Mail customers would accept service cuts to aid USPS

[Redfairen]

Source: Washington Post

Mail customers are generally willing to accept lower levels of service such as ending six-day mail delivery to keep the U.S. Postal Service operating -- and especially so if they are aware that the agency does not draw on tax revenue -- a study by the USPS inspector general has found.

In a study involving focus groups, two-thirds of the participants did not know that the agency is self-funding, a finding that reflected results of an earlier Web-based survey. Once the funding arrangement was explained — "a revelation that was met with surprise within every group," the report, released Tuesday, says -- participants "lowered their service level expectations."

At that point, "the common thought was that the Postal Service must operate like a business; it must find a way to be profitable," it says. In particular, "the vast majority of focus group participants viewed six-day delivery as a luxury that could be reduced if the Postal Service needs to cut costs to remain financially viable" and most "said they would actually require even fewer than five days per week."

Similarly, participants were generally willing to give up door-to-door delivery and get their mail at cluster boxes "if the boxes were relatively convenient, saved the Postal Service money, and ensured security."



Read more: http://m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2014/02/18/mail-customers-would-accept-service-cuts-to-aid-usps/?tid=HP_federal

[jtuck004]

1. If it operates like a business it should be underfunding it's retirement, not putting as much in

as the onerous requirements of Congress are forcing it to.

So the Post Office is not like a business, it's like a quasi-governmental entity being manipulated by politicians for political gain.

That's different.


Oh, and people shouldn't have to take service cuts. We provide one of the best in the world, this is just burning it down.

[Psephos]

2. Actually, the USPS *is* treating its future obligations the way businesses do.

Any corporation that treated its future pension costs and obligations the way government does would be guilty of criminal fraud.

It's pathetic that repugs enforced responsibility on the USPS. That should have been done by Democrats. We missed a good opportunity to do it right, instead of politically, as was done by the repugs.

Read this article about GAAP rules. One of the most important is that future costs must be factored into the expenditures of present operations. A future obligation to pay someone has a "Net Present Value." This is the foundation of accrual accounting as enforced *by law* on businesses. The government uses instead the street peddler method of cash accounting. It will end in disaster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generally_Accepted_Accounting_Principles_%28United_States%29

Good accounting is not a Republican or Democratic political issue. It is a matter of responsible business practices developed over hundreds of years. Good accounting, as unglamorous as it sounds, was arguably the single most important force driving the great economic emergence of the West.

[El_Johns]

4. No, it's not. Few businesses fully fund their health care for 75 years into the future. Few

even *have* pensioners' health benefits anymore.

At the very end of that year, Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA). Under PAEA, USPS was forced to “prefund its future health care benefit payments to retirees for the next 75 years in an astonishing ten-year time span” — meaning that it had to put aside billions of dollars to pay for the health benefits of employees it hasn’t even hired yet, something “that no other government or private corporation is required to do.”

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/09/28/330524/postal-non-crisis-post-office-save-itself/#

[jmowreader]

5. There's a better and more dramatic way of explaining how fucked the 75-year mandate is

It's not that they're being forced to set aside money for employees they haven't hired yet, they're being forced to put aside money for employees whose grandparents aren't born yet. Do the numbers: Joe Smith can get his wife pregnant this year with a baby boy who will be named Frank, twenty years from now Frank can get his wife pregnant with a baby girl they'll name Barbara, and twenty years from then Barbara can get pregnant with a baby girl named Wendy who will go to work for the post office at the age of 20 - ALL BEFORE 75 YEARS ARE UP!

[El_Johns]

7. +1. It's ridiculous to say this is normal business practice.

[lobodons]

8. No, not few. NONE!!

Well except for the USPS due to the 2006 legislation.

[El_Johns]

9. You're right, none.

[Travis_0004]

3. I do think the post office can do more to reduce cost

I have door to door delivery. It cost the post office about 353 a year. I don't get that much incoming mail, and only use about 5 stamps a year. If the post office were to switch me to a mailbox for curbside delivery it would save them over 100 dollar a year.
There are 30 million homes that get mail delivered to the door. Assuming 1/3 could be switched (including mine), they could save about a billion a year. I don't think having to walk to the end of my driveway once a day would impact service. (I realize it would affect the elderly, but many elderly people already have mailboxes at the end of their driveway, and they manage.)

[PADemD]

12. Door to door delivery here

No driveway. Mailbox on porch.

NOT willing to give up 6-day delivery or door to door.

[Travis_0004]

16. Why is giving up door to door delivery a big deal?

If I lost door to door delivery, I would have to walk about 50 feet to get the mail. Thats not really a big deal to me.

[PADemD]

17. Walking 50 feet no big deal?

I don't know in what state you reside or your age, but right now my whole street in rural PA is snow covered and icy. One of my neighbors is 90. Do you really think that a frail 90 year old should have to walk outside every day in bad weather and very likely fall? When the weather is bad, retired and elderly people stay home.

[Travis_0004]

18. I know a thing or two about snow.

I realize that this would affect elderly people. The vast majority of people living in houses do not have door to door delivery right now, and they seem to get by.

[Kelvin Mace]

6. The postal service needs to move into the banking business

and provide banking services for the poor. It could sustain itself while charging a fraction of the fees that banks use to soak the poor. It could also set up to provide secure, spamless email services at affordable rates which could change email back into a useful service.

[blkmusclmachine]

10. CONgress is still trying to put the Post Office out of business.

I wonder: How much is UPS and FedEx, etc., involved, if any, in the attempted take-down of a competitor??

[tofuandbeer]

11. I love our USPS!

[davidpdx]

13. The reason people don't know that is the constant propaganda put out by Republicans

telling people how bad the Postal Service is and that it's bleeding money. When you have idiots screaming lies it's pretty hard to tell people the truth.

[valerief]

14. In other words, Fox News and CNN. nt

[wilt the stilt]

15. as I say to anyone who is complaining about the USPS

Last edited Wed Feb 19, 2014, 04:59 PM - Edit history (1)

please send your letters by fedex or UPS. they only cost about $18.00 per letter.