SmashMouth

A House committee has approved a proposal that would end door-to-door mail delivery for millions of Americans in favor of communal or curbside boxes.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved the measure on an 18-13 party-line vote Wednesday. The bill would direct the U.S. Postal Service to convert 15 million addresses over the next decade to the less costly, but also less convenient delivery method.

Democrats objected to the plan, and efforts in recent years to win its adoption have failed.

"I think it's a lousy idea," Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., told the Associated Press. Other lawmakers said it wouldn't work in urban areas where there's no place on city streets to put banks of "cluster boxes" with separate compartments for each address. People with disabilities who have difficulty leaving their homes could get waivers, and people who still want delivery to their door could pay extra for it — something Lynch derided as "a delivery tax."

The committee's chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., acknowledged that the measure is far from the comprehensive overhaul most officials agree is needed to solve the postal service's financial problems, but said it "provides an interim opportunity to achieve some significant cost savings."

Converting to communal or curbside delivery would save $2 billion annually, Issa said, quoting from estimates that door delivery costs $380 annually per address compared with $240 for curbside and $170 for centralized methods. He said less than 1 percent of all addresses nationwide would undergo a delivery change annually and that communal boxes offer a safe, locked location for packages, doing away with the need for carriers to leave packages on porches, making them subject to theft and bad weather.

The Postal Service reported a $1.9 billion loss for the first three months this year despite continued cost-cutting, a 2.3 percent rise in operating revenue and increased employee productivity. Package business has risen but the service continues to struggle with inflationary cost increases and a continued decline in first-class mailing as people move to the Internet for letter writing and bill paying.


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TheOak

I speak from experience when I say communal centralized mail boxes rock. We moved to Houston 5 years ago from Louisiana so I have had a box on the house, a box on the street, and a communal location here in Houston.. I much prefer the cluster in my neighborhood for a few reasons.

1. Never have to worry about moving a car that may be blocking a mail box in front of my house like some of subdivisions I have lived in.

2. Cuts down on traffic in the neighborhood either foot or postal jeep.

3. Let the HOA weed-eat around it.. lol

4. House and Post mailboxes are unsecured. My box on my cluster is just like a post office box, have to have a key to open.

5. Mail is delivered in a fraction of the time. Hitting each mailbox on or in front of a house with in a sub-division that has 30 homes driving/walking would take at least 1 minute per-home, probably closer to 2 (30-60 minutes). Mail can be delivered to a 30 box communal mail pod in about 15 minutes, I have watched my mail man do it.

Ill take a picture of mine when i leave work, there are also large portions at the bottom where USPS can leave packages the size of shoe boxes etc with out them being in the rain. They leave a key in your box, you unlock the cubby at the bottom, the key locks into the door until the mailman retrieves it. No more going to the post office to get most packages.

dam1953

Once again Republicans have their heads up their communal butts. Regardless of how many options are available, and how good or bad the various options are, they always appear to choose the one that can do the most damage to their own image. As if the press and Democrats need any help. In consideration of Black & Gold, they always, always seem to fumble on their own 1 yard line. Just give the other team the ball right there at their doorstep. Go ahead.

Here is a proposal that would appear to have the opposite impact. Cut mail delivery to three days per week. Most citizens couldn't care less how often they got their junk mail delivered. Even with bills, what difference does one day make. If it really has to get there on time....people don't use the USPS anyway. Think about it, the USPS would only need half the mail carriers because each carrier would have two routes, one on MWF and one on TTS. This also cuts the vehicle and related operating costs in half. Seems rational to me.

2012 stats indicate that compensation and benefits and transportation accounted for 63% and 7%, respectively, of the total $81.1 billion annual budget. Understanding that not all USPS employees are mail carriers, if you reduced the these costs by a mere 10% you would cut the annual cost of operations by nearly $7 billion.

And who would get pissed? The unions. And who gives an "F" about the unions. The Democrats. And who-else gives a "F" about the unions, especially governmental unions? No-one.

So, why are House Republicans proposing an option that inconveniences the the infirm, elderly (who vote)?

What could be stopping them? Probably the no-cut, union agreement that the brain surgeons running the bankrupt USPS signed just a few years back.

My solution to this problem is have the USPS declare bankruptcy. The judge could then void the labor agreements just like secured loans were "voided" in the GM bail out. Then privatize the USPS and stop the madness.

Liberals would go crazy claiming that the Constitution requires USPS. Wrong, the Constitution only called for Congress “To establish Post Offices and post Roads”. It didn't say the US Government had to run them till we ran out of money. Hell, liberals like to claim that the Constitution is a "living" document. So, sell the USPS and just tell liberals to live with it.

”It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin

exile

Dam you are wrong bro. Until the last two paragraphs. But that's what repubs wanted to do in the first place. Until Dems balked about it. Oh, how I love politics. Could we inject religion in here?

dam1953

Amen.

TheOak

This doesn't inconvenience the elderly, it is the same exact system for delivering mail to condos, apartments, ghettos, retirement communities, military barracks, college dorms, motels, hotels, and office buildings.

Mail to your door is a rich white Republican Catholic mans racist luxury. < -- There exile, I got it all in there for ya

As far as USPS losing money... When you operate at a loss, more operating = more losses. Ever wonder why there is a National do not call list and filters for spam email, but no way to stop junk mail in your mail box? .. Ohhh they say tell your post office you want it stopped but all that does is stop it from entering your mail box (some times).

What that doesn't stop is the collection and transportation of bulk junk mail which is the bread and butter of the USPS. Junk mail is allowed because that is how the USPS is funded, and our Government allows it because if you started dumping unneeded postal workers the jobs number would go to crap and Unions would not elect you. It is however a revenue trap, since the USPS operates at a loss because of Unions its lifeline is also its demise. It needs the .49 for every stamp to operate at .67 per letter.


About the American Postal Workers Union... It doesn't cover mail carriers. It would seem the mail system had an "everyone needs a their own thread day" and 4 associations/Unions were created.

American Postal Workers Union
National Association of Letter Carriers
National Postal Mail Handlers Union
National Rural Letter Carriers' Association

They missed the National Association of Stamp Lickers, one of those career paths that the lesbian community could benefit from.

QBREES9

This world is changing.