Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds … but Tuesdays might.
APK | January 29, 2009 | 12:50 pm(via The AP Wire) Postmaster General: Mail days may need to be cut.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Massive deficits could force the post office to cut out one day of mail delivery, the postmaster general told Congress on Wednesday, in asking lawmakers to lift the requirement that the agency deliver mail six days a week. If the change happens, that doesn’t necessarily mean an end to Saturday mail delivery. Previous post office studies have looked at the possibility of skipping some other day when mail flow is light, such as Tuesday.
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Ok I could go into the rest of the article about how much they are losing and how mail quantity is dropping and all of that but I won’t bother. Because this made me laugh.
Outside of Netflix I can’t think of a single person who will honestly be affected by this. I mean really. Who uses the USPS anymore? UPS is more efficient, in general. And even for people who do use USPS (sending books often, come to think of it) will a loss of a day of delivery bother anyone? Except for Netflix folks, and they’re talking of adding Saturday delivery (yay!) so it’ll balance out.
So who uses USPS on a regular basis who will be honestly affected by this? Do we care?
A day without mail? Hmm, you’ve obviously never lived in my neighborhood. My postal route is referred to as The End. It is the outer limits of zip code 10465. Third and fourth class mail can pile up and then be delivered whenever they feel like.
I received my January edition of Starlog two weeks after the March edition arrived. It came with Xmas catalogs on January 9th. Also January 2nd we receive no mail at all. It was delivered on the 7th only after I went to the PO to complain. We got two deliveries that day as the bag from the 2nd was finally found. It was probably in somebody’s car trunk.
Then there is the case of receiving mail from other parts of the zip code, the Bronx, the rest of NYC and parts south, north, east and west. It’s amazing.
I once watched a mailperson stuff a handful of mail in a mailbox, skip two houses and repeat the process as she walked down my street. It actually force some neighbors to speak to each other for the first time in years in order to get their mail.