Post office is outdated. Most people pay bills online. Most people send letters via email and certificated letters via emial and efax. Packages seem to be sent using other sources than the POST OFFICE, as they are not creating much revenue on that end. So, the POST OFFICE is out dated and needs to be abolished. Some other form of "GOV" idea my pop up to move letters, packages et all. Nevertheless....the Post Office needs to go as is.
USPS is the only thing keeping their prices competitive. Get rid of their flat rate boxes and $0.44 mail. Fedex and ups will quickly up the ante to $20. ============================== And small carriers will fill the void left by UPS and FEDx uping the ante as will some new start ups moving mail, boxes et all. So, pull your head out your arse if you can't think like a Free Market Capitalist. You sound like a fool. As if FEDX and UPS do not have any competitors now, I can name 10 small carriers that run circles around both FEDX and UPS. All they need is a UPS and FEDX to raise prices more and this 10 plus carriers that will fill the void. I swear, 99% of you ass clowns who pretend to trade are nothing more than Socialist Pikers wasting brain cells posting garbage on this site.
Do we really need the P.O. at all ? I have a Fed-ex center near me, and I pay all my bills electronically. Personally, I have no need for the P.O. Do I feel for those who might lose their jobs ? Yes, I do. But times change, and technology changes have made the P.O. totally superfluous in my estimation. Let's not put bandaids or put something on life support, that this world really doesn't need any more.
What I don't understand is why does it cost 44 cents to send a letter but a one pound package costs $5? It doesn't seem like it would be much more work to ship a large envelope instead of a small one. I mean when you think about it, to ship a letter anywhere in the US only costs 44 cents. That's pretty cheap. It seems like you could easily raise that to a dollar or more and it would still be reasonable. FedEx and UPS are starting at probably $8-10 minimums to ship anything. I have sold over 2000 things on eBay and Amazon. That's not very cost effective for Average Joe. UPS is painstakingly slow going to the West Coast (from Maryland). FedEx never seemed to make any sense, at least for what I was doing. Plus, FedEx and UPS don't like messing with residential. So it seems like if the USPS could raise it's minimums while keeping it's maximum's lower, they should be better off. Getting a package anywhere in the country for a few dollars in 2-3 days is way better than what FedEx and UPS can offer.
a dollar or more is not reasonable. the volume of 1st class mail is dropping. if you doubled the rate the volume would drop even faster. "Getting a package anywhere in the country for a few dollars in 2-3 days is way better than what FedEx and UPS can offer." if this statement was true fedex and ups would not have a business.
True, but my point is there is no one competing with them in that category. For those things that have to be mailed, nobody else can come close to charging you under a dollar to send anything. In fact nobody else charges less than $5. I'm not saying FedEx and UPS don't fill a market based need because they do. I just never seemed to find much use with them. FedEx seems to focus more on "well if you need to get something from New York to Seattle by 10:30AM tomorrow, we can do that." Businesses might need to do that, but Average Joe has no need for it. Anything shipped with the PO will get there in 2-4 days, including Saturdays, for a price that nobody competes with. This is an acceptable cost and timeframe. If you are shipping UPS, it can take up to 7 business days for ground shipments. The competitiveness with the PO does not really become a factor until around the five pound range. My guess is that the operations side of the PO is quite efficient but they are being dragged down by the physical presence of a Post Office that is expensive. Perhaps it would be better to consolidate it's locations with other places in the community. Just my thoughts.
Hahaha you pinko bitches. Post office to lose $10 billion this year, double previous estimates. And $9 billion next year. If USPS goes bankrupt resulting in 120,000 plus layoffs, I will leave these forums forever!
The solution to this, and all other economic problems, is obvious: bail out the big banks. Give several hundred billion more dollars to JP Morgan and those guys. That'll fix everything!
I knew a supercheapskate guy that sent all his normal letters overnight via the USPS. At the time they had a money back guarantee and they virtually never, ever, got it there on time so the next time he went to the Post Office he got his money back... Shippingsidekick.com will give comparisons of USPS rates vs UPS/Fedex, the USPS is a lot cheaper but it's subsidized... I suspect that their ploy to stay in business is to be the cheapest and run a deficit. If they didn't run a deficit I'm guessing that they would be the most expensive and looking stupid so they run a deficit... It takes unions decades to finally destroy a business. Meanwhile they lower the quaility of products and service because management has to try everything they can possibly think of including getting bailed out by the Fed to stay in business and can't focus on quality of product or service...