bdots48

The government is considering skipping mail one day a week and it happens to be Tuesdays, the day I usually get the most of my Netflix rentals. Maybe if Netflix starts shipping on Saturdays it would fix this (fat chance). Well, it might not happen.

dex14

Haha. I thought the same thing. It wouldnt necessarily screw up getting new release. You just wouldnt get them on the regular tuesday release day.

Troy Stiffler

Well, I ship a 50-60 boxes through the PO per week.

Monday would be trouble, because of the weekend.
Tuesday seems fine.
Wednesday and Thursday wouldn't be good - as I like my packages to get delivered by Friday or Saturday.

I can't really complain. I can remember when my local PO wasn't open on Saturday and closed at 5PM. They're going back to closing at 5PM (2PM on Saturdays). But the postman picks up my packages for free every day. So I hardly visit the PO anymore.

strife

were did you hear Tuesday? All the articles I read said Saturday was the most likely day but could be a weekday depending on volumes.

smashthesymbols

Tuesday has been mentioned a lot because it's the lightest day of the week. If you drop Saturday then Monday, which is already the heavy day, gets even worse.

Either way, it doesn't really matter. There's almost zero chance of it actually happening. It doesn't appear that Congress is in support of the idea, and the union clearly isn't.

RonG617

As a union rep for the USPS, I can tell you there is a good chance of it happening. The union basically agreed to it the last time it was brought up a few years ago. Disagreements over contracting out routes and a few other things derailed the 5 day work week. The Post office lost over 2 billion dollars last year, they are on track to lose 6 this year. Anything over 3 billion and we are considered bankrupt. Going to a 5 day work week can save as much as 3 billion depending on whose study you agree with. The big worry about going to a 5 day work week would be losing out universal delivery agreement. That basically means that it is law that the USPS can be the only mail delivery service with rights to mail boxes. Some higher ups feel if we cut the work week, that law may be repealed and there could be possible competing services for mail delivery which would really do us in. Tuesday probably won't happen because businesses will go crazy not getting mail one day. Saturday is a more viable alternative since most offices and large companies are closed. If Monday becomes too heavy, then some mail(bulk rate catalogs) will be curtailed until Tuesday making that a heavier day. With anything in the government, this is not going to happen overnight. It is going to be a lengthy process. Oh and buy yourself some forever stamps in the next two months, postage is going up in May.

ben12

What's weird is that one of my Netflix DVDs just shipped out today (Saturday)!!!

DVD Josh

Repost.

Gerry P.

They are beta testing Saturday shipping in certain markets.

DeltaSigChi4

This is an outrage!

E

Brian Shannon

They might as well since the only thing I ever get on Tuesdays is that pile of junk mail advertisements. They go right in the recycle bin on my way through the garage.

jjcool

Useless without a link.

Gizmo

Don't care.

nycbrent

This is the biggest argument FOR only having five days of government mail delivery I've heard yet! Forcing the govt. to compete with private firms - yes, that would probably cause the USPS to go bankrupt, but we'd probably end up with firms that care more about customer service. We'd probably also end up with mail delivery seven days per week instead of six (or five).

Don't get me wrong - it's impressive that the USPS is so consistent with delivery and they rarely lose anything, but the postal employees I've dealt with have been universally rude, slow, and grumpy. Considering how much they're paid and how little is asked of them, I'd love to see a change in attitude.

creekdipper

Wow...this is exactly the opposite of our experience. Every employee we deal with is at the very least polite, while most are extremely courteous & friendly. We have gotten to know many of the clerks personally (on a first-name basis) & inquire about ill parents, children, etc. while conducting business. On occasion they have advised us when there is a faster method at the same (or lesser) price, and they have continued to process customer's orders after the posted quitting time (as long as the customers are inside the door/gate before the posted time). We either are really lucky or just live in a friendlier region (Southeast).

fujishig

This would probably work great for big, urban areas where the private firms could make a profit, but not so much for the smaller, more out-of-the-way towns and suburbs. I doubt the price to mail stuff anywhere in the US would be uniform because of this.

Firms that care about customer service? Where?

RonG617

Mailmen actually make less than UPS and probably about the same as Fed Ex. The salary is pretty good if you don't live near a metropolitan area, but I personally live in northern New Jersey where housing costs a fortune and my taxes are $8600 a year and climbing. My salary doesn't go far. You will never see 7 day a week delivery by any firm it is not cost effective. The government would never let anyone else deliver first class mail and besides it would take trillions to get the infrastructure in place to compete with the post office in the handling part of that. Some firms could cherry pick and few good areas and start delivering catalogs if the mailboxes were made available, but the post office makes so little money on bulk(junk) mail. These big mailing companies are paying 20 cents for a letter and 34 cents a catalog. How many would you have to deliver to turn any kind of profit after fuel/employee/vehicle/office/etc expense. As far as grumpy mail people it is the luck of the draw with that one. There are plenty of good and bad in the post office. The job does beat you down though and management is just on you every minute of the day telling you that the company is going out of business and you are not doing enough. Add in that good workers who actually try and do the job quickly and efficiently are not rewarded but sent out to do parts of the routes of the bad ones who just don't care. I have worked a few jobs in my life, but I have never worked for a company where moral is so low as the post office.

ben12

That explains how Cliff's mail all got delivered.

mndtrp

I have just about always had good service with the USPS. The carrier I have is friendly, and rarely puts the wrong mail in my box. When he has to drop something off at the front door, if it's open, he'll wait until I answer. At my store, I've always had the staff be friendly and helpful. I've also never had anything lost, at least that I know of, and don't mind the occasional rate increases.

I hope they don't go to 5 days a week, but I'll live with it if they do.

hindolio

count myself lucky or in a friendly locale too (southern california). i actually like going to the post office

lumberjack

I think they should take Monday as the second day off. Look at how many holidays are observed on Mondays and USPS is closed those days. Now, if they select Tuesday as the day, there will be plenty of three-day weekends for USPS. That's great for the workers, but lousy for customers paying bills and expecting important papers delivered.

Troy Stiffler

FYI, that would be Fed Ex Express. Ground routes are indepdently owned and either the owner drives the route, or decides how much to pay the driver.

I get my home mail once a month. My postman probably hates me. But damned if I'm going to spend 10 minutes a day, walking down to the box, just to throw away a bunch of junk mail. There's never, ever anything I need in my residential mail.

My business' mail is a little different.

diggerbeast

They should scrap Sat. To take away mail delivery during the M-F would mean having the re-define "business days" since, if mail is no longer delivered on Tuesday, then it wouldn't really be a business day, would it? I personally think that all bills/advertisements and other mailers should just be send via e-mail now...stop wasting paper for people who just junk it. Of all the mail I receive, 95% gets shredded. I don't need it, nor do I want it. If I had an e-mail it could all go to, I'd just delete it vs waste paper. The only things I want sent to me are my packages from stuff I order online, and fed-ex/UPS does about 85% of my online deliveries. I would much prefer that everyone sent me online e-cards too, for xmas and b-days and such. Again, less paper. And this way, no one would complain every time postage went up, since we wouldn't be using it!!

Xiroteus

No, it would mess things up.

What is their idea of lost?

Made less then the year before while still making profit, or costs far outweigh income?
Some peoples idea of lost are lopsided.

RonG617

Lost is they spent 2 billion more on the sorting and delivery of mail and overhead than they made from the sale of postage. That is money that has to be borrowed from the treasury. Even though the post office is a quasi-government institution, it is supposed to fully fund itself. It is supposed to break even. If they make more than they pay out for the year, then the money is put away so postage doesn't have to be raised, or if there is a debt to the treasury, then it is to be paid back with that money. Last year with the price of gas the way it was cost the post office millions extra every day for the hundreds of thousands of vehicles they have on the road. That hurt a lot, and then the economy tanking hurt a lot too. Banks and financial organizations send out millions of pieces of junk mail(the you are pre appoved crap) and that just stopped. Linens and Things, Circuit City and many others who send out mailers are gone, and finally a lot of people panicked and stopped or cut down buying last Christmas and it was a terrible end of the year for packages which normally boost the company tremendously. This year is projected to be an even bigger loss. They are cutting positions like crazy and they haven't hired any permanent employees for years in my state. All openings have been filled by temp employees who get no benefits. They would be the delivery people wearing regular clothes since they don't rate a uniform allowance either. It is a tough spot to be in. I do my bill paying online as well and I know paper mail is a dinosaur, but I have 15 years in a company with another 15 to go to get my retirement. I just hope to be able to stick it out until the end. It is a shame though, one day it will either not exist, or positions will be filled by underpaid temp employees who just don't care because there is no future in the company anymore. It will also be the death of a million blue collar middle class jobs.