I so rarely send letters that I always have to go rooting around in a drawer to find the cache of Forever stamps I bought I can’t remember how many years ago. Good thing I have them since stamp prices are going up again next year. Combine that with crap like this that makes you want to do everything online, it’s no wonder people get pissed:
When Chris opened a letter from the Indiana Election Division, he was curious why in the world there would be a small Styrofoam cube inside the envelope. Luckily for everyone involved, there was an explanation.
Written on a strip of paper packed with the letter was the following declaration:
The Styrofoam cube enclosed in this envelope is being included by the sender to meet a United States Postal Service regulation. This regulation requires a first class letter or flat using the Delivery or Signature Confirmation service to become a parcel and that it “is in a box or, if not in a box, is more than 3/4 of an inch thick at its thickest point.” The cube has no other purpose and may be disposed of upon opening this correspondence.
Greeting card: “Hello, you mattered enough to me that I took the time to select a thoughtful card, write a personalized message, and send it across the country for the (some would say incredibly expensive?) postage sum of 44 cents.”
Electronic message: “Hi how r u?”
The defense department is losing quite a bit too
OK–where is page two? I’m embarrassed to say I can’t even imagine or guess at why this rule is in place. Ha, ha. Seems to me you pay extra for a signature and that extra cost should be the only requirement?
Any postal experts here? Any similar stupid rule at Fed Ex==or does their 10 times the cost cover all such little issues?
The POSTAL SERVICE: one of the demonstrable very best services every devised by man. Criticize it?====Sure. Use it as your trump example of the government not being able to serve the public?===YOU are an idiot.
The Postal Service offers Certified Mail service for obtaining a signature at the point of delivery for letter size mail. The cost is $2.85. Currently, the Delivery Confirmation and Signature Confirmation services are available for mailing parcels and/or Priority Mail. It would interesting to see what would happen if a majority of letter size envelopes had a Delivery Confirmation scan, considering that an individual letter carrier may deliver more than a thousand on a heavy volume day. The time it would take to record the deliveries would be substantial.
Certified Mail is a separate service that Return Receipt Requested. I thought purchasing Certified Mail was required when using Return Receipt Requested but not the other way
There’s a notification by email option available on Return Receipt Requested that is cheaper than the returning card.
Did the Indiana Election division pick the wrong service?
Nothing so stupid that a bean-counter can’t make it stupider.
The USPS should be rolling out electric postal jeeps on a massive scale. That will save a lot of money.
Online banking that eliminates a first-class bill and the first-class payment by check may be the last revenue stream lost before a 100,000 to 250,000 jobs layoff that the USPS may initiate.
The appears to be just the Indiana Election Service trying to save money by exploiting idiosyncracies in the USPS’s pricing is what drives this — for letters, to get a delivery confirmation they have historically required you to use Certified Mail, which costs $2.xx (we don’t know, in bulk, what the IES would have had to pay). Delivery confirmation is an add-on service they offer for under $1.00 to package shippers, so IES turned their letters into “packages” and presumably saved money in total.
Honestly, I have a tough time being outraged by this. So, it’s a bizarro rule. Sorry. lots of folks have bizarro rules that are meant to benefit them (have you read your credit card or cell phone agreement?) Did the parcel get there?
Don’t know why they are losing money
Their business shifted simply to delivering paper (letters, postcards, etc) to delivering physical goods. Ebay and Amazon anyone?
And THAT isn’t going away anytime soon unless someone figure out the way to teleport stuff across the ‘Net
That’s IT? That’s the why of the post office’s going broke? Because of thinking like that?
What if that had nothing to do with it. What if the answer to what’s wrong with the post office could be laid out in a more revealing manner, along with an actual solution to the issues they’re facing?
What if you dropped into this web address to learn how 1. Just 2. Three 3. Words could solve their money crisis and how policies that Ben Franklin would have approved of could keep our deliveries intact?:
http://tinyurl.com/3q5ar44
Peppedu, you are right that there should be a way for the USPS to adjust their business (i.e., downsize) to today’s realities and stay afloat. The challenge is overcoming a number of factors that are conspiring to keep them the from restructuring. The biggest is that the USPS is a government organization, and however they try to downsize inevitably hits some Congressperson’s district (“Yes restructure, but don’t close MY local PO”).
Here is an interesting article on the challenge by Randall Stross.
I want a mail truncation service that would just take it from where its posted, open it, scan it and email it to me.
Something similar was done during WWII with V-Mail. Letters from the troops were written on pre-printed stationary that folded into an envelope shape. These were gathered from theatre, opened, microfilmed and then destroyed. The microfilm was sent to the states where the letters were reprinted and mailed to the recipient.
I recall one failed post office idea incorporated email that was printed and mailed to a recipient that didn’t have email.
One more thing. Everyone shut up about what a great bargain a letter is at whatever the first-class postage is going up to. It is completely mindless to claim that its a bargain compared to having to carry a letter from one part of the country to another on your own. By that flawed reasoning, EVERYTHING is a bargain. I couldn’t mine/refine/cast/build/design/assemble/whatever a modern automobile for a few hundred thousand dollars all on my own, so any price under that is a bargain? Hogwash.
George==NO—YOU shudup–but just before doing so, PULEASE tell us you don’t vote?
What in the world makes you compare the cost of USPS postage rates to what it would cost you to do yourself? In what introverted fantasy world does this pass as thinking about the issues==much less concluding on them==even less to think the position is strong enough to post such stupidity?
“Obviously” the correct metric for comparison is the cost/service of other mail deliver systems? What have we got there? 44 cents compared to Fed Ex at $15.00 for second day delivery?
To break even, all USPS has to do is start charging a fair/not mandated by congress rate for their bulk items and maybe increase the first class mail by a few cents. So==we all agree your fatuous reasoning is flawed.
Want to go for strike two?
A Puke for sure.
VOTE ALL “NO NEW TAXES” CRIMINALS OUT OF OFFICE.
@George
What then do you suggest would be a reasonable price for a postage stamp?
First Class Parcel rates are a life-saver for people like eBay sellers. The only cheaper rate is Media Mail (formerly known as Book Rate). At only 80 cents, the USPS Delivery Confirmation is the cheapest package tracking service around and is not available on First Class letters. The foam cube idea is a minimalist solution to the simple (for bureaucracies) idea that if it’s 3/4″ (19mm) thick, it’s a package. I usually just put a folded piece of cardboard in the envelope to add the needed bulk, which also makes the package more secure, less likely to be mangled by the handling equipment.
If Congress could keep their grubby paws off the USPS pension funds, the USPS wouldn’t be in the fix they’re in.
“No Man’s life liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session”. … Mark Twain and various other nationally prominent humorists.
USPS rates for media mail are far too low–they lose money on every package. Amazon, EBay and others are essentially being subsidized by the USPS.
While calls to privatize the USPS grow stronger and more frequent, I think a lot of people would be outraged by the increased prices for mail services that would accompany privatization. It seems that a lot of these people expect that a private company would be able to operate profitably without significant price increases. I just hope that the members of Congress consider all the consequences before making a decision.
The parcel services just drop packages off at my house and leave.
The USPS is doomed. With the unofficial tagline of “snail mail,” what else needs to be said?
As others have made the point, this is just a scam used to get delivery confirmation on a letter cheaper than using certified mail.
No, you don’t need to buy a return receipt when using certified mail. You can track the delivery on-line. The return receipt DOES give you the signature of whoever signed for the letter. One should note that with certified mail, with or sans the return receipt, the letter has to be signed for. They can’t just scan it and drop it in your mailbox like they can with delivery confirmation.
But, using the cube is a way of getting around the rules, much like folks would ship an old hard drive or CPU along with a copy of Windows that they were selling on Ebay, to get by the rules about selling full installs ONLY with a computer.
I think that the monopoly that the PO has on First Class Mail may come into play here. They didn’t have delivery confirmation until maybe 10 years ago. After all, you need a computer and online access to confirm it, which you don’t with Certified Mail…the record of deliver for Certified is maintained by the delivery Post Office for 2 years.
This article’s premise that some oddball mailing is one more reason the post office is losing money is ultra trivial.
Congress is the reason USPS is in its current position financially. I have no proof, but I think Dvorak nailed it when he said UPS & Fedex are pu$hing Congress to shut them down. What kind of company is forced by law to prefund the next 75 years of retirement pensions within 10 years? One that you want to shut down and steal their business.
So stamps are going up a PENNY. How many people are going to be in the poor house because of this? Have any of you looked at your heating oil bill lately? Gas pump prices? Hello..
The sad part is the value of USPS services won’t be realized until its GONE.
Lets look the the USPS business model.
Go to an individuals location.
Check to see if a letter needs to be delivered.
Check to see if a letter needs to be picked up.
If no, continue to next location.
If letter found deliver or collect letter continue to next location and check that one.
Take letters to central location for transfer.
Transfer letter to another location across the county.
Transfer letter to central location for delivery.
Deliver letter to individual location as required by hand.
Cost charged to customer $ .44 dollars.
Cost charged by British postal service for equivalent service $ .62 dollars.
German postal service $ .76
I think I see the problem.
I don’t remember seeing those Simpsons stamps at the local post office. But if they’re real. Shouldn’t they have had a “Dog and Cat” stamp too? Santa’s Little Helper and Snowball II are just as much a part of the Simpsons family. If not the family pets, then at least a three-eyed fish.
Yes they are real. You can order them from the USPS website too.
Holly Crap! The post office is not loosing money!!!!!
Congress requires that the USPS fund both the retirement program and the health plan at 100%. The average for the S&P 500 funding is 80%. Other federal employees is 41%; the military is 24%; and the some government bureau which requires the USPS to fund at 100% does not fund its plans at all.
Due to the usual government accounting standards, requirements and regulations, the USPS believes that they have over-funded the plans by $75 billion and they want it back. The amount of $75 billion is equal to a year’s income at the USPS.
The is not a current method to pay back over-payments. The only way the USPS can be paid back is by an act of Congress.
The money paid into these plans is invested in Treasury Notes, Bonds, and Bills – in other words, the federal government “borrows it.”
And then they spend it.
Should the $75 billion be paid back and the funding requirements be reduced, the USPS would be in better shape. If they were required to fund the plans at a lesser rate, they would be in better shape.
The big problem with returning the $75 billion to the USPS is, because of the rules Congress has created, giving the money back would increase the deficit by $75 billion. Over the years, the Federal Government has made the deficit look better by subtracting the funded pension and health plan money from the deficit numbers. Not many Congressman are willing to add numbers to the deficit right now.
The House postal oversight subcommittee approved H.R. 5746. The bill, which was introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) on July 15, would alter the methodology for allocating the Postal Service’s share of pension costs for employees whose careers spanned the former Post Office Department and the USPS which created the $75 billion in question. This is the first step in a long process to make the changes that the USPS wants.
The bill must be considered by the full Oversight and Government Reform Committee before it can be voted on in the House. And since the house is Republican they will never vote yes to correct this error because they want mayhem and the destruction of government agencies to promote privatization or corporatization of government services.
So you think there is no problem with government pensions, or or that matter corporate pensions, that would recommend fully funding them?
There are 27 comments? Where are the other 25? Okay, so I’m naive. But if there are replies to a comment, shouldn’t it state at the top of the comment, “There are are n replies to this comment”? Clicking on that informative little statement would take one to the comments.
Whatever. So do it your way. Keep ’em hidden. Aren’t you clever.
Yes lets privatize, so mailing a letter from one end of your block to the other costs $31.
Exactly!
I haven’t mailed a letter in a year. Electronic banking and mail have pretty much made the USPS obsolete anyway. Get with the 21st century… Besides, if you are mailing a letter to the end of the block, you DESERVE to pay $500 a letter! Take a walk…
USPS is all about the 21st century. That’s what this is all about. If the USPS was obsolete then they would let it die a natural death. They would not have to deliberately endeavor to destroy it. If you are an American you should be me angered at the greed and deception behind this act of treason. The USPS has been quietly going about it’s business for more than 200 years and they have been making a lot of money for all of us , all along. But when the Internet happened, the USPS drew the attention of certain corporations. They understand the Internet revolves around shipping. Guess who owns the largest shipping infrastructure on earth. We do . The American people. USPS owns thousands of buildings and real estate, free and clear. Tax exempt and non profit. There is no way for them to compete with the USPS in the 21st century. If you can’t compete then you must destroy the competition. It should anger you that they are selling off the infrastructure at fire sale prices. The USPS used to employ almost 1 million people . It was the second largest employer in America, second only to Wallmart. Those were living wage jobs. They have laid off hundreds of thousands of people, which helped destroy our economy . And it is all based on lies and greed . Do some poking around on the Internet on this. Look at the New Deal Post Office closings. Look into the poison pill legislation of 2006. Find out what the postal workers are saying about the increase in business and their expanding routs since the internet. Find out how their being purposely mismanaged and their hands are tied when it comes to raising the price of junk mail especially to corporate customers. There is way more to this ice berg than I can relate in this format.
Their media manipulation and misinformation has been so masterfully done that virtually no one realizes the American tragedy that is taking place, right in plain sight. Almost no media coverage, no discussion or truthful information has been forthcoming. Not even the postal workers seem to be aware of the true magnitude of what is happening. To most of them it’s just a living wage job, but in reality, for all Americans and our children’s children, it is about the destruction and looting of a great country, from within. Every tangible object bought or sold on the Internet has to be shipped. Without shipping the Internet is only half an entity and would be nearly worthless, except for information and communication.
Happening now is a well orchestrated power play to eliminate a sleeping USPS from the trillion dollar internet shipping business, and sell America down the drain.
The United States Postal Service posses the largest shipping infrastructure on earth. It is tax exempt and is non profit. No other shipper can compete with the Post Office, so they have used lobbyists and our own lawmakers to destroy the USPS. They are now in the process of selling off the infrastructure today and in the coming months. The Post Office can and has generated massive revenues for our treasury. It’s more than just stealing trillions of dollars from the public again.
Ben Franklin, the first Postmaster General couldn’t see the Internet coming but he and others were insightful enough to realize that we have the right to a free flow of correspondence and conveyance of materials without profiteers and possibly even foreign entities having any control over it. We can’t let the USPS be turned into a junk mail delivery service while some corporations force the liquidation of real estate and equipment that took the American people more than 200 years to amass. Our USPS is a big part of what has made and continues to make America great.