http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ti ... 00714.html

These guys doing talking points in the video clip look like zombies BTW....

Any road... Yeah so what does everyone think of this? Obviously the USPS can't keep operating as they do. Because of the union they can't do massive layoffs so if they do the postal workers could strike. I've been saying for years privatize the postal service. What do you toy geeks think? It would effect toy mail day for sure...

I don't know why they haven't cut Saturday service already. I don't know how much it would save, but it seems like a justifiable way to cut staff. They don't actually take tax dollars any more, do they? I think they are just heavily regulated so that they continue to provide a public type service. If they were completely cut loose from regulation, would you be able to send a letter for less than six bucks? I can't see how they would remain "competitive" in the marketplace without cutting off some of the cheaper services completely. Or free services for that matter. You might not get your YJA box when you want it, but they don't actually make you pay a storage fee or a pickup fee. If USPS had shareholders, you bet you would see more crazy fees.

It seems like the postmaster general has a good plan to reinvigorate the USPS and he's not anti-union but just trying to keep the service alive. I understand the discontent with losing benefits and cutting jobs but they can't to continue to operate at a loss.

Man, I hope this does not happen.

I for one, believe that, if privatized, USPS would become another expensive shipping company with crap service. I HATE UPS and FedEx.

Really hoping they can find a way to keep USPS working the way it does. They are the only way to ship and receive. Cut Saturdays for sure. Do whatever it takes Mr Postmaster General.

Fuck privatization of USPS for the reason(s) already mentioned. They are far and away the best "shipping company" I've ever dealt with - privatize it and it'll be overpriced crappy service.
And rather than cut Saturday service, I would elect to cut Monday service. A lot of people can't make it to the PO M-F during regular business hours.

I completely agree with melek_taus. I hate FedEx and UPS (and Purolator); for international shipments especially, there is no substitute for the good old USPS (and I am not even American! ) You can't even compare the prices and the service, to my mind, is pretty much equal for what I want. I wasn't aware that they did Saturday deliveries, but that would definitely be the first thing to go for me.

I could just copy my rant about the Canadian Postal service from their strike, but what it boils down to is this: yes, people are writing less letters and general correspondence because of email, but I would argue that letter writing as a generality decreased substantially before that. And when you start talking about letters and documents from the business world, well then they are/would be only handled by couriers anyways. So that leaves parcels, which to me have only been increasing exponentially with the advent and growth of online shopping. There is no way you can compare, say, the packages being shipping in the pre-Christmas months to what it was in the decades prior to this access.

If the USPS really wants to survive, it needs to target this consumer base. There isn't any significant revenue from letters anyway. As far as I am aware, Amazon, arguable one of the biggest online retailers, uses USPS for its shipments (I could be wrong though). But this is what the postal service needs to do, focus on arrangements with these companies, streamline online shipping options, and I don't see how people would ever let them go under. As a consumer, for most of us the bottom line is price, and that equates to the USPS. They've got their market already set up for them.

I can't speak for the management, but obviously if 80% of your costs are in labour there is something wrong, and this isn't something that happened overnight. Short of highly specialised fields (and I am no knocking the post office, but come on) there is nowhere this would ever be acceptable. Fix that stuff, and you are already looking a more prosperous business model.

just had the contents stolen from a parcel by the Bethpage NY USPS sort facility.

thanks for resealing the package and sending me an AC adapter. fucking thieves.

Yes!