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Is the USPS competative?


Furious1Auto

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In getting involved in the health care debate many have made derogatory remarks about the United States Postal Service. I talked with my girlfriends stepfather who works for the USPS. He was able to direct me to this link, it was very informative. They actually lower the costs for Fed-EX, and UPS, by delivering their packages for them the last mile. If not for the USPS delivering for the other three major expediting services they would have to expand their network, and their costs.

 

 

LINK!

Edited by Furious1Auto
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Maybe so.. but the USPS has lost more then their fair share of my mail.. including accumulated merchandise totaling at least $400.00 over the years. You can file forms in triplicate and the results from postal employees is pretty much the same.. "what is it you expect me to do about it?" Hence.. if I want something to be delivered I use UPS.

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I getting involved in the health care debate many have made derogatory remarks about the United States Postal Service. I talked with my girlfriends stepfather who works for the USPS. He was able to direct me to this link, it was very informative. They actually lower the costs for Fed-EX, and UPS, by delivering their packages for them the last mile. If not for the USPS delivering for the other three major expediting services they would have to expand their network, and their costs.

 

 

LINK!

 

 

so basically "we'd be in the black if we weren't in the red"

 

riight.

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USPS subsidizes it's package business with the overpriced first class mail which they have a monopoly on.

 

Uh, UPS, and Fed-Ex don't want a piece of first class mail. The Post office is mandated to be available to deliver to every address in the nation on a daily basis, and in many areas they lose money doing so.

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Uh, UPS, and Fed-Ex don't want a piece of first class mail. The Post office is mandated to be available to deliver to every address in the nation on a daily basis, and in many areas they lose money doing so.

 

So.. it sucks to be them. I would far prefer to use the USPS but how many times can I get treated poorly (losing mail and merchandise) before I put 2 + 2 together.. Until UPS looses one of my important packages with NO recourse.. I will use the USPS only very selectively.

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So.. it sucks to be them. I would far prefer to use the USPS but how many times can I get treated poorly (losing mail and merchandise) before I put 2 + 2 together.. Until UPS looses one of my important packages with NO recourse.. I will use the USPS only very selectively.

 

 

If you live in a remote area odds are the USPS is probably already delivering your UPS packages. UPS, and Fed-Ex don't have the network for these deliveries.

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If you live in a remote area odds are the USPS is probably already delivering your UPS packages. UPS, and Fed-Ex don't have the network for these deliveries.

They don't have these capabilities because it's not cost effective. They dump it on the USPS to let them lose the money.

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They don't have these capabilities because it's not cost effective. They dump it on the USPS to let them lose the money.

 

 

Hence the importance of the USPS! Bash them out of existence and you can go to the annex and pick up your own mail 5 days a week!

Edited by Furious1Auto
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Hence the importance of the USPS! Bash them out of existence and you can go to the annex and pick up your own mail 5 days a week!

 

Ding ding ding!! We have a winner!

 

Us folks in the rural areas are what cost the USPS money due to the distance between houses and the more time it takes to deliver the same amount of mail. Hell, they could save tons of money by making me go to the PO, but I would rather pay a bit for the service that have to go to the frickin PO every damn day.

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Ding ding ding!! We have a winner!

 

Us folks in the rural areas are what cost the USPS money due to the distance between houses and the more time it takes to deliver the same amount of mail. Hell, they could save tons of money by making me go to the PO, but I would rather pay a bit for the service that have to go to the frickin PO every damn day.

 

Rural areas, and cities that have ordinances that prevent postman from crossing lawns. In these places it takes allot longer to deliver the same amount of mail. Even the garbage service has addressed this by automating their rural routes, but their is no way to automate mail delivery! I'm glad because of it, we would just be laying more people off!

Edited by Furious1Auto
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It's funny seeing some of the comments. Here's a fact...out of 32,000 Post Offices, only 6000 are profitable. But try to close a Post Office and the little old lady calls her congressman and he puts a stop to it. The USPS has been paying it's own way since 1982. That means, no subsidies from Congress. No tax dollars are used. No bailout money like GM and Chrysler. And to cut costs the PMG wants to go to 5 day delivery. That would save 3 billion per year. Even that is a battle. As you are probably thinking, I am associated with the USPS. People complain about .44 cents for a letter. That is the cheapest first-class mail rate in the world. I laugh when the price of a stamp goes up 2 cents and people whine and complain. So, look at it this way...If you mail 10 pieces of mail per month (which is more than most people do these days), at a 2 cent increase, that is an increase of $2.40 per year it is costing you. My insurance on my house and cars goes up hundreds of dollars a year. It costs $2.40 per fill up in my Expedition every time the price of gas goes up 10 cents. And that happens more that the increase of a price of stamps. So, as one poster said, "overpriced first class mail" is incorrect. First-class mail only accounts for about 25% of the revenue. What people refer to as junk mail is a major part of the revenue. And don't blame the USPS for the junk mail, blame the companies advertising. The are the ones mailing the junk, not the USPS. The USPS is just providing a service. What I'm saying is understand all that goes into operating an industry and what would happen if it went away. I could complain about the auto industry and the cost of vehicles. And when I pay so much, why do I have to go to the service dept. several times to fix basic things in the first year. But I don't because I understand nothing is perfect and there are flaws in everything.

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  • 10 years later...
  • 2 weeks later...

The postal service, like so many government agencies, does amazing work but due to meddling from Congress it is not allowed to make the changes required to be efficient and profitable.

 

The USPS, according to the GAO has lost $69 billion dollars over the past 11 years. The causes are simple:

 

Increased labor costs

 

increased pension liabilities
 

Increased healthcare costs

 

Congressional insistence for post office in every zip code no matter how small or close together.

 

Congressional requirement for daily and Sat delivery. Some very rural areas could go to every other day delivery and save billions.

 


 

 

Edited by Dayshift
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The men and women at the USPS are on the whole very hard working and do a great job. 
 

They deliver 500 million pieces of mail each day with only a very very small number being delayed and even fewer lost all for the cost of a cup of coffee.

 

If they were allowed to make the needed adjustments the USPS could reduce its costs greatly.

 

cost for letter

 

FedEx 2nd day 20.75
Fedex 3 day $8.75

 

UPS 3 day $8.75

 

USPS 1st class letter to all 50 states and us territories is $0.55.
A global mail letter mailed the 8350 miles from Miami To Guam Is only $1.20.

 

 

 


 

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The USPS is a major topic since they are loosing so much money. Both Democrats and Republicans are using it as a political issue for the upcoming election.

 

Every campaign email and every piece of campaign literature I have received in the mail from Senator Gary Peters has mentioned the USPS debate.

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6 hours ago, Dayshift said:

The USPS is a major topic since they are loosing so much money. Both Democrats and Republicans are using it as a political issue for the upcoming election.

 

Every campaign email and every piece of campaign literature I have received in the mail from Senator Gary Peters has mentioned the USPS debate.

 

The USPS was never designed to "make money"...it provides a service to Americans and has been since our US Constitution was created.

Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution, known as the Postal Clause or the Postal Power, empowers Congress "To establish Post Offices and Post Roads." The Post Office has the constitutional authority to designate mail routes. The Post Office is also empowered to construct or designate post offices with the implied authority to carry, deliver, and regulate the mail of the United States as a whole. The Postal Power also includes the power to designate certain materials as non-mailable, and to pass statutes criminalizing abuses of the postal system (such as mail fraud and armed robbery of post offices)

Edited by twintornados
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4 hours ago, twintornados said:

 

The USPS was never designed to "make money"...it provides a service to Americans and has been since our US Constitution was created.

Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution, known as the Postal Clause or the Postal Power, empowers Congress "To establish Post Offices and Post Roads." The Post Office has the constitutional authority to designate mail routes. The Post Office is also empowered to construct or designate post offices with the implied authority to carry, deliver, and regulate the mail of the United States as a whole. The Postal Power also includes the power to designate certain materials as non-mailable, and to pass statutes criminalizing abuses of the postal system (such as mail fraud and armed robbery of post offices)


Here's the flaw with that though, they used to make money until legacy costs were moved from the government to USPS proper. The moment that happened USPS immediately started losing money and has never been able to properly recover. 

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I agree, and unlike our legacy costs that at best get close to a complete funding, when the switch happened the congressional deal made the USPS throw in 100% of all legacy funding until 2025 I think. 

Even with that trick of the deal making one side (tax payers) pay in full what the other (congress) left unpaid for years the USPS sits on 15 billion in the operating budget and the house of rep`s is pushing the 25 billion funding thing.   

Once again how this turned into a lack of funding is another political mystery.  

Edited by Decker
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