US Postal Service Gone Within One Year?

Let's flood the system with EDDM and save it! lol

The postal service is in better shape than the numbers make it seem. The problem with the postal service is the US Gov acting as their board. This does not allow them to raise prices and it forces them to pre-fund retirement accounts in a way no other company or goverment does.

Let the postal service be ran like a true business and they would be in the black in 12 months or less.

Let them close down. Weed out thousands of unproductive workers bogging the system down. Let a private company take over and build a truly sustainable business model.

FedEx and UPS make it work well. I have no doubt they could streamline the mail system and we would likely pay less for postage.

I agree the post office is in trouble. My bulk mail guy tells me about what's going on and it's scary.

I hope they don't shut down. Direct mail is a legitimate marketing tactic that works wonders for many of us...

This is exactly why government needs to stay the hell out of and away from business. As Aaron above said, the post office if left the hell alone would easily be in the black. Freaking bureaucrats.

I talk to our postman every day, and he even admits one of the problems with the system is the pension and retirement funds, again what Aaron pointed out.

This kind of stuff is what really raises my blood pressure.

The US Postal Service is the poster child of mismanaged Gov. spending.

UPS would have that straightened out in less than a year.

The post office by my house is always packed.

In that working closely with the post office has been a primary element of my own business...I'm mostly convinced that having it replaced and operated by competitive businesses would be the best thing for all of us.

Direct Mail, by its very nature, should be far and away superior to all other forms of marketing. There is no other medium which can cover 100% of any/every market simultaneously.

Problem is, the post office never marketed itself well....and marketers didn't do a good job of teaching businesses how to use direct mail properly....or failing to USE it period.

The reason direct mail got the "junk mail" stigma...is NOT because there is something wrong with the distribution system...its because the stuff being sent out SUCKS MAJOR CHUNKS OF COW DROPPINGS.

Ya I know this is primarily an internet marketing forum...but the hard fact is...there isn't ANYTHING that can come close to good direct mail for local marketing.

Cold Calling would be the nearest thing, but no one likes doing it.

TV? nope...limited coverage, no way to target. junk ads get mentally thrown away equal to junk mail. a plus is that it gives you opportunity to educate prospects.
Radio? nope...same attributes as tv. ...only lacking the ever important visual element.
Google ranking?...Puh Leez...just as crippled as the yellow pages. You STILL can't do anything until a customer finally decides to take action, and no ability to educate prospects. For every 1 guy who finally goes to Google there are 500 more who still need the whatever product. Direct mail gets right in the face of those 500. consistent direct mail gives you the ability to educate and influence thinking. (shhh...and eliminating the need to even look at Google)

Its sad, and frustrating that direct mail gets overlooked or often scoffed by business owners and the general public.

I think if it were privatized we'd still see a great distribution system, but even more we would see an improved use of the product by individuals and businesses simply because the better marketing of the medium and "how to make it successful" would influence everyone.

will never happen.

Has anyone read the US Constitution? TRY Article 1, Section 8. Can't do it without a constitutional amendment....Of course, GWB called it 'a goddamn piece of paper'

Article 1 Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution says,
"The Congress shall have Power ... To establish Post Offices and post Roads; ..."
Nothing in there says it MUST do any of those things.

My post office raised prices by over 25%.

They will charge a dollar to mail a letter before they shut down. Until they get some new blood in there to do things in a more cost effective manner, we will continue to hear doom and gloom projections, usually right before they ask for the seemingly quarterly postal rate increase.

Local mail in my small town now has to go to Denver to get counted and sorted and then back here to be distributed. It's all PO Box delivery here because we are too small
to have home or business delivery. This is a very recent change. Wasteful. Has something to do with wanting to make sure the count is accurate.

I did expect to see this many "uninformed" comments, Fact the USPS is a profitable non-subsidized government function...but in 2006 lawmakers at the request of their pay masters , past a law requiring a 5 billion a year payment to pre-funded retirement ,just so they would lose money, hence eventually go out of business, so private entities would not need to compete with it.

My wife worked for the USPS for the better part of 15 years. They bought her out with a compromise retirement. She now makes the equivalent of a Staff Sgt. that retired from the Army for 20 years. Look, we have NO FRIENDS in Washingtoon. (Yeah, I spelled it right.)
This time our glorious leaders from the RIGHT side of the aisle screwed us. Here is a video that explains it best: Republicans Kill USPS

This author says there are three USPS Myths:

Myth 1- their losses show they are not a viable business.
Myth 2- snail mail is dead
Myth 3- private companies would do better

How the Postal Service Is Being Gutted

POST OFFICE is REALLY a real estate deal...Good article
Andrew Reinbach: Post Office Privatization Is Probably a Huge Real Estate Deal

Reading through this thread it sounds like this could easily be about Royal Mail in the UK.

I/m thinking that no matter how bad it gets the system will survive and the mail will get through even if it turns out to be all electronic. Seriously.