Postal Service in for a rough landing

Snail mail is getting squashed. 

News is going around the media world that the government-run post offices might stop their Saturday pick-ups and deliveries.  That’s bad news for people who like to wait for the last moment to send their bills and it’s bad news for people who go through stamps like toilet paper.

Where is the good news?  There really isn’t any.  Ever since the Internet and online bill pay have emerged, the postal service has struggled.

It has tried everything from raising stamp prices---dramatically and often to selling greeting cards inside some post offices. Unfortunately, such actions have not helped fend off the billions of dollars in losses the postal service has been suffering.

But, there’s the problem: raising rates. The post office doesn’t seem to be able to track history. It doesn’t seem to realize every time it raises rates, more people turn to email and it, in the end, loses customers and income.  Most e-mail services are free, and no one really wants to pay $6 for a card that can sing and then pay an additional 44 cents to ship it out in hopes that the card gets to the recipient on time when it can be done for free and will arrive “instantly.”

This world is full of procrastinators.  There will always be that person who looks at their address book, realizes their mother’s birthday is tomorrow, and instead of buying a card and paying several dollars to “overnight it,” goes online and sends the card via e-mail. 

E-cards have continued to rise in popularity, and face it, the anticipation a college student gets when he or she sees an envelope from their parents (in hopes that it contains money) could be over.

According to several reports, the postal agency could see well over $200 billion in losses over the next 10 years if it doesn’t think on its talons. It must realize its basic financial model is now flawed. Things are NOT going to get better.

To cut off mail, even in Santa Rosa County, would be like cutting off the Internet, everyone would go crazy. 

Still, the post office is losing close to $7,000 a minute. 

We WILL note, the post office credit has not done what many other companies have—lay off a slew of employees, but such moves are also the very reasons the agency is in such deep trouble. 

Even when faced with its ultimate death, the postal service still has some of the most horrible customer service in America. Workers demand more and more of people or businesses. (If you don’t put tape on that package just so, it will NOT be delivered. And don’t expect that post office to do it FOR you.)

You drop by at lunch. The line extends out the door. Yet you can see not all stations contain a worker helping to get the line moving. You look in the back, and there are employees, they’re just not up front, helping. If any non-government business exhibited this blatant “we don’t care if you use us or not” type of attitude, it would be out of business in six months.

Yet the horrible service and extra demands on businesses continue. And we’re sure the postal system will be stunned when it learns American is turning it over to a private company, but that’s the only way this creature can be made to work.

So for stamp enthusiasts, does this mean the end of the Christmas and Olympic-themed collectibles?  Or is eBay doomed?  Not if brown and Fred Ex can help it. 

Even still, raising rates and blood pressure doesn’t always keep customers. 

With the current recession still going on, people are cutting back, and using free online resources. Another price increase will just force people to cut back even more.

Eliminating Saturday delivery will create a “need” in the system and will allow private companies like UPS or FedEx to begin offering it. This will, in turn, merely drive more post office customers to another company.

They just don’t get it.