• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Should door to door mail delivery end?

What do you think of the new Post Office proposal?


  • Total voters
    51
  • Poll closed .

Ockham

Noblesse oblige
DP Veteran
Joined
Oct 12, 2009
Messages
23,909
Reaction score
11,003
Location
New Jersey
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Libertarian - Right
The story is our US Post Office is loosing tons of money - the reasons are a bit complex but suffice to say they have been running in the red for quite some time and something has to give. A recent bill H.R. 4670, Secure Delivery for America Act of 2014 -- was approved by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently. This bill basically removes at home delivery and creates a centralized delivery mailbox (outdoors or indoors) where people will need to travel to pick up their daily mail, USPS packages, etc. The saving is estimated (yeah right - sorry but government identifying savings is like NASA stumbling on a "faster than the speed of light warp drive") to be $2 Billion per year.


Like that plan? Hate that plan? or Don't care... choose one and don't forget to give a blurb reply about your answer.
 
Post is of the past.

It only servers the purpose of sending packages and that useless junkmail.

Private companies would certainly be better at doing that.

So I am all for privatising nationaly owned post offices as the UK is doing right now.
 
For most people in the USA door to door mail delivery is an expensive luxury that they could live without.
 
The story is our US Post Office is loosing tons of money - the reasons are a bit complex but suffice to say they have been running in the red for quite some time and something has to give. A recent bill H.R. 4670, Secure Delivery for America Act of 2014 -- was approved by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently. This bill basically removes at home delivery and creates a centralized delivery mailbox (outdoors or indoors) where people will need to travel to pick up their daily mail, USPS packages, etc. The saving is estimated (yeah right - sorry but government identifying savings is like NASA stumbling on a "faster than the speed of light warp drive") to be $2 Billion per year.


Like that plan? Hate that plan? or Don't care... choose one and don't forget to give a blurb reply about your answer.

Canada has already started to end home delivery.
 
The story is our US Post Office is loosing tons of money - the reasons are a bit complex but suffice to say they have been running in the red for quite some time and something has to give. A recent bill H.R. 4670, Secure Delivery for America Act of 2014 -- was approved by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently. This bill basically removes at home delivery and creates a centralized delivery mailbox (outdoors or indoors) where people will need to travel to pick up their daily mail, USPS packages, etc. The saving is estimated (yeah right - sorry but government identifying savings is like NASA stumbling on a "faster than the speed of light warp drive") to be $2 Billion per year.


Like that plan? Hate that plan? or Don't care... choose one and don't forget to give a blurb reply about your answer.

I love that plan. It only makes sense. They're already doing it all over Illinois in attached-housing subdivisions. The idea that, in this day and age, a mail person will walk down a block and walk up and down the steps to every porch to put mail in a mailbox is ridiculous.
 
The story is our US Post Office is loosing tons of money - the reasons are a bit complex but suffice to say they have been running in the red for quite some time and something has to give. A recent bill H.R. 4670, Secure Delivery for America Act of 2014 -- was approved by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently. This bill basically removes at home delivery and creates a centralized delivery mailbox (outdoors or indoors) where people will need to travel to pick up their daily mail, USPS packages, etc. The saving is estimated (yeah right - sorry but government identifying savings is like NASA stumbling on a "faster than the speed of light warp drive") to be $2 Billion per year.


Like that plan? Hate that plan? or Don't care... choose one and don't forget to give a blurb reply about your answer.

The best solution, IMHO, would be to keep raising user fees (postage rates) to cover the actual cost of service. The nonsense that using general revenue to subsidize the USPS is OK because it transfers the burden of payment to "the rich" is foolish. The best way to reduce costs is to reduce service days to 3 days per week and have fewer carriers which serve alternating routes. For example a single carrier could serve delivery area A on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and sere area delivery area B on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday - just as garbage/recycle collection services do now.
 
Post is of the past.

It only servers the purpose of sending packages and that useless junkmail.

Private companies would certainly be better at doing that.

So I am all for privatising nationaly owned post offices as the UK is doing right now.
OH REALLY???
I can put a 46 cent stamp on a letter and put it in a local mailbox here in Colorado. About three days later my sister in New Hampshire has it delivered to her door ...
UPS or Fed X can give me the same service for about $16.00.
Tell me how that is better?
 
I love that plan. It only makes sense. They're already doing it all over Illinois in attached-housing subdivisions. The idea that, in this day and age, a mail person will walk down a block and walk up and down the steps to every porch to put mail in a mailbox is ridiculous.

This is done now in my rural area; we have 12 mailboxes in one place serving about 1/4 mile of houses.
 
I agree with Ttwtt.....they could have done this just like they do with City services. Another thing.....some Older people don't drive and definitely never in any bad weather. Seniors, who the only person they see out of a day is the Mailman or woman. Have known theirs for years to. Same deal for the Mail people knowing their customers. Especially if like vehicles are around and no one had picked up things for a few days.

So I don't know how that works with those rurally. Mail for them is put in their Box by the end of the road. Mailman doesn't even get out. They have driving routes.

I don't like it.....every now and then we get mail lady and she even gets to wear shorts.
shades.gif
 
OH REALLY???
I can put a 46 cent stamp on a letter and put it in a local mailbox here in Colorado. About three days later my sister in New Hampshire has it delivered to her door ...
UPS or Fed X can give me the same service for about $16.00.
Tell me how that is better?

First of all you've got your price WAY off:
ID.jpg
Second of all, the only reason the USPS can charge $.46 is because they're subsidized, hence the LOSSES.
 
They've already done this for years now. All new apartments and suburban neighborhoods have a centralized delivery point. Saturday delivery is ended in some places and they only pick up the mail at the individual mailboxes when they have something to drop off.
 
OH REALLY???
I can put a 46 cent stamp on a letter and put it in a local mailbox here in Colorado. About three days later my sister in New Hampshire has it delivered to her door ...
UPS or Fed X can give me the same service for about $16.00.
Tell me how that is better?

UPS and FedEx can't match that service because they're prohibited by law from doing so. They're simply not legally allowed to deliver first class mail which is why they require you to put it in a box or those big envelopes.
 
This is done now in my rural area; we have 12 mailboxes in one place serving about 1/4 mile of houses.




Anyone who can't walk 1/4 mile to get their mail probably shouldn't be living alone.

The exercise would be good for just about everyone.
 
I agree with Ttwtt.....they could have done this just like they do with City services. Another thing.....some Older people don't drive and definitely never in any bad weather. Seniors, who the only person they see out of a day is the Mailman or woman. Have known theirs for years to. Same deal for the Mail people knowing their customers. Especially if like vehicles are around and no one had picked up things for a few days.

So I don't know how that works with those rurally. Mail for them is put in their Box by the end of the road. Mailman doesn't even get out. They have driving routes.

I don't like it.....every now and then we get mail lady and she even gets to wear shorts.
shades.gif

I don't really care although I do think it's a better system and more safer for the carriers. You do bring up a good point about seniors though.
 
Centralized mail boxes are fine, but also just cut deliveries to a couple of times per week.
 
For some reason, for me atleast, it's always kinda exciting to go get the mail. Like there will just be some random check that I overpaid for something or even a free sample or freebie that I signed up for. Usually it's just garbage but I just can't help that I like surprises. fyi, Marlboro always sends the best stuff and I'm not even a smoker. :)
 
The story is our US Post Office is loosing tons of money - the reasons are a bit complex but suffice to say they have been running in the red for quite some time and something has to give. A recent bill H.R. 4670, Secure Delivery for America Act of 2014 -- was approved by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently. This bill basically removes at home delivery and creates a centralized delivery mailbox (outdoors or indoors) where people will need to travel to pick up their daily mail, USPS packages, etc. The saving is estimated (yeah right - sorry but government identifying savings is like NASA stumbling on a "faster than the speed of light warp drive") to be $2 Billion per year.


Like that plan? Hate that plan? or Don't care... choose one and don't forget to give a blurb reply about your answer.

Home delivery should remain. Post office doesn't need to turn a profit, it needs to exist.
 
The plan would work for me, however, what I would be concerned about is the elderly and the poor. Not everyone has the luxury to travel at will to pick up their mail.
 
Stop ALL deliveries on solicitations and advertising. Make those use the private carriers. USPS mail should be solely letter and package deliveries. Just because the USPS can't manage their business properly, people have to stop receiving the same service? Fix the problem of too much junk mail or quit subsidizing it at least. Charge them way more to spam mailboxes with bank solicitations and lawn care ads.

Also, fix the problem of incorrect addressees. I get junk mail for 3 people that don't live at my house. Its piss poor management to blame for the USPS downfall, plain and simple. Become more efficient. That is a lost cause though because it is gov't. ran. Innovation and ingenuity aren't terms often used to describe gov't. ran businesses.
 
First of all you've got your price WAY off:
View attachment 67166917
Second of all, the only reason the USPS can charge $.46 is because they're subsidized, hence the LOSSES.
The USPS is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution.
The USPS is funded solely by postage fees. None of your taxes ever pay for mail delivery within the United States. Only mail to military overseas is subsidized.
The Fed X prices you showed were ground and may take over a week... three day rates are twice as much. US mail goes over 2000 miles in three days.
Still waiting for you to tell how Fed X is better.
 
Last edited:
I think that door to door delivery is outdated and should be stopped. For a company (or entity) to be hemorraghing money like the USPS has for the last few years, they need to do whatever they can do to stop the losses.

As far as the poor, they can walk a mile to a mailbox. The elderly can have whomever helps them out pick up their mail for them. If they are unable to go get their mail, then certainly they have people who help to care for them.

I also like Winchester's idea of cutting back delivery to a few days a week. Hell, I don't do anything with the mail anymore. Most everything I do, I do online. All my bills come to me online, I pay them all online. All I get in the mail is a bunch of junk mail and catalogs that never seem to stop, no matter how many times I ask them to stop sending them.

I also agree with AW - even though I get nothing but junk mail, I always am anticipatory about going to the mailbox and getting something cool - something unexpected. :lol: But it's always junk mail or those damn catalogs.
 
Stop ALL deliveries on solicitations and advertising. Make those use the private carriers. USPS mail should be solely letter and package deliveries. Just because the USPS can't manage their business properly, people have to stop receiving the same service? Fix the problem of too much junk mail or quit subsidizing it at least. Charge them way more to spam mailboxes with bank solicitations and lawn care ads.

Also, fix the problem of incorrect addressees. I get junk mail for 3 people that don't live at my house. Its piss poor management to blame for the USPS downfall, plain and simple. Become more efficient. That is a lost cause though because it is gov't. ran. Innovation and ingenuity aren't terms often used to describe gov't. ran businesses.

The post office would cease to exist w/o all that volume.
 
Anyone who can't walk 1/4 mile to get their mail probably shouldn't be living alone.

The exercise would be good for just about everyone.

Anyone that can't wait a day or two more for their snail mail service to help reduce costs (postal rates) probably can afford to use a commercial delivery service. ;)
 
The USPS is funded solely by postage fees. None of your taxes ever pay for mail delivery.

BULL****!

Postal Service claim not fully on target | PolitiFact Georgia

In 2009, the Postal Service began borrowing money from the U.S. Treasury Department to deal with its troubles. Some news accounts report the service reached its borrowing limit of $15 billion in September 2012.

...

The Postal Service wrote in a November 2012 press release that it had a record fiscal year deficit of nearly $16 billion.

A $16 billion deficit with another $15 billion in the hole to the taxpayer and they're less and less able to pay us back every year.

The prices you showed were ground and may take over a week... three day rates are twice as much. US mail goes over 2000 miles in three days.
WRONG:
ID.jpg
FedEx ground is just as fast as USPS ground, 1-3 days guaranteed AND you can track it.

Still waiting for you to tell how FedX is better.

I never claimed that they were, but I'd love to hear you say anything that isn't utterly wrong on this subject.
 
Stop ALL deliveries on solicitations and advertising. Make those use the private carriers. USPS mail should be solely letter and package deliveries. Just because the USPS can't manage their business properly, people have to stop receiving the same service? Fix the problem of too much junk mail or quit subsidizing it at least. Charge them way more to spam mailboxes with bank solicitations and lawn care ads.

Also, fix the problem of incorrect addressees. I get junk mail for 3 people that don't live at my house. Its piss poor management to blame for the USPS downfall, plain and simple. Become more efficient. That is a lost cause though because it is gov't. ran. Innovation and ingenuity aren't terms often used to describe gov't. ran businesses.

No. The bulk mail is the sole reason why the PO isn't a total write off financially.
 
Back
Top Bottom