U. S. Postal Service May Cut Mail Delivery!

@Kenzie Well, seeing as health reasons have kept me from driving for the past 10 years, and the fact that I only have to mail 2 payments a month, the price of stamps is moot at best. If I can't get to a bank, I can't get to FedEx, etc, either. So for me, old snail mail is my best option. Seems to me their CEO makes way too much. Hmmm, maybe if he was a better CEO they wouldn't be operating in the red in the first place?

So how much more are you willing to pay for stamps? They've been running at a loss for years.

.....Hi there JoyfulOne, You bring up very good points, probably for a lot of people like myself, who tend to put things off until the last minute to mail things, that have a specific due date. But I tend to think there are a few things going on at the Post Office that has lead to this point of budgetary crisis. There have reportedly been considerable wasting of monies, through the Post Office picking up many losses, when employees were promoted fom one state to another and they had to sell their homes. The Post Office would purchase the home they were moving from for market value, list the home and take many thousands of dollars in losses, when the home would not sell anywhere near the price the Post Office paid for it. They would also pay for the cost of moving to the employee, without the employee submitting any receipts for those expenses. These practices were supposed to end, but quite possibly too late. With the loss in revenue from the heavy use of e-mails and faxes as well as computers, the expenses have outweighed the revenue intake. There is also the huge amount of benefits that the company have to pay out in health care costs, and pension costs. If they are not earning enough to handle the pensions through investments, then the cost has to be taken out of current income, which depletes the coffers. Which is seemingly what happened this year, when they had to stop funding one of their retirement funds until a new budget was put into place, in the new fiscal year in October. Hopefully they can stablize the situation, but in order to keep deivering mail for six days a week, we are more than likely going to have to pay $1.00 for a stamp. That is my thought. We, you and I will have to mail our bills way early so they get there on time, if this happens and I think it will. Thanks for your response. Take good care.

....Hi ptower76, I am not sure that the post office will be open on the days that the mail will not be delivered. That may well depend on whether they will save money keeping the offices closed as opposed to opening them. Which I would be of the obvious opinion that if they were closed, then more money would be saved. All of this is dependent on whether or not this all takes place. I kind of think it will, because of the budgetary constraints that the entire country is undergoing currently. We will have to see. Thanks so much for your response.

I think they will leave at least the major offices open because they do daily business there, you know money orders packages etc... Perhaps limiting delivery might save but closing offices I believe they will lose out on revenue.

But the post office runs at a loss every year. (That could be because the CEO makes $800,000 and all the postal workers are union employees...)

...Hi LilyoftheThorns, I believe I wrote an article about the Post Office, over a year ago, and at that time the organization was having dire financial problems. So much so that they were closing many, many regional Post Offices, because of finacial shortfalls. They had a study done, which detailed which offices could be closed, without having too much harm done to the communities they served. Their losses are huge as kenzie mentioned. This year they stopped contributing to one of the pension plans, because they did not have the funds available, until the new fiscal year, which was to begin I believe in October of this year. They will begin to contribute again at that time. So based on all this, they will more than likly get the approval or they will possibly go bankrupt and shut the doors. E-mails, faxes and computers have turned the Post Office into a sort of relic. If you have noticed, companies are prodding people to go paperless and pay their bills on the computer. This saves companies thousands, if not more in mailing costs, and takes away more revenue from the post office for bulk mailings, from thousands of companies. It's a wave of the future and I think that it is only a matter of time. Thanks for your response. Take it easy.

Hi! They are definitely facing a challenging situation!

Hi artistry. Sorry for being so flippant in my comment but I work for the post office over here and I have done delivery in the early days. I do agree it will have a big impact on all the employees and those that ones that are retired.

....Hi tz, thank you, have a good weekend.

....Hi thezone, true too. I wonder if they will increase their hours, because this is going to effect all of the employees paychecks. But then again, that is part of the reduction in costs, which is what they are trying to accomplish, I'm sure. My brother-in-law is retired from the Post Office and I am afraid the retirees pension costs and the health care costs, are a part of the financial problem. Hopefully they will not just leave the retirees out in the cold, by saying they have no money to fund all of it, as they just did with one of the plans, when they stopped paying into it this year, until a new fiscal year starts in October. Thanks for stopping by. Take care,.

....... Hi emilyann07, Many people who have heard about this potential change, are thinking about the same thing that you are. I am one who tends to wait a long time before mailing my bills, which if this change happens, will make my bills take even longer to get to where they are being delivered. That will not be very good. So a change of practice on my part will have to be put into place. They will more than likely put this into effect, because of their financial problems. Thanks so much for your comment on the subject. Take care.

...Hi again emilyann07, Welcome to the ranch, enjoy yourself. There are a lot of nice people around here.

....Hi there, I think it's part private, part government run. But never the less, they are losing a lot of money, through changes in technolgy and probably trying to fund retirees pensions and health care costs. Revenue is not keeping up. Thanks for stopping by. Take care.

...Hi there, Hope you are well, and also your daughter. You do adjust. I was trying to remember when we lived for a while with my grandmother in Geogria, a long time ago on the farm. I think we got mail delivered once a week. Things are changing. Take care. Hi to the emus. "o)

...Hi there, you are correct. There will be a hardship. As I read your post, I thought that this could be an opportunity for someone to be a private carrier, get a service to pick up mail for folks on certain routes at a sensible price. Could be a new business venture. Take care.

.....Hi Rallon. thanks for your comment. All excellent points. Have a good weekend.

......Hi hardworkinggirl, now that's something I had not thought about. You are probably right. I am always getting mail in my box, for the people who live four steps away from my mailbox. So it probably will get worse. What a thought. But they will more than likely make the change, based on what I have heard or they will go out of business or be privatized. I don't think they will continue to deliver mail for six days a week, because the stamps would have to be increased in price, which would drive even more people away. Thanks so much for responding. Take it easy.