Thursday, July 8, 2010

Going postal and no, I’m not referring to my latest visit to the movie theater

Looks the like U.S. Postal Service is proposing, among other things, to raise first-class postage rates as well as cut back on its 6-day delivery service. Am I the only one who thinks this is a no-duh?

First of all, other than sending books out to voracious readers, the only things I mail these days are birthday cards and sympathy cards. Any bills I have are paid online.

So let’s say I want to send a birthday card to my mother. (Of course, I would never send her *just* a card, but play along for the sake of explanation.) Personally, I cannot freakin’ believe that somebody’s going to take that birthday card from a mailbox in Albany, NY, all the way across the country to Boise, ID, and deliver it right to her doorstep for a mere 44 cents. Is that amazing or what? I would gladly pay a dollar for every piece of mail I send out! At least!

I guess a lot of businesses and non-profits are up in arms about another rate hike because it’ll cost them a fortune to mail out the crap we end up throwing in the recycle bin without even looking at it. BTW, every time I get some glossy piece of literature--or worse, those mailing labels I didn’t even ask for--from a give-till-it-hurts non-profit agency, I’m thinking if you have that kind of money for printing and postage expenses, you sure as hell don’t need a donation from me.

Now let’s talk Saturday delivery. Note to the Postmaster General: you can cut way deeper. I betcha if my mail came once every two weeks there still wouldn’t be a piece worth opening. Ninety-nine percent of the mail I get is nothing but future trash--I'm thinking the Postal Service should deliver right to the landfills and cut out the sanitation department middle men.

Evidently cutting just the Saturday delivery would save a ton of money. I assume that’s money taken directly from our paychecks every week, right? If there was ever a line in the budget begging to be cut, I’d say this is a good one.

5 comments:

John Hawkins said...

I was thinking about this the other day, if the Postal Service was to raise their rates to $1.00 or $1.50 per piece, it would most definitely cut back on the amount of junk mail we all receive. Which, in turn, is great for cutting back on the amount of trees that get cut down to print the garbage on. And, stop giving a discount for postcard sized mail. I haven't received a single postcard from a non-marketer in at least 3 years.

As for Saturday delivery, why stop there? Why not remove Wednesday, too? Or, better yet, how about you deliver mail on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. That would work for me.

I got back from vacation and found no less than a 6 inch stack of mail. From it I plucked 2 checks and one bill I'm not able to pay online. The rest, round-file. But, you can't just round-file it. You need to sort through it all and shred anything that has your full name/address on it so identity thieves don't use your info to buy a new Lexus.

Look what you've started! Now I'm all fired up!

Julie D said...

As long as my People magazine continues to arrive on Friday, I'm good.

Gail said...

Thank you for mentioning what a bargain a stamp is. You cannot drive across town for that price.

raydenzel1 said...

Anywhere in the country for a stamp, a real bargain for sure. The price of a stamp is mandated to be less then the current inflation rate. I believe
Saturday deliveries was an act of Congress

MA Fat Woman said...

As a 10 yr veteran of the Post Office I say thanks for your support. It is a good deal. Speaking for someone that doesn't work there anymore what a stressful place to work? Bull**it doesn't begin to explain the level of hoops that folks have to go through on a daily basis just to get that letter across the country!