The biggest ‘problem’ with USPS is that too many are working to pry its guarantee of existence from the Constitution and trying to convert it into a billionaires boondoggle and make it into their very own self perpetuating slush fund in the private sector.
From some of the articles I have read, to ensure that USPS is always operating in financial red ink, the organization has to fully fund the retirement of employees that have yet to be born, let alone hired and working for USPS.
The political ‘leadership’ of USPS is working every day for it to fail, very much like the politics of Amrak have worked for over five decades to make it fail…
When I was stationed in West Germany in the 1980’s the price of a 1st Class stamp via Bundes Post was about 90 cents or so. Look at our first class stamp cost in the United States today…lol. Also, look at the sheer volume of garbage marketing mail the USPS handles…lol again. So maybe some German efficiency that most people would be happy to pay for, might be in order with USPS. I think it might be far easier to just replace USPS and start over again borrowing heavily from the German Postal Service. Problem I believe with USPS is Congress turned it into a jobs program and there is no hope of it ever breaking even. Look at the whole recent fiasco with their pensions. All for preserving the USPS pensions but…holy crap, they choose the most expensive and burdensome way to do it.
Oh a slower postal service. It is not only in the U.S.A…
Here in the U.K. in the 1880s there were four deliveries of mail per day. Today there is talk of one delivery to addresses every other day.
LIke what? Their package shipping arm, DHL is building distribution hubs in the United States and what did they make last year? $8 billion Euros or something?
Not going to do the work here. Do an online check. There are a lot of complaints about slow delivery times, missing packages, etc., in a country smaller than California.
The way companies operate these days (to me) is to say they are improving the service as they increase prices so the customer has to pay more. Then at the same time reduce staff hours, so the job takes longer to do.
I did an online check before I asked. Those are normal complaints with any package delivery service, size or land area has nothing to do with customer service in this regard. Germany has rural areas too, it is not one giant city state.
The issue I see is USPS keeps failing financially. They are still not charging what it should cost for first class mail per comparison with other countries, they can’t even keep pace with new post office construction. Instances in Dallas metro area where they are storing mail out in the weather because they cannot afford or plan for new post office construction. The mass marketers flood everyones mailbox with junk mail (does that happen in Germany?). I could fill probably another 6 inches of space here. Maybe the best solution is to just sell the USPS to a country that can manage it’s postal service better than the United States.
Maybe the issue isn’t with the Post Office as much as with Congress.
In 2006, the Congress imposed the PAEA which made the postal service fund $72 billion to cover the retirement fund 75 years into the future. No other government agency does that (as well as most private companies).
Would a new post office be required to cover that?
Which is the point, the constant intervention by Congress is part of the issue. The full pension for Postal Workers issue was a response to past underfunding of the pension system by USPS management. Private company would have frozen the pension and moved to a 401k. As to what happens in a sale to another buyer. Buyers choice since beggars cannot be chosers here. Myself, I think we can do a whole lot better with customer service and I am tired of the junk mail (which is not really a rational business decision and I trully would like to see decent stats on if it really does make monev via capacity required to handle it which USPS has to pay to maintain and acquire). Also, horrible customer service of the USPS. We can do better here.
The January 1, 2025 price on Bundespost is 0,95 €, about $0.99, so 35% more than our price of $0.73.
Inflation has raised rates all over. From 1979 to 1981, the rate for domestic mail in Germany for a letter < 20 grams was 60 pfennig, about 45 cents. The corresponding USPS rate was about 18 cents.
So there is the actual data. Your numbers seemed wrong and they were…lol indeed.
I am not sure if your serious or not so I will presume you are serious.
Comparison was is the 1980s. The exchange rate between curriencies was different as well. Your also doing domestic to domestic. I think you might want to consider the phrase “stationed in” which implies transitory resident not permanent resident. That has a implication as well. .Also, I did not go back and look at the postal charts but it was 1985 since your wanting to research now on items published (I’m not a journalist but OK). Point is still valid despite the recent postal increase in April of 2024. Prices are even still different for domestic mail. You might pooh-pooh the difference but Germany still charges more.
The postal service in the U.K. is getting worse. The Post Office want to increase charges. Once they do the service to the customer gets slower and slower.
In the 1960s some mail could be delivered within two hours of being posted. Now it takes three to five days (if lucky).
I’m not sure you actually read my post. I gave domestic rates because that is an apples to apples comparison. And I do understand exchange rates and that Germany was still on the DM throughout the 80s and it was a different exchange rate then of course (they change daily, you do know?). I know you say you were stationed in Germany in the 1980s in the US military. So what is the relevance of that? And you should note that I pointed out that our postal rates even now are substantially lower (“German rates 35% higher”) than those of Bundespost. Understand?