Thread: Mail delivery might soon be a memory

07/07/07
Mail delivery might soon be a memory
Costs, technology might do what neither rain, nor snow nor dark of night could.

WASHINGTON — Could the mail one day mimic many pizza chains, where customers can pick it up or pay extra for home delivery?

Will the mail still arrive six days a week? Will the government still be involved?

The U.S. Postal Service is facing big questions as it struggles to cope with rising costs and major changes in the way people communicate.

Few doubt there will be adjustments, but what those will be remains to be seen.

In 1993, Postmaster General Marvin Runyon drew criticism for suggesting mail delivery might be cut to four days a week.

That was a bombshell then, but it's something postal experts say may still be a possibility.

"If you have hard-copy delivery, you might have it six days a week, or three days a week, or one day a week," William Burrus, president of the American Postal Workers Union, said in an interview.

And, he added, it may not even be delivered; the recipient might have to go retrieve it.

Already, hiring private delivery contractors is an issue, prompting informational picketing by letter carriers in Florida.

"I think within the next six to eight months, the Congress of the United States is going to decide an issue that's going to determine whether or not we have a reliable, efficient postal service in the future," said William H. Young, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers. "What I'm referring to is the decision that's been made at the highest levels of the Postal Service to give all the new growth, and the new deliveries that are springing up, to private contractors."

But such changes may be necessary, says Gene Del Polito, president of the American Association for Postal Commerce, which represents mailers of advertising.

If the Postal Service is to survive, it will to have to consider outsourcing more of its activities, he said.

It's conceivable, Del Polito said, "that a postal system in the future could evolve into something which I would call the master contractor, where it maintains its government identity by the government being the master contractor, but that it puts things out competitively on bid.

"At the end of the day, what you need is a universal mail delivery system. You don't need a universal mail delivery enterprise," Del Polito said.

Burrus pointed out that "the world is changing dramatically in terms of instant communications. We as a species have discovered the ability to have instant communications. That's not consistent with hard copy. I would suspect that over time, hard copy will play less and less of a role in our communications."

Not so sure is Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.), who believes letters will always have a place in the stream of mail.

"Clearly, the way Americans communicate on a day-by-day basis is changing," he said, citing computers and cellphones. But there will still be core requirements such as hard copy that the post office will be needed for, said McHugh, a longtime congressional leader on postal issues.

Tony Conway, a longtime postal manager who now heads the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, said he expects the Postal Service to "evolve, probably into more of a focus on the strength of the organization, which is its delivery network. That's the heart and soul of the organization — no current private carrier can compete with it."

But, he added, "it may or may not be a government organization."

"The $64,000 question is how to keep the delivery network affordable," Conway said, noting the decline of first-class mail. "The days of reckoning are coming sooner than people probably now appreciate."

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/new ... ostal.html

the US government gets $2B from the US postal service. It doesn't make a difference if the USPS makes a profit, the government is going to get its money. That is the reason that postage keeps rising not the USPS is not paying for itself but it has to pay for illegals and earmarks.

And who exactly will they export the mail business too? I say get rid of the advertisments and silly letters that we all just throw away. If they want those advertisments sent then make them pay more. The consumer does not want them.

Thanks for posting.

Originally Posted by Paige

And who exactly will they export the mail business too? I say get rid of the advertisments and silly letters that we all just throw away. If they want those advertisments sent then make them pay more. The consumer does not want them.

Here, here! Make them pay more for the stinking junk mail they send!