Everyone seems to be worrying about the U.S. Postal Service going into a “death spiral.” The Internet is taking over communications. Fewer people send first-class letters. The service’s income increasingly is from junk mail. Costs are rising. The recession has hit mail users. The service has been running a deficit for three years and predicts financial collapse unless something is done.
The remedy proposed by Postmaster Pat Dohanoe, who heads the semi-independent agency, includes closing or consolidating hundreds of “low-activity” post offices, eliminating Saturday service and laying off thousands of postal workers.
He also would cut back more than half of the present mail processing and distribution centers, including the one in Hampden that serves central, Down East and northern Maine. That could delay for a day or two your next Netflix delivery or a vitally needed medication or legal paper. It also would mean that a letter mailed in Bangor to another Bangor address would have to go to Scarborough and back.
To Maine’s Sen. Susan Collins, ranking minority member of the committee that oversees the postal service, that’s mostly the wrong idea. The pending bill that she and Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., Tom Carper, D-Del., and Scott Brown, R-Mass., have drafted would keep Saturday operations for at least two years, provide a waiting period and a study of impact before a post office or distribution center could be closed, authorize certain curbside instead of front-door delivery, arrange buyouts of 100,000 postal workers and ease prefunding requirements for pensions and retiree health benefits.
Current pre-funding rules have led to much confusion and dispute. A 2010 report said that the Postal Service had overpaid its retirement account by $75 billion, a figure denounced by the Office of Personnel Management, which strongly opposed any reduction in pre-funding. The inspector general said that reduced pre-funding would enable the postal service to substantially meet its obligations, conserve cash and improve its financial condition.
The Collins bill would maintain pension pre-funding at 100 percent but reduce health care pre-funding to 80 percent. Sen. Collins says recent analysis puts pension overfunding at $11.4 billion and says there is no overfunding on health care for retirees.
The bill would increase postal revenues in some ways, including by allowing shipping of wine and beer, as FedEx and UPS do.
A rival bill by Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., also would authorize post offices to notarize documents, issue driver’s licenses, register vehicles, register voters, provide Internet service and sell hunting and fishing licenses. Such additions would produce income as well as enhancing the traditional role of the local post office as a community social and service center.
Could a hardworking postmaster take on additional duties on that scale? Postmaster Joy Sprague, in the tiny Islesford post office on Little Cranberry Island, says enthusiastically, “I would — with bells on.”
“Everyone seems to be worrying about the U.S. Postal Service going into a “death spiral.” ”
Not me……
The post office is already in a death spiral. What people are wondering is if it has the ability to pull out of it.
The USPS should either be given a freer hand in running its operations or it should be privatized. Having Congress meddle in its management is a recipe for disaster.
The U.S.P.S. isn’t a government entity. Most of us had always thought that to be the case.
The Hampden center must remain open. Even a year and a half ago, mail going to the west coast or coming here took 3 days. Now, mail to the west coast, and probably many places in between can take two weeks or longer. Mail from the west still comes in around 3 days.
But the PO doesn’t even seem to be trying to do minimal business services, as in not making a loud and long announcement that first class postage was going up again. You would think that that the price of first class postage in the U.S. would be posted prominently on the very first page of the website. Maybe it is now, but it’s become one of the hardest things to discover. How much IS postage since the other week, anyway?
If privatized, it would pick and choose the money making markets and leave behind the rest. We deliver 25% of UPS and FedEx packages to areas that are not profitable…I would assume a privatized USPS would do the same.
How about we put all DC politicians paychecks on a diet,,, they cut everything else, I wonder how many would vote for all elected officials to only earn as much as the current median income…! (Obama included)
The post office is much cheaper then UPS or Fed Ex combined so I hope it keeps going on. They also make it allot easier to ship items and it’s so much easier buying postage and printing shipping labels.
Susan Collins put it in the death Spiral!
Look it up!
Me thinks you’ve been reading too much Dilbert.
Dlbrt is correct…
Title VIII – Postal Service Retirement and Health Benefits FundingPostal Civil Service Retirement and Health Benefits Funding Amendments of 2006 -http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-6407&tab=summary
What company can afford to put 5 billion i believe a year into a pension fund ?
With 512,000 employees with the average age of 52 with no layoff contracts. Losing business at a large rate the Federal goverment is trying to insure theres funding for retirement and health care for these workers. No other company in the U. S. even comes close to that amount of emploees or age group. There’s no help coming from the union’s either.
if you make every company per fund the retirement they would be in the hole too
They need to smarten up and right size.
Getting rid of small out dated post offices is a step in the right direction especially if there is one near by.
They need to renegotiate their pensions because that will be bankrupt and or require a taxpayer bail out.
They shoudl get rid of Sat operations, allow people to opt of junk mail, I hate junk mail it clutters my box and goes in the trash!
Face it, Post Office is like newspaperd, it is a failing business model and must change or go bankrupt!
You might want to do a little research. Your notion that the pensions must be renegotiated is not supported by the facts. Both the CSRS and FERS pension funds have zero unfunded liability (in fact they have tens of billions of dollars in surplus). Knowing the facts is important if one wants to make statements that are not clueless and ridiculous.
if UPS or fedx takes over you will pay to the nose to mail a letter an to mail boxes
Closing the Hampden center is going to be trouble. This past Christmas the Hampden center was so backed up that a package I sent via priority mail the first week of December reached its destination 3 weeks later. If Hampden closes,I fear slow delivery will become the norm. Why should I pay for priority rates if I don’t get my money’s worth? I’d just as soon rely on the UPS or FEDEX if time is of the essence.
If the postal service were really serious about saving money they would look at the waste in having 3 post offices in a town with 1400 people! Does anyone know the number of post offices on MDI? There are eight that I know of and probably more which is completely ridiculous. I live in a small town off the island and there are 4 post offices within a 10 mile radius and I’m sure the area could get by fine with one. For some reason they won’t look at situations like these when considering cuts but instead look to where it will make the least sense and hurt the most people…ridiculous!
Are you not aware that USPS wants to close those redundant facilities and Congress will not allow it to do so?
It is my understanding that none of the post offices I referred to were on the chopping block. That was my point…..they should have been instead of others that would cause hardship. I have written to the powers that be and got back a generic reply that said nothing.
The Postal Service is near bankruptcy. The Hampden facility needs to be shut down. With the low volume of mail, most Postal Workers stand around all night doing next to nothing. This is a great Welfare Program for Postal Workers. Shut it down already.
And you know this because: 1) you have sitting outside the Hampden Facility counting all the mail as it comes in and goes out and spying on all the lazy employees or,2) you assume that some of the posters here know from whence they speak? Please, give me a break with all your knowledge about the USPS.
Stealing drugs from sick Veterans is the tip of the Iceberg at the Hampden Facility. Tell the Public what goes on in the Mail-Handler Swing Room and the Postal Parking Lot. Shut it down.
Why is it going bankruptcy ? Because they HALF to pre pay for retirement an insurance . I don’t know were you work or if you work for you self but what would happen if the government told every company that they had to per pay for unemployment insurance an medicare what would happen to all those companies ? BANKRUT !!
It would seem to me that the postal service is attempting to commit suicide.
For over 40 years, our family has maintained a post office box in Whiting for which we pay $40+ a year. This year I was given correspondence from the USPS indicating that they do not know who I am, and that I must give them my social security # my driver’s license number and two forms of “other” identification, The manifesto goes on to say that if I fail to complete these tasks, the USPS will not renew my box for the next year.
In doing a small amount of research, I have found that if I put a mail box out in front of my house, I will not have to supply identification, nor will I have to pay $40+ a year.
A person only needs two forms of ID to open a post office box and a SS card is not one of them. It’s a shame people can comment with misinformation.
I re-read the form because I have been known to make a mistake, BUT there it is clear as a bell. Driver’s license # social security number and two forms of physical identification one of which can be your drivers license and only one of which needs a photo.
….and I’m not “opening” a box, I’m paying rent for a box my family has maintained since 1967.
I’m not sure what form your looking at but here is a link to the usps website. A PO Box application has the same options.
https://poboxes.usps.com/poboxonline/pages/requiredIdPopup.jsp
Your link brings me to the USPS homepage, it says nothing about forms, and asks me to register to see anything else.
We call them idiots.
Harry, I am sorely disappointed in your posting. I have always admired your common sense responses on these pages, but find this one lacking. The USPS NEVER asks for an SSN unless you are applying for a job with them. Two forms of ID is all that is required (one with a physical address) to open a PO Box. Putting up a mail box at your house is your option and yes, you do not have to pay an annual fee for that.
i’ve often wondered why the post office has kept saturday deliveries….maybe just keep the post office itself open for normal saturday hours ….i would think no saturday deliveries would cut down on overtime pay …i could be wrong as i don’t understand how it all works.
Congress requires 6 day delivery> USPS has been trying to cut it for years.
A Winslow letter, going to Winslow, goes to Bangor or Scarborough first. When I return a bill that asks you to play on line on the outside of the envelope, I write next to it “Support the Post Office”, then highlight it in bright yellow. Don’t know if it does any good or not but the folks putting that on the outside of their envelopes sees it, month after month, and might do some good. I won’t pay any bill on line as that means putting your account information on line – the greatest source of identity theft.
Close low volume postal outposts…cut delivery to 5 days a week…layoff workers (sorry, but business is slow…that’s the way it is)…lift the restrictions on Fed Ex and UPS and others) from carrying “non-priority” letters…and you’ll never even know the changes existed.
All this “death spiral” if we close Hampden talk has me asking…How was the mail delivered ever possibly before Hampden was open?
Of course the Islesford Post Master Joy Sprague is ok with adding duties like issuing drivers licenses…That would allow her to talk to two people per day instead of one…but then people would start demanding we close town offices and the BMV since THEY didn’t have anything to do.
Closing the Bangor Plant would be a huge mistake. Mail sent in Presque Isle to an address across the street would get trucked down to Scarborough, ME and back, that would likely take at least three days counting processing time! Savings estimates on transportation put out by the Postal Service are nonsense. This whole downsizing plan only impacts service negatively for the little guy, big companies will have a special arrangement in Scarborough to get their mail in before 11AM to still get
same day service! Write your Senators and Congressman to demand good service and keep Hampden open!
I would be willing to bet that the USPS loses millions of dollars a year simply by servicing the county to begin with.
Hey John since you act like an employee there, why don’t you tell the Public what goes on in the Swing Room and the Parking Lot with Postal Employees on the clock supposedly working but doing other nefarious things. Bet the Public Jaws would drop in a flash and they would demand the Shut Down of the Hampden Facility. Stealing Drugs from sick Veterans is the tip of the Iceberg there.
There are incantations for exorcising demons. HOWEVER, even exorcism couldn’t help the Barry connected corrupt/inefficient suit dummies managing the US Postal Service
pardon me, you are blaming the problems of the USPS on Obama? Near as I can tell, the USPS hasn’t been functioning correctly for decades.
The USPS model needs to change. It may not be government operated, but it certainly operates like one. The only thing I get from the USPS is a trashbag full of unsolicited junk everyweek. My business and my household have moved on to the 21st century, the USPS should do the same.
The postal service is going by the way of the buggy whip. Unions will strangle it to its last breath.
That said…
Apparently, the BDN has pulled from its website today Renee Ordway’s ill-considered article voicing her support of the Komen Foundation folding under pressure from Planned Parenthood, the media and the liberals that love it, for some reason. In the name of the First Amendment, I wish to repeat my response:
So a private organization establishes appropriate guidelines for making grants, acts consistently within these guidelines, and is pilloried by Congress, the press, and knee-jerk liberals for doing so. “Principled” columnists like Ms. Ordway run screaming, assuming that this organization is attempting to trample on their “rights” to take the lives of the unborn, then celebrate its cowardly decision to flop under pressure.
And some call that courage.
In The Age of Obama, “philanthropy” is redefined. It now means that:
1) If you make charitable contributions, you are no longer allowed to deduct them from your income taxes, because the federal government wants all the power to determine which favored causes and classes receives the bulk of benevolence.
2) If you do not support its forced philanthropy (gained at the point of an FBI gun as directed by the IRS), touted daily by Mr. Obama who shrilly clamors for higher income taxes, then you are labeled “greedy”.
3) If you run a highly reputable organization doing excellent work in support of women’s health, you risk your superb reputation and donor support if you decide against granting money to organizations that take the lives of thousands and thousands of (unborn) women each year.
In the Age of Obama, up is down, right is wrong, and wrong is right:
1) Pres. Obama and VP Biden give less than 1% to charity each year, and yet their contender Mr. Romney is tarred as a rich greedy capitalist despite giving a far great percentage, totaling millions each year.
2) “Red” states give a far greater percentage to charity each year then “blue” states (check the Chronicle of Philanthropy).
3) The likes of Ms. Ordway are given weekly column inches to display their foolishness. Let us thank God for the First Amendment so we can identify then promptly ignore their silly advice.
Bear in mind that PP’s argument that clinical breast screenings are affected by Komen’s withdrawal of support. But as anyone with even half a clue knows, money is fungible, so the dollars you now give Komen they give to PP, which goes into their great big pot from which they pay for over 300,000 abortions each year.
The Mainer is done with Komen.
Institutional charity is a fiction. Why should taxpayers be forced to pay for someone’s charity? They do because if one taxpayer gets a “deduction” other taxpayers must make up the difference.
I voted for McCain, can’t stand most of what Obama’s doing BUT I’m not rabid.
As to Ms Ordway, she is a columnist with a right to write what she believes as long as her bosses agree. hardly pure “free speech” but definitely freedom of the press and American as apple pie.
Who is being forced to pay for whose charity, Harry H Syner III?
Without any consideration of tax shelter: I can to choose to either contribute or not contribute to any one or more of thousands of charities. Before the Bamster, I was encouraged to do so. Now, I am discouraged to do so.
My ability to do so is necessarily limited by the amount of money I have left over after the MRS and IRS is done pecking at the bones of my paycheck each week.
“Why should taxpayers be forced to pay for someone’s charity?”
Such obtuse statements merely underscore my assertion that The Age of Obama has inverted absolutely every thing.
I was born when Truman was president, my view of institutional charity was formed over my lifetime, and Obama has inverted NOTHING in my life.
I suggest your world and your principles are fairly flimsy if they can be inverted by a politician.
It is my position that government should not be in the business of encouraging or discouraging charitable contributions. OR for that matter ANY legal behavior.
RE: Ms. Ordway -she and her bosses have sold out to a failed ideology, or haven’t you figured that out yet?
You might want to do a little research there, Bub. It is Congress, not the unions, that is strangling USPS.
Postal workers provide the labor that you pay for when you buy a stamp. That labor will deliver a piece of mail from Puerto Rico to Alaska. And if you moved from Alaska to Guam it will pay to have it forwarded to Guam. Or Wherever you moved to. It will be picked up, sorted and delivered by a human being who belongs to a UNION! UPS and FedEx both know how productive and efficient Postal workers are. 30%+ of the their ground parcels are sorted and delivered by Union Postal workers (and growing). Postal workers earn a middle class living wage. They do not fly on Lear jets or get driven around in limo’s. When did working for a living wage and being in the middle class become something that is Un-American? Workers in other sectors of the US economy have been getting screwed by Legislative/Executive/Judicial decisions that have dramatically weakened Unions and labor laws in general. Indiana just put another nail in the middle class coffin last week! As a nation, if we ever want to be the true economic engine of the world again (like Germany with it’s unionized workforce) we need to quit devaluing the dignity of working for a living and bring respect back to having a job. A job that provides a living wage with decent benefits and a chance to save for a retirement someday. A UNION JOB!!!!!!
The postal System’s time has come and gone. They built brand new free standing buildings all over the state which was thumbing their nose at the citizens. Renting obviously was not good enough for them.
You are kidding, right? You are aware that USPS leases tens of thousands of buildings, right?
The PO, congress and the media (which apparently no longer does research, if ever) want to convince the public that the internet is responsible for the current financial situation at the PO. However, the PO has submitted 5 different studies to the Postal Rate commission that shows that the great economic recession is responsible for 97% of the drop in volume! This happened before. In the mid 70’s the economy crippled the PO. In 1975 1st class mail volume dropped by almost 1 Billion pieces! The PO had record deficits. (9-10 $billion if adjusted to 2012 dollars). In 1977 congress chartered a commission that recommended 5 day delivery and closing post offices! The main reason “Electronic funds transfer and communication is driving down mail volume, 1974 will be the historic all time high. The public is no longer using the mail for communication as it once was”. The Postmaster General back at that time, William Bolger created a task group that insisted on keeping 6 day delivery and streamlining the postage rate process to help the PO keep up with inflation. In Dec 1980, congress passed and President Carter signed into law the “Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1980” which provided the PO with almost all of PMG Bolger’s requests to help the PO survive the crushing economic times. In 1981 the price of a 1st class stamp was raised from .15 to .20 cents. In 1982 the PO had a $1.39 billion turn around and posted a $802 million profit. The PO has not used any tax dollars since! When the economy recovered 1st class mail volume soared! It kept going up every year despite technology until 2008 when the economy collapsed again. Our current Congress should allow the PO to use the surplus $ it has in its pensions to pay down its debt and quit forcing it to prefund health care expenses for employees that are not even born yet (totally ludicrous Sen Collins!) and allow the price of postage to increase with the price of inflation like UPS and Fed Ex do! Blaming the internet and the Unions (whom have always worked with management to hold down costs- the most productive work force in America-LOOK IT UP!) and gutting the delivery network will not fix the problem. The PO needs the same kind of determined leadership that it had in the late 70’s/early 80’s and a congress that deals more with reality instead of ideology…….( all of the historic info here can be verified on the web-look it up….Knowledge is power only if you seek it)