Boatnerd Discussion Forum

Face it - The Postal Service has a long track record of waste. From a 2001 ABC News story: [b]Monuments to Waste[/b]Postal service managers have also received unusually large relocation packages in some cases.
When Richard Porras, the former chief financial officer of the Postal Service, moved from Fairfax, Va., to Vienna, Va. - a distance of 15 miles - he was given $142,000. On top of that he received $25,000 for miscellaneous expenses.
Porras has since retired, but he told ABC News by telephone that the expenses were approved.
The inspector general's report reveals managers at the Postal Service have also squandered millions of dollars on buildings and equipment.
In Charlottesville, Va., the Postal Service leased a building for $4.2 million for 20 years. Then it left that building empty for two years before subleasing it to a tractor supply company.
In Chicago, the construction of the main post office ended up costing $128 million more than the original budget.
In Seattle, postal officials bought a building without getting a detailed inspection. Later they discovered the building needed $23 million in repairs.
"It's outrageous," says Edward Hudgins of the Cato Institute. "If it did happen in the private sector, heads would roll, the people who wasted $23 million would be out looking for a job."
The Postal Service has also been criticized for spending $158 million in advertising for their overnight delivery services. Critics argue that the post office is a monopoly, and there is no need to advertise. The government agency even sponsors Lance Armstrong and the United States Cycling Team.
Despite criticism and big losses, postal officials have said that they will not cut their advertising budget.
"No business our size would operate without advertising to make people aware of the products they produce," Willhite said.

I agree with you all regarding your comments as well about having mail delivered Monday, Wednesday & Friday. Gotta laugh as I read an article on the net earlier today about a lady in Manhattan that is not happy about the changes. She says "I work all week long and the only day off I have is on Saturday and if there is no delivery on Saturday, then I have to wait until Monday!" Give me a break people like she is the only person in the U.S.A. that works five or six days a week and is afraid of the changes with the new system. My two older brothers work Monday-Friday along with my sister-in-law yet I don't hear them complain about "Oh I am just too busy and don't have time to mail and pay stuff and I can't deal with the change of not having Saturday delivery service!" Guess you are always gonna have that "certain few out there that just can't adjust and handle change." Even my Mom couldn't believe the story when I told her about it regarding the lady in New York/Manhattan not liking anymore Saturday delivery by mail. I look at it this way, at first people were against the newspapers cutting back from a 7 day a week schedule to now only 4-5 days a week but, they learned to cope and deal with it. Now people need to adjust to the Postal Service changing their ways as well. It is the sign of the times and technology people get with it!

I have used auto bill paying and direct deposit for as long as it has been available. I never have to worry if my bill payment was delivered by the post office - delivered on time - or lost in the mail. I have saved enough in stamps to take a Very nice vacation.

As far as news papers go, they use to come out one in the AM and one in the PM, 6 days a week and a giant paper on Sunday. Now they are cut back to one per day. Way too much free media on the net for the papers to compete with now days.
As far as Christmas cards go, I still mail them out. I send out around 40, and get about that many in return. I'm not trying to slam anyone, or put down anyone's beliefs, but to me emailing a Christmas greeting is kind of like phoning it in, doesn't look like you put much effort into it. But, to each their own! I would agree on mail deliveries on Monday, Wednesday & Friday. Most mail I rec is junk mail anyway. I have days I walk from the mailbox to the recycle bin and toss it all in.
I don't think I'll ever go the way of automatic electronic bill paying. When you see phone companies doing an accidental billing of $30K for one month, just think of the mess you'll have to try to clean up after that happens if you had auto billing! If you don't have $30K in the account you get charged for overdraft, and have fun trying to get the money back from the phone, or what ever company, that stuck you like that. I'll stick to paying with checks once per month.

Packaging will still be delivered on Saturday. Back in the old days they ran 7 days a week. I don't think it's a big deal.

I don't even bother to send out Christmas Cards anymore sorry to say with the price of stamps always going up. Besides, I end up mailing out between 12-20 cards a year and yet I do good just to get a half dozen back in return from friends. Also, most everybody now has Email so, you can just Email a Christmas Card or send a note or a greeting to a family member or a friend. I think the days of sending out Christmas Cards in the mail may be coming to an end as well someday sorry to say with prices always going up on stamps and other things. Also, now thanks to boatnerd people can also Email their greeting cards and they will post it on the site. There has been many boatnerds doing that in the past several years compared to sending them out in the mail as it just gets too costly to mail cards anymore especially if you don't get that many back in return. I know for one my Mom and older brother don't get near the cards back during the holidays as they used to and each of them have said "they are cutting back and not sending cards out to as many as they used to."

Advances in electronic email are making 'snail mall' a thing of the past. We could get along just fine on mail deliveries on Monday, Wednesday and Friday ! With automatic bill paying - I only use stamps to send Christmas cards.

I know this may be off topic but, just wondering if anyone heard the latest news reports yet about the Postal Service stopping the mail deliveries now on Saturdays? This has been mentioned along with talked about for many years but, it finally came to a head and the Postal Service has called a 10 A.M. Press Conference just this morning to "formally announce the change!" I am sure that many of their postal carriers and workers may not like the change that is coming regarding no more Saturday deliveries. My Dad used to say for years though, "Why can't the Postal Service cut out the Saturday deliveries and he also said that they could do it if they wanted to bad enough?" Most of the time all my family and I would get on Saturdays was "junk mail, papers and ads anyway and nothing too important." It should be interesting though to see how this works regarding Christmas time and the holidays with the mad rush to send out letters, cards and packages to people. Interesting as it may be, the Post Office has been saying for years "we are broke and don't have the money but, yet they continue to raise stamps and this year on January 27th it went up again to .46 cents from .45 cents and yet until now, they never wanted to eliminate the Saturday delivery day. Take a look at some of your newspaper as I subscribe to the News and we only get it about 3-4 times a week whereas before, they would deliver it 7 days a week. Times are changing and the Post Office needs to get with the "modern age technology world and stop living in the past so much." The Post Office needs to move on somehow and be more competitive with today's world and society if they are to survive as a business. I guess time will tell the real story.