USPS rate increase (no more ebay discount)

All of these, I think, are proactive steps on their part because they know their core business is dying. Of_course they're going to affiliate with UPS and FedEx; USPS has the last mile covered like no other delivery service.

And don't forget, the only reason USPS is not well into the black, and doing stupid things like this, is the ridiculous Congressional pension mandate.

 

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Government efficiency at it's finest! Everything the gov does costs more because they don't care. Even worse, people keep voting for more and bigger government, personally, I will never understand why people have so much faith in it. One fiscal mistake after another, endlessly, they do not care. Congress could help the Mint by killing the cent, nickel and one dollar notes...but they do nothing. This big, bloated, inefficient government just plain SUCKS.

 

No one is going to spend money to send a letter/junk mail by non-First Class Mail, which would be higher. Everyone knows about USPS. Am I that old/out of touch?

 

Actually most desk clerks get no benefits beyond their pay (heard this from a mail carrier). The desk clerks are in a special pay status. Also $20 an hour does not go far around New York City or other such places.

 

You are correct in all you say. The no benefits started several years ago when they started to offer buyouts on older employees. I should have struck a more positive and constructive note on my post though. And I'm sure it's tougher in the city as you say. I live in rural America though and costs are not as high. I just got disgusted about the time of the way overhyped Presley issue. I stopped collecting stamps at the same time as I could just not keep up with all of the issues. In the end a lot of those Elvis stamps were withdrawn and destroyed, more costs. Out here our rural carriers are contracted out so no benefits and they are just not friendly anymore, just disgusted.

 

They should pay their employees the same way they do for the civil service. The civil service provides localized pay. Pay based on where the employee lives.. That way they would get the pay needed for the area they live in.

 

Civil Service pay is the cause of the problem.

Civil servants accepted lower pay in exchange for better long-term retirement benefits.

Government assume that could pay for these things out of current dollars because everything would continue to grow forever.

( its called kicking the can down the road)

Now that growth isn't going to be endless, you have to pay for those past promises somehow.

Either you keep kicking the can down the road, you put aside current dollars to pay for those obligations just like the private sector does, or you abrogate the past promises.

Also since you no longer have the carrot to pay lower current wages, you have to pay wages that are competitive with the private sector to attract employees.

 

I could talk about civil service pay all day, but that is bending the rules here. I only brought up the situation of the postal desk clerks and regional pay because it directly effects the rate of postage.

 

There is probably not a government pension program without huge unfunded liabilities. The state of Louisiana has a liability of $27 billion alone. I don't know how it is elsewhere, but the state (in other words, the taxpayer) is obligated to pay the benefits directly if the retirement systems go officially insolvent.

 

Quite true. In some states these obligations come ahead of everything else including say current pay for public servants. In others they're just general obligations.

If you go searching the web for more information on this, and that's probably where you should be (not here), just be aware that everybody who writes on this topic has an axe to grind

 

Thats perfect, Blame the employees for the problem. Most at there level never get the chance to voice for their pensions. I say blame the government for giving the pension plans. How about all you people taking a cut in your pension? Always blaming the unions

 

An interesting take on what no one said. BTW, if you keep going down that road, you will manage to get this thread closed.

 

How about you show some leadership and demonstrate this before preaching people's pay? If you do live for the next 40 - 50 years and bother to come back reading this - let's see if your opinion remains the same. Everyone else can bet their life pension and have a comfortable lifestyle.

 

I don't buy the volume drop off because of individuals not writing letters or sending bills via the mail. I get WAY more junk mail now than "Once upon a time". Because of the internet, direct marketing has skyrocketed. It takes an effort to get your name and address off a mailing list these days! Plus! I still send letters as a form of communication, domestically and internationally, and I just finished mailing a pile of Christmas cards. I send checks for certain payments, particularly for numismatic related dealings, subscriptions, etc., and they still sell postcards most places I travel to, and when on vacation I still practice sending those.

 

Sometimes something to protect.

 

But then you would be wrong. Total revenue has dropped since 2007.


Meanwhile, first class business (and I will bet junk mail) had dropped 40% despite the postal rate increses while the population has grown 14%.

2000 103,526 281,000,000
2001 103,656
2002 102,379
2003 99,059
2004 97,926
2005 98,567
2006 98,016
2007 96,297
2008 90,671
2009 82,727
2010 77,592 309,000,000
2011 72,522
2012 68,674
2013 65,754
2014 63,603 320,000,000

 

Sorry. I don't buy it, but I DO still buy stamps and use them regularly. I order stamps online for letters and regularly buy postage online and ship plenty of parcels weekly. In fact, I do more on my side of the postal counter than clerks do for me on their side. I use the APC machines, utilize street side mail boxes and regularly critique the P.O. by sending feedback to them relating the appaulling failings of their carriers, clerks and dysfunctional, dirty and inefficient branches. So as to avoid dealing with clerks I have had to learn all their myriad, byzantine systems for packaging and labeling parcels and letters, rather than being served by them. Their labor force and lack of investment into maintaining a professional personnel and brand image is the their failing. The behavior and unreliable nature of the P.O. would certainly turn people to digital bill pay and email in place of physical mail. It's really not something you can blame on the consumer, RE your suggestion that we don't send letters or utilize the mail service as much anymore. I experience the USPS in it NYC manifestations and let me tell you, there is never a lack of customers waiting to be served by a human at the counter, whether: getting passports done, buying money orders, actual stamps, people needing help how to send various forms of mail, sending packages, picking up mail, putting mail on hold, accessing P.O. boxes, you name it! They HAVE plenty of business, just no mind for how to run it effectively, profitably and without making the consumer/customer suffer for having few other choices for such service. So your charts and revenue downfall has a lot more to answer for than trying to blame it on the customer.

 

I am not blaming anyone, but revenue is the total spent by the "customer". No one else adds to the revenue. And if you think the numbers I presented are wrong, go to the SEC. Form 10K is file with them.

And for all you say the PO does, I pay all my bills via the net - not because the PO service is any worse than it used to be but because they could not touch the internet for promptness and proof of payment. I opted out of credit card ads. My grand kids wouldn't write me a letter for all the tea in China, but they will text anything and everything. I sent more letters in 4 years of high school than I have in the last 25 years.

 

Actually, I say the P.O. doesn't do enough for the amount of customers they have and could be serving, and serving so much better! So they have to deliver to every address...? Why is it that they can't serve the ones standing in lines? There is no other way for a large amount of transactions, business and ways for certain things to get done but to do it IN the P.O. Sure, I too do all manner of electronic bill pay, too, (sometimes I do it on my smart phone standing in line AT the P.O. waiting for service) but I still make regular use of the P.O. in traditional way and see what fellow customers are doing at the P.O. for their business, and how they are treated by postal employees, as well as the grim nature of the environment in which these transactions take place. Revenue could and should be much higher. Whether you personally make use of it doesn't illustrate the sole reason, your's and many others' electronic means, alone is the catalyst for the decline in revenue. While charts show a drop, it's not simply because people can now choose to send an email instead, but also because the very place of doing postal business offends customers, doesn't welcome them, sends them away, defeats them... and utterly under-serves a demand that could easily be serviced and met. They simply don't seek our business. Most of their overpriced "products" only force us to look for ways to do things cheaper or not use the service. They are failing because of inefficient and systemic management and motivational failings. They have no urge to serve. They do not abide even by the very manifesto that most of the public (wrongly) thinks is their mission statement of service and commitment to the customer! With such an expectation, met with such disdain, therein lays the problem for their own self-designed decline.

 

Whoever the head of USPS (to lazy to google it) didn't take 9th grade economics. For this problem demand will represent the number of people who use USPS and supply will represent how much mail USPS could deliver. Their supply is high, however their demand is low. So the best solution would be to lower prices to make it more appealing to people. However they decide that they would take the risk that customers wouldn't be upset and go somewhere else. To be honest the post office should be complete disbanded and privatized.