snail mail to get slower

Corporate junk mail should no longer be subsudized. Check out how cheep it is for a corporation to do a huge mass mailing, thats where the money goes.
 
Jarod said:
Corporate junk mail should no longer be subsudized. Check out how cheep it is for a corporation to do a huge mass mailing, thats where the money goes.
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Corporate junk mail is a big part of the USPS's business. While I agree that corporate junk mail shouldn't be so cheap (mostly for environmental/waste reasons), it would probably doom the post office.
 
I am not against them getting the business, but it looks to me like they are operating at a loss on the corporate junk mail.
 
Jarod said:
I am not against them getting the business, but it looks to me like they are operating at a loss on the corporate junk mail.
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I doubt it. The true junk mail doesn't really have to be sorted so the cost of getting it in the letter carrier's bag is minimal. And the letter carriers go to every address anyway. What's the marginal cost of adding items to the letter carrier's bag?
 
Dungheap said:
I doubt it. The true junk mail doesn't really have to be sorted so the cost of getting it in the letter carrier's bag is minimal. And the letter carriers go to every address anyway. What's the marginal cost of adding items to the letter carrier's bag?
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It gets processed plenty and the machines that process it are expensive to buy and maintain.
 
Jarod said:
It gets processed plenty and the machines that process it are expensive to buy and maintain.
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I doubt very seriously that junk mail is machine sorted. It just goes to every address on a letter carrirer's route. No need to do any machine sorting. But, even if it is, are the machines that sort junk mail different from the machines that sort first class mail? Again, I doubt it. At best, the addition of junk mail shortens the life of sorting machines and causes them to require more maintenance. I'm guessing that the post office isn't losing money on the deal.
 
Jarod said:
It gets processed plenty and the machines that process it are expensive to buy and maintain.
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They don't process junk mail through their machines. You have to sort the mail yourself to get the break. Seriously, it doesn't cost the post office much at all.
 
Damocles said:
They don't process junk mail through their machines. You have to sort the mail yourself to get the break. Seriously, it doesn't cost the post office much at all.
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I happen to know that there are machines that mail goes through, you may be right that it does not get processed in the "sorter" I dont know... but it does get processed in other machines.... and at least at one point I know that they had to retrofit machines to work on the different sizes of bulk mail. I also know that lots of lobby money is spent to keep the cost low.
 
Personally I don't give a crap. I don't receive any important mail in the snail mail anymore. My bills are all paid online without a stitch of paper used. I go to the mailbox about once a week to clean it out and throw away junk.

That my trash gets delivered to me one day later isn't that big of a deal to me.

I just know that if you pay for third class mail you have to process it yourself, separating piles by zip code. I know that because I've done it.
 
With cheap, reliable and secure data transmission (the internet) the post office is no longer a critical part of the economy. Cut it down to 5, then 4, then three days per week delivery and cut the cost of the system in half.
 
Dungheap said:
Corporate junk mail is a big part of the USPS's business. While I agree that corporate junk mail shouldn't be so cheap (mostly for environmental/waste reasons), it would probably doom the post office.
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Agreed, which is why they won't let people opt out of receiving the endless streams of crap in their mail boxes.

I say let people opt out. Charge corporations first class rates for mailing the crap and then reduce the number of delivery days to 3 per week. I mean really, who is getting anything important in the mail these days? With email it is highly unneccesary.

Deliver business M/W/F... residential T/TH/Sat. Cut staff, close post offices (does anyone on the board actually still go to one?)
 
Damocles said:
Personally I don't give a crap. I don't receive any important mail in the snail mail anymore. My bills are all paid online without a stitch of paper used. I go to the mailbox about once a week to clean it out and throw away junk.

That my trash gets delivered to me one day later isn't that big of a deal to me.

I just know that if you pay for third class mail you have to process it yourself, separating piles by zip code. I know that because I've done it.
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I have also done it, but that does not mean that the mail does not go through machines.
 
Jarod said:
I have also done it, but that does not mean that the mail does not go through machines.
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The machines are not the highest cost for the post office, it is the salaries of people. I do remember something about having to add a sticker somewhere so it would flow through a machine better, so yeah. It probably goes through a machine. I just don't think it is all supercost like you dream. In fact the machines make it cheaper as they don't have to pay somebody to sort through that crap.
 
Damocles said:
The machines are not the highest cost for the post office, it is the salaries of people. I do remember something about having to add a sticker somewhere so it would flow through a machine better, so yeah. It probably goes through a machine. I just don't think it is all supercost like you dream. In fact the machines make it cheaper as they don't have to pay somebody to sort through that crap.
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i have a friend that works at a postal sorting center as a mechanic on the sorting machines and she says that junk mail does not go through the machines

it is delivered in bundles by zip code and distributed by the carriers that give one piece to every address
 
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