Post Office Ends Saturday Delivery

[mudpuppy]

It's been a long time coming.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/06/us-postal-service-delivery-mail-saturdays/1895277/

The Postal Service will end Saturday delivery for first class mail this summer, Postmaster General Patrick Donahue said Wednesday.

Package delivery, which has seen growth in recent years as online purchasing booms, will continue when the plan is implemented in August, Donahue said. Donahue said the plan will save $2 billion annually.

I hardly get anything but junk mail and bills anyway. I don't need to receive those on Saturdays.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Noooooo!!!!

Saturday is always a big magazine day!

 

[snickerd3]

About ftime...

saturday mail is usually just junk anyways

the only sucky part will be that the local friday/weekend paper which is already delayed a day since it has to be mailed wouldn't show up until monday after the weekend has already passed.

 

[roadwreck]

This has been a long time coming and I'm glad they are finally doing something. I think mail delivery should be scaled back even more, maybe to just delivering every other day. I'd happily eliminate Tuesday delivery. Nothing of substance ever seems to turn up on Tuesday.

 

[roadwreck]

Noooooo!!!!

Saturday is always a big magazine day!

Who reads print magazines anymore?

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Noooooo!!!!

Saturday is always a big magazine day!

Who reads print magazines anymore?

Doodz in cabins.

In the woods.

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

I won't notice a change since I typically forget to check the mail over the weekend anyways...

 

[Master slacker]

Just another program already beyond the event horizon of bankruptcy.

 

[goodal]

I can wait until monday to throw away my junk mail. This has been such an obvious move, its a shame it took this long to implement.

 

[Flyer_PE]

Increasing rates and paring back services. Sure signs of a healthy business </sarcasm>

 

[MA_PE]

This doesn't bother me. Although on the radio this morning the DJ suggested that maybe they should stop Wednesday that way there aren't two days in a row with no mail. Sounded logical to me.

Also, will the branch offices still be open? I would think closing the desks would hurt your typical american M-F worker who saves the post office for a weekend task.

 

[Road Guy]

Oh no! What are the elderly that look forward to mail on Saturday going to do?

Or at least I actually recall hearing that argument....

Online bill pay is gonna totally kill them off on a few years, once the baby boomers who are afraid of he Internet Die off....

 

[snickerd3]

yes the post offices themselves would remain open on saturday if they are open on saturdays now

 

[MA_PE]

then this is a move they should have made years ago.

 

[cdcengineer]

So, I read that this move will save $2B. Last year they lost $16B. So if I'm doing the math correctly it costs $2B per day and they've been delivering (6) days. If we cancelled mail altogether we would reduce the loss to [2 x 6=12, 16 - 12 = 4] :. $4B.

I understand there's more to it, but it seems as though the USPS is like many Gubment entities. Wasteful and inefficient!

Sorry to those of you that might be on the dole / government employees.

This might stir up the pot.

 

[wilheldp_PE]

I read up on the situation a couple of years ago. It may have changed, but when I did my research, the Post Office was actually profitable, or at least breaking even. But Congress was forcing them to pre-pay retiree benefits into a fund that Congress was using for other stuff (i.e., Congress spent the money then put IOUs in the benefit fund). Without those pre-payments, the Post Office was in fine shape.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

I read up on the situation a couple of years ago. It may have changed, but when I did my research, the Post Office was actually profitable, or at least breaking even. But Congress was forcing them to pre-pay retiree benefits into a fund that Congress was using for other stuff (i.e., Congress spent the money then put IOUs in the benefit fund). Without those pre-payments, the Post Office was in fine shape.

That's exactly what happened.

Here's how it works.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-02/understanding-the-post-office-s-benefits-mess.html

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Online bill pay is gonna totally kill them off on a few years, once the baby boomers who are afraid of he Internet Die off....

As an aside, I'm wondering if that will happen before people get fed up with having their IDs/banking info compromised over the intenet and stop paying bills over the net.

There are a LOT of people in SC who had the lights turned on after the DoR was hacked and their SSNs and bank routing info was comrpomised.

 

[ktulu]

Wednesday = marriage mail day.

It can go.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Wednesday does seem like a better choice.