17 replies to this topic

[Mike Patterson]

to buy some stamps, and was pleasantly surprised. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first episode of Star Trek, the USPS has issued Star Trek stamps! I bought two sheets!

[Tim Wilkins]

... and I was even more surprised to find out the cost of a First Class postage stamp actually went down in price. The first time I can remember that happening in my lifetime.  "Live long and prosper."

[Bill from NH]

The time before this last price change, they increased the price two cents. Maybe this enabled them to come down a penny? Actually, I think the post office wants to be more competitive with email providers. I still recall the days of 3 cent first class letters & 2 cent post cards.  

[Steve Okeefe]

As do I...

 

The three cent stamp had a Statue of Liberty image in blue/purple and the post card was printed in red ink.

 

Later, the three cent post card had the same Statue of Liberty image, also in blue/purple.

 

Bill, we are showing our age.

[MSwiss]

A friend/racer is a PO exec.

He mentioned the decrease is something they were forced to do by the government.

Another sort of interesting thing about the PO, is rather then pay premiums for insurance,they somewhere have figured out it is cheaper,to be, and they are, self-insured.

[Don Weaver]

Many large businesses choose to self-insure.  It's a boat load cheaper.

 

Don

[Dave Crevie]

Depends on what the business is. One of the die casting companies I worked for decided to go self insured

back around 1985. They were paying 100% of the cost of the health insurance as well as the business insurance,

and the costs had doubled within three years. So based on the amount the insurance company had payed

out over the previous years, it was determined that it was cheaper to do the bond and become self insured.

Lots of bad things can happen in a manufacturing facility, and after many years of safe operation, they had

a year where everything bad happened. So although they saved nearly $100,000 in insurance premiums,

the claims they had to pay out totaled over $14,000,000. Almost bankrupted the company. The following

year they would only pay half the employee health premiums. The workers had to cover the rest. After a

few more years they stopped paying any employee health costs, and it was up to us to find out own health

insurance.

[MSwiss]

I'm guessing that company had a few less employees than the Post Office. Lol

[B.C.]

I went to the post office and was relieved my picture was not on

 

a wanted poster.

[Tom Eatherly]

    !

[Ecurie Martini]

The time before this last price change, they increased the price two cents. Maybe this enabled them to come down a penny? Actually, I think the post office wants to be more competitive with email providers. I still recall the days of 3 cent first class letters & 2 cent post cards.  

My memory goes back to 1 cent  "penny' post cards and home mail delivery twice a day! (on the other hand, I also remember buying slot car parts from England 55 years ago - exchange of air mail letters, going to the bank to get international bank drafts in GBP etc. etc)

 

EM

[Bill from NH]

Okay Alan, you're older than me.  Today, I purchase most of my stamps at the local grocery store, because I'm there frequently. I only go to the post office if I have a package to mail.

[Zippity]

..... to post a letter

[Dave Crevie]

It's great that you can get postage stamps at Jewel. Before this I had to go to the P.O. to get stamps on Saturday

mornings, which could take up to an hour depending on the que. I was at work when the P.O. was open during

the week.

 

Mike; At the time the plant had over 750 employees, a lot for a factory but nothing like USPS. Today they only

have around 50 employees, due to the huge downturn of manufacturing in this area, and the implementation of

automated production lines. At it's busiest, the plant had 8 operators at each of the 32 lines, plus another 5

support personnel for each line. Add QA people, material handlers, assemblers, maintenance and office 

personnel and the total gets pretty large. When I left that company in 2009, the line operators had been replaced

with robots, QA was done by video, and material handling was done by robotic lift trucks. They now employ

about 50 people in the plant and another 50 in management and ancillary positions.

[Bill from NH]

..... to post a letter

 

I live in the country & have a rural mailbox at the end of the driveway. Letters get sent & are received in this mailbox six days a week by a mailperson, currently a blonde lady.

[Zippity]

 

I live in the country & have a rural mailbox at the end of the driveway. Letters get sent & are received in this mailbox six days a week by a mailperson, currently a blonde lady.

 

We have a letterbox and the end of our drive. Deliveries have been cut from 6 days a week to 3 days  

[NSwanberg]

Actually I think it might make sense for the USPS to deliver to businesses M, W, F and then to residences on T, Th, S.

 

Lately I am questioning whether or not we need competition in the letter, parcel and package delivery system in the US? The FedEx model seems to work well. How about having the USPS buy FedEx and UPS and just use the FedEX overnight delivery model?

 

Criticize the USPS all you want but I believe it to be the best postal system on our planet. Just ask Pete Sardella.

[Bill from NH]

Pete has had problems with the Canadian postal system? Things we've sent back & forth over the years always got to their destinations.