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USPS sells an overpriced product. If private companies were legally allowed to charge less than the post office to stick mail in your mailbox, the post office w

USPS sells an overpriced product. If private companies were legally allowed to charge less than the post office to stick mail in your mailbox, the post office would go under in a heartbeat; Do you have a citation for that? I fail to see how on the one hand there is the argument that the USPS can't stay afloat and on the other hand a private company can succeed in the same business by charging less. Further, what service would these private companies be offering, exactly? Door to door pickup/delivery? So Fedex and UPS would ramp up massive infrastructure to support door to door service, but each would effectively only have 1/2 the houses in a neighborhood. And that would be profitable for less than 45 cents a letter? Doesn't seem likely to me.

glenra 15y ago
The USPS was losing money on package delivery - especially "priority" delivery - when private companies were initially allowed to enter the package and "express mail" business. FedEx and UPS made a profit providing the exact same service the USPS lost money on, and eventually did it so well that the post office now subcontracts a lot of that work to FedEx. As for "ramping up massive infrastructure", Fedex and UPS do door-to-door already. In fact, in many areas they deliver to the door where the post office only delivers to a "mail stop" that might be miles from the relevant "door". One thing they don't do is waste resources cruising the entire neighborhood on the random off-chance that somebody might have put out a package for delivery. Instead, you can either drop off a package at the nearest Kinko's or supermarket or corner drop box, or you can tell them (by phone or over the web) that you've specifically got a pickup for them to get and they'll come get it. They also don't ludicrously overpay their workers. Package delivery should probably be a minimum wage job, not a career. The fact that the private companies could do the work with fewer offices - combining with companies like Kinko's as they do rather than maintaining a separate office - and fewer workers (due to more streamlined competitive processes) and cheaper workers (due to it not being a federal unionized workforce) suggests they could do the job more cheaply. How much more cheaply is an open question, but I would tend to expect the cost of delivering a letter to drop over time (relative to inflation) as technology improves and as the population grows.
- OpieCunningham 15y ago
  All you're really stating is that if the USPS disappeared, everything would be just fine and FedEx and/or UPS might even start accepting letters with 5 day delivery times for less than 45 cents instead of $10+ they currently charge for approx. 3 day delivery times. (Of course, the actual service would be totally unlike what the USPS provides.) I remain unconvinced. I would like to see wage comparisons between FedEx/UPS delivery personnel vs. USPS carriers. I doubt there is a ludicrous expense difference.
  - glenra 15y ago
    We don't need USPS to disappear. We just need it to be legally allowed to undercut the post office. So long as it is illegal for FedEx to deliver envelopes to your home slowly (because that would indicate it's not "urgent") or for less than a price of "$3 or twice the First Class Mail rate, whichever is larger", it's not fair to criticize them for specializing in the sort of quick, expensive service which is the only type of service they're allowed to engage in. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Express_Statutes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Express_Statutes The last time a private firm was allowed to freely compete on regular mail delivery was 1844, but at that time the post office charged 12 cents for a stamp and the new firm was able to make a profit charging 5 cents for delivery anywhere in the country while providing free local delivery as a bonus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Letter_Mail_Company http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Letter_Mail_Company

glenra 15y ago

The USPS was losing money on package delivery - especially "priority" delivery - when private companies were initially allowed to enter the package and "express mail" business. FedEx and UPS made a profit providing the exact same service the USPS lost money on, and eventually did it so well that the post office now subcontracts a lot of that work to FedEx. As for "ramping up massive infrastructure", Fedex and UPS do door-to-door already. In fact, in many areas they deliver to the door where the post office only delivers to a "mail stop" that might be miles from the relevant "door". One thing they don't do is waste resources cruising the entire neighborhood on the random off-chance that somebody might have put out a package for delivery. Instead, you can either drop off a package at the nearest Kinko's or supermarket or corner drop box, or you can tell them (by phone or over the web) that you've specifically got a pickup for them to get and they'll come get it. They also don't ludicrously overpay their workers. Package delivery should probably be a minimum wage job, not a career. The fact that the private companies could do the work with fewer offices - combining with companies like Kinko's as they do rather than maintaining a separate office - and fewer workers (due to more streamlined competitive processes) and cheaper workers (due to it not being a federal unionized workforce) suggests they could do the job more cheaply. How much more cheaply is an open question, but I would tend to expect the cost of delivering a letter to drop over time (relative to inflation) as technology improves and as the population grows.

OpieCunningham 15y ago
All you're really stating is that if the USPS disappeared, everything would be just fine and FedEx and/or UPS might even start accepting letters with 5 day delivery times for less than 45 cents instead of $10+ they currently charge for approx. 3 day delivery times. (Of course, the actual service would be totally unlike what the USPS provides.) I remain unconvinced. I would like to see wage comparisons between FedEx/UPS delivery personnel vs. USPS carriers. I doubt there is a ludicrous expense difference.
- glenra 15y ago
  We don't need USPS to disappear. We just need it to be legally allowed to undercut the post office. So long as it is illegal for FedEx to deliver envelopes to your home slowly (because that would indicate it's not "urgent") or for less than a price of "$3 or twice the First Class Mail rate, whichever is larger", it's not fair to criticize them for specializing in the sort of quick, expensive service which is the only type of service they're allowed to engage in. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Express_Statutes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Express_Statutes The last time a private firm was allowed to freely compete on regular mail delivery was 1844, but at that time the post office charged 12 cents for a stamp and the new firm was able to make a profit charging 5 cents for delivery anywhere in the country while providing free local delivery as a bonus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Letter_Mail_Company http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Letter_Mail_Company