mail delivery service

[Chris]

OK we are going to get a 3 cent raise in the postal rates and and we were talking about the postal service and its decline,..we used to have pick ups several times a day at our local mail box,..now they are talking about eliminating Sat delivery, closing a number opf Post Offices ect. I was wondering if anyone remembers (I THINK in the 70s?) on the Blue mail boxes they used to say mail by 10 and be delivered by 3 (er I think the next day but I'm not sure) within ______ miles. Again I'm cloudy on the details,..no one else in this group could remember. Anyone recall what it said?

[Walizz 1]

I'm not real sure about the 70's question but I can remember mail coming (on foot) twice a day and once on Sat. That was back in the 50's in Menasha, WI. That's before zip codes, when dinosaurs still roamed our neighborhoods. The huntin' was good but the gut piles were terrible!!!!!!!
Have a good day.

[mmillelacs]

how about this? i will give you a piece of paper or an envelope, and you go and deliver it across town or (across country!!) and i will give you 37 cents. No way?, well 37 cents or even 50 cents is a BARGAIN if you ask me. By the way, 95 percent of first class mail is delivered within 2 days in this country, and fed ex and ups cannot make that claim! I personally think that the post office is by far the ONLY federal government agency that comes close to being efficient, and is the only government agency that doesnt rely on tax revenues.....

[kuip]

Did you just say that the post office is more efficiant than UPS? Did you really say that?

[Not a mailman]

I think he did say the USPS was better and I agree! I have had more stuff lost/broken by those ugly brown trucks than I care to remember. Think about it, I can send a letter anywhere in the USA for $.37. To me that is a great deal and there is no way UPS could ever handle that volume, much less for that price.

[Chris]

I'll take that job, make sure to bundle it with the thousands of outher that have to go to the other side of town too. Also include DOLLAR VALUE of the benefit package and perks of the salary paid(notice I didn't say wages) to a postal employee. Include too a proportional amt. of funds of the tens of billions kicked in by taxpayers to buy my truck and cover my operating costs.It should be a good chunk of money not paying all the executives that (MANY of) make more than the President of the United States.
When they go for a rate increase they trott out how much of a bargain it is. Then they compare it to the worse other inefficent bureaucracies and exclaim you "oughta" live in France, Italy,Swazyland, and Crincolia,..THEN you would appreciate our system.(even if we were the best of the lot, what does that really mean? buying a 50 dollar hammer instead of a 60 dollar hammer?
So I hear this claim about how 95% of our mail is delivered in two days from the US Mail. I must be getting a lot of that 5 %. I receive about 40 rent checks each month and the tenants that claim they sent it out last week are probably telling the truth. I often see postmarks that are a week to ten days before I get them. This was way before Sept 11. My mailman (a good friend and occasional fishing buddy) tells me that the mail is so unreliable that there is a crush of Certified mail 10 days before Credit cards are due because the card companies get paid well after the late period and will raise rates impose late fees etc. (BTW the amount of other people's mail we get is amaging,..I wonder how many get ours?) He also is a hard worker,........at his 2nd job,..he says he can't work very much/hard at the post office or he get flack from the other workers. He says he can get most of everything he needs to do in 2 good hours but has to streach it out. Is that common? I don't know,..maybe not in your area. USP used to be pretty good,..I don't think its as good as it used to be either. Perhaps when you get so big you get top heavy. A non government bureaucracy isn't much better than a government one.

[Jack G]

Chris

I retired from the Postal Service eleven years ago. I cannot say for sure what you saw on a collection box that many years ago but even today the following is generally true.

Mail deposited in a collection box with a collection time listed before 4:00 PM will be delivered the next day within a certain geographical area that will include many cities. This area may encompass a hundred mile diameter or more. Since most carrier routes are scheduled to be completed before 3:30 PM it translates that mail deposited and collected by 4:00 pm will be delivered by 3:00 PM the next day, even today.

The Postal Service has a goal to deliver 95% of that "next day delivery area" mail the next day. It was my experience in my area that this was accomplished with about 97% effectiveness.

Years ago there was twice a day delivery, eventually it was reduced to twice a day for business areas only, then most places reduced it to once a day delivery.

UPS does a better job of delivering packages which the Postal Service calls "parcel post" than the post office does. I will not bother to explain why. However United Postal Service is basically interested in only taking mail from large volume business mailers and it is usually not easy for an individual to mail a single package with United Parcel Service. Not true with the Post Office.

The United States enjoys the most efficient and cheapest cost postal service in the world.

Have I got criticisms of them? You bet, but that is another story.

Hope this helps.

Jack

[Wallhanger]

The USPS does not receive any tax dollars for wages, trucks, buildings, equipment, etc. At this point in time they are completely self funded from mail revenue.