Post Offices Closing

[JBMcB]

How nice, of USPS management, to weigh in on the topic.

The post office said itself the regular mail business is in decline. That leaves parcels, which FedEx, UPS, and other private delivery companies dominate, between 85 and 95% combined in total. Labor makes up 80% of the post office's operating costs. If they aren't allowed to lay off people [[I think they are asking permission to right now) exactly how are they supposed to continue to operate? You don't need to be a post office insider, you just need to read their financial reports and look at the business conditions for a few minutes and you'll see exactly where the problems are.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/business/in-internet-age-postal-service-struggles-to-stay-solvent-and-relevant.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=usps&st=Search

[Khartoum]

I'm saddened by this. One of the last structures you normally see in a dying rural town, will no longer be there - they'll have it closed & abandoned long before the town is even close to its death.

[jiminnm]

The USPS is having their lunch handed to them by UPS and FedEx. Parcel delivery is where the real money is. Even with monopoly pricing and delivery rules on letters the USPS can't compete. If post workers really have a no-layoff clause, the post office is screwed. Their only recourse is to jack up rates which would increase pressure on everyone to move to electronic delivery, and their revenues would fall even further.

Actually, the p.o. makes a fair bit of money on bulk mailing. Magazines, catalogs, and the like have to be pre-sorted by the sender and bundled into the 9 digit zip code sequence, which means they're in route and house delivery order and don't need much sorting at the bulk mail centers or the local p.o. Many local items get delivered to each house on a route, so they also require little handling. I recently read the p.o. is going to more heavily advertise the bulk services, but I doubt they will be very successful as print magazines and catalogs fade away.

[Jimaz]

Destroying the Postal Service, another Manufactured Crisis

[MikeM]

Like Kramer on Seinfeld, I want out. What would happen if I welded my mailbox shut?

[Searay215]

So the USPS is closing offices and is STILL giving away Millions of FREE boxes......I know I have 100's in my basement. I use them in my Ebay business. They are for Priority Shipping, to encourage Us to use the USPS instead of UPS or FEDEX but I would still get them even if the cost me 1/2 of what I can buy a similar brown box for. Besides boxes, they will give you all types of other mailing stuff.....for free.
You would think they could figure that out.....If your giving boxes that are Printed $ away for free that maybe that should be one thing to go first.....now that I am done talking, I have to go to their site and get more befor they figure this out.

[Ravine]

The post office said itself the regular mail business is in decline. That leaves parcels, which FedEx, UPS, and other private delivery companies dominate, between 85 and 95% combined in total. Labor makes up 80% of the post office's operating costs. If they aren't allowed to lay off people [[I think they are asking permission to right now) exactly how are they supposed to continue to operate? You don't need to be a post office insider, you just need to read their financial reports and look at the business conditions for a few minutes and you'll see exactly where the problems are.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/business/in-internet-age-postal-service-struggles-to-stay-solvent-and-relevant.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=usps&st=Search

Just messin' with ya. Hope there are no hard feelings.
I said that because it would be just like the USPS management to make it sound like the only way out of the mess would be rate increases, when some creative thinking and improved, broader service could make a big difference.
The USPS style is to check out what UPS is doing, try to copy it, and then fail at that, too.
Also, having plants & stations managed & supervised by folks who just barely made it out of public high schools, went into the military, and then bounced into the Postal Service is a recipe for failure.
I'm not saying that the cream of the intelligentsia crop is needed; I'm saying that when you've got a pack of fuckin' dopes running the day-to-day operations, all of the expensive, state-of-the-art machinery will not save you from abject failure any more than handing me a tenor sax and the Fake Book charts for Giant Steps will have me sounding like Coltrane.

[Wesley Mouch]

Great, more empty buildings to deal with, more unemployed middle class...

I hope UPS is hiring

Maybe you should hire them -- if you think its such a great idea to create jobs for people on my dime. Try yours, please.

In the meantime, the USPS continues to miss the boat. In some European countries, the post offices are engaged in banking. They also provide internet services. Anyone got a usps.gov email address? Or look at how Canada places most post offices inside of drug stores or 7-11s. Can anyone name the last innovation by the US post office? They will get what their management deserves. It is too bad that the workers will take the brunt.

UPS will hire.

[Ravine]

We have two threads up & running, here, wherein this matter is being discussed.