Repeat? (new window)

They can always switch to bicycles to deliver mail

I was under the impression that this war in Iraq would drive gas prices down because it would free up their oil reserves and lift the sanctions. Instead, gas prices have tripled since Bush has been in office. WTF???

When houses are packed together tight enough, they should park on the corner and walk like they do in old neighborhoods.

gas is cheap in mexico. perhaps soon we'll be going there for work, due to the high wages and low cost of living?

what the MPG on those square mailman cars?

Let's see. They can only raise the rates along with Inflation, which they are doing.

Yet, their costs continue to rise.

Could the Government's Inflation numbers (3%/year) be total and complete BS?

The local mail lesbian walks everywhere around here. In the 90+ degree heat and 90+% humidity. She's my hero.

Do we really need the mail delivered six times a week? Drop residential down to MWF or something. Or even less.

Epsilon: I was under the impression that this war in Iraq would drive gas prices down because it would free up their oil reserves and lift the sanctions. Instead, gas prices have tripled since Bush has been in office. WTF???

We distroyed the oil extraction and transport infrastructure in the initial bombing.

Even without the continual fighting, it will take 20 years to bring it back.

The oil sits in the ground, safe, and is worth more $ every day. Lots more $.

A nice plan if you now own the oil. Also, this oil is out of the supply chain, after having been in it for years. This is why gas is $5 a gallon. I think that Iraq represents something like 1/4 of the world's reserves.

short range electric cars will never make sense........

Spud Boy: When houses are packed together tight enough, they should park on the corner and walk like they do in old neighborhoods.

They do in my neighborhood. Our streets are like half a mile long and the mail carrier parks on the corner and walks all the way down one side, then back up the other...then just drives his vehicle to the other street corner and repeats.

I have a partial solution. Residential mail delivery every other day. Each postman would have 2 routes, Mon/Wed/Fri, and Tue/Thur/Sat. We'd need half as many carriers, half as many vehicles, etc... 90% of my mail is junk anyway. Wouldn't bother me to receive it every other day. What say you?

I am more concerned with how this hurts rural mail carriers that are government contractors using their own vehicles and not actual postal employees using official vehicles. They are usually on something like a 4 year fixed bid and when the cost of gas doubles within those 4 years, they end up taking quite a significant pay cut by absorbing that increase from their net income.

These contract carriers are generally providing mail service for people out in the boonies. You know, those people that don't have anything better than dial-up, if they have a computer at all. Telling these people to suck it up and use email or get a post office box will not work in all cases. Post office boxes may not even be an option in some areas.

Generally the Postal Service will make an adjustment to their salary to offset the cost of gas but that may only happen once a year and it will be based off of the national average. The cost of gas in states like California are generally far above the national average.

/used to live in the boonies

Agnosto: Let's see. They can only raise the rates along with Inflation, which they are doing.

Yet, their costs continue to rise.

Could the Government's Inflation numbers (3%/year) be total and complete BS?

Yes. They removed food and energy from the inflation calculations a couple of years ago.

Nice trick. Food and energy have gone up more than anything else.

Screwed us all, but screwed those whoes retirements are indexed to inflation.

I think that Iraq represents something like 1/4 of the world's reserves.

4th largest, about 8-9% of the worldwide reserve.

hoopy22: I have a partial solution. Residential mail delivery every other day. Each postman would have 2 routes, Mon/Wed/Fri, and Tue/Thur/Sat. We'd need half as many carriers, half as many vehicles, etc... 90% of my mail is junk anyway. Wouldn't bother me to receive it every other day. What say you?

I say they just charge the junk-mailers more goddamned money to send their shiat.

Feltonl: what the MPG on those square mailman cars?

Just asked my BF, a letter carrier. He said he drives 20 miles a day, has to fill up every 3 days, and the tank is about 12 gallons. Will the starting and stopping, he's getting about 5 MPG.

Granted, it would save a lot in gas to stop at the corner and do pivits up and down the streets, but it would take about twice as long to do each route and the post office won't go for that. "Time is money...time is money".

Toiletduck: Do we really need the mail delivered six times a week? Drop residential down to MWF or something. Or even less.

Don't say that to anyone who is a heavy user of Netflix. God forbid they don't get a new movie every day in the mail.

The U.S. Postal Service is in a unique position. With 215,000 motor vehicles they could easily transition to electric powered vehicles, and with their bulk buying capability I can't think of many manufacturers that wouldn't welcome the opportunity to do so.

Use electric for the short haul (100 miles or less) and gasoline for long haul, hybrid-electric. With hybrid electric you use a small displacement gasoline or diesel engine to charge an array of batteries or to provide extra electric power to the drive system when needed.

I can see USPS, UPS, Fedex and other carriers going the same route. It'll happen gradually at first but we can no longer sustain our economy on large scale use of hydrocarbons.

Telling these people to suck it up and use email or get a post office box will not work in all cases.

Actually, it does work. You choose to live in the sticks, you deal with the consequences.

Personally I wouldn't care if they made residential deliveries only once a week, business routes would still require daily delivery of course but they can also pay more to get mail every day.

kd1s: The U.S. Postal Service is in a unique position. With 215,000 motor vehicles they could easily transition to electric powered vehicles, and with their bulk buying capability I can't think of many manufacturers that wouldn't welcome the opportunity to do so.

Use electric for the short haul (100 miles or less) and gasoline for long haul, hybrid-electric. With hybrid electric you use a small displacement gasoline or diesel engine to charge an array of batteries or to provide extra electric power to the drive system when needed.

I can see USPS, UPS, Fedex and other carriers going the same route. It'll happen gradually at first but we can no longer sustain our economy on large scale use of hydrocarbons.

careful kd1s any more well thought out and rational thoughts like that an you might end up on a bunch of peoples ignore list, i mean this is fark.

it would however be nice to see a federal organization take the lead on this, but we know it would be successful AND profitable and lobbyist wont have that.

it's stories like these that make me think people still don't get what's happening. ALL shipping goes up. everything from groceries to the crap we buy on amazon. fuel is the base commodity that affects all others. inflation is sure to follow.

and on a side note along the lines of the taxes on investment bankers, i still don't know why we allow bulk shippers to get away with paying less than the rest of us for mail. ikea can pump out millions of their half pound catalogs, that are a waste of resources all in themselves, and then ship them at a fraction of what we citizens would pay for a parcel of equal weight. that's crap. with the web now mainstream, there should be a disincentive placed on junk mailers. the whole junk mail system is a massive waste of resources. i throw pounds of paper away each week without even looking at it for more than 2 seconds.

Epsilon: I was under the impression that this war in Iraq would drive gas prices down because it would free up their oil reserves and lift the sanctions. Instead, gas prices have tripled since Bush has been in office. WTF???

Mission accomplished.

Toiletduck: Do we really need the mail delivered six times a week? Drop residential down to MWF or something. Or even less.

When I was a kid in Milwaukee, they delivered mail twice a day.

Haha. Don't you pay for gas, and a gas tax and the states/feds use state/fed fundst to pay for gas with is taxed again.

So Americans not only pay about for there own gas, they pay for the the fed/states gas and they get taxed twice on it.

Lamune_Baba:
I say they just charge the junk-mailers more goddamned money to send their shiat.

Easiest solution ever.

Sad that junk mail rates are cheaper than peasant rates.

Serves them right. We've got a postwoman who platoons with several in our neighborhood. She REFUSES to walk a very easy route with houses right next to one another. It's a scene worthy of a YouTube scandal: Drive 10 feet. Shut off the vehicle. Walk to the front door and back. Start the vehicle. Drive 7 feet. Shut off the vehicle. Walk to the front door and back. Drive 15 feet. This goes on over dozens and dozens of houses. On a 70 degree day. In sunshine.

Would an angel still get their wings if the bell was attached to some guy's wang and it was ringing because of some crazy kinky sex thing? I don't think I'd want those wings.

I've lived in a few rural places where there was no mail delivery, you had to get a post office box if you wanted to get mail (not that you couldn't still receive packages from Fedex or the like, mostly just nothing USPS, any packages through USPS meant a card in your box saying to pick up it at the window). I wonder how many place may consider going back to that.


/probably wouldn't really work in a metropolitan area
//I never really had any problem with doing things that way myself
///plus you meet the locals and actually have a little social interaction

Rainbowtyedye: Don't say that to anyone who is a heavy user of Netflix. God forbid they don't get a new movie every day in the mail.

This. What a waste of resources. In the age of On-Demand media and $4 a gallon gasoline, do we really need the government wasting fuel and time walking movies to your door?

Lazy-ass idiots. Netflix will be a dead idea in two years. You watch.

My mother's a rural carrier so I'm getting a kick of out these replies.

1. Gas costs hurt. Electric vehicles would be a great idea.
2. Alternate delivery days would be a nightmare. There's too much mail (junk mostly), not enough car space, and not enough hours in a day to deliver it all. Yes, Rural carriers make multiple trips to the post office on some days to fill their cars up with mail and packages.

In loo of...: Serves them right. We've got a postwoman who platoons with several in our neighborhood. She REFUSES to walk a very easy route with houses right next to one another. It's a scene worthy of a YouTube scandal: Drive 10 feet. Shut off the vehicle. Walk to the front door and back. Start the vehicle. Drive 7 feet. Shut off the vehicle. Walk to the front door and back. Drive 15 feet. This goes on over dozens and dozens of houses. On a 70 degree day. In sunshine.

Is the route a loop? If not, she'd be obligated to take the truck with her through the entire route.

Make junk mail illegal. The remaining 10% of mail could be delivered by carriers on foot in all but rural areas.

In loo of...: Serves them right. We've got a postwoman who platoons with several in our neighborhood. She REFUSES to walk a very easy route with houses right next to one another. It's a scene worthy of a YouTube scandal: Drive 10 feet. Shut off the vehicle. Walk to the front door and back. Start the vehicle. Drive 7 feet. Shut off the vehicle. Walk to the front door and back. Drive 15 feet. This goes on over dozens and dozens of houses. On a 70 degree day. In sunshine.

I use to work as a PTF at a Post Office in Massachusetts. I was always amazed at the biatching and complaining. Seriously, if you want a job where you can biatch like a 10 year old girl, work at the post office (and join the NALC)

Epsilon: I was under the impression that this war in Iraq would drive gas prices down because it would free up their oil reserves and lift the sanctions. Instead, gas prices have tripled since Bush has been in office. WTF???

Well at least they were able to take advantage of record oil profits to use Iraq's oil to pay for their reconstruction. Oh, wait...

/am I the only one who remembers that plan?
//what happened to it?

milk_plus: Would an angel still get their wings if the bell was attached to some guy's wang and it was ringing because of some crazy kinky sex thing? I don't think I'd want those wings.

Meh. Wings are wings, I say.


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I think with some creativity, the USPS mail truck fleet could be used as a huge testing lab for alternative fuel technologies. Have several thousand mail trucks run on hydrogen, thousands more on CNG, some on electric, etc.

See what works best over a period of 5-10 years.

Actually, I bet most mail truck routes are short enough to be powered by cheap, slow charging, old school lead-acid batteries. Since the lead is reused when the batteries go bad, maybe that would be more cost effective than hybrids.

Just remember, when you control the mail, you control... information.

going postal anyone?

god bless those forever stamps.

moondo: god bless those forever stamps.

Yeah, they're outperforming the Dow Jones right now.

As a Letter Carrier in a small office, this really sucks. The penny pinching began last year and has culminated in talk of eliminating a route. I'm the low guy and would be the first to get reassigned. That means I'm plant bound, a 120 mile round trip.

Oznog: moondo: god bless those forever stamps.

Yeah, they're outperforming the Dow Jones right now.

I bought 100 of them when they were $.41. I figure with the rate I send mail, they should last me well into the next decade. (I just used up my last $.37 stamp).

fark THEM!

I remember when a first-class letter was 15 cents.
Also remember when 25 cents per letter seemed reasonable.

/Get off the lawn, now!

If you want to help save fuel costs as well as get less junk mail, then I suggest signing up with Green Dimes (http://www.greendimes.com/). It takes a few months, but it cut down on our junk mail dramatically.

As for netflix you can get a Roku box (http://www.roku.com/netflixplayer/). Mostly older stuff. There is still a pretty limited amount of on-demand movies and many movies are out sooner via DVD than on-demand. When the on-demand carries all movies (esp. in HD) and they get released at the same time as DVD for affordable rental prices, then netflix via mail will be in trouble.

Seriously, stop the junk mail. It's getting insane. That will also reduce the amount of garbage(ie paper recylcing) that needs to be done. Let's see one annoying thing get obsoleted due to increasing gas prices. I don't need a credit card offer every 12 hours delivered to my house.

nanded: In loo of...: Serves them right. We've got a postwoman who platoons with several in our neighborhood. She REFUSES to walk a very easy route with houses right next to one another. It's a scene worthy of a YouTube scandal: Drive 10 feet. Shut off the vehicle. Walk to the front door and back. Start the vehicle. Drive 7 feet. Shut off the vehicle. Walk to the front door and back. Drive 15 feet. This goes on over dozens and dozens of houses. On a 70 degree day. In sunshine.

Is the route a loop? If not, she'd be obligated to take the truck with her through the entire route.

Overall, it's obviously a loop, but in this neighborhood, she could certainly get away with leaving the vehicle at the end of the road and walking it down and back. Heck, the other postmen (I think there are two others in the platooning) walk it with pleasure on the nice days we're having now.

Worst. Headline. Evar.

or we could just get rid of the postal service. it's pretty much obsolete. if you need to send something use UPS or FEDEX. theyre faster than the post office.

but since that would never happen (when is the last time a government agency got shut down?) reducing the delivery schedule to 2 or 3 days a week would help a lot