To Postal Workers, No Mail Is ‘Junk’

The USPS is a government business. This is another example of spcial interests running our government. I am sorry to any postal worker who may get laid off or have to switch careers as a result of reduced need for mail services, but forcing Americans to received unwanted mail in their own mailbox is beyond wrong. On top of thta, forcing the destruction of millions of trees to support this business is equally catasrophic, more so, to our world than people being out of work. I would rather fall on hard times and have a healthy planet to leave my kids than to continue using up our natural resources and live the good life only to have my children inherit a world that can no longer sustain human life.

There are other solutions to this issue- some ideas are to run the mail service every other day rather than daily, offer free PO Boxes so fewer mailcars have to use gas to deliver mail at each person's home, or simply charge more for a freakin' stamp. I rarely use the mail, opting for email and electronic methods, but if I needed to mail something I wouldn't mind paying a couple of dollars to send a regular sized envelope if it meant saving trees and reducing this government business's dependance on junk mail to survive.

The USPS is a government business. This is another example of spcial interests running our government. I am sorry to any postal worker who may get laid off or have to switch careers as a result of reduced need for mail services, but forcing Americans to received unwanted mail in their own mailbox is beyond wrong. On top of thta, forcing the destruction of millions of trees to support this business is equally catasrophic, more so, to our world than people being out of work. I would rather fall on hard times and have a healthy planet to leave my kids than to continue using up our natural resources and live the good life only to have my children inherit a world that can no longer sustain human life.

There are other solutions to this issue- some ideas are to run the mail service every other day rather than daily, offer free PO Boxes so fewer mailcars have to use gas to deliver mail at each person's home, or simply charge more for a freakin' stamp. I rarely use the mail, opting for email and electronic methods, but if I needed to mail something I wouldn't mind paying a couple of dollars to send a regular sized envelope if it meant saving trees and reducing this government business's dependance on junk mail to survive.

You go in the Post Off ice counter now and you think that you have walk in to WalMart
They should charge every one for the service I must pay for my mail box why can they deliver the mail in the country at no cost everyone should paid the city has home delivery but not small town USA

The best thing to do with the PO is give it to FEDEX or UPS and they would have it turning a profit in 6 months time, with lower rates !!!!!!

My mailbox is stuffed with a dozen of unsolicited pieces a week. Those are the letters from mainly credit card companies, some of them now bankrupt. And, I love postal service and I do not want to get those guys bankrupt either so I help them. I open those credit card offers, cut my name out, fold the rest, and stuff the junk back into a prepaid envelope, and MAIL IT! That is at least 5 bucks a week for postal service, 250 bucks a year. If one million citizens would do the same the postal revenue would grow by a quarter of BILLION dollars annually. Not a bad start.. With some vision downstream, there could be a outfit set up that woul collect all that returned mail to cc's and sell it as scrap paper to China, Voila, another revenue, and trees would be safe too. :)

My mailbox is stuffed with a dozen of unsolicited pieces a week. Those are the letters from mainly credit card companies, some of them now bankrupt. And, I love postal service and I do not want to get those guys bankrupt either so I help them. I open those credit card offers, cut my name out, fold the rest, and stuff the junk back into a prepaid envelope, and MAIL IT! That is at least 5 bucks a week for postal service, 250 bucks a year. If one million citizens would do the same the postal revenue would grow by a quarter of BILLION dollars annually. Not a bad start.. With some vision downstream, there could be a outfit set up that woul collect all that returned mail to cc's and sell it as scrap paper to China, Voila, another revenue, and trees would be safe too. :)

Forgotten is the fact that the post office operates on a break even basis. When these 'big mailers" mail out, they are paying the bill for all of us who just send a 42 cent letter. With current cost of gas - who can go across town for that price?

My mailbox is stuffed with a dozen of unsolicited pieces a week. Those are the letters from mainly credit card companies, some of them now bankrupt. And, I love postal service and I do not want to get those guys bankrupt either so I help them. I open those credit card offers, cut my name out, fold the rest, and stuff the junk back into a prepaid envelope, and MAIL IT! That is at least 5 bucks a week for postal service, 250 bucks a year. If one million citizens would do the same the postal revenue would grow by a quarter of BILLION dollars annually. Not a bad start.. With some vision downstream, there could be a outfit set up that woul collect all that returned mail to cc's and sell it as scrap paper to China, Voila, another revenue, and trees would be safe too. :)

I was an employee for 16 years at the Postal Service's Headquarters. Earlier this year, the Postal Service Board of Governors granted significant pay increases to nine senior agency managers, including the Postmaster General and the Deputy Postmaster General. The increases were made retroactive to January 2007 and were given because the Congress gave the Postal Service, via legislation, more flexibility in terms of increasing the pay ceilings for executives, rate setting, etc. If that wasn't a hard enough slap to its customers, the American people, the agency allows senior managers to pay negotiated retention bonuses to keep their chosen ones in the agency. For example, the former VP/CTO of the Information Technology organization authorized one-time payments as high as $50K to selected employees for agreeing to stay one year beyond planned retirement or other departure dates. Ostensibly, these payments were made to retain highly skilled people, but the reality of the situation is that the Postal Service spent money needlessly to retain the chosen ones. Although the amounts in both cases are insignificant when one thinks about a possible $3 billion deficit in FY2008, such increases and payments were certainly ill-advised, ill-timed are merely a microcosm of mismanagement ,

the end is near. I worked in the po for over 15 yrs before growing a brain and getting out, but even in the 80s and 90s junk mail was half of total volume. It's just a matter of time, less than 10 yrs is my guess, and the po will be kaput. Too bad, but times change, who gets mail -mail and who pays bills thru the mail anymore?

Have any statistics been collected as to how much money the USPS has lost due to it's last change in fees (eliminating the lowest mailing rate category for international/intercontinental mail)? I used to spend around 300 Dollars (+) each year (!) sending mail to relatives in Europe. Now it has gotten so expensive, I have switched to cheaper phone calls and e-mail completely eliminating this cost. I am sure others are in the same boat (it's not worth it sending an item overseas that weighs 1lb, or even 15lbs for special occasions, costing more than the item in the package for it to be mailed!!!).
Here in Kittanning, PA I can't even get into the Post Office because it has no other entries except the stairs (which can not be accessed with a wheelchair!!!).
So don't lament the USPS going "under", ask yourself why and you will find that it is the lack of customer service and consideration all together. The Post Office can't survive by only catering to the rich, as it is is only a small segment of the U.S. population. Instead of making sending mail easier, it has become harder and more expensive for all of us. (So the internet and phone companies fill in where it leaves off!)
Trying to make a "living" from junk mail won't be a solution as more and more people opt out because it is finally seen as what it truly is: an unnecessary waste of resources.
It's a shame, because we all are going to miss the "mailman" coming to our door, but at the current rate of financial losses (and customer disappointment) this may end as well. (The post office was never ment to exist to make a profit, it was created as a customer service, a service to the people of America trying to bridge the vast distances to stay in touch, communicate with private and corporate entities, and distribute news and knowledge. Now it's all about fancy boxes and expensive packing materials and the like. Get back to the basics! Suggestion: Find the !cheapest! way to get our letters and packages from point A to point B and stick with it coupled with !great! customer service!)

My mom worked for the postal service. I know from hearing from the inside that the first thing the postal service needs to do is what a lot of American companies need to do. Establish realistic pay scales for management that doesn't include "business" meetings in Hiawai or getting huge bonuses for suggesting and implementing untested technology that ends up costing 10 times the originally projected cost and all kinds of tweaking to make it work at least at 1/5 of what it was expected to accomplish.

They could take a lot of lessons from FedEx who is about the only carrier I would trust to get anything anywhere in a reasonable amount of time.

Snail mail is obsolete.