The US Postal Service just announced the planned elimination of Saturday mail delivery as of August 1, 2013. Package delivery would continue. What does that mean for you and me? At first glance, it may not impact us too much. It's no secret that the post office has been under severe financial pressure as people go online to pay bills for free while email, Twitter and Facebook have become primary ways to keep in touch. Online shopping has meant more package deliveries while many billpayers still prefer paper statements, but the trend is a net loss for the USPS since many of us now think twice before affixing a stamp to anything. A book of stamps can last me six months or more. The other gorilla (or elephant) in the room is government mandated prepayment of postal worker retirement funding which puts the post office budget billions in the hole. While the postal service is a quasi-governmental agency, it generates its own revenue while the retirement mandate is unfunded. Most other businesses don't have that type of requirement. While we may be able to survive without getting "junk" mail six days a week, does anyone really think this austerity measure won't have the effect of slowing down the American economy at a time we can least afford that? The federal government seems to have bailouts for profitmaking corporations deemed too big to fail who don't have to follow the same rules as the post office. If the USPS can't operate more independently, then Uncle Sam should just take it over. Direct mail advertising, my primary source of income these days, is a primary reason the post office hasn't already gone the way of the dinosaur. We've supported it through numerous rate increases and are not always able to pass along the costs, but direct mail still works very impressively and I believe its survival affects more than just my business. The mailbox will certainly outlast the newspaper box. I hope the powers that be do everything they can to avoid what could be more disastrous than most people think. 
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
The Check Isn't In The Mail
The US Postal Service just announced the planned elimination of Saturday mail delivery as of August 1, 2013. Package delivery would continue. What does that mean for you and me? At first glance, it may not impact us too much. It's no secret that the post office has been under severe financial pressure as people go online to pay bills for free while email, Twitter and Facebook have become primary ways to keep in touch. Online shopping has meant more package deliveries while many billpayers still prefer paper statements, but the trend is a net loss for the USPS since many of us now think twice before affixing a stamp to anything. A book of stamps can last me six months or more. The other gorilla (or elephant) in the room is government mandated prepayment of postal worker retirement funding which puts the post office budget billions in the hole. While the postal service is a quasi-governmental agency, it generates its own revenue while the retirement mandate is unfunded. Most other businesses don't have that type of requirement. While we may be able to survive without getting "junk" mail six days a week, does anyone really think this austerity measure won't have the effect of slowing down the American economy at a time we can least afford that? The federal government seems to have bailouts for profitmaking corporations deemed too big to fail who don't have to follow the same rules as the post office. If the USPS can't operate more independently, then Uncle Sam should just take it over. Direct mail advertising, my primary source of income these days, is a primary reason the post office hasn't already gone the way of the dinosaur. We've supported it through numerous rate increases and are not always able to pass along the costs, but direct mail still works very impressively and I believe its survival affects more than just my business. The mailbox will certainly outlast the newspaper box. I hope the powers that be do everything they can to avoid what could be more disastrous than most people think. 
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