Here's a way we can help the Post Office generate revenue;

Every time a credit card company sends you a "Gee, you're pre approved" piece of mail, take the post paid envelope out, seal it up and send it back to them empty. They have to pay the postage then.

I've also heard, but don't know if it is true or not (and not really interested in researching it), that the post paid envelopes are good for up to 40 pounds or so.

If this is indeed true, collect your junk mail and send it to them in a box with the post paid envelope taped to it!

I've also heard of people taping the envelope to a brick.

Me, I just send them back empty!

When the RNC sent a letter for a donation, I took the contents minus any identifying information and mailed it back to them in the post paid envelope.

I've heard stuff too.

Been wanting to try it.

I wonder if anyone has seen stories on the impact of the Postal Service rate tweaks a year or two ago. Coupla things are different now:

Now, a stamp pays for delivery, no matter when it is used.

Large publishers get a very significant rate discount, putting more of the burden of running the Postal Service onto individuals and niche publishers.

This is interesting to me, as it's similar to the idea of giving the large companies a break, tax cut style.

At the time I read about those changes, I clearly remember some information about how they could impact the Postal Service in a negative way.

Now they are offering early retirement and closing some offices.

Maybe it's just the time and those changes are benign. Maybe not...

Hurting bulk mailers is a dumb idea. They consist of a huge part of the USPS's revenue and discouraging them amounts to consumer self-suicide.

The current rates already hurt many bulk mailers who rely on a 1 to 2 % return to justify costs. Further hike rates endangers that justification. They'll spend the money elsewhere (think spam) leaving the post office with a gaping hole to fill.

take the post paid envelope out, seal it up and send it back to them empty. They have to pay the postage then....

Been doing that for twenty years! AND filling them with the other JUNK flyers and unused coupons!

another way to save dollars is have the MAIL HANDLERS and CLERKS combine duties in the GMFs...

As a former casual labor temp employee, There were alot of wasted man hours. The temps did everything. Mail handlers emptied the truck, clerks sorted it. Too much time one group is sitting while the other worked.... and both categories barely tolerated the "CASUALS"!

I've also heard, but don't know if it is true or not (and not really interested in researching it), that the post paid envelopes are good for up to 40 pounds or so.

Whoever said this is cuckoo. If you don't know, don't bring it up. Why clog the forum with BS?

I've also heard that Clark county residents are the devil's children. But since I don't feel up to finding out if its true, I'm not going to post it in the forum to make a point about something related to Clark county.

.... Clark county residents are the devil's children....

I KNEW IT!

Why doesn't the federal government start planning for the day that the post office goes away?

Almost all financial transactions and information can be obtained via e-mail or secure websites. In about ten years most people who thought the only way to correspond was writing a letter (who writes letters any more) will have gone to wherever they believe they will go... those who communicate in written form will be entirely on e-mail, text message, etc.

But then being a current resident of Clark County makes this a plan of the DEVIL!!! HAHAHAHAHAH!

Clark co Devil, the post office does more than letters, they ship packages, lots of them. Books, magazines, videos for instance. UPS and FedEX can't beat their prices. Broadband is not everywhere and will not be anytime soon.

Postal rates are too cheap and that's part of the problem.

What are stamps now, something like 42 cents. You can have someone take your letter, transport it by air clear across the country and hand deliver it to the recipient's house for 42 cents. That's too cheap.

Not so. Raising rates will hurt many a business model hence a threat to revenue.

Rates can be raised as needed to accomodate inflation and other costs, but not raised just because it seems to "cheap" to people not having a partnership with Post Office for their businesses.

I'd like to see a multi tiered system.

Local rates within the same city 20 cents for letters.

within the same zone based on the first two or three zip #s 97- 30 cents.

then incremental based on distance......

a letter going from 97601 to 98408 35 cents.

going from 99875 to 00124, a dollar.........

and 4 or 5 day delivery, not 6 days a week, not necessary.

Actually, the rates were just fine.

What hurt the Post Office was deep discounts for major publishers. That used to result in a slightly lower rate for everyone, but their bulk traffic kept the Post up and running nicely.

The future stamps hurt too. Buying a stamp now means postage paid. It used to be that buying a stamp meant that amount paid, and postage could be different.

Before these two changes, the Post Office ran well and we didn't hear stuff like this.

As is typical of Big Business, they just don't want to pay their fair share, yet will bitch if the service is compromised.

I've been trying to find some info on the impact of the rate changes (which the major bulk mailers wrote) on the revenue generated by the Post Office. Haven't been able to get anything solid yet, but the discounted rate structure has got to have a serious impact.

When that occured, Bush was talking about Post Office reform. It's a little bit more broken now, just like every other thing he touched.

Medicare is running into a similar problem with the private coverage add-ons. That's gonna be fixed. Hopefully, the Post will be the same.

Postal rates are only too cheap, if the rate structure makes sense, and if those rates don't cover cost of doing business.

Used to be a postal rate increase would cover that, after a periodic review of costs. A one cent change carried through all mail. Now it's only fractional at the higher volumes, and fuel and such are more money now, and the future proof stamps means higher sunk costs.

Funny, those people that say these things should run like a business seem blind to the destructive nature of these changes.

Half a dollar to mail something probably makes perfect sense given economies of scale, and rates that capture those economies, instead of giving them away to the big players.

Finally, those rates discriminate against smaller publishers, who now carry a much higher share of the burden as a group. Individual people can tolerate significant swings in rates.

Big publishers and junk mailers, along with the mid-sized ones, can't tolerate this.

The problem is the very big players wrote in their cuts, pushing them down onto everybody else, when raising rates to 3 quarters of a dollar would be very negative.

So then, the pressure is on the Post to make it up, and that's coming in the form of closed offices, early retirement, etc...

Before we hammer on the Post, let's fully evaluate that last set of changes.

Deane_johnson:

Postal rates are too cheap and that's part of the problem.

Your kidding right? That's a surprising statement coming from you.

If you want my opinion, the post office are like newspapers. It's 19th century technology trying to survive in the 21st century and they simply have to find a way to change their business plan. The vast majority of stamps I buy went to paying bills and when the USPS announced last year they were going to start raising prices every year, I started paying online thus eliminating the need for most of those stamps. I also bought a large supply of forever stamps that should last me for years and years to come. That coupled with things like email are what's strangling their revenue streams and what's got them in the mess their in today. I'm with Skeptical, going after the junk mailers will just take away one of the few dependable sources of money they have. If you don't want junk mail, sign up for a service that will limit the amonunt of junk mail you get.