

USPS Estimates $230 Billion in Losses over Next 10 Years - physcab
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/02/AR2010030200912.html?hpid=topnews

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ovi256
Each time a discussion about a public service comes up, I feel obliged to
remind that even if a public service is not financially viable, it may have
positive externalities that it cannot capture, but that make the whole venture
more-than-viable to society.

The Post Service is a classic example of such a service. They serve remote
areas and communities that commercial delivery services would not cover,
therefore jumpstarting commerce there. Otherwise these communities would be
economically isolated and would wither away. The state usually recovers their
expenses soon, given that increased commerce means increased tax income. Also,
this is a form of long-term investment for the society as a whole that is non-
obvious and for which other mechanisms do not exist.

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dougp
I would buy the public service line if more then half of our mail didn't go
straight into the trash. I am excited when I see a Fedex box on the door step.
Not so much when I see a mail box full of junk addressed to current resident.

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raganwald
Alas, the junk is why they only expect to lose B$238 instead of B$500. Well, I
can only speak for Canada, but up here they get a huge amount of revenue from
delivering junk mail. I sympathize with you, there's so much of the stuff that
I am tempted to place a blue recycling bin marked "Current Resident" on my
door step with a slot in the side for mail :-)

I can only guess that all that junk works. And I suppose it does... I keep the
ones for local restaurants that deliver what may be good food...

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xinsight
True, commerical mail seems to be their main business. I've heard of
supervisors get mad at letter carriers who have too many households who don't
wish to receive flyers and ads. And there doesn't seem to be any way to refuse
"Adressed Admail" except by contacting the company that sends it.

Something the post office could do is to leverage their local infrastructure
and work with the couriers. If I miss a UPS delivery, and have to ask nicely
to get a 2nd delivery attempt. Picking up the package at the local post office
would be a lot easier for everyone.

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scotch_drinker
It's interesting that 3 studies came up with the conclusion that the business
model of the USPS is so poor privatization is untenable without considering
the fact that maybe privatization would come up with a better business model.
Right now, the USPS is a government sponsored monopoly that is failing
spectacularly. Allowing private companies into the market might not only
improve the business model but come up with something fantastically different
that fits the needs of the consumers.

Looking at a failed business model and saying "That model is so bad even
private companies couldn't fix it" seems like putting the cart before the
horse. Private companies are going to find their own business model, one that
isn't terrible, because their livelihood depends on it.

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psranga
They're "failing" just as much as private health insurance is "succeeding".

Just leave the USPS as is and do the incremental fixes required to make them
break even. No need for them to make a profit.

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scotch_drinker
If that's true, then private health insurance is indeed succeeding
spectacularly! I don't think that's what you mean though. But if the money
alone is the judge, losing $230 billion over 10 years is very serious failure
if you ask me. I'm curious what incremental changes could change the failure
faster than giving private companies a shot to see what they come up with.

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roboneal
Simple story - large labor intensive service with massive legacy costs
(millions of retirees and the physical infrastructure to move mail to every
corner of the U.S.) meets dramatic drop in demand caused by technological
disruption (faxes in the 80s to Internet/Email in the 90s).

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veqon
A client of mine wanted to automate her invoicing. As part of that project I
used the USPS API to get the postal rate. First of all, their documentation is
just plain wrong. It will not work if you follow their documentation. After a
frustrating few hours I googled it and found a site that explained everything
that was wrong with it. [http://www.marksanborn.net/php/calculating-usps-
shipping-rat...](http://www.marksanborn.net/php/calculating-usps-shipping-
rates-with-php/) Secondly, my client complains that the USPS should have
someone she can contact that gives her all the info she needs to use their
services. But instead what she has found is some info from one person,
conflicting info from another, and no one who can explain everything. The USPS
does a terrific job of delivering mail at a very reasonable rate, but they
need to fix the problems outlined above if they want to compete.

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javery
Maybe they should stop saturday delivery and stop undercutting FedEx and UPS
on shipping charges and they might stop losing money. The government only
stops them from expanding their business and closing rural branches.

Also sell sponsorships on the carrier vehicles, like "If you had netflix we
would be delivering you a movie right now"

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kvs
They can perhaps take dual roles of other government agencies too, like US
Census.

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jcnnghm
Perhaps private shipping companies should be allowed to compete in this
sector.

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phsr
Do UPS, FedEx and DHL not count?

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travisp
As I understand it, they're not allowed to compete with letter delivery/first
class mail:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Express_Statutes>

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phsr
Ah ok, I didn't know about these statutes, very interesting

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Daniel_Newby
Indeed. It is of importance to legal processes, where an unstamped hand-
delivered letter is in some sense undelivered.

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CoachRufus87
this is one industry that could benefit from privatization, or at least they
could adopt some practices from the private sector and become more lean.

