Is our Post Office even trying to be competitive?

A few decades ago in most areas, dedicated postal workers used to pick up mail from neighborhood drop boxes in both mornings and afternoons, where neither snow nor rain nor gloom of night stayed those couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

Now they’ve uprooted many of these old neighborhood boxes. Of the ones left, they’ve cut their diligent pickup efforts back to afternoons; meaning that if you mail a morning letter into your neighborhood postal box, it will now arrive a day later than previous.

Currently, your post office is considering cutting back Saturday deliveries. If they “succeed” this means whenever we have a Monday holiday, home delivery will be absent for 96 hours, from Friday to Tuesday. This makes me think that for better service, many people will shift over to UPS, Fed Ex, or txt mssg.

Another thing that chaffs me about the Post Office trying “to save money” is that they have eliminated the stamp machines from their own lobbies. Although they broke down occasionally, those innovative machines were the kind that dispensed dollar coins for change, and were prime examples of good government efficiency. The dollar coins put into circulation from stamp machines last 10 to 20 times longer than bills, thus lessening the cost of printing more money.

Although there are some indicators that the Post Office is trying to stay completive with its online services, when we see the basic bread and butter services offered for so many decades sink to the wayside, Postmasters in general are sending us mixed messages.