you can buy stamps in all kinds of places that aren't the post office. You can buy giant rolls of stamps from Costco.

Plus my understanding is that in Canada if you buy a new house in a newer sub division, you don't get service to your door. There will be say a bank of post office boxes at the end of your street and you will get a box in one of those and a key. Does the USPS do anything like that? These things seem super simple but it would seem obvious that they are huge money savers.

i think one of the biggest issues is that while usps doesn't get any money from the congress it needs it approval for everything.

I don't know how reliable this article is but will share it anyway and if you know differently please correct me.


http://www.dailybulletin.com/breakingne ... l-troubles

fife

cincybearcat wrote:

lukin2006 wrote:

Our postal service (Canada Post) had 16 straight years of profitability up until 2011 ... they are also unionized. As usual some prefer to blame the unions.

And as usual, some prefer to ignore the issues that some unions bring.

I don't think people are ignoring the issues about unions but I do think that some people try to simplify the issue but just blaming unions.

lukin2006

Kel Varnsen wrote:

lukin2006 wrote:

Our postal service (Canada Post) had 16 straight years of profitability up until 2011 ... they are also unionized. As usual some prefer to blame the unions.

Canada post does a lot of shit that the USPS doesn't seem to bother with. Like I said we don't do Saturday delivery (and haven't for over 40 years). Plus when was the last time anyone in Canada went into an actual post office. For the most part there aren't any more. Instead there are postal outlets in the back of Drug Stores and 7-11's. Those places are run like post offices but instead of being owned, staffed and managed by Canada Post they are owned staffed and managed by the owner of the store they are in. That to me must save a ton of money since Canada post gets fees from the outlet owners (plus money when things like stamps are sold), but they don't have to own and maintain buildings, or have pay staff to work in them. But in the US it seems that every town I go into has a separate post office that is a USPS building. Not to mention you can buy stamps in all kinds of places that aren't the post office. You can buy giant rolls of stamps from Costco.

Plus my understanding is that in Canada if you buy a new house in a newer sub division, you don't get service to your door. There will be say a bank of post office boxes at the end of your street and you will get a box in one of those and a key. Does the USPS do anything like that? These things seem super simple but it would seem obvious that they are huge money savers.

Agreed ... I have to walk down the street to get my mail, I have no problem with that. I also like the convenience of just walking 5 minutes if I need to do some mailing. Purolator which I believed is owned by Canada Post provided better service than UPS and Fedex...imo.

fife

know1 wrote:

brianlux wrote:

I'll never understand the vitriol against the US Postal Service. I can write a letter to a friend in Maine and for a mere 41 cents ( I have "Forever" stamps) it will arrive there in a few days. That alone is effin amazing. I know people who have worked for the Postal Service for many years. Their bodies take a beating like a professional athlete but no way do they make the salaries of an average pro sports athlete. Mail carries beat the pavement in my town everyday (except Sunday and maybe soon Saturday) in weather that varies from snow in the winter to blast furnace heat in the summer.

I just don't get the bad rap these people get. Never will.

I have my reasons. Most of them have to do with dealing with the miserable, grumpy folks who work there and don't deal with people well. Also, a line of 3 people shouldn't take 25 minutes to get through.

I had a fr8iend who worked at a post office in Toronto and he would tell me stories of people yelling at him about things that are beyond his control and I don't know about you but when people are yelling at you for nothing you can also get pissed off.

even flow - question mark

know1 wrote:

brianlux wrote:

I'll never understand the vitriol against the US Postal Service. I can write a letter to a friend in Maine and for a mere 41 cents ( I have "Forever" stamps) it will arrive there in a few days. That alone is effin amazing. I know people who have worked for the Postal Service for many years. Their bodies take a beating like a professional athlete but no way do they make the salaries of an average pro sports athlete. Mail carries beat the pavement in my town everyday (except Sunday and maybe soon Saturday) in weather that varies from snow in the winter to blast furnace heat in the summer.

I just don't get the bad rap these people get. Never will.

I have my reasons. Most of them have to do with dealing with the miserable, grumpy folks who work there and don't deal with people well. Also, a line of 3 people shouldn't take 25 minutes to get through.

Now is this due to the staff at said mail office or the three tools who have done zero research into the prices and ways to send their packages and the second in line could have just listened to the 20 minutes of options the counter guy just gave person one in line, but no, number two needs their twenty minutes to try and understand that ground will take up to two weeks but air will get it there in three days where express post will need a signature and be there in two days, no we don't have needed signatures on ground, yes, ground will take up to two weeks, yes, you can't have a signature with that, correct, air is three days guaranteed, no we don't have anything that gets it there in one day for less than forty dollars, that's right, ground is up to two weeks but could arrive before that...........and you wonder why it takes so fucking long in line.

brianlux

Again, I don't understand how someone can "hate" the Postal Service. ("Hate" is a strong word.) If you take the time to get to know some of the postal workers you'll appreciate the ton of shit they have to take from people, the enormous work load and stress they're put under and you might appreciate how difficult it is for them to be friendly all the time. If you say "I hate the post office", I wonder what you would say about many of your customers if you worked for the post office?

sachtriv

This has nothing to do with unions.

In 2006, Congress passed a law requiring that the USPS put large sums of money into a fund to pay for retirement benefits for workers that haven't retired yet or even been born yet. The law also states that they have to fully fund this burden by 2016. This is the only reason they are going bankrupt.

No other agency or corporation has to do this.

Jeanwah

Kel Varnsen wrote:

lukin2006 wrote:

Our postal service (Canada Post) had 16 straight years of profitability up until 2011 ... they are also unionized. As usual some prefer to blame the unions.

Canada post does a lot of shit that the USPS doesn't seem to bother with. Like I said we don't do Saturday delivery (and haven't for over 40 years). Plus when was the last time anyone in Canada went into an actual post office. For the most part there aren't any more. Instead there are postal outlets in the back of Drug Stores and 7-11's. Those places are run like post offices but instead of being owned, staffed and managed by Canada Post they are owned staffed and managed by the owner of the store they are in. That to me must save a ton of money since Canada post gets fees from the outlet owners (plus money when things like stamps are sold), but they don't have to own and maintain buildings, or have pay staff to work in them. But in the US it seems that every town I go into has a separate post office that is a USPS building. Not to mention you can buy stamps in all kinds of places that aren't the post office. You can buy giant rolls of stamps from Costco.

Plus my understanding is that in Canada if you buy a new house in a newer sub division, you don't get service to your door. There will be say a bank of post office boxes at the end of your street and you will get a box in one of those and a key. Does the USPS do anything like that? These things seem super simple but it would seem obvious that they are huge money savers.

Sounds pretty smart. There's a lot of waste here (if you didn't already know). You can buys stamps in stores here, and there are some developments like what you're saying, but moreso for apartment complexes rather than houses. I was at my cousin's house in Ottawa and her development had that setup. It seems so efficient that it would never get passed down here.

Jeanwah

brianlux wrote:

Again, I don't understand how someone can "hate" the Postal Service. ("Hate" is a strong word.) If you take the time to get to know some of the postal workers you'll appreciate the ton of shit they have to take from people, the enormous work load and stress they're put under and you might appreciate how difficult it is for them to be friendly all the time. If you say "I hate the post office", I wonder what you would say about many of your customers if you worked for the post office?

My husband is a letter carrier and he and the rest of his fellow carriers have serious physical issues from so much heavy handling and maneuvering on the job and in the weather (I'm in the snowy NE). It sounds like a dreamy job to some, but it's certainly no picnic. It's very hard on the body. Oh, and there's a rule that a mail carrier does not have to deliver your mail if you don't clear an area to your mailbox. Hubby gets all kinds of people talking to him (who doesn't talk to the mailman?) Not many angry, but if they are, he constantly reminds them that the check they were "supposed" to receive that day is out of his control. The mail person is sometimes the only humans the elderly get to talk to during the day. They are grateful and sometimes gives him gifts for his service.

That said, there is redundant inefficiency at the USPS. The unions ARE a lot of the problem. There's no personal accountability when you know that you can't be fired. His lazy co-workers (there's a lot of them, thanks to the union covering their ass) talk down the supervisors because they can. Some mail people milk their routes to the point that they're barely walking a decent speed, just so they don't have to go back to the office and be sent out to do more, when they need extra help delivering the mail.

Do the people who believe they should be shut down subscribe to any magazines? Order from Amazon or Ebay? School and local community news? Do you guys get Christmas cards? Some carriers deliver the local newspapers since there are no paper boys anymore, or because newspapers are hurting themselves for business and sometimes being shut down. The senior community aren't so computer savvy so they still rely heavily on the USPS for mail and packages. So does everybody, so even though it seems easy to say that we don't need them at all, think again. They're not going away entirely yet. But they do need some serious reform. And that reform must start with the union doing some heavy negotiating.

chadwick

81 wrote:

chadwick wrote:

the radio channel i was listening to today had contradicting information. they said no more mail will be delivered on saturdays. then they said all post offices will remain open & all po boxes will still receieve their mail on saturdays :?

doesn't sound contradicting. the mail trucks will be off the road, the office's will still be open so you can mail shit and do other shit that requires people

letters will still be moving on saturdays packages will be resting on these days. some folks will get some of their mail whilst others will be shit out of luck.