So, I saw a brief news snippet running across the bottom of Fox News the other day saying that the Post Office is considering cutting out one day of delivery to cut expenses.
Frankly, this news doesn't bother me too much. When I am expecting packages, it would obviously be a problem. But other then that, I get bills and junk. Yeah, I can wait an extra day with them.
And I've always wondered why they delivered mail on Saturday. It meant that mail carriers only got one day off a week. And since the rest of the working world was off, it seemed like it wouldn't matter that much. I've always figured that some day they'd stop delivery on that day.
However, they are targeting a day that is light on delivery. Like possibly Tuesday.
Does that make sense to anyone?
First of all, Tuesday-Thursday are the days I get the most mail because of the weekly ads that are mailed to all residence whether we want them or not.
And let's think about how it would pay out. Every single business would get mail four of their five work days. Saturday's mail would just sit there until Monday rolled around, when people would have two days worth of mail to process.
Furthermore, how hard would it be to pay bills via the mail, or mail someone a present or even plan on anything. Let's see, mail runs today, but not tomorrow. Then it runs four days and takes a day off again.
Really, this is the best they can do?
No wonder I don't have faith in the government to handle the big things like health care.
4 comments:
Well, the likely reason for keeping Saturday delivery is that the competition DOES NOT offer Saturday delivery, unless you pay extra for it. The USPS probably owns a solid majority of the Saturday delivery market. Weekdays on the other hand are a completely different story.
One problem is that UPS in many cases can be just as affordable as the Post Office. Add the fact that delivery tracking and insurance up to $100 is automatically included with any UPS shipment -- the Postal Service doesn't stand a chance.
I was shipping applications off to some prospective employers. Since these were local, I could ship them ground. I got a better deal shipping them UPS.
The real problem with the Postal Service is that while they are a trusted service, they don't necessarily have the stronger performance level. They could learn something from UPS.
USPS isn't the government anymore ;) They privitized several years ago.
Actually, from someone who has been a mail opener for two companies - Tuesdays IS the lowest of mail days - because Monday you get all of the Saturday mail too.
Since most people mail their stuff locally anymore, the mail time average is probably two days. So if you could mail something on Sunday it would arrive on.... Tuesday.
Tuesday actually makes a LOT of sense.
And Brian - I want to know who you have an in with at UPS. Everytime I've ever considered them they've always been 3-5 times more expensive than USPS.
Leslie,
UPS tends to be more expensive for next day/second day stuff. Third day is not too expensive. However, if you are shipping within California, you can ship ground and it will be there in two days, sometimes even one. Shipping anywhere on the West Coast and ground should get there in three. It is those ground rates that can often beat USPS. I once was shipping a used Xbox 360. UPS had USPS beat, hands down.
For shipping those documents, I didn't want to fold them. I could have paid for priority flat rate at the post office, but for about $2 more I paid for UPS ground and had guaranteed next day delivery. Using the non-flat rate priority, UPS was cheaper by $3.
Ah, that might be the problem... Thanks for the info Brian.. but I'm in Texas. It could be a lack of infastructure here that causes prices to be higher than in the more populated areas of the country.
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