Further erosion of postal service
From:
dermot dobson
Date:
May 05 09:58 UTC
Short link
At least the opening hours at Littlemore are longer again - it was a nightmare
for the time it was effectively only half a day. One occasion, I had to make 5
trips, before my undelivered parcel was finally found, after falling foul of
timing, as Stephanie mentions.
As a comparison, I asked some friends in the US (frequently seen as the epitome
of devil-take-the-hindmost competitive capitalism) how the US Postal Service is
doing. They live, variously, in the middle of Chicago, a modest-sized town and
a small place so remote that it is 9 hours drive (no rail) from the nearest
international airport:
******
Very well, actually.
They survive on a combination of two things -- advertisement mail and
staggering efficiency. You'd think, listening to the news, that the USPS was a
complete joke, but the USPS is *very* good -- at least 99.9999% of all letters
are delivered in under three days and delivered correctly.
The Post Office is required to operate in the black, so we're seeing somewhat
frequent postage increases, but still, I can mail a letter to anybody in the
country for $.42 -- an amazingly cheap price compared to almost anywhere else
in the world. And despite that low cost, they still make a profit.
The USPS does do a little bit of extra government work -- in particular, that's
where you go to submit passport applications -- but in general, they move mail
and parcels, and they do it very well, given the scale they operate on.
FedEx and the like have hurt them, but really, they compete on different scales
-- if it really needs to be there overnight, you want FedEx, but if you have a
couple of days, the USPS is vastly cheaper and easier to work with.
******
The USPS does not have a monopoly per se, but as I understand it the law reads
that you cannot receive the stamp revenue to deliver mail unless you deliver it
*everywhere* Since the US is rather large, no-one has stepped up and been
willing to deliver mail from anywhere to anywhere in the lower 48 states for 42
cents. Hence, they have a de facto monopoly. They use the volume, along with
awe inspiring efficiency, to somehow deliver mail for less than 42 cents. Bear
in mind that the rate increase from 39 to 42 cents was to pay for a mandatory
financial set-aside, not to cover increased cost.
All thing considered, I think the USPS does a fantastic job.
******
I do live in the middle of nowhere. The local post office-- the one 2 blocks
down-- is only opened from 11 -3, but it's a satellite station of the big post
office in Calumet, which is opened 8-5 Mon - Fri and 9-12 on Sat.
I get one or two pieces of mail a day-- catalogs, advertisements, the few bills
I still receive rather than view online, magazines (the one or two I still get
rather than view online :)... It seems to me the volume hasn't gone down in
years, even tho there are many things I do get online.
There's been no discussion about closing the satellite stations up here, no
discussion about consolidating any of the smaller stations... I think USPS is
doing pretty well.
(she lives in Laurium, Upper Peninsula, Michigan, Calumet is a mile or so away
- neither of these places are what you'd call big! - go to maps.google.com and
search for Laurium to see)
******
So, if the US can do it, why can't we? After all, the geographic problems of
Oxford's suburbs, rural Oxfordshire and the UK generally pale into
insignificance compared to the vast size of the US.
I know that the cost of pension provision is a major problem for the Royal
Mail, but I believe that, as government employees, USPS staff get guaranteed
government pensions also.
As fuel and transport costs generally rise (not forgetting the impact on
pollution), the fraction of shopping done on the internet has shot up. The
problem, however, is that the government seems intent on erecting barricades to
stop your purchases actually getting into your hands - unless one member of the
household can sit waiting all day for the doorbell to ring.
.