Mail U S Type

[old2soon]

       Last couple of weeks has seen a rather largish influx of Mail delivered to my casa. It's runnin near 50/50 tween political recycling material and folks wantin me to insure myself fer stuff Medicare/Medicaid don't pay fer recycling material. And near as I can tell All that "stuff" comes to my Mail box at a cost LESS then I pay to mail a bill ort a letter. Wunder how MUCH I'd be gittin if both outfits had too pay FULL PRICE like I duz? Guarantee No where NEAR as Much as I git now!  Just thought I'd see iffin I are the only one gittin extry recycling material!  RIDE SAFE.

[Jess from VA]

I keep a can right next to my mailbox.

Six to one (or so) goes in the can. 

Without junk (or other low cost) mail USPS would go out of business.  Well, they never go out of business, they just raise the price of a stamp (and require higher subsidization).

I've had more than a dozen total strangers offer to buy my house. 

I'd offer them to kiss my ass, but it would cost me postage.

I've heard you can write Refused, Return to Sender on (unopened) mail, put it back in the box, and it goes back, postage due.  But I think that doesn't apply to junk mail. 

[Willow]

... And near as I can tell All that "stuff" comes to my Mail box at a cost LESS then I pay to mail a bill ort a letter. Wunder how MUCH I'd be gittin if both outfits had too pay FULL PRICE like I duz? Guarantee No where NEAR as Much as I git now! 

..
Without junk (or other low cost) mail USPS would go out of business.  Well, they never go out of business, they just raise the price of a stamp (and require higher subsidization).
... 

Pay attention to this and be thankful for all the junk mail we get.  I'm not ready to pay even more for mailing a letter.

[Crackerborn]

I find the excess junk mail works well for starting the wood burner in the barn.  It has no political preference. 

[0leman]

O2S, we also have been getting a great influx of political junk mail.  Thankfully we have our recycling container is not far from walk to the mail box.  Just rip off the address and toss.  May have to have it emptied this week as we have been getting a lot of that type of mail.   Normally its every three weeks.

Haven't gotten anyone wanting to buy our casa, but the normal credit card, insurance, TV services, and hearing centers adds.

[F6Dave]

I signed up for the USPS 'Informed Delivery' service.  You get a daily email showing images of the mail you'll be receiving.  It's pretty handy.  If there's nothing but junk I won't even bother driving to the post office to check my mailbox.

[scooperhsd]

USPS Informed Delivery is not perfect. Our experiance is that advertising is usually in "No picture taken", as well as other junk mail (not all). The email varies on when it shows up as well. It's a useful tool but take it with a grain of salt.

[¿spoom]

I don't mind advertisers helping to possibly keep the USPS rates a hair lower than they would be if they had to pay full boat. Lots of companies get/give lower prices based on sales volume, notably USPS competitors like UPS & Fed Ex.  My problem with the USPS is that it's poorly and handcuffed from change because Congress gets to muck with it instead of letting it be run like a private business.
There is no reason the Post Office needs Saturday delivery any more, there simply isn't the volume of mail to justify it. What's more, many businesses and even some homes signed up decades ago to have their Saturday mail held for Monday Delivery. With a six-day service schedule there's all sorts of extra employees to juggle days off with non-traditional M-F 40 hour weeks. Dropping Sat. would have let them reduce ranks by thousands through simple attrition-no layoffs. If need be in the future, ending Wednesday service might be considered. Expand the routes and go to four 10 hour-ish days.
There was finally some folks willing to consider killing Sat. service, when the deal with Amazon for Sunday delivery was done. Screwed up everything. With electronic billing and automatic withdrawals,  FAX, & email services and interactive websites having long reduced the need for snail mail, USPS is going the way of the blacksmith-still useful, but no need to be open more than one or two days a week.

[Cracker Jack]

My wife is a retired mail carrier. I have a couple of suggestions for mail delivery. Nobody else seems to be interested in what they are, are ya'll?


My suggestion would be to deliver three days a week to each address. Either a M/W/F route or a T/T/S route. Each carrier would service two routes or be responsible for delivery for six days a week. The carriers need six days to allow the substitutes (substitutes need at least one day a week) to work. Substitutes are necessary to fill in for vacations and sick days etc. The substitutes are usually training for full time routes to cover carrier attrition.


See, problem solved? It's not that hard.

P. S. The above would apply to rural routes for people like me and most others. All postal customers who actually  need daily delivery would remain daily.

[scooperhsd]

expanding on that idea - I can understand businesses wanting daily delivery. I don't know about the rest of you, but I could live with 2 or 3 days weekly mail delivery at home.