hamilton71801

http://www.smdp.com/Articles-c-2009-...or_sleet_.html

Part 1: Neither snow nor rain nor sleet ...
by Steve Breen
Feb. 11, 2009
Editor's note from the Santa Monica Daily Press: This is part one of a four part series.
"... nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."— Herodotus
The U.S. Postal Service has no official motto yet Mr. Herodotus' quote is frequently proffered as the raison d'etre to "... establish Post offices and post roads ..." which provides for the existence of my current employer under the U.S. Constitution when actually a reverse reading of the foregoing would be more accurate. You will not find in the Constitution a prescription for the departments of Treasury, Commerce nor Health and Human Services which only exist as the spoils of political brigandage for tax evaders and influence peddlers.
And yet the service you get from the Post Office is free.
Yup, that's right, ladies and gentlemen, FREE! You don't have to sign up for this service. There is no initiation nor yearly maintenance fee. No salesmen will call. Of course, however, provided that you're not a future U.S. Cabinet nominee on the dodge from the IRS, we may or may not, political pedigree pending, be required by law in assisting the IRS to find you. More importantly, NO TAX PAYER money is spent for this service.
The tab is paid when you shell out to the USPS a measly 42 cents for a 1st class stamp.
And we will deliver bloody near anything. In 1904, a prohibition against sending small children through the mail had to be enacted. No joke, there are pictures of this. I delivered a small canoe once as well as the cremated remains of someone's dearly departed to "point B" from "point A."
The USPS "Smurf Army" of 690,000 handles half of the world's mail [no exaggeration] so that you may enjoy the comfort and succor of your letters from Grandma, books from Amazon and recycled lingerie from Khyrgistan.
OK, so what service do you really get for less than half a buck from the USPS?
Let's say you live in Key West, Florida. Your long lost Uncle Bronco lives in Nome, Alaska. You send him a smarmy all-vegan post-consumer waste Tantra-colonic birthday card from the Aura Shop affixed with one of our 1st Class stamps. We then fly that little bit of personal fluff all the way from sunny Florida to the farthest popsicle precipice of the planet.
However, Uncle Bronco has since moved from the quiescent confines of Eskimo-ville to the bottom of the sweltering Grand Canyon in Arizona. The USPS, on that same 42 cents, re-routes your missive from Alaska to Arizona and then delivers it to the bottom of the gorge by mule train [no kidding] so Uncle Bronco can then enjoy your natal day salutations only to quip, "Who the hell is this from?"
Please name for me any other entity, public or private, that can pull off that stunt for under half a buck.
So the next time you pull up at the gas pump to fund autocratic oil-fed terrorist dictatorships or bump up against the counter of Starbucks to aid small time Colombian drug lords or whine about your crappy mortgage "deal" while bankers and politicians grease the wheels of commerce and call it "stimulus," please desist from squealing when the USPS raises the price of a stamp by a crappy dime over a 10 year period!
Recently, the Post Master General of the USPS went before Congress and informed them that due to upper managerial ineptitude that mail service may have to be cut to five day/week from the current six days/week due to declining mail volumes.
Suffice it to say, when was the last time that you actually sat down, wrote a letter to a loved one, business associate or ex-girlfriend [sometimes these are all the same thing], sealed it in an envelope and then affixed one of the USPS' low cost non-cyberspace alternatives that would directly stimulate the economy? Forget about the hopey-changey Congressional pinheads arguing about how condom and abortion subsidies stimulate "job growth." Mail a letter instead.
So simple even a liberal can do it!
Write a letter and print it from your Apple iDooDad, stick a stamp on the darn thing and then drop it in the mail in order to preserve one of the best American inventions that Benjamin Franklin ever devised! Akin to Al Gore inventing the internet, Ben invented lightning.
Like Horndog-in-Chief Billy Jeff Clinton, Ben was also a whizzbang favorite of the ladies of the French court.
Is it an inconvenient truth that the primary governmental representative with which you have the most regular contact is your mailman? When was the last time that the Hag of the House Nancy Pelosi rolled by your crib? And the closest that you'll ever get to President Zero is the bumper sticker of your arugula fed Prius. Sorry, folks, but you're stuck with li'l ol' me..
Lucky you!

04ctd

postage has jumped up for mailing boxes.

it's ~$25 to get a box to Cali most of the time, and those guys do most of the buying on ebay.

Iron Mike

I find that stuff that is sent USPS in the flat rate boxes is the fastest and cheapest. Just my .03

Field_boss_cb

What type of retirement does the USPS have?

ofcmarc

x2
Wish some retailers would offer that option when ordering over the internet. FedEx/UPS are WAY to expensive up here.

hamilton71801

It's called TSP(Thrift Savings Plan). They match your contributions up to 5%...IIRC (I can't contribute much more than that right now so I don't pay too much attention) and I think you can contribute up to 15% of your pay. There are several funds from guaranteed rates (G fund) to high risk. They also have Lifetime funds where you enter your retirement date and they manage it for you. Excellent retirement if you ask me.

graphitecumnz

I think I've heard Neal Boortz mention this before but why don't they just bump postage up to $.50, budget accordingly and build up a bit of a surplus(interest bearing account)??

hamilton71801

[quote=graphitecumnz;2386864]I think I've heard Neal Boortz mention this before but why don't they just bump postage up to $.50, budget accordingly and build up a bit of a surplus(interest bearing account)??[/quote/]

That would make sense but unfortunately they can't increase it past the current rate of inflation.

Lary Ellis (Top)

I don't know about the carriers in your neck of the woods fellas but I have been blessed here with service that is far and above normal duty. My previous carrier retired a couple years ago and I could just about set my watch by consistent delivery times. Not to mention he is a heck of a nice guy and I still see him in the area from time to time.

The carrier that replaced him is an absolute sweetheart and she goes out of her way to keep me from having to walk to the mailbox in the snow. She will get out of her vehicle and hand carry everything to my door and always with a smile

She gets a nice gift card from Walmart from us every year as a token of our appreciation for her exemplary service. I could not be happier with the Mail service we have and I ship a LOT of packages through her.

rattlerbob5.9

Same here we have a good man and he gets a reward every xmas .
He does 5 days most weeks just like clock work and the days he is off the timing can be off 1-2 hours later. He always brings packages to the door and if i am not around he puts them in a vehicle for me unlike fedex who just throws things on the front porch for all the thieves to see.

pind

Lary, that is a heartwarming story for sure, and for someone who obviously goes above and beyond on a regular basis, why you would get her a gift card for Walmart ( home of cheap imported crap ) is beyond me.

Get her a gift card for a truly american institution ( if there is such a thing left ) and truly support your country, by using not only your postal service, but a homegrown business for your "gift / reward" cards.

Just my way of saying keep up the good work / you're a credit to the team.

And I do agree, the people these days who actually go out of their way to prived good service, deserve to be rewarded. It is a rare thing anymore.

TexasCTD

I don't have anything against the USPS. But a couple of years ago I got po'd when they raised the rates. Then turned around and raised them again in a relatively short period of time.........after I had just bought a new roll of stamps at the old rate. (before the "forever" stamps came out)


So in my own way.........I protested against them by signing up for online bill pay. Now I rarely have a need to mail anything. I send email for letters and pay all my bills online...........so unless I am mailing a package or Christmas Cards.......they get even less of my money now. They should have left the rates alone....

I think I pay about 8 or 9 bills monthly now online.....so 42 cents x 8 = $3.36 per month they don't get from me anymore.

..

Adaminak

Don't have a problem with the USPS as a whole, or mailmen individually. Heck, I'm the product of a union between the mailman and my mother. Of course the mailman was working for General Motors at the time, and didn't know he'd end up being a rural delivery driver.

What I have a problem with is route contractors and the way they can do darn near whatever they want, whenever they want.

Example #1: Lost package? Sorry lady, delivery meter thingy says I punched the "Delivered" button while I was standing somewhere around your postal box tree. I might have put it in the wrong box (again) though. Why don't you knock on your all your neighbor's doors and see if it's there?

Example #2: You didn't get the delivery-confirmation-required package that says it's been delivered? I can't help you there, the delivery meter thingy says I delivered the notification. You might want to check with the post office, they'd be the ones who actually delivered the package.
(Later on at the post office): Sorry sir, I've got a signed slip says someone signed for that package. You mean it wasn't you? Oh, well, I didn't think to check their identification to make sure it matched the address on the delivery slip. What are the odds of that happening? First old Bill the delivery contractor mis-delivers the slip to someone else, then Sue here at the window gives your package to the wrong person. I'm sure she didn't mean it though. Wish I could help you more.

I've stopped using USPS for anything that matters. I'll spend the extra dollar for FedEx to delivery my important letters, and they still deliver packages to my door

hamilton71801

I agree. Contractors are a sore subject with a lot of people...including the unions. There is really no accountability with them and its very hard to issue discipline.


You have to remember that we are a business just like UPS, etc. Operating costs were escalating so fast and the way the rate system was set up it took an act of Congress (literally) to raise rates and you know how slow they are. Now that they reformed the way we can raise rates, we can be more competitive and increase the rates a lot faster instead of having to put in for a rate change a year in advance. Expect a rate adjustment (new terminology) every May for 1st class mail and I assume other rates can be changed anytime (Priority/Express Mail went up in Jan)throughout the year depending on the state of our business.

rockcrawler304

The problem I see is the internet. So many things that used to be done through USPS are now done on the net. Every time the USPS raises the rates, more people look to the internet. I see it as a catch 22 for the USPS. They need money so they raise rates. People get mad and stop using them and then they need more money!!
I use the USPS very very very little. If I need to ship a package it will go in a Flat Rate box which usually saves me money, or it will go FedEx.