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I read in the newspaper this morning that the US mail service may be cutting back by going to 5 days instead of 6 (and it won't be Sat. if they do skip another day).
If approved, do you think this will affect our card sending (not as many days to send it out) or not? Just wondering what all of you think about this, I was pretty surprised myself!
Here's a link to a pretty long article, if you are wondering more about it. Mail sevice
__________________ He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
I don't think it will affect anybody much at all in the long run at least one day each week I either get no mail or just junk mail. wouldn't bother me the least little bit if they skipped service an extra day.. might make the most sense to skip Mondays if it came to that.. you already have many Mondays that do not get service anyway due to holidays. If not Monday then Thursday would be the next best..
and for what it is worth, US mail service is EXTREMELY inexpensive when compared to other countries.
Australia has had five day postal delivery for many years. The number of letters/cards sent has not been affected by fewer delivery days. The Internet is what is affecting post office profits.
My husband works for the postal service and nothing is set in stone yet. It has NOT been approved to cut back on the delivery of mail to 5 days a week yet. And yes there will another price increase in May it's going to be like 2 cents but yet again nothing is set in stone yet. It will affect us in the fact that he will have one less day a week to work and that hurts in the long run.
Both of your points are true. I would rather have have them skip then raise the rates-which really aren't that terrible- and I think we would get used to having mail for just 5 days a week. Plus, one less day's junk mail to sort through!
__________________ He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
So far, the 5 day delivery hasn't been approved. I think the price of stamps is supposed to go up again in the spring (not sure I'm correct on this). I would rather lose a day of delivery if that would help to slow down the price increases - but I'm not hopeful that would be the case. At least the USPS has not off-shored mail delivery yet. LOL
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Like, Australia, we've had postal service 5 days per week for as long as I can remember. It doesn't affect card sending. It's only a pain when you're waiting for something exciting to come in the mail and you know it won't be delivered either Saturday or Sunday.
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Awww. Darn. I hadn't thought of that. I am not a very patient person when expecting goodies! ;)
Quote:
Originally Posted by craftygirl04
Like, Australia, we've had postal service 5 days per week for as long as I can remember. It doesn't affect card sending. It's only a pain when you're waiting for something exciting to come in the mail and you know it won't be delivered either Saturday or Sunday.
I just read that myself. They are thinking about not delivering on Tuesday which is the slowest mail day of the week. Yes they are raising the price of stamps 2 cents in May. I don't think that it will effect much except like someone mentioned before if you are waiting for a package. That just means our goodies will be delayed by a day :( I'm curious to see if the bill goes through.
It doesn't surprise me. I know I don't mail as many things as I used to (pay bills online, send emails instead of letters, call people instead of mailing them, etc). Maybe we should do a big campaign & have everyone send a card to at least 5 people and bombard the post office with mail!
My father is a letter carrier, and personally, I would rather pay an extra 2 cents and have six day delivery. By cutting back to 5 days, he gets one day less wages AND he will be swamped with mail on the day after the skipped day. The day after a skipped day such as a holiday is very busy, and I don't know about you, but I think it would suck to carry two days worth of mail just so the general public can save two measly cents on their postage. He walks 8 miles every day (we live in a relatively small town; he delivers half the town)- and on heavy days, it's hard. Furthermore, he gets paid on salary, so if it takes him until 6:00 to finish (he is supposed to get off at 4), he doesn't get paid overtime for that extra time it took because mail was heavy. i'd much rather just have six days of even flow instead of five days with one day of really, really heavy mail. jmho because i've watched my dad come home from work exhausted (and late!) after a heavy day.
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Canada has had 5 day service forever. It doesn't really change the way we do "sending" except we know that we need to send bday cards earlier than normal.
Better stock up on those Forever stamps. Didn't they just raise the rates? They used to raise them every 2 years, now it's every year??? I agree on the increase though. If they are going to to go to 5 days a week, they really shouldn't up the price of stamps. It should be one or the other. But if they don't raise them, they'll just wait until the new year and raise them instead, so really we're just putting in the inevitable a few months behind.
Here's my 2 cents worth. In this economy everybody has to work together. I don't mind the 2cents raise or cutting back to 5 days. Why you may ask? Stop and think a minute. If it gets bad, what if we didn't have any mail service. No cards, no lettters, no bills (well, that last one might be ok. Hee, Hee!). Also, I'd rather the postman be cut one day a week wages then to be out looking for a job because he was laid off. Things can get worse so look on the bright side. Mail is being delivered,and kdriesen's dad has a job. It could be worse.
my dh is a mailman and there is a lot of talk of laying off a lot of postal peolpe. city carriers work 5 days a week anyway and have a six ( a person that always carries the route on the 6th day). so about 17% of the postal service will not be needed anymore.
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It might help the postal service if they would stop sponsoring things, like the Olympics and such, what has that got to do with the mail being delivered anyway. Five day delivery would be fine with me, and I'm all for cutting out Monday since that is when most holidays fall and maybe they could not get paid for not working that day. And I am going to stock up on Forever Stamps. I usually buy a couple books each time I go to the post office or Costco. We travel a great deal and therefore have gone to PC banking because we get our bills electronically and know they will be paid on the date needed, we don't have to worry about finding a post office to mail things or worry about whether or not it will get to it's distination on time.
I have to say...I am surprised at how much whining I hear over the price of postage going up.
EVERYTHING is going up...postage is the minimial of my worries. Especially since I go through like 3 stamps a month...with all bills getting paid online now...emails...etc. The internet has made communication cheaper, so I WAS using 20 stamps a month at 29 cents...now I use 3 at 42 cents. Still a savings of $4.52 cents a month...WOOHOO...LOL Yeah shipping stuff gets more expensive too...but it's still a lot cheaper than driving to the store! LOL
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I would miss that 6th day delivery, but we lived with it just fine years ago, so I'm sure we could adjust again.
However, I always wondered how true it is that the post office loses a lot of money since the age of the internet began to take over letter sending. Sure, they probably lost a lot snail mail, but think about the HUGE increase in packages being sent because of the popularity of internet shopping. I would think it would've balanced out, but I may be wrong. Feel free to contradict me if I am, LOL.
My son is a mailman and I just look at all the cards and bills I send out as keeping him in a job. He walks 11 miles a day, delivers where no one thinks to shovel their steps, is out in this zero weather, pouring rain whatever and all he gets are complaints if he is a little late at times. I send out and average of 6 cards every holiday not counting the countless ones I make and just send. So I will pay the 2 cents more and not complain.
I'm saddened to hear that the postal service is suffering. I've always thought it was remarkable to be able to plop a 42 cent stamp on an envelope, drop it in a box and know that it will be delivered to the destination within a few short days.
I still love getting "fun" mail in the mailbox, too. (Though really, it happens far less often than it used to!)
Just think of it - whether it's 42 cents or 47 cents - it sure beats pony express!
I'm also happy to use the internet to pay some of my bills - but I don't want to see our postal service go down the drain.
I'm really sick of the postal service and I bet they will up the price of a stamp again.
smile
Lori
so sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but a price increase is already scheduled for May. they haven't decided how much yet, but most likely $0.02 higher for first class letters.
The day after a no mail day seems to slow down the mail delivery terribly. Sometimes I don't get mail until after 5 pm on those days. So my vote is to deliver 6 days a week even if we have to pay more.
I'm saddened to hear that the postal service is suffering. I've always thought it was remarkable to be able to plop a 42 cent stamp on an envelope, drop it in a box and know that it will be delivered to the destination within a few short days.
I still love getting "fun" mail in the mailbox, too. (Though really, it happens far less often than it used to!)
Just think of it - whether it's 42 cents or 47 cents - it sure beats pony express!
I'm also happy to use the internet to pay some of my bills - but I don't want to see our postal service go down the drain.
I agree with you too. AND. I will add that the USPS is the only mail carrier that still allows oddly mailed (Naked Mail for example) packages. UPS, DHL, Federal Express do not allow any deviation in their packaging.
AND...(I believe this is still true) the USPS is one of the only "government" agencies that is 100% supported by their own funding resources. Thank goodness at least they don't take ANY of our tax money.
AND....I believe that because they are in a competing market, they offer rates and offerings that are competitive.
The USPS is no different than any other business around. For example, Have you noticed the increase in your groceries lately? I think we don't notice price increases as much there because we're not forwarned of the exact amount of an increase. At least USPS lets us know.
According to the news I heard on TV this morning, they said that Tuesday and Saturday are the low volumedays for mail. So if they do elect to reduce to 5 days per week, it would be either Tuesday or Saturday that would be cut.
This information per ABC news this morning at 5:30AM.
I don't think it's a either-or situation between 5-day delivery and rate increases. The thing is that the Postal Service is a government "agency" that supports itsself. So if gas prices go up or letter volume goes down (both of which has happened) there has to be changes. Keep in mind though, that the Postal Service is still, at it's core, a service. Who else will deliver anything for you for under 50 cents?
I think the USPS is a great bargain! Have you tried to ship anything via UPS or Fedex, talk about expensive. For 42 cents you can mail a letter all the way across the country and it gets there pretty quickly! I love the flat rate packaging. Everything is getting expensive they have to cover the costs somehow. I do think a fair amount of their budget goes to pensions though.
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I agree with posters who have mentioned how cheap USPS is. I sell a lot of stuff on eBay (have to pay for stamps somehow!), and USPS is usually the cheapest, plus their online quotes are always accurate. I get really inaccurate quotes for international packages from UPS and FedEx, and they don't care at all when I've tried to complain about it.
My mom worked for the post office for about a week, and couldn't handle it. It's very hard work. She worked in the summer and had to carry around a giant bag of mail, getting dehydrated all the while. I can't even imagine delivering mail in the snow we've been getting here in Ohio! So I really feel for the postal workers. They have a choice of either potentially getting laid off or taking a pay cut with the move to 5 day delivery. I want the post office to do whatever they need to do in order to help those people keep their jobs. I do hope that if they reduce the days of delivery, they use some of that money they gain to give the delivery people more money for their 5 days so they don't experience such a harsh decrease in pay.
I agree with those who said that postage is a bargain. How much has a bottle/can of soda gone up or a candy bar! Used to be a nickel for a candy bar or a stamp, now the candy bars are at around 60-75 cents maybe??(This is just one small example - there are lots more!) So everything thing else goes up - why not a stamp??
I think the USPS is a great bargain! Have you tried to ship anything via UPS or Fedex, talk about expensive. For 42 cents you can mail a letter all the way across the country and it gets there pretty quickly! I love the flat rate packaging. Everything is getting expensive they have to cover the costs somehow. I do think a fair amount of their budget goes to pensions though.
Believe it or not, they have to pay in to those pensions all the while they are working!
I don't mind paying 2 cents more a stamp if it keeps my mail carrier working. She's awesome! I like knowing if i put the letters on my box for her to take, she'll get it! A lot of times I will put my mail out on Sat. because I'm not working, and have the time to sit and write out the things that need mailed. I support the 6 day week, and I will pay .02 cents a stamp more to keep them goin! It's that much more money in our economy too, instead of more people out on a depleting unemployment system.
Keeping it at 6 days rather than 5 would mean more than a 2 cent increase. If going from 6 to 5 days would save them about 15% then prices on all postal stuff would have to go up by that. So instead of 44c it would have to go up to 51c plus priority would probably go up to like $15.
I do support keeping people in work, but I don't support paying more to hire more people than needed to do the job.
Here are some excerpts from an article I got off of yahoo. It's pretty hefty hunk of change they are losing as things stand.
Faced with dwindling mail volume and rising costs, the post office was $2.8 billion in the red last year. "If current trends continue, we could experience a net loss of $6 billion or more this fiscal year," Postmaster General John E. Potter said in testimony for a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee.
A study done by George Mason University last year for the independent Postal Regulatory Commission estimated that going from six-day to five-day delivery would save the post office more than $1.9 billion annually, while a Postal Service study estimated the saving at $3.5 billion.
Potter noted that the agency has cut costs by $1 billion per year since 2002, reduced its work force by 120,000, halted construction of new facilities except in emergencies, frozen executive salaries and is in the process of reducing its headquarters work force by 15 percent.
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I'm saddened to hear that the postal service is suffering. I've always thought it was remarkable to be able to plop a 42 cent stamp on an envelope, drop it in a box and know that it will be delivered to the destination within a few short days.
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I totally agree -- I, too, think that 42 cents is a pretty great deal for getting my letter delivered - and pretty quickly to boot!
Stamps are going up in May. The volume of mail has greatly decreased with email and online bill pay. They need to do something and since they are a monopoly it doesn't give them many choices. I personally don't have a problem with them going to 5 days...I mostly get bills and flyers anyway LOL. Maybe if I actually MAILED the cards I make, I would get some too - tee hee.
They are also talking about closing some post office branches and perhaps doing away with some services...which will mean more layoffs and more unemployement issues. As they are a quasi government agency (I forget exactly how they changed a while ago so they were not completely gov't)- with Obama promising to Increase jobs - I see the layoffs of a gov't agency a problem.
In the town I live in the post office is already closed on Sat and Sun
it sucks
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Well, I work for a business that sends direct mail, at the discounted bulk mail rates. I think that "junk mail", even though it is last priority, does take time to sort and deliver, even with all the automation that happens before it enters the mail system.
You can opt out of many types of mailings. I used to get two Capital One offers and two Geico offers a week (one at PO Box, one at street), as did my husband. I went to DMA (Direct Mail Association) and found a link to opt out of unsolicited credit/insurance offers. Those mailings stopped! I also opted out of certain catalogs from the DMA site.
All this decreases pressure on the postal system, so opt out and maybe there will be fewer increases in the future. ;)
Mail service going to 5 days a week??
