No wonder the USPS is going broke

[barrysloate]

Part of the problem is first class mail is way too cheap. I can drop a letter in the mailbox from Brooklyn and it will arrive at someone's door in California in three days- 3000 miles away- for the cost of 49 cents. Are you kidding me?

It's time for the USPS to face the reality that prices have to come up. If I send a two day fedex it might cost me around $20. Most letters arrive in two days for 1/40th of that amount. Raise the price of a letter to 75 cents or a dollar, or whatever it takes to start making it profitable. They will lose some volume but that is happening anyway.

[buymycards]

Hi Barry, you are correct. The problem is that a law passed by our Congress limits our price increases to the annual cost of living increases, so we cannot raise prices enough to meet the cost of processing a first class letter.

We have been asked 100's of times - why didn't you just raise the price to 50 cents rather than 49 cents? The answer is - we cannot, because of this law.

In addition, whenever the Postal Service proposes a price increase, the lobbyists come out of the woodwork to battle these increases. Paper companies, logging companies, Amazon, Walmart, newspapers and magazine publishers, trucking companies, all 4 of the Postal Unions - the list is endless. So, the Postal Regulatory Commission compromises, and usually the Postal Service is left holding the bag.

My thoughts are that we should emulate some of the other countries by charging for specific services like holding mail, forwarding mail, etc. Then, maybe, we could properly staff our offices so situations like Pete's don't happen. Every PO that I am aware of is horribly short staffed and we don't have enough employees to properly serve the public. Situations like Pete had yesterday shouldn't happen, but in most PO's there just aren't enough people to take care of everybody. During December I was working 55-60 hours a week, including Saturday and Sunday, because we don't have enough people and we aren't allowed to hire anyone. Since I am a salaried employee, I don't receive OT or extra pay, but we have to move the mail.

Rick

[barrysloate]

Hi Rick- Businesses and lobbyists can complain all they want, but the fact is the post office loses billions of dollars annually, year after year. Is there anything more stupid than that?

[Leon]

The whole problem comes down to one word for me, UNION. It makes for unrealistic anti-competitive practices. Unions should have been done away with 30-40 yrs ago.

[barrysloate]

Originally Posted by Leon

The whole problem comes down to one word for me, UNION. It makes for unrealistic anti-competitive practices. Unions should have been done away with 30-40 yrs ago.

Debatable.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Leon

The whole problem comes down to one word for me, UNION. It makes for unrealistic anti-competitive practices. Unions should have been done away with 30-40 yrs ago.

UPS works with a Union. They seem to do just fine.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

UPS works with a Union. They seem to do just fine.

They don't have internal governmental control. Govt + Union= disaster

The govt is the most inefficient business there is, period.

My nominal understanding is the biggest issue of the USPS is paying their legacy UNION created liabilities.

Barry- we better debate this on the phone and not here. Sounds political to me.

[barrysloate]

I actually agree Leon that most of the reason the post office is going broke is that it has promised too much to their retirees, far more than they can afford to pay them. But I don't agree that all unions should be done away with. All I meant to say is there is room for debate....but not here

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Leon

The whole problem comes down to one word for me, UNION. It makes for unrealistic anti-competitive practices. Unions should have been done away with 30-40 yrs ago.

I don't know if the union is the whole problem but is is a very big part of it.