U.S. Postal Service Eyes Closing Thousands Of Post Offices – I think that the U.S Postal Service is fantastic. Compared to back home it is a world of difference. In fact, I think our post man was one of the first people I got to know when I moved here. Come hell or high water he is there every day too!
Unfortunately – and we all knew this day would come – it looks like the U.S Postal service is going the way of the Post Offices in England…they are closing. Before I left the UK, it was clear to me that the world in which I grew up – one where you could rely upon it as almost a nationwide standard that every town had ‘two pubs and a post office’ – was coming to an end. The decline in the economy, coupled with the increasing use in modern day technology has meant that our old school ways are facing big changes.
U.S. Postal Service Eyes Closing Thousands Of Post Offices
It would appear that as good as they are at delivering your parcels, the U.S Postal service is equally good at operating at a loss. When companies run at a loss, the first thing they always do is hit the cost cutting exercises, of which this one is a big one. As many as 2,00 Post Offices will close around the country in March, and there appears to be an additional 16,000 that are far from being safe.
I must forewarn you that I feel what happened in the UK is about to happen here. That old fashioned sense of community, which is already on the wane after the likes of Wal-Mart beat down upon pretty much all small local businesses, is about to disappear. People will be forced to travel further to find what they need which I feel will put further problems on the postal industry as a whole. If you make it harder to send letters and packages, will people soon give up altogether? The art of letter writing is all but dead, please don’t let the gift of sending something through the mail die also.
So, after posting record loses to the tune of $8.5 billion last year, the U.S. Postal Service Eyes Closing Thousands Of Post Offices.
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The USPO should consider some other strategies for mail delivery: neighborhoods should be organized like high-rise apt. buildings, with a centralized mail pick-up. In fact, the emphasis should be on mail pick-up, with actual delivery scheduled for a couple times a week. People might want to have a choice on where to pick up their mail, say, Walmart or the local rec center. All this would reduce the number of delivery sites postal employees need to hit each day. The key is in organization, which should be a lot easier with computerization and GPS to guide it in relocating these sites.
How many personal letters are written today that aunt Sarah is waiting for? If it’s urgent, use & pay for a ‘special service’. Business (3rd class “junk”) mail should be charged at a higher rate than today if they really want their ads in my house. And, rather than close PO’s cut deliveries in half; every other day except for ‘special services’.
There are hundreds of small PO’s who’s revenues don’t even come close to covering operating expenses. Therefore operating at a loss for 30 years that I know of. They should have been closed years ago. This is a smart move!!!
It’s a nice thing that the PO will close certain PO. They all suck. They don’t have any customer service skills and they are all a bunch of idiots. It’s nice to see that some Government Employees are going Bye, Bye. So sad, They all are premadonnas.
Im sure your just Mr./Ms wonderful while your gettin all your free govt checks too. The USPS isnt perfect, but they do pretty damn good compared to the rest of the govt. AND, the USPS is REGULATED by the govt. They get their money from stamps etc, not from takin it out of your welfare checks.
Hey surf, it’s “prima donna”.
I have a friend who works at the post office, and he comes home nearly every day with stories of mis-management and bureaucratic nonsense. If they ran more efficiently, they would still be in trouble, but maybe they could stave off the closings a little longer. It’s as if they have been trying to get people to quit–messing with their schedules, forcing overtime, failing to pay the correct amount in wages, threatening termination, transferring people to posts far away from their homes (I’m not referring to out-of-state, but outside of the cities they live in when the people who live closer would fare better)–the list goes on. I have never heard of such a chaotic workplace. Is this how the rest of the offices are being run?
Last week the Postmaster General came to his post office and informed them that closings were immanent, but that anyone who wanted to ride it out to the end was welcome to do so. No dates were mentioned. He mentioned privatization, but not who would be picking up the contracts. Might be a stock opportunity if you are a speculator.
I like S. Williams idea of centralized mail pickups. It would probably still decrease the workforce of the largest place of employment in America, but it wouldn’t completely displace everyone.
does anyone know what post office offices will be closed…the zip codes of the offices on the chopping block???
please advise if anything is known…
thx,
jk
The USPS can’t break even because 1) they have never been able charge realistic prices for services and 2) they waste much of what the do receive through sheer incompetence, disorganization and all the little post offices that are 3 miles apart.
Technology has changed the world and the changes have not, nor will they stop. The younger generations who have never known a time with out computers and smart phones will change the way things are being done now even more as they grow to adults. Not all of this is bad; you bemoan letter writing as a lost art, but the reality of all that paper not being used is ultimately a good thing. Now if we could only get rid of the junk mail.
When those who blithely embrace every technology that is offered them now become adults and realize how truly over exposed they are electronically, and how invaded their lives are, it may be to late for them to change. But at this point there is no going back.
While earlier notions of “community” are being “lost”, new types of communities are forming. Every generation thinks the loss of their way of doing things is going to send society down the path to destruction. These changes, in spite of all the dire predictions, have never actually caused society as a whole to self destruct.
The post office, as it exists now, will change until it serves only what is actually needed. It may ultimately cease to exist. It will be a convoluted and agonizing process made more so by the desire of people to keep those changes from happening.
However, realistically, it can’t remain as it is.
I AM GLAD TO SEE THAT I WILL NOT BE THE ONLY POSTAL WORKER THAT HAS LOST MY JOB. HOPEFULLY I WILL SEE SEVERAL OF MY FORMER MDO’S AND MANAGERS ON THE UNEMPLOYMENT LINE WITH ME. IT’S ABOUT TIME!
THE NEXT STEP WOULD BE TO COMPLETELY DIVORCE FROM CONGRESS. IT IS HARD TO MAKE A PROFIT IF YOUR EMPLOYEE HEALTH BENEFITS ARE REQUIRED TO BE PREPAID. ALSO YOU CAN’T HAVE A RATE HIKE UNTIL IT IS APPROVED BY A RATE BOARD OF WHICH THE CEO OF FEDEX IS A MEMBER!
This is an example of how the government runs things. Could you trust them with your health care?
Not only should they close some post offices – they should do away with Saturday delivery … and even further, make the postal workers walk their routes instead of being so lazy and driving from door to door. My delivery man sits at the end of our street for an hour with the truck running as he takes his break…………gas saved, vehicles saved… wow what an idea!
While, in general, the USPS does a terrific job, the reality is that it’s been losing money for decades — so thie is not JUST because of the internet. Our government is to the point that it MUST stop wasting BILLION& yearly, so along with thousands of small post offices, ALL non-essential expenses are rightfully on the chopping block. The sad part is this all is because:
1) Too many fat-cat union bosses thoughout the public sector we so successful at pushing wage increases to the point that government workers now make far larger salaries and benefits than in the private sector,
2) Too many of our citizens felt “entitled” to extreme happiness, when all they were promised was “life, liberty, and the PURSUIT of happiness”,
3) Too many “protected” groups forced concessions to be made over the last 50 years whether it made financial sense or not,
4) Too may free rides were granted, when we ALL know thet there is so such thing as a free lunch,
5) Too many (about 49%) of our citizens pay zero, or less, in federal income taxes
6) There are just not enough rich people (to tax at some bracket far closer to 100%) so as to make up for 70 years of this giant Ponzi Scheme which we refer to as Social Security, Welfare, and Medicare/Medicaid. It is time to pay the piper, and ALL lines of the federal budget (including military, welfare, health care, etc.) must be cut dramatically! This is MERELY a start!!
I say good riddance! The postal workers at my local branch are so rude and unprofessional. With the internet and ING I don’t use the USPS anymore. I’m sure that ING uses the USPS but at least I’m not buying their overpriced stamps and putting up with their crap.
Let Walmart run it!!!!
This information is not accurate.. they are not closing actual post offices .. only 2,000 stations and branches .. the difference is a branch is smaller as they don’t actually process the mail and sometimes don’t even have a carrier .. in fact the law prevents a post office from being closed due to economical reasons
What law? We are living in a new reality… so things like such silly laws will go away too!
It’s about time. There are hoards of these antiquated brick & mortar relics that serve no useful purpose. Good riddance.
Maybe Bill O’Riley or Glenn Beck should check into the bonus of the Postmaster General?? Or the outrageous rental agreements of the properties that the post offices set on??
It’s NOT the Post Office’s fault, it’s NOT the internet’s fault, it’s NOT even the Government’s fault. IT’S OUR FAULT. BIG BROTHER works for us, and America has let him run rampant and waste BILLIONS of OUR money EVERY year. Write to the Editor’s of every newspaper in your area, call YOUR elected officals (THEY work for YOU, not the other way around), protest, go to rallies and MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD! and tell them it’s time to change their ways or its time to REVOLT. This country was founded on revolt, it is the corner stone of the American way of life (remember the Boston tea party). Let the Post Office go the way of the Pony Express, IT’S TIME GOVERNMENT STARTED LIVING WITHIN IT’S MEANS, AND QUIT RIPPING OFF PETER AND PAUL TO LINE THEIR POCKETS. There’s an old saying from the days of the Revolution “GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH”, well the way the Corrupt and Contempable Government is running this Country into the ground I SAY GIVE ME DEATH, I’d rather be in a box, then one of the Concentration Camps that Homeland Security and the Fussion Centers have built in the name of a National Emergency (the real emergency is that we LET them do it to us). Giving up your rights, rolling over and playing dead to the Fascist Dictators that call themselves our elected officals is not FREEDOM!
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