Ways to save the Post Office money (1 Viewer)

[Joseph S]

Forget about saving them money,

I want to know why the stamp machines charge $6.80 for a book of stamps and won't give back .20 if you put in $7???

What a rip off. They also don't sell the compact stamp books at the counter and have no change machines just to perpetuate the issue.

 

[RobertR]

breathe breathe breathe

 

[Marianne]

BTW FedEx carries USPS mail now. Which explains the FedEx drop boxes outside Post Offices.

 

[Todd Hochard]

Funny. You guys are going postal.
I think the USPS service is great. No complaints from me. If they need 3c more, fine. It's still much cheaper than any alternative.

Blame that one on thier local gov't not deregulation!!!!!!!!

Blame the government for regulation, blame the government for deregulation. No win situation.
Todd

 

[Ross Williams]

I think the USPS is fine. I don't mind paying a little more for their services. I just don't think that private companies could offer the same services for nearly as cheap.

I want to know why the stamp machines charge $6.80 for a book of stamps and won't give back .20 if you put in $7???

I always get my change back from these machines. It's the only place I ever get silver dollars from.

 

[Henry Gale]

Please list all of the countrys were the Postal Service is privately run.
People that think this is a good idea have no concept of "every box, every day" and the agreements we have to have with other nations.
Jim

 

[Holadem]

Only on HTF could there be a heated discussion about... the Post Office. Fun!
--
Holadem

 

[Mike_Mig]

What I don't like is how they spend millions of dollars on advertising and sponsorships, like the USPS bike team. What the hell is that about. You are there to deliver mail, not sponsor a bike team. And do they really need to advertise as much as they do? Is there really someone out there saying to themselves "I really nedd to get this piece of paper across country, I wonder if there is someone out there that will do that for me?" Let's start there.

But, It really isn't all that bad, 40 cents would be my limit though.

Mike

 

[Joseph S]

I always get my change back from these machines. It's the only place I ever get silver dollars from.

Well consider yourself lucky.
I get silver and gold dollars all the time from the change machine in my school's cafeteria. Too bad "J6P" doesn't use them. I wish the dollar bill would be eliminated.

 

[Mike Voigt]

Try other places, folks. Go to Germany, try using their postal system. It's lovely. And very, VERY expensive.

$0.37 for a letter is a bargain. I ain't complaining. I prefer that to paying a couple bucks for it.

Mike

 

[Ben Osborne]

I think the USPS is fine. I don't mind paying a little more for their services. I just don't think that private companies could offer the same services for nearly as cheap.

Why not give UPS and FedEx a chance to prove you wrong? There are laws requiring those companies to charge twice as much as USPS for the same services. If the private companies can't match USPS's prices anyway, what's the purpose of these laws?

 

[RobertR]

If the private companies can't match USPS's prices anyway, what's the purpose of these laws?

To protect a vested special interest group.

 

[David Lawson]

But, It really isn't all that bad, 40 cents would be my limit though.

And then what? You'll stop paying your bills? You'll put the envelopes in boxes and ship them UPS Ground for a couple of bucks each?
Personally, I'm more offended by the rising costs of McDonald's and movie theatres, and their products and service are much, much worse.

 

[Ben Osborne]

Personally, I'm more offended by the rising costs of McDonald's and movie theatres, and their products and service are much, much worse.

At least there aren't laws requiring Wendys and Burger King to charge twice as much for extra value meals as McDonald's does.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

Here's a cost cutting measure - we all know that rent costs money, and the longer you rent the more it costs. Get my mail to me faster, so you don't have to house it for as long - and save money!

Up here it costs 48¢ for domestic mail now, and over $1 to send a letter overseas. Anyone remember the days when our mothers would send in for those 25 or 50¢ rebates? It would have to be $5 to make it worth the effort these days.

 

[Sarah S]

Last I checked, UPS or FedEx don't do a volume turnover in letters, which would cause a private company to charge more for these items.

Also, UPS doesn't do the best job with packages either, how are they specifically better than USPS? Based on some of the horror stories floating around out there, I think you would have to pay me money to use them for regular packages, forget letters.

 

[Ben Osborne]

If you guys don't think private companies could deliver letters at rates competetive with USPS if they weren't prohibited by The Private Express Statutes, consider what happened with the flat mail market:

The upshot is that, 25 years after the founding of the research delivery industry, the USPS has lost almost an entire market that it monopolized in 1976. The happy consequence for the public is that the Post Office has belatedly been forced to cut its rates for flats, as outlined above.

Excepts taken from Outcompeted by William Stepp.

 

[Todd Hochard]

Ben,
Could those companies continue to limit their overhead by delivering to anywhere AND everywhere on a US Map? Somehow, I doubt it.
I simply can't imagine that FedEx or UPS (or anyone else) could do it for much less, when complete US coverage is taken into account.
Todd

 

[Ashley Seymour]

When public transportation faces declining revenue, they often have to reduce fares to stimulate ridership. I don't know if the demand for postal services is elastic or inelastic, but it may be interesting to study if the volume of mail would go up more than the resulting loss on each piece.

The government has for around 100 years prohibited public enterprises from pursuing a monopolistic advantage and to break up companies that are deemed to be monopolists. Just ask Mr. Gates. But the same standard oddly does not apply to the government. Sad because all the economic "evils" of a monopoly apply when the government operates one. It just shows that you can justify most any sin as long as you do it in the public interest.

This thread is about a rise in the postal rates. I have yet to see an anlaysis of the effect of inflation in the past year and over the next two. The increase of the rate from .34 to .37 is an averate of 2.9% over this three year period. I assume that is about a point over the inflation rate. Inflation is about two cents of this increase. It is the one cent increase that is the result of the factors discussed above.

You can tell someones agenda by how much they want to defend institutions like the post office, government regulation of utilities, rails, government schools, cable TV, licenses for anything to driving a cab to practicing medicine.

If the post office were truely efficient, then revoking the law prohibiting private mail deliver would have little effect on them or on the level of service provided to the recipients of mail service. Like any government entity that faces free market competition, there is the realization that they could not survice. I would also make the same argument about public and private schools, and the utilities industry.

"But it's only the postal service!" Strange how economic issues bring out such spirited debate.

 

[brian a]

You can tell someones agenda by how much they want to defend institutions like the post office, government regulation of utilities, rails, government schools, cable TV, licenses for anything to driving a cab to practicing medicine.

Wow. That's a loaded statement. If you're happy with the post office, we know what kind of person you are. >>Wink Wink