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From: AMuzi <am@yellowjersey.org>
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech
Subject: Re: The US Postal Service
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2025 12:29:49 -0600
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On 2/18/2025 11:46 AM, Roger Merriman wrote:
> AMuzi <am@yellowjersey.org> wrote:
>> On 2/18/2025 10:10 AM, cyclintom wrote:
>>> On Thu Feb 13 21:43:55 2025 Roger Merriman  wrote:
>>>>
>>>> If it?s not funded by government ie has to fund its self, then services
>>>> will always come 2nd to profitability, ie if one wants no or low junk mail,
>>>> and for it to be run as service then will need some government funding. EX
>>>> postie in UK which has been privatised and now a commercial company with
>>>> totally expected results ie worsening service.
>>>>
>>>> Can?t see Trump wanting to fund it somehow!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Roger, I know that you look through the lens of socialism being taught
>>> that in school but EVERYTHING is moving by mail. If Amazon Prime can
>>> give you cut rate prices and deliver the next day, the US Postal System
>>> can make a profit on 10,000 times the movement of mail.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Not 'can'; 'could'. But they do not.
>>
>> Logistics contract negotiators at Amazon are really first
>> rate and richly informed.  It took UPS years of losses to
>> cancel their largest customer but they really had to do that
>> to stem the losses on Amazon delivery.
>>
>> USPS employees are quite vocal about their current Amazon
>> arrangements and mystified that the rate/volume continue.
>>
>> It's really true that one cannot sell at a loss and 'make it
>> up in volume'. Not in logistics, not in bicycles, not in
>> banking...
>>
> 
> Also a van plus man is a much more attractive option financially even low
> cost items + delivery are going to be quite a bit more than the postage
> cost for letters.
> 
> parcels are another option all together, and with the rise of internet
> shopping has been on the rise all of this century and been clearly what
> mail delivery organisations should be focused on in terms of profitability,
> and has been obvious for two three decades!
> 
> Ie state carriers should be using the parcel side to fund at least
> partially the universal mail delivery, which if they cut out junk mail etc
> could be reduced in terms of staffing, essentially more like post worked in
> the 60/70’s with fairly low volumes of mail and each postie covering larger
> areas.
> 
> Roger Merriman
> 

Yes you're right overall.

Logistics is on the cusp of engineering and economics and 
postal systems are a very difficult area.  Move up the 
parcel rates and unit volume drops, while you still have the 
vehicle expenses, labor contracts and facilities to support 
the former larger volume.  Tricky decisions all around.  All 
postal systems wrangle with this as noted by the 25 year old 
paper I referenced regarding Brasil Post. The principles and 
issues have not changed.

-- 
Andrew Muzi
am@yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971