Most Approve of Ending Saturday Mail Delivery

[alp227]

Source: Pew Research

A majority of Americans (54%) approve of the U.S. Postal Service’s recent decision to halt Saturday delivery of letters, while 32% disapprove of the decision. The planned end of Saturday mail delivery is a rare government decision that garners bipartisan support – 58% of independents approve of the action, as do 57% of Republicans and 51% of Democrats.

Most Americans say they have heard or read at least a little about the Postal Service’s announcement that they plan to stop Saturday delivery of letters to address budget shortfalls. Majorities of those who have heard a lot (67%) or a little (56%) about the action approve of it.

Read more: http://www.people-press.org/2013/02/14/most-approve-of-ending-saturday-mail-delivery/

[KatyMan]

1. get rid of door delivery

Unless you live a mile from your neighbors, I think the post office should put community/block mailboxes in all communities. I realize that most new communities are served by this type of postal delivery and surely it must cost less than having to deliver individually to mailboxes on the curb or slots in the front door.

[msongs]

4. reduced days and service should mean a lower fee/stamp cost...right? or how dems just fix the

the reason the USPS is in trouble in the first place

[dgibby]

5. Very hard on the handicapped, however.

I have trouble getting to the curb box most days. Maybe the P.O. could use something like a handicapped parking sticker?

[Light House]

6. I don't know where you live, but if you live in a house

and it's easy access to your front door, you can put a mail box on your porch and notify the Postal Service of your handicap and they'll deliver it to your front door mail box.

[dgibby]

9. Thanks!

They deliver to curbside boxes on my block, then start front door delivery on the next block. I've been thinking about doing that, but am trying to put it off as long as possible (too stubborn, I guess). Am probably have to give in before next winter, though, as my footing is too unstable to risk walking on ice or snow. Nothing they could deliver is worth a broken hip, that's for sure!

[Light House]

10. You're right, no piece of mail is worth a broken hip.

Good luck and stay healthy and safe.

[goclark]

37. I'm a Senior and I put a mail box slot

right on my door/ it took the Handy Man about 10 minutes to install it. -- it works so well.

I don't have to step outside and get the mail and they would have to break the door down to steal my mail.


I don't have a little basket to collect the mail before it hits the floor but I need the exercise when I bend down.

I love having my mail delivered every day but Sunday,out of habit.

Most of the mail that I get nowadays --- junk mail, stores for 20 cents off etc.

I do most of my transactions at the stores and some on line.

Hate to see so many not have jobs as a result of this move. : (

[Light House]

38. The mail slot in the door is a helluva good idea.

I'd forgotten about that.
Thanks.

[TheMastersNemesis]

2. America Home Of Stupid Asses

[Nye Bevan]

22. Canada eliminated Saturday mail delivery in 1969. So is Canada home of the even more stupid asses?

[earthside]

3. People may understand, but it is so unnecessary.

In other words, folks think that it may be a business decision that has to be made since the USPS isn't making enough money.

Except, of course, that is not the real problem ... it is the Congressional mandate that pension and health care be funded for employees for 75 years.

I suspect that most people would rather keep Saturday delivery if possible.

Congress needs to fix this -- where is Pres. Obama on this issue?

[bluestateguy]

7. I could support that move, but only if the post offices were kept open on Saturday

For many people that is the only day they can go to the post office.

[Maeve]

40. Last I heard, they were going to keep the POs open on Saturday

And deliver packages, just not regular mail

http://www.tracypress.com/view/full_story/21719432/article-Post-office-declares-cut-to-Saturday-service?instance=home_news_lead_story

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

8. I'd wager most don't know why the Post Office is having to do this.

Other than: "TEH GUVERNMENT WASTE!!1!1!!!" or some other Fox News-inspired bullshit.

[Blue_Tires]

25. +1

[sketchy]

11. Were they even able to communicate with those who will be most hurt by this?

I would suspect not. It's not so easy for every American to just pick up the phone to answer a survey. I'm speaking of the disabled, the elderly, small businesses who screen their calls because they're too busy working to try to make a living.


Unless they took pains to address this, I consider this survey NOT VALID, period.

[mainer]

12. One more way in which we fall behind the rest of the western world

Out of 15 surveyed European nations, only Portugal doesn't have Saturday mail delivery.

America: fading more every year!

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19800610&id=WuJLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6osDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2064,1149849

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

13. When I spent a year in France in 1999, they delivered twice a day

morning and late afternoon. That's overdoing it, perhaps, but hopefully the end of Saturday delivery is not the start of a slide towards eventual privatization that the ReShiticans so dearly want. Even if the Post Office loses vast amounts of money, the answer is not to cut ever deeper, but to fund the damn thing. Do we want civilization or not?

[LiberalFighter]

30. It use to be that way here many years ago.

[Thor_MN]

39. France is smaller and more densely populated than the US

Some cities rival the density, but much of the US is big and sparsely populated. The extra time to get between dropoffs make twice a day difficult and expensive.

Personally, I wouldn't mind if there were no Saturday delivery, but I agree with someone above who said that the Post Offices should remain open on Saturdays. Actually, I would be fine with twice a week delivery, as long as companies acknowledge that it would take longer to get bills delivered and account for it by extending the time o pay the bills. I pay almost all my bills online, most of my delivered mail is bills or bulk mail crap that never makes it into the house. The junk hits the garbage bin as I walk back up the driveway.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

41. But the cost of transportation is much higher

due to much higher fuel costs.

[Thor_MN]

45. The size is also much smaller.

France has about one fifth the population of the US, all in an area smaller than Texas. The US has to transport mail to Alaska and Hawaii... France pays more per volume of fuel, but uses MUCH less fuel. The higher density also supports the ability to deliver more mail by walking routes than in the US. France also has a much better rail system, allowing more mail long haul mail transportation by much cheaper rail compared to the US, which moves a higher percentage by truck and air. Rates in France are also higher, with 3 to 5 day delivery of a letter costing about 75 cents and next day about 84 cents.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

46. The size is not that small

While French cities and towns are densely populated and they do have an excellent rail system which is also a government expense, there are desolate, underpopulated parts of France like Corsica, the alps, the central plateau among others. And the French government guarantees the same cost to send a letter from any place within metropolitan France as it would be to send it anywhere in their far flung overseas departments throughout the world: Martinique, Guadaloupe, Tahiti and many other Polynesian islands, New Caledonia, Reunion, Guyana, among several others, even French Antarctic stations. The government insures that uniformity of costs for its citizens despite the distances. That represents almost 3 million foreign citizens abroad in widely dispersed locations often in micro pockets such as the many islands in French Polynesia.

[Thor_MN]

55. And US first class postage is good for Guam... France is still smaller and almost twice the price.

[davidn3600]

47. The problem is the service is not able to adapt to the changing economy

The reality of the situation is that it's not 1990 anymore. People don't rely on first-class mail anymore. When people want to talk to Grandma and send pictures in 1980, or pay the electric bill, they send a letter through the mail. We don't do that anymore. Now we use e-mail. Businesses have cut back on junk mail and sending ordering catalogs. Now they send spam through the e-mail. Companies have now gone "green" and want everyone to send their bill payments online. etc, etc, etc...

The internet has radically changed the way EVERYONE does business. UPS and FedEx have adapted to the changing economy. They have developed technology, logistics, and organization to meet what people and businesses want. The USPS is still living in an early 1990s time warp. They don't just need funding, they need some massive re-organization and modernization. I'm sorry, but the private carriers are going to eventually crush them if they try to maintain the status quo.

[bread_and_roses]

52. OMFG - POOR PEOPLE DON'T HAVE INTERNET

Sorry about the caps - but no, EVERYONE does not do business online. Poor people don't have internet. People with no credit cards do very little online shopping. Many of the poor can't even get a bank account. Many of our elders do not do business online. Not everyone has broadband, even is someone can afford it, it may not be available - rural communities often don't.

The PO's current problems are largely the result of having to "pre-fund" something like 70 years of health and retirement benefits - a burden imposed surely with the intent of destroying the system. Because a publicly funded method of communication is anathema to our Corporate Overlords.

[Proletariatprincess]

14. I am continually amazed at the stupidity of USAmericans.

US Mail is the best bargain in this country and we are about to give it away to for profit industries who will gouge the public for all forseeable generations. This will hurt the economy too. But it will hurt poor and struggling people the most.....the expendable people in this country about whom the Corporate State cares nothing. What a country! (I don't mean that in a good way)

[question everything]

15. Who are these "most?" All the young with smartphones sprouting from their ears?

Many of us, especially seniors and people living in rural areas, depend on their daily mail delivery. For many, this is a major daily contact with the outside world.

And while I concede that perhaps cutting one day is necessary, why Saturday? Most federal holidays - except for Christmas, New Year, Thanksgiving and July 4th - fall on a Monday. Thus there will be a gap of three days.

Why not select Wednesday or Thursday?

[sketchy]

19. I really want to learn more about Pew's methodology

Who, indeed, are these "most?"

This is essentially a carefully planned sabotage, so in my opinion even cutting one day is too much.

[snooper2]

27. "For many, this is a major daily contact with the outside world"

You just wrote that LOL...

And Sunday is for church right so okay no mail then?

[LiberalFighter]

31. Yet it was okay to pick up the mail on Sunday many years ago.

With the post office open on Sunday. Think Green Acres.

[question everything]

48. Why do you need to mock many with whose lifestyle

you disagree?

Sunday is an official holiday in this country. Most businesses are closed. I am ambivalent about the ones which are open wondering whether employees there are forced to work on Sundays to keep their jobs - on the one hand - and realizing that it provides a second jobs for many who need it.

I can only wish for you that when you are getting old, that you will not feel lonely and isolated at such a point that you welcome a friendly letters carrier or any other person knocking on your door.

We have been leaving "Holiday gift card" for our mail carrier for many years. Not knowing the name, just writing "letter carrier" and leaving it in our mail box. And out mail box is down the road, not at the end of our driveway.

The other day I was outside, collecting the trash container when the mail jeep was entering the intersection. He stopped, saw me, and drove all the way to deliver me the mail to save me walk down the icy road.

Yes, I now know his name.

[backtoblue]

16. my sister is a mail carrier and this is going to be devastating to rural workers

you have to work your way up in order to get your own routes and she has been working saturdays for the past year and filling in during the week for co-workers when they are off.

[mikekohr]

50. She is an RCA, a Rural Letter Associate. She will have a better chance at a fulltime job

or increased hours as small, unprofitable Post Offices are closed and delivery provided via the more efficient Rural Carrier mode.
I am a former Rural Letter Carrier. Every Postal Worker I know wanted Saturday delivery eliminated because they understand that if the Post Office folds they and the customers they serve will get massively screwed.

[sulphurdunn]

17. The next step

will be the postal service subcontracting to private carriers who don't contribute to the medical or pension systems, further exacerbating the problem created by Congress with its 75 year mandate and thus accelerating the planned privatization of the postal service for profit. The white knight will probably be UPS or FedEx which will be highly subsidized with public money, much of which will go to stockholders and political bribes.

[Alamuti Lotus]

18. I'd tacitly support it (knowing the reasons), but I know a few Saturday delivery contractors..

So it's definitely not the most popular decision among certain people that I know!

[blkmusclmachine]

20. Austerity for the Post Office.

Beginning of the end.

[customerserviceguy]

28. It was coming to an end eventually

With a willingness to continually raise first class postage rates, and give lousier service as time went on, the folks who still like to mail things dying off, and only the junk mailers getting a "deal" on distributing litter, the USPS was on a collision course with oblivion.

Yeah, it might have been fun to see what crappy credit card offer I got in the mail on Saturday, but on the weekends I go out of town, it was just one more potential liability sitting outside my front door. I will not miss it a bit, they can bring the garbage from the local furniture scammers on Monday instead.

[deutsey]

21. Most are ok with the the increasingly rapid slide of civilization into the abyss

just so long as it doesn't affect what's on the tube tonight.

[Psephos]

23. So who watches the tube anymore? n/t

[deutsey]

24. If a TV is on and no one is there to watch it

does it still suck as bad?

[Psephos]

34. :) good question...I think the answer is no

Agreed that it sucks...mostly...but there are some high quality shows out there.

But even if it sucked 100%, TV is losing its grip on younger people. Too many other screens out there taking its place.

Fewer eyeballs = less total influence.

[deutsey]

42. You're right

but a screen is still a screen screening out what's really happening all around us.

To be more clear (sorry, it's been a long day): there's always some virtual "weapon of mass distraction" that keeps too many of us from being informed and, more importantly, actively engaged together in the real world fighting for our interests.

[Llewlladdwr]

67. Sort of like a computer, huh? nt

[deutsey]

68. Exactly

[Politicalboi]

26. And I bet some think

It means less bills for them. LOL!

[LiberalFighter]

33. I'm sure the ones that support eliminating Saturday mail think they won't.

People in general are stupid. The problem is that too many are stupid.

[Trascoli]

29. What about my Netflix!!

Whaaaaaa!!!!

[rachel1]

32. End Saturday mail deliveries and who'll deliver the mail? Nobody will!

The stupidity is just unbelievable.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

43. I want mail delivered on a Sunday too

the post office should take on other services such as more passport services, visas, permits etc.

[Doctor_J]

44. Hate Radio & cable "news" could get "most Americans" to approve

of pretty much anything. If they start a campaign this week to make every road in the nation a toll road, in two weeks "most Americans" would favor it.

The country's slide into fascism won't stop as long as they continue unabated

[OneMoreDemocrat]

49. I do too, so what?...

This thread is full of so much 'America Sucks' bullshit it makes you wonder who wants this country to be like the 1950's, us or Republicans.

Times change, technology moves forward and companies either adapt, or don't and disappear.

More than likely not even one person on this thread that is bitching about it has actually used the USPS once in the last week for something other than collecting junk mail out of your mailbox, and all of a sudden delivering mail on Saturday is a life and death situation.

[mikekohr]

51. Bingo. nt

[TM99]

53. A different perspective

Times change, sure. Technology moves forward, sure. But modern isn't always better. That tired meme is getting old.

Your statement that companies either adapt or die is the very heart of the problem with the USPS today.

It is NOT a company. It should not be run like a corporation in the free-market. It is a Constitutionally mandated government entity that has survived changes in technology for almost 250 years. Get Congress out of the way with its union-busting pre-funding scam and allow it to do its job.

Not everyone has internet access. Not everyone pays bills online. Not everyone has a credit card. Not everyone owns a dumbing-down phone. Not everyone is serviced by UPS, DHL, or FedEx.

There are daily scenarios of technology failing, yet on the whole the USPS chugs right along doing their job. It is a felony to violate mail privacy and yet on Facebook, it is a daily occurrence, only because it is profitable.

[mikekohr]

54. Perspective is not reality

The reality, is for 200 years the Post Office has been able to pass along losses in rural areas of the nation to more urban customers. Those urban customers now have an alternative that is free and instantaneous. Mail volume is plummeting.

In the 10 years I worked for the Post Office volume fell every year. We lost over 200,000 employees BEFORE the Congressional cluster "f" of pension pre-funding in 2006.

By all means get the asshats in Congress out of the way, but let us also stay out of the way of the Post Office making the changes they must make in order to survive.

If the Post Office is broken up it will never be put back together, and rural people like myself will lose the most the fastest.

[TM99]

57. Wrong perspective, different reality

If Congress gets out of the way, and we stop thinking of the USPS as a corporation that must show a profit, then we can clearly analyse what changes actually need to be made. We can then clearly see what forms of technology may be of benefit and which are just fads. Dropping Saturday mail delivery per se isn't the issue, however, dropping it because of Congress' fuck up in 2006, the belief that technology is now the answer for all of our communication needs, and that the USPS is losing profit like a badly run corporation is the issue.

These changes are reactive based on faulty analysis and bogus causes. Any changes ought to be proactive based on modernization and using technological advances wisely in order to serve the Constitutional needs of the American citizenry.

[mikekohr]

62. Let me repeat this, we lost +200,000 employees from approx 1996 to 2006

That is BEFORE the Congressional mandated pre-funding of pensions. The Post Office has continued to bleed volume and with that jobs since then.

The cost of a letter is a steal at 4 times the present cost but that does not replace the staggering loss of volume the internet has taken from the Post Office. The changes the USPS are proposing are based on their knowlege of their own reality.

[TM99]

63. I think we are just going to have to agree

to disagree on our perspectives.

You believe that technology alone even prior to the Congressional mandated pre-funding of pensions is the main reason for USPS issues. You also believe that the current changes are based on both of these realities.

I do not because I do not view the USPS as a corporation. As it is not a 'business' but rather a part of the very fabric of America, it can not and should not be treated as a free-market entity in competition with the internet or private carrier services. Yes, it will have to change as it has always changed as new technology develops. I do not disagree with that. Yes, it will likely make cuts in labor in order to integrate new technology. That is inevitable. But, right now these changes are being done in reaction to as opposed to proactively in order to evolve with the times.

The right wing wants the USPS to drown in the tub just like they want Social Security and Medicare. And many Democrats are buying into this. Frankly, it sounds like you are as well. Until the post office is protected and is out from under the damned pre-funding mandate, they most certainly do not have a knowledge of their own 'reality'. If that is done, then yes, they can then address the technological changes and go from there.

You know the internet exists all over the world right? So why aren't we reading stories about the failure of other countries' postal systems due to advancing technology?

[mikekohr]

64. One reason other countries Post Offices Are Not in the news

is because they are allowed to offer services that the market demands. Congress in addition to the pre funding pension fiasco prohibits the Post Office from competing and inovating. Congress must get out of the way.

But the decrease in volume due to technology is, and has been, the primary driver of the collapse of volume and mass exodus of employees. The Post Office knows this and they are taking logical steps to address the changing market. WE need to let the Post Office make the changes that they understand must be made.

"Those closest to a problem know best how to correct it."

[TM99]

65. I suspect we are just going to go around in circles from here.

We agree that Congress must get out of the way. However, until they reverse the funding issue which is what is truly causing the financial issues (not technological advances alone!), then no, the Post Office can not see clearly how to correct any problems it may or may not have.

The market did not demand that Saturday mail service be cut. With the severe financial deficits from the pre-funding, after cutting labor (which you are well aware of), this was the next logical but still reactionary step in a process that may lead to break-up or killing of the Post Office altogether.

Would they have cut service in this way if they did not have the financial deficit? You want to argue yes, but I am unconvinced. I want to argue no, but you are unconvinced.

So we must leave it at that.

[mikekohr]

66. K nt

[Hugin]

59. My sentiments exactly.

Show me a private entity that can deliver a physical piece of anything most anywhere in the U.S. in a reasonable amount of time for around $0.44 and I'll begin to believe this de-constructionist regressive right-wing hogwash... 'Till then, I'd like it if they'd STHU.

[TM99]

60. Agreed

By the way, I love your sig line.

[lynne]

56. I'm one that approves -

- and I think there's a hidden benefit in reducing mail delivery by one day a week - the environmental impact.

All postal employee vehicles and delivery vehicles off the road 52 days per year. Reduction in heating/electric energy to postal buildings 52 days per years.

The reduction in use of energy and fossil fuels would have to be beneficial to the environment. Sounds like win/win to me and, IMO, we should have made this change years earlier for the environmental benefits alone.

[truthisfreedom]

58. All mail should arrive between Monday and Wednesday.

I'm sick of end-of-the week mail. It's disgusting.

[madokie]

61. All I know is I want to keep the Post Office open

fuck fed-ex or ups. When I buy online I try to use the USPS for shipment even if it cost a tad more. Only problem I have with them is their tracking, it sucks.