No More Saturday Mail

[ATB]

This doesn't bother me at all.

I think they should take it one step further and go ahead and cease delivering packages that day as well...

[Moliere]

At least 95% of my mail gets thrown away or shredded. Congress should open up first class mail to competition.

[farley2k]

I don't care but please don't open first class to competition.  It was be horrible, horrible, horrible. 

[ATB]

I don't care but please don't open first class to competition.  It was be horrible, horrible, horrible. 

Explain.

[Davidbld]

I still get netflix disks and thats the only way this would effect me (Im sure netflix will love this..less work, same price). I pay most of my bills on-line, though they'll usually send me paper statements anyway which I dont have an urgent need for.

[gellar]

Great, now they just need to get rid of the other five days as well.

[hepcat]

This just means that PR_GMR gets one day less a week of me sending him pictures of myself in a speedo, eating a big mac and pointing enthusiastically at the lens.

[CeeKay]

This just means that PR_GMR gets one day less a week of me sending him pictures of myself in a speedo, eating a big mac and pointing enthusiastically at the lens.

there's always Facebook.

[The Grue]

Great, now they just need to get rid of the other five days as well.

+1

[farley2k]

I don't care but please don't open first class to competition.  It was be horrible, horrible, horrible. 

Explain.

I envision the ads trumpeting X service over Y.  I imagine the headaches of trying to track a missing item shipped by this vendor vs. that vendor.  I see service areas where you can't ship to this address or that address just by putting it in your mailbox because the service you contract doesn't have an agreement with the recipients address so it won't deliver there.

Then there are all the things that went on with phone service - switching your mail service without your knowledge and you have to fight to get back what you had, etc. 

[Lee]

I think they should take it one step further and go ahead and cease delivering packages that day as well...

They can't, at least not easily, just closing on Sunday creates a huge backup in packages. The occasional national holiday weekend where they are closed two days makes it even worse and the transportation networks had to press on anyway. (Source: I managed a post office last year.)

[Ironrod]

I was relieved that package delivery won't be affected. I use USPS for >99% of my shipping and Saturday delivery is one of their major edges over the competition (the other two being price and convenience -- no other carrier will pick up, for free, from my front porch).

As far as personal mail goes, I'll miss the Netflix deliveries, but that's really all. 90% of our mail is just junk.

[Lee]

As I said, I worked in a post office last year, as I did about 15 years ago in that same post office. 15 years ago the amount of 1st class, as well as junk mail with through the roof, back then everyone still got bills, letters, etc in the mail. Last year it was about 1/10 of what we used to get. Some people still receive and mail bills/letters, but outside of cards, most of the mail was junk. On the hand, thanks to place like Amazon, the package volume was much higher.

The only bad part I see to this is jobs. USPS is going to have to lose a lot of employees.

[EngineNo9]

I just wish there was a way to opt out of getting all of the junk advertisements from the grocery stores, Penny Saver, etc.  Those come every week in my mail and I personally never look at it.  When I lived in an apartment I also saw a ton of it go directly into the garbage can such that they were overflowing on that day.  What a complete waste of time and resources.

[JayDee]

Wait, you guys got Saturday mail delivery in the U.S.? 

Mind. Blown.

[EngineNo9]

Since 1863.

[Default]

 Note the bolded statements in the quote. Just think where your finances would be if you were mandated to pay for your kids' college expenses, your grandkids' expenses, your greatgrandkids' college expenses and their children's college expenses as well. Oh, and since we don't know how many children they'll have, we'll set it at six per generation.

The U.S. Postal Service announced on Wednesday that it will discontinue first class Saturday mail delivery, marking another milestone in the decline of the once-ubiquitous government service. But it isn’t a switch to online mail that’s causing the postal demise — it’s Congress.

Under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, Congress has for years forced the USPS to pre-fund 75 years’ worth of pensions for its employees, a requirement not made of any other public or private institution. That means that the Postal Service is footing the bill for employees it hasn’t even hired yet.

The USPS doesn’t actually receive money from the government, but still needs Congressional approval to make any changes to its structure. An analysis in July showed that the USPS, without its pension requirement, would have a $1.5 billion surplus.

But Congress has repeatedly failed to address the issue. Last year, the Postal Service defaulted on a pension fund payment for the first — and then second — time in its history, and political infighting stopped Congress from bringing any remedy to the floor.

Postal access is, ultimately, a rights issue for rural Americans; since they live in areas where internet coverage is inconsistent, post office closures and slowed-down delivery can mean big limitations on communication. A lack of access to postal services can lead to a growth in economic inequality. The new rules for Saturday delivery, set to take effect on August 1, 2013, will continue delivery of packages, but discontinue basic first-class mail.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/02/06/1547551/postal-service-saturday-delivery/?mobile=nc

[Default]

I just wish there was a way to opt out of getting all of the junk advertisements from the grocery stores, Penny Saver, etc.  Those come every week in my mail and I personally never look at it.  When I lived in an apartment I also saw a ton of it go directly into the garbage can such that they were overflowing on that day.  What a complete waste of time and resources.

[giyf]http://www.obviously.com/junkmail/ [/giyf]

[Isgrimnur]

AOL (America On-Line): You could pave the nation with the free discs these people send out, call 1-800-605-4297 (24 hours a day) to get off the list.

Thanks, Default!  Now I'll never have to get one of those again. 

[Default]

I think they should take it one step further and go ahead and cease delivering packages that day as well...

They can't, at least not easily, just closing on Sunday creates a huge backup in packages. The occasional national holiday weekend where they are closed two days makes it even worse and the transportation networks had to press on anyway. (Source: I managed a post office last year.)

Also, the carriers getting pummeled with two days worth of mail on Monday is bad enough. God only knows what three days worth would be like. And the parcel end is exploding. Between Ebay and online shopping, it's like what the Christmas rush used to be, only every day. We have a couple of people injured and one guy out with cancer. In order to cover the routes, I was out delivering til 7 PM. I've heard of stations where guys are out til 8:30 every night because it's preferable to run people into the ground than hire temporary workers. That situation will be exacerbated when Obama care kicks in and it's noticeably cheaper to work me 12 hours a day than to pay healthcare costs for another employee.

[Default]

AOL (America On-Line): You could pave the nation with the free discs these people send out, call 1-800-605-4297 (24 hours a day) to get off the list.

Thanks, Default!  Now I'll never have to get one of those again. 

But where will you get free floppy disks from?????

[Ragnarok]

You guys were getting your mail on saturdays?

[CeeKay]

plan withdrawn.

The U.S. Postal Service announced Wednesday that it would cancel plans to end Saturday mail delivery this summer, saying the new stopgap budget that Congress recently passed would prohibit the move.

The postal service’s board of governors made the decision Tuesday, according to a statement from the agency.

“The board believes that Congress has left it with no choice but to delay this implementation at this time,” the board said in the statement. “The board also wants to ensure that customers of the Postal Service are not unduly burdened by ongoing uncertainties and are able to adjust their business plans accordingly.”

[Default]

plan withdrawn.

The U.S. Postal Service announced Wednesday that it would cancel plans to end Saturday mail delivery this summer, saying the new stopgap budget that Congress recently passed would prohibit the move.

The postal service’s board of governors made the decision Tuesday, according to a statement from the agency.

“The board believes that Congress has left it with no choice but to delay this implementation at this time,” the board said in the statement. “The board also wants to ensure that customers of the Postal Service are not unduly burdened by ongoing uncertainties and are able to adjust their business plans accordingly.”

Translation:

The shit we threw up against the wall didn't stick.