Postal Service Eyes Closing Thousands of Post Offices

[Geee]

Fox News:

HOLMES MILL, Ky.—The U.S. Postal Service plays two roles in America: an agency that keeps rural areas linked to the rest of the nation, and one that loses a lot of money.

Now, with the red ink showing no sign of stopping, the postal service is hoping to ramp up a cost-cutting program that is already eliciting yelps of pain around the country. Beginning in March, the agency will start the process of closing as many as 2,000 post offices, on top of the 491 it said it would close starting at the end of last year. In addition, it is reviewing another 16,000—half of the nation's existing post offices—that are operating at a deficit, and lobbying Congress to allow it to change the law so it can close the most unprofitable among them. The law currently allows the postal service to close post offices only for maintenance problems, lease expirations or other reasons that don't include profitability.

The news is crushing in many remote communities where the post office is often the heart of the town and the closest link to the rest of the country. Shuttering them, critics say, also puts an enormous burden on people, particularly on the elderly, who find it difficult to travel out of town.

The postal service argues that its network of some 32,000 brick-and-mortar post offices, many built in the horse-and-buggy days, is outmoded in an era when people are more mobile, often pay bills online and text or email rather than put pen to paper. It also wants post offices to be profitable to help it overcome record $8.5 billion in losses in fiscal year 2010.

[Pepper]

Geee!

 

This will cause people to have to rely on impersonal people 20+ miles away for the same service. Drive 40+ miles round trip to mail a package or pick one up too large to fit in the mail box.

 

Follow their *bizarre concept of reducing service in order to increase service, the Postal Service should only have one large post office located in Belle Fourche, South Dakota geographic center of the US, open one hour a month.

 

*bizarre concepts:

we have to destroy the village in order to save it.

[Geee]

I went to the post office last week and as I was standing there in line waiting, I was wondering who the heck buys al that crap that they have sitting around there on sale. I have never seen anyone buy any of it once. Wonder how much it costs them to give away those boxes they give away-etc. etc. etc.

[pollyannaish]

Well I may be a little contrary here, but I don't think closing some branches is a bad idea.

 

Now, I don't think they should close tiny little post offices in small towns that are miles and miles away from anywhere. But we have one post office in the bedroom community that is next door to ours. Our combined population is less than 50k. The post offices are 3.2 miles apart. That makes no sense whatsoever.

 

I also think that cutting back on Saturday delivery is not a bad idea, although I do think the Post OFFICE should remain open over the weekend, since that's when most people have the time to drop in and wait.

 

Finally, all of the crap they have sitting around there if for poor planners and stamp collectors. I've seen a lot of people come in and ask for packing materials at the front counter and rather than leaving and coming back are very happy to pay way too much for packing peanuts or tape. That actually seems like decent customer service to me.

 

What would make the biggest difference to the post office is to modernize their equipment so they could keep up with FedEx and UPS. They need to be more efficient and less reliant on humans. But they are in so deep at this point, I'm not sure that will ever happen. Postal Workers in our town are also very, very well paid compared to others in similar positions. That has to have a pretty significant impact on the bottom line as well.

 

I bet, however, if they privatized the postage system it would be profitable in a very short period of time.

 

BUT. In the end, I have to admit that I think it is still pretty cool that I can put something in my mailbox and have it show up pretty consistently half a world away for under a buck. The PO does do some things pretty doggone well.

[Argyle58]

I think we will see an expansion of the Rural Free Delivery system where the PO contracts individuals to deliver mail in less populated areas. It allows for the same delivery times, but does not entail the expense of the benefit packages that the unionized mail carriers get. The RFD carriers are reimbursed for their mileage at a higher rate than is normally allowed, but that is still cheaper than maintaining a delivery fleet.

 

I hate to see them close Post Offices, but if we are going to insist that the government cut costs, we have to be prepared to bite the bullet.

[clearvision]

The news is crushing in many remote communities where the post office is often the heart of the town and the closest link to the rest of the country. Shuttering them, critics say, also puts an enormous burden on people, particularly on the elderly, who find it difficult to travel out of town.

OK that is a bit overboard on a post office being the heart of the town.

[cudjo]

The news is crushing in many remote communities where the post office is often the heart of the town and the closest link to the rest of the country. Shuttering them, critics say, also puts an enormous burden on people, particularly on the elderly, who find it difficult to travel out of town.

OK that is a bit overboard on a post office being the heart of the town.

 

I've never thought of a post office as the heart of town, but the strange thing here is that any time I go to the post office if it's before 4:00 in the afternoon the place is jam packed with old people, at least 10 or 15 all the time, and I've never been able to figure out what they are doing there, they certainly aren't mailing anything

[Argyle58]

The news is crushing in many remote communities where the post office is often the heart of the town and the closest link to the rest of the country. Shuttering them, critics say, also puts an enormous burden on people, particularly on the elderly, who find it difficult to travel out of town.

OK that is a bit overboard on a post office being the heart of the town.

 

In many small rural towns it is the heart of town. Postal clerks often offer other services, such as notaries and such, that just aren't available without driving 20 miles or more. This is especially true in rural New England states, but I have also seen it here in the west.