USPS Ending Overnight First-Class Letter Service

New submitter cstacy writes "The United States Postal Service will be closing half of its processing centers this spring. Currently, 42% of first-class mail is delivered the following day for nearby residential and business customers. But that overnight mail will be a thing of the past, with delivery guaranteed only for 2-3 days. About 51% will be delivered in two days. Periodicals may take up to nine days. (Additional delays beyond this may come into play when Congress also authorizes USPS to close operations for some days each week.)"

Comments

Netflix

[The Pirou]

That is going to be a pain for subscribers to Netflix, Gamefly, etc. I used to be able to validate the turn around time with local processing centers, but this is going to impact monthly turnover for those with DVD plans. I can see where this is probably going to do more to push consumers to use Redbox and Blockbuster kiosks, furthering the impact to the bottom line of USPS when more Netflix subscribers drop their service, decreasing use of traditional mail.

Re:Netflix

[firex726]

Not to get too off topics, but that's something I never quite got.
As society gets larger and more spread out there are certain services such as the USPS/Fire dept that will become a nesesity reagrdless of their bottom line.

Re:Netflix

[Chalnoth]

The problem actually has nothing to do with the Post Office's business model. The USPS makes quite significant profits. The problem, instead, has to do with Republican legislation put into law in 2006 built with the very purpose of killing the USPS: the USPS has to forward-pay the benefits of its employees *for 75 years into the future*. See here:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/09/28/330524/postal-non-crisis-post-office-save-itself/

So basically, we shouldn't have to deal with this. But the Republicans want to kill the post office.

Re:Netflix

[Miamicanes]

Clearly, you've never suffered the horrors of FedEx Ground. I've caught them RED HANDED skipping delivery attempts, and gotten them to admit (off camera, unfortunately) that drivers who skip stops are known to be an "occasional" problem. A few years ago, I was home for the day getting my roof replaced. FedEx Ground claimed that there was "nobody home" and said they "left a note". At that point, there were no fewer than 7 people roaming around, including at least 1 or 2 in the front yard (possibly including myself). The NEXT day, I left a webcam pointed at the driveway & recording. 6pm arrived, no package, no note... and they claimed there was. When I confronted the FedEx manager, he first got irate, then broke down and grudgingly admitted that there "might" be a problem with the driver and said he'd "talk" to him.

The impression I've gotten from various sites is that due to the way FedEx Ground (a.k.a. "RPS") works is that the packages end up at a depot, and drivers (who own their own trucks and are basically free agents) grab the ones they want to try and deliver. Apparently, there's an official process for making unwilling drivers attempt to deliver other packages, but they don't push it unless somebody escalates. In the meantime, they'll automatically log a package left at the depot as a failed delivery attempt.

The worst delivery record of all (in terms of packages that FedEx Ground either doesn't try to deliver) are packages that require a signature. FedEx Ground drivers get paid by the successful delivery, so when there are LOTS of packages waiting to be delivered, they intentionally bypass as many that require signature releases as they can, especially if you live in a gated community and they aren't certain you'll be home. It wouldn't be so bad if their depots were at least open until 9 and on weekends for pickup, but they're not. Getting them to pull a package from a truck so you can pick it up (within a fairly restricted range of hours) almost takes an act of god. UPS, in comparison, will let you camp out at their facility the day of a missed delivery and grab the package off the truck when the driver gets back to the depot.

UPS might not be perfect, but they're infinitely better than FedEx Ground.

Best solution...

[gstrickler]

Get Congress to allow 3 day a week delivery on residential routes (and maybe commercial routes), Mon-Wed-Fri for half, Tue-Thu-Sat for the other half. Still offer daily delivery to post office boxes. Anyone who thinks they really need daily delivery can rent a PO Box and pick it up daily.

They could have undone the pension requirement

[sethstorm]

This just sounds like someone wants to kill the USPS and loot it.

Get rid of the pre-loading of pensions for 75 years as required by Congress, and they'd be a LOT closer to solvent - and no need to have slower packages.

Re:"People are still...."

[DogDude]

Case in point: I just bought a brand new USR 56K modem yesterday. Needed it for backup for when the Net goes down at work. POTS is certainly more reliable than DSL!

Don't know what you'll miss...

[rueger]

Coming from Canada a few year ago I was amazed by the USPS.

Overnight delivery? We're used to four to seven days, even in town.

Saturday delivery? We lost that in the seventies.

Mail pickup at your rural mailbox? I'm assuming we don't have that either.

Most amazing to us though was that people used USPS to send important things, and assumed that they'd arrive, and on time. No way do you do that with Canada Post.