Mail about to get a lot slower. (3 Viewers)

[Zztop]

But, I suspect that as we are better able to supply high speed internet to rural areas by satellite or other means, the need in even rural areas will quickly decease to the point of not obsolescence at some point.

you would THINK that would be the case, and yet over decades the government shelled out hundreds of billions to telecoms to do just that, and yet there are many areas without broadband

most promising these days seems to be starlink with their low orbit satellites

 

[St. Widge]

you would THINK that would be the case, and yet over decades the government shelled out hundreds of billions to telecoms to do just that, and yet there are many areas without broadband

most promising these days seems to be starlink with their low orbit satellites

I think there is also some hope from the mobile phone industry with stuff like the system T-Mobile is using to provide high-speed internet over cell towers. But those networks will need to expand a lot to meet the need.

 

[DaveXA]

I so rarely use USPS for anything anymore. Pay all my bills online, send emails instead of letters, etc. I’d say about half the things I order online are delivered by USPS & the rest a combo of FedEx/UPS/DHL, carrier pigeon, etc.

I send the occasional birthday card. That’s about it.

Pretty much where I'm at as well. When we bought our house, I don't think I signed a single piece of paper until our settlement meeting. After signing everything, they asked if I wanted paper copies or digital. I quickly told them digital. Put what would have been a book of paperwork on a thumb drive. Easy peasy.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Pretty much where I'm at as well. When we bought our house, I don't think I signed a single piece of paper until our settlement meeting. After signing everything, they asked if I wanted paper copies or digital. I quickly told them digital. Put what would have been a book of paperwork on a thumb drive. Easy peasy.

Lots easier to lose a thumb drive and many laptops are doing away with USB ports

 

[donato]

I look at it a different way. It's a governmental service that for the foreseeable future will be needed, even if you or I don't really use it so much. No matter what it loses in revenue it should be funded. They should lump it in with the outrageous military budget. What DeJoy has done is disgusting (elections matter, people). I also think they should try to reel in the junk mail by not giving them a discount.

 

[Zztop]

The biggest anchor dragging USPS down is that pension fund they are required by law to fund.

now totaling close to 100 billion

 

[Dago]

Dunno if this is just local to the Baton Rouge area, but when I was doing a lot of shipping and receiving it was UPS--->USPS-------------------------------------->FedEx

Fed ex was ALWAYS late, they ignored delivery instructions, and some of their drivers were sheetty people

 

[zatsnzapps]

Dunno if this is just local to the Baton Rouge area, but when I was doing a lot of shipping and receiving it was UPS--->USPS-------------------------------------->FedEx

Fed ex was ALWAYS late, they ignored delivery instructions, and some of their drivers were sheetty people

I feel like I can add to this to clarify a bit from my experience too.

FedEx Express is still awesome.

FedEx Ground is basically like spinning a wheel to determine when, or sometimes if, you will receive a package. Whenever I see a package is shipped FedEx Ground, I know that I'm in for a wild ride.

For example, I had a decently large package shipped to me from an ebay seller a few weeks ago. It was shipped FedEx Ground. So, it says that it's going to be here on Monday. I was outside doing yard work on Monday and the FedEx truck pulls up. I put down my equipment and wait outside the truck (just a few steps away) for a good 3-4 minutes. The door finally opens and the driver can't find my package (twss). I tell her what the box looks like and what's on the outside (I've received similar packages, so I knew what to expect). Still can't find it. I tell her what it is, and she said "oh, yeah, we had to send that back to the retailer (it wasn't a retailer) because the box was all messed up and we couldn't accept it. I remember seeing that one. Ok, fine.

I go back to the tracking site and it now says TBD delivery date. I check the first thing the next morning, and it's magically back on the truck out for delivery on Tuesday. Tuesday comes and goes, and no delivery. The truck didn't even run through the neighborhood. I check Tuesday night, again with the TBD delivery date. First thing Wednesday morning, I check the site again, and it's back on the truck for delivery again. It was delivered Wednesday and not a scratch on the box, and there's no way it went all the way back to somewhere up north to get another one from a seller that didn't have many to begin with.

Yeah, it was all bullshirt.

 

[RKNSaint]

I am not bothered by any of this. I expect crappy mail service so there is really no frustration from it being just that. It’s a government entity full of (mostly) grumpy employees doing a thankless job of delivering an endless supply of crap. I have come to like the email with an image of what is coming though. It’s yet another invasion of privacy but what isn’t these days.

 

[DaveXA]

I am not bothered by any of this. I expect crappy mail service so there is really no frustration from it being just that. It’s a government entity full of (mostly) grumpy employees doing a thankless job of delivering an endless supply of crap. I have come to like the email with an image of what is coming though. It’s yet another invasion of privacy but what isn’t these days.

Why is it an invasion of privacy? It's optional, so what's the problem?

 

[Zztop]

I think there is also some hope from the mobile phone industry with stuff like the system T-Mobile is using to provide high-speed internet over cell towers. But those networks will need to expand a lot to meet the need.

this may or my not surprise you but verizon and at&t were recipients of some of those hundreds of billions - in exchange for their promise to build out nation-wide broadband. Administrations came and went, and kept dumping money into it. at&t and verizon did build out fiber in some areas, but nowhere near what they promised in exchange for what they got

at&t, verizon, tmobile all have some kind of fixed wireless service these days

 

[baarbogast]

I've experienced the good and bad of USPS within the past 2 months.

I sent a 2 packages of souvenirs home from Hungary. I sent them the same day about two hours apart. The first package made it with no problem, actually arrived about 4 days after I got home.

The other sat in customs at JFK for two weeks. I looked up the tracking number and it said it had left. I looked a couple days later and it was back in Hungary. I'm have no clue how I will get it back since I have left and they won't let anyone but me put a new address label on it.

A week ago I sent a package priority mail to Chicago. It left at noon on Saturday and it was signed for at 1:30 Monday afternoon.

 

[Goatman Saint]

multilevel problems in the post office. It’s a government service and is meant to be. However, they want it to run for a profit, which is a stupid model as the entire way it’s set up will never make it money. It serves everyone, everywhere. The two just won’t work well together. So instead of investing in real tracking and modern equipment, you get a note saying it’s in the system and maybe it will get there.

FedEx, UPS, Amazon all serve only profitable areas. Small rural communities are not always served. The big guys will take packages through their services then use the post office to deliver. And things like UPS SmartPost is an epic mess. But for some it’s the only way.

Unfortunately for the post office it’s being run by a person who doesn’t believe in government. Reagan popularized the saying about we are the government here to help you. Since that time it’s almost seemed like instead of putting people in place to make the system work, it’s almost like
Putting fools in to tear it down

 

[RKNSaint]

Why is it an invasion of privacy? It's optional, so what's the problem?

The email to you is optional. Imaging all of your mail and then sharing it with any LE office that request it is, in my opinion, an invasion. I haven’t bothered to worry about it as my mostly junk mail would be boring to track. But, it’s yet another example that all of our information is up for grabs to the highest bidder or any LE office that deems it necessary and most citizens aren’t aware of it. I suppose this is nothing compared to the plan to track all financial transactions $600 and greater though.

 

[DaveXA]

The email to you is optional. Imaging all of your mail and then sharing it with any LE office that request it is, in my opinion, an invasion. I haven’t bothered to worry about it as my mostly junk mail would be boring to track. But, it’s yet another example that all of our information is up for grabs to the highest bidder or any LE office that deems it necessary and most citizens aren’t aware of it. I suppose this is nothing compared to the plan to track all financial transactions $600 and greater though.

But, and I'm only assuming this, they don't image every single piece of mail, only those who are subscribed to the service. And I'm not aware of them turning all of that over to LE. Where did you read this?