USPS - Modernize or perish

[Business_Casual]

Looks like the USPS is going to need a bailout.

I think they should have diversified or closed long ago. All I get in the mail is coupons and direct solicitation pieces.

[JediGuy]

Do they serve a purpose as a public utility or for the public good, whether or not they are break even every year? That’s the question I would ask. I’d be OK with their requiring public funding every single year to keep the service available, as long as they are truly managed well. There should be a benefit to public mail carriers.

My opinion is that the USPS, as a uniformed service, should be treated like the Armed Forces, with no public sector union. Sometimes force reductions are necessary.

[rjacobs]

USPS is in a shit situation like they have for years because they are the only "federal" entity that is REQUIRED by law to pre-fund their pension obligations to the tune of like 5 billion a year... If you look at what they are constantly "short" its like 5 billion...every year...

Im not saying they have great management structure or are ran well, I dont think they probably are, but their issues are not necessarily caused by them.

I used to BS with my mail carrier a few years ago as he would take his lunch at the pool across from my condo.

I dont know that there is any entity that could replace what they do though... There are lots of places in the USA that FedEx and UPS simply do not serve...because its not profitable... but the USPS being a public entity will serve them. So that allows people to receive fedex and ups packages via USPS... So I would say they do serve a public good.

[Business_Casual]

USPS is in a shit situation like they have for years because they are the only "federal" entity that is REQUIRED by law to pre-fund their pension obligations to the tune of like 5 billion a year... If you look at what they are constantly "short" its like 5 billion...every year...

Im not saying they have great management structure or are ran well, I dont think they probably are, but their issues are not necessarily caused by them.

I used to BS with my mail carrier a few years ago as he would take his lunch at the pool across from my condo.

I dont know that there is any entity that could replace what they do though... There are lots of places in the USA that FedEx and UPS simply do not serve...because its not profitable... but the USPS being a public entity will serve them. So that allows people to receive fedex and ups packages via USPS... So I would say they do serve a public good.

If you live in a remote area not served by commercial carriers, the rest of the country has to subsidize your delivery instead of you driving to town to pick it up?

And before Captain Obvious says “what If you can’t drive or something” then you should’ve moved to a place with infrastructure to support you.

[rjacobs]

If you live in a remote area not served by commercial carriers, the rest of the country has to subsidize your delivery instead of you driving to town to pick it up?

I dont know what subsidy the USPS gets from the US Government... According to my mail carrier a few years ago they get shit from the US Government...except the shaft. Mandated to pre fund 5 billion in pension liability, then they are "short" cash and then need government assistance almost yearly, or they just carry the losses...

BUT with that said, there are places, and I will use Alaska as an example, where "town" is 5-7 hours away... and mail "service" might only be once a week. I think there are laws that protect basic mail service. Similar to air service from airplanes called EAS(essential air service).

[jsbhike]

I am not in a remote area, but a lot of the packages I receive "via" UPS/Fedex are carried at least part of the way by USPS and at a higher rate than if they were simply shipped USPS.

[Grand58742]

Do they serve a purpose as a public utility or for the public good, whether or not they are break even every year? That’s the question I would ask. I’d be OK with their requiring public funding every single year to keep the service available, as long as they are truly managed well. There should be a benefit to public mail carriers.

My opinion is that the USPS, as a uniformed service, should be treated like the Armed Forces, with no public sector union. Sometimes force reductions are necessary.

With the amount of online shopping being done these days (even without the COVID-19 issues) there is no reason any delivery services, USPS especially, should be tanking in the market.

I mean, if Fedex, DHL and UPS are carrying on in good form, why isn't USPS?

[LMT Shooter]

Is it even fair to compare USPS to UPS, DHL. or FedEx? I know next to nothing about this industry, but it seems to me that USPS has regular routes to run, to far more locations than the others, and that would kill profitability. Pardon my ignorance if this is a stupid question.

[HKGuns]

USPS just took 7 days beyond "expected" delivery for something inbound from just one state away. More reasons for less government employees. No issues at all with UPS or Fedex, heck even the idiots delivering for Amazon are better than USPS.

Time for it to go.

[OH58D]

If you live in a remote area not served by commercial carriers, the rest of the country has to subsidize your delivery instead of you driving to town to pick it up?

And before Captain Obvious says “what If you can’t drive or something” then you should’ve moved to a place with infrastructure to support you.

We get our mail at a little place called Roy, New Mexico - look it up. Quite the metropolis of 200 + folks in a County of 600 people. For us it's a 20 mile one-way drive to pickup the mail there since no delivery is done out here. For UPS or FedEx, all of our stuff is held at the centers in Las Vegas, New Mexico, which is @ 70 miles one-way.

Nobody out here bitches and moans about having to go so far to get the mail. If the mail piles up for one rancher, the local postmaster asks someone from the area to check on that Vaquero - he may have departed to the afterlife and left no forwarding instructions.