CNN: USPS ending Saturday delivery of letters, first-class mail

[Burgold]

Neither rain, nor snow, or even attacking dogs will delay the postman on his daily duty, but apparently the internet is a different animal. I think USPS is making the right choice and an overdue one at that, but in some ways this is going to be a mostly ignored seismic shift in our culture.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/06/usps-ending-saturday-delivery-of-letters-first-class-mail/

[DisplacedRedskinsFan]

Next step: Mail delivery (M-F) will be based on a subscription basis.

[rictus58]

What about my third class mail?

[Bang]

My mail consists of mostly junk.

I get maybe 8 bills through the mail each month.. 2 magazines. The rest of it is trash. Pounds of it.

~Bang

[Obibyn23]

I worked as a rural carrier for a little over 2 years before I was let go this past fall. Looks like I was destined to be screwed either way.

[Busch1724]

Pretty much it seems the post service is used these days for companies that want to scam senior citizens with their "services".

I get one paper bill quarterly, everything I do now is paperless. Secondly, I have one magazine subscription and Netflix. Lastly, the only time I get any other mail is for my birthday and Christmas for when cards come.

[Corcaigh]

I'd be happy with picking up my mail once a week, or even less frequently, from the local post office. They could handle the shredding and recycling of the 99 items that I don't open for the one that I do.

[LadySkinsFan]

My mail consists of mostly junk.

I get maybe 8 bills through the mail each month.. 2 magazines. The rest of it is trash. Pounds of it.

~Bang

Yep, me too, pounds of trash. Thank goodness I can now recycle it through the county. I keep a bin by the door, it doesn't even come in my house anymore.

On topic: I'm okay without Saturday delivery.

[BigDaddyShoo]

Guess I'll be dropping my Blu-Ray Netflix subscription once this happens. If you return a movie on a Thrusday, now you won't get another one until Tuesday? Screw that.

Redbox FTW!

[KingGibbs]

This saddens me a bt. I've had nothing but good experiences with USPS. I actually prefer them over the Fed Ex and UPS' of the world. Their priority mail is an outstanding method.

[China]

My mail consists of mostly junk.

I get maybe 8 bills through the mail each month.. 2 magazines. The rest of it is trash. Pounds of it.

~Bang

You can get rid of some of it, but it takes some effort:

http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Junk-Mail

[mjah]

I won't miss Saturday delivery at all. But we may miss whatever the USPS has to cut next to make ends meet.

Being forced by Congress to pre-pay 75 years of pensions, decades in advance, certainly has its drawbacks. If not for that smothering mess, the USPS would achieve profitability just by cutting Saturday delivery plus the efficiency improvements they've already realized. This even as mail volumes continue to decline. USPS has already demonstrated operational profitability in recent years, even as the post-operational albatross of that pre-paid pension nonsense drags them down.

Some folks just can't stand to let a good thing work properly.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

This saddens me a bt. I've had nothing but good experiences with USPS. I actually prefer them over the Fed Ex and UPS' of the world. Their priority mail is an outstanding method.

The thing that is forgotten is that the USPS is kind of awesome. It is a government agency that successfully sends somebody to every dwelling and business in the country 6 days a week. And its Express and Priority services are fantastic.

[Fergasun]

Being forced by Congress to pre-pay 75 years of pensions, decades in advance, certainly has its drawbacks. If not for that smothering mess, the USPS would achieve profitability just by cutting Saturday delivery plus the efficiency improvements they've already realized. This even as mail volumes continue to decline. USPS has already demonstrated operational profitability in recent years, even as the post-operational albatross of that pre-paid pension nonsense drags them down.

We can pretend it was just some "Congress"... no, it was the 109th Congress, which had a GOP majority in both the House and Senate and the law was signed by President Bush. The Bill Frist led, Senate and Dennis Hastert led House... it was *that* Congress. And President GW Bush.

Who would have thought that forcing a business to pre-pay retiree health care is really bad for business? I just read a CBS News article on this; and there was nothing on how crippling that legislation is.

[twa]

You can get rid of some of it, but it takes some effort:

http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Junk-Mail

too much effort, just like the mexican newspapers they throw in the damn yard

[mjah]

We can pretend it was just some "Congress"... no, it was the 109th Congress, which had a GOP majority in both the House and Senate and the law was signed by President Bush. The Bill Frist led, Senate and Dennis Hastert led House... it was *that* Congress. And President GW Bush.

I wasn't going to put too fine a point on it, but yeah -- all of that is true and it points to an obvious GOP desire to drive the hybrid government-business success story of the USPS to unavoidable insolvency by laying unreasonable financial demands upon it. No other government or corporate organization has been saddled with anything like a mandate to pre-pay full retirements for workers who haven't even been born yet, and to do so in just 10 years' time. That goes far, far beyond any rational concern for averting future bailouts, etc. USPS was specifically targeted for this hit for political reasons.

...However... It's fair to point out that there was some bipartisan support in Congress for that crazy bill. I suspect the bipartisan aspect was largely due to the fact that a giant pot of USPS money sitting there for decades would make for a convenient future round of IOU-fueled cash raids. But the bill got support from the cowardly sheep on both sides of the 109th's aisle. Mostly Republican and some Democrat.

[pjfootballer]

I won't miss Saturday delivery. Like everyone says, my wife has most of our bills on autopay and the one's we do get are pretty much on a budget system (electric and gas) so we know what we have to pay anyway.

[GibbsFactor]

So they will only deliver spam mailings on Saturday?

[Rocky21]

Looks like there is some gun jumping here. Congress has to give this move the OK I think and they have not in the past.

[RVAbrendan]

Fine with me. I don't use the USPS anymore whenever possible. Too many times have they screwed up delivery of packages and mail...either sending to the wrong address, damaging parcels, etc. UPS and FEDEX for me.

[DisplacedRedskinsFan]

This saddens me a bt. I've had nothing but good experiences with USPS. I actually prefer them over the Fed Ex and UPS' of the world. Their priority mail is an outstanding method.

My experience has been the exact opposite, to the point where they were even losing mail when I would send it out (thank the lord I paid for tracking).

It got so bad I actually hoped (and still do, to a point) that UPS or FEDEX would just take over the USPS.

I do wonder how long the USPS will be around.

I read somewhere back in college that the USPS pays a fee (IDK what to call it, it reminded me of a franchise fee) every so often and they argued if they did not have to pay this fee they would be in the black. Am I totally crazy, or does this sounds right?

[Bang]

You can get rid of some of it, but it takes some effort:

http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Junk-Mail

Easier to just throw it away.

~Bang

[Predicto]

Getting rid of Saturday delivery makes sense. It allows the Post Office to move to more efficient work schedules. That one extra day creates a lot of staffing redundancies, because individual employees work five days a week, not six.

[The Dude]

The best-kept secret is paying for postage on USPS.com. You estimate your package weight (a legit scale is not required), get 10% off shipping compared to paying in-store, free tracking (with email updates), and can pay with Paypal. I've shipped countless packages without having to leave my house.

[Botched]

Guess I'll be dropping my Blu-Ray Netflix subscription once this happens. If you return a movie on a Thrusday, now you won't get another one until Tuesday? Screw that.

Redbox FTW!

I was thinking the same thing.

Unfortunately, Redbox kinda sucks unless you're looking for a movie that was released on DVD 3 months earlier. Or mid-90s action movies, which always seem to be in abundant supply.