Postal Hike Coming "Up", Biggest Yet

One of the PO's problems is the changing elasticity of demand for their services. Demand is said to be inelastic if the consumer has few options but to buy the product regardless of price. It can be defined by the fact that revenue increases as the price increases. Demand is said to be elastic if the consumer has other options, either to buy a substitute, use a competitor, or do without. It can be defined by the fact that revenue actually decreases as the price increases. In bygone decades the PO had a monopoly on an essential service (first class mail) so the demand was inelastic. They could charge what the politicians would allow. Now most of what once was first class mail is electronic, and package delivery has sprouted more competition. If they raise the price of first class they may find in the long run their revenue will fall, or at least not rise much (there is some element of inelasticity in a hard core of people who must mail letters) as more customers decide to use other options. Yet their required service costs will continue to rise.

Actually, I really like the USPS. Here in my small town we get excellent, friendly service at a very reasonable price. Consider when I was a teenager the cost of an ounce first class was 5 cents, and an extra 5 cents for each additional ounce. The general inflation rate since the early 1960s would make that in the neighborhood of $.60 to $.70 today. (Gold was $35 an ounce; an uncirculated 1909-S VDB could be bought for around $100). So the price of a stamp is still a bargain, historically.

 

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Good for you!

 

The USPS is one of the remaining best deals we have that hasn't been privatized for the benefit of profiteers. Do some research to see why the USPS has been politically forced to look like they are in the red.

 

Got a heck of a shock at the PO yesterday. Promised someone in Norway to send him a book. I had already gone to Amazon and found his friend a book that, with about $8 shipping, cost $16. He wanted the same book but I couldn’t find another used book seller who would ship to Norway.

So I just had one shipped to me, rewrapped it and paid $23.50 just for shipping! An $8 book. I’d already gotten $16 from him, so I’ll eat that one.

No book rates to Norway (THAT lesson I won’t forget). How does the Amazon shipper do it for $8 and it costs me $23.50 for the identical book?

Is there that much of a discount for large shippers?

Steve

 

I wonder if the original seller got caught by surprise, too? Googling "Amazon shipping Norway" indicates that it's a near-universal pain point...

 

I would prefer something credible and not a Russian propaganda news outlet run by their government.

 

Not if I can help it either. But let me tell you. It's very difficult, especially when most of the tech comes from there.

 

I wouldn't call it credible but will The Hill do? I refuse to search CNN....

https://thehill.com/homenews/admini...ithdraw-from-international-postal-rate-system

 

So I run a business. I have a customer who I know very well and who is very reputable. They mailed me a check last Thursday. I have not received it. To put this in perspective my business is located in Windsor CO. My customer is located in Ft Collins CO. The two towns are a 5 minutes from each other. Look at a map if you don't believe me. Mail from Ft Collins will travel,out of the way to denver before heading back north to Windsor. Does this sound efficient to you?
This happens with all my mail. Sometimes it's 4 days sometimes it's over a week. And I'm not the only one. My neighboring business don't get their mail half of the time either. Oh and we definitely don't receive it on Saturdays. There is a locking community box on the street like a normal residential mail box. They skip it. The guy on this route is forced to come inside with some things that are signature required. He smells of weed most of the time. He's driving stoned. If it wasn't for the government this guy would never have a job.

I'm willing to pay more for postal service. But the quality needs to be better.

It's going to happen whether you guys like it or not.

 

Good post. And I might add, that the post office has an operating profit in most years, but in it's wisdom, the edit Congress decreed that the USPS must fund it's pensions out 75 years - yes, 75 years! As far as I can tell, no other business in the world does this. This absurd pension funding requirement is why the USPS "loses" money.

 

There's even a provision in the postal code for mailing live scorpions (section 526.5 under 18 U.S.C. 1716). I dare you to go to a UPS store and put "live scorpions" on a waybill.

Cal

 

That's OK, they will just order a whole bunch more of them to reduced the per unit shipping cost.

But like I said the Postal Regulatory Commission will probably cut that back to to 2 cents instead of five.

I believe the domestic postal rates most everywhere in the world are high compared to ours.

Actually yes it IS more efficient to have mail shipped to a few sorting hubs rather than have it all sorted at every individual Post office and then shipped from there to every other post office. It can introduce inefficiencies for a very local delivery piece of mail, but the overall efficiency for ALL the mail service is improved.

You could probably improve the local delivery if the post office had two boxes, one for local deliveries and one for everywhere else. But how do you define "local delivery" Within the zip code? Within the zip code and the immediately surrounding zip codes? What about the next city over? How much mail would actually get shipped to the next city over? Is it worth driving a truck back and forth every day to carry that amount? And how do you get people to keep that mail separate? You would probably have to keep that separate box at the Post office. Would you be willing to make a special trip to the post office every time you wanted to send a local delivery letter? Most people would rather just add it to the rest of their outgoing mail and send it out together.

 

I hope you are right about the PRC cutting back the rate hike from 5 cent to 2 cents. 5 Cents is a big jump, and it would impact people who mail out a lot of first class letters.

 

I look at historical precedent, the last several time they have asked for a rate hike they have had a reduced amount approved, not what they asked for.

 

I bought a coin from a seller in Nashville, TN in late August. The parcel showed a postmark of 8/28. I was in contact with the seller after two weeks. He refunded my money. The parcel arrived two days ago. No evidence of scuffing, just a plain business envelope with a postage stamp on it. Who knows? I contacted the seller then offered to mail him a check for the coin so that he could avoid the ebay fees.

Oh, I know, and it's why I'll never buy another Apple product.

 

Books can go "media mail", which is the lowest rate there is.
But it probably doesn't allow for overseas.
Media mail is slow and unreliable. Someone sent us something via media mail
and we never received it.

 

Yes, and mailing anything INSIDE or FROM Norway is painful. Their rates are 3 to 4 times USPS rates.

Steve

 

A major part of the problem has got to be the junk mail and political adds. We're bombarded with political commercials on tv and radio. Don't really need 3 to 5 different, large flyers in the mail box daily, to go over the talking points again.

Most of the junk mail is shipping free. Some places have local papers that ship free. Yes the vehicles are going box to box anyway but the extra bulk and time costs money that somebody has to cover.

As someone else stated, it's probably not fair to be mad at the organization in general when there's the man behind the curtain making policy decisions for them, agreeing to stuff that probably shouldn't be agreed to.

Many people use a P.O. box already. They could move to forcing everyone to use a P.O. box and just have a few more facilities. Maybe it wouldn't work but that seems to be the most logical. I'd pick my mail up once a week maybe, unless I ordered something. Could go longer. This tells me a truck filling my mail box with junk every day isn't economical. They make an app that allows you to see what's coming in your mail that day. Could allow you to decide whether to go pick it up based on what you view on your phone.

 

Wait, what? Unless it's coming directly from a Congressperson's office, I don't think so.

 

We live in the age of instant gratification. When I was young ordering something through the mail was about a 2 or 3 week process. And, we were OK with it. Not anymore. We have cut off most of that time with internet ordering. It has to be here in 2 days or we don't buy from them anymore. I'm still OK with it taking 10 days after order.