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As I've mentioned before, the USPS is an environmental disaster. 6 days each week thousands of trucks set off to deliver millions of pounds of unwanted paper w
by grandalf 14y ago
As I've mentioned before, the USPS is an environmental disaster. 6 days each week thousands of trucks set off to deliver millions of pounds of unwanted paper waste (junk mail) to homes and businesses all across the country.
Every day I clear out my mailbox and 95% of the contents goes directly into the recycle bin. I have tried all the DMA removal forms, various generalized opt outs, etc., but the junk mail keeps coming.
Recently with paperkarma (an IOS app) I've been able to reduce it somewhat, so now junk mail is about 75% of the contents of my mailbox on a bad day.
There is certainly no reason for daily deliveries. I'd be happy with once or twice each week. This would save massively on fuel and labor costs and would not degrade the service significantly since the trucks could still operate between cities every day if necessary.
The USPS and the paper direct mail industry should both have gone away long ago. Alas, it's illegal for any companies to offer standard letter delivery services, so the USPS is also a monopolist, with all the expected bloat and inefficiency.
- debacle 14y agoI live in a metro area, and businesses here absolutely depend on the overnight delivery service provided by the USPS to get things done in a timely fashion.
- tptacek 14y agoI recommend Jonathan Franzen's postal service essay in _How To Be Alone_ for some perspective on how important the postal service actually is. There are a number of business processes that actually touch normal people's lives that depend on postal mail.
- grandalf 14y agoIs the essay online?
- tptacek 14y agoSort of? http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1994/10/24/1994_10_24_062_TNY_CARDS_000372040?currentPage=all http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1994/10/24/1994_10_24_062_T...
- hexis 14y agoI just sat down and read that article and I didn't get any sort of sense of how important the USPS is. I did get a sense of how badly it's run, how powerful the employees's union is, how quickly (even in 1994) businesses were moving to electronic communication in order to route around the USPS, and how unlikely any sort of improvement is. Franzen even writes, near the end, "The attachement of Americans to their post office is pure nostalgia." I have my own nostalgia for post offices of my youth, but the move away from the USPS for important communications has been going on for a long time.
- tptacek 14y agoI'm not defending the USPS, just observing things like the tens of millions of people who get bills and checks in the mail. I believe we need some minimal standard of universal postal service, but I certainly do not believe we need the postal service as it exists today.
- stephengillie 14y agoI've simply given up and stopped having a mailing address. If people want to reach me they can reach me by text, email, voicemail, facebook, twitter, linkedin, myfitness, google talk, youtube, tribalwar, etc.
- Retric 14y agoDaily, local delivery is far more environmentally friendly than having people drive to pickup their mail even once a week. What's important to realize it's less a question your mailbox is from the post office, but how far your mailbox is from the mailbox the previous person on the route. PS: This is also why school busing is so much more efficient for everyone but the students who have a long ride.
- grandalf 14y agoI'm thinking of just having the USPS deliver once a week, so the efficiency is still there but just not the excess.