Thread: Post Office fun facts

_ The post office moves mail on planes, trains, trucks, cars, boats, ferries, helicopters, subways, hovercraft, street cars, bicycles, feet and even mules.



_ Those mules carry mail to Indians living at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Because some of that mail is food, the post office at Peach Springs, Ariz., has freezers to store it until delivery.



_ Oldest post office in the same building: Hinsdale, N.H., 1816.



_ Smallest post office, Ochopee, Fla., 8-feet-4-inches by 7-feet-3-inches.



_ Floating post office, post boat JW Westcott delivers mail to ships passing in the Detroit River. The boat has its own ZIP code, 48222.



_ Longest rural route: Route 1, Fordsville, N.D., 176.5 miles daily to serve 174 mailboxes.



_ Shortest rural route, Route 42, Henderson, Nev., 1.9 miles daily, 640 mailboxes.



_ Number of mail pieces handled daily in 2009, 584 million.



_ Payroll every two weeks, salary and benefits, $2.1 billion.



_ Vehicles operated: 218,684.



_ Address changes processed last year: 43.8 million.



_ Number of new delivery addresses added to the mail system last year, 923,595.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...a4VZwD9E6M1VG1

And some myths about the Post Office:

1. The Postal Service wastes taxpayer dollars.



The Postal Service, reorganized in 1971 as an independent agency of the executive branch, operates as a commercial entity. We rely on the sale of postage, mail products and services for revenue.



A small annual appropriation from Congress reimburses the USPS for free mail for the blind and absentee-ballot mailing for overseas military personnel. Otherwise, we have not received taxpayer funds to support postal operations since 1982; in fact, though we're often described as "quasi-governmental," we're required by law to cover our costs.



2. The Postal Service is inefficient.



Ten years ago, it took 70 employees one hour to sort 35,000 letters. Today, in that same hour, two employees process that same volume of mail. Though the number of addresses in the nation has grown by nearly 18 million in the past decade, the number of employees who handle the increased delivery load has decreased by more than 200,000.



According to the U.N.-affiliated Universal Postal Union, we deliver nearly half of the world's mail. The World Economic Forum, host of the annual summit of global power players in Davos, Switzerland, consistently ranks the U.S. Postal Service among the top 4 percent of more than 120 nations' and territories' postal services.



3. Mail is not reliable.



Independent quarterly surveys conducted by IBM confirm that the Postal Service has achieved record reliability levels. In the last quarter of 2009, on-time overnight delivery of single-piece first-class mail was at 96 percent for the fifth straight quarter, an agency best.



We're not only punctual, we're trusted and secure. According to the Federal Trade Commission, as little as 2 percent of identity crimes occur through the mail. Theft of a wallet or purse is responsible for 5 percent -- meaning your documents are safer in the mail then they are in your pocket.



4. The USPS is not environmentally friendly.



There's no way around it: Delivering mail uses fossil fuels, and mail often produces paper waste. Still, the Postal Service is greener than you think. As long as consumers and businesses use physical mail, we're committed to finding ways to process it responsibly.



Our fleet of 44,000 alternative-fuel-capable vehicles is one of the largest in the world and includes electric, three-wheeled electric, hybrid electric, ethanol, fuel-cell, biodiesel and propane technology. More than a half-billion packages and envelopes that we provide free annually are recyclable and made of environmentally friendly materials. The quality of the raw materials in our packaging, including tape and labels, makes the USPS the only shipping company to meet the stringent eco-design and manufacturing standards set by McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry in its Cradle to Cradle program.

And my favorite:

5. The USPS can't compete with the private sector.



The Postal Service can and does compete. Our closest competitors, UPS and FedEx, don't threaten our business; as two of our biggest customers, they help build it. Our competition pays us to deliver more than 400 million of their ground packages every year in residential areas and on Saturdays. In turn, the USPS contracts with UPS and FedEx for air transportation to take advantage of their comprehensive air networks.



Although stamp prices have increased about 33 percent over the past 10 years, this increase is in line with inflation. By comparison, private carriers raised their prices by as much as 60 percent between 1999 and 2009. The Postal Service is, and has always been, a bargain.



It's no secret that the Postal Service has been losing money since 2007. What are not well known are the financial demands of the Postal Reform Act of 2006 -- demands not faced by the private sector. Though the USPS is self-supporting, its finances are tied to the federal budget because postal employees participate in federal retirement plans. In 2006, Congress required that the USPS prefund 80 percent of future postal retiree health benefits. This will cost more than $5 billion a year through 2016. No other federal agency or private company carries such a heavy burden.



Without the prefunding requirement, the Postal Service would have been better able to weather the recent recession. In 2008, prefunding contributed to a loss of $2.8 billion. Without it, we would have been $2.8 billion in the black.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...022504888.html

I see no reason to not just allow the USPS to die a natural death. It's 2010....Why do we need a huge, expensive bureaucracy to deliver paper to every door in America anymore? (Email is instant, cheap almost universal & if you need a hard copy of something....Just hit "Print")

[quote name='Devil505' date='03 March 2010 - 08:35 AM' timestamp='1267623353' post='124251']

I see no reason to not just allow the USPS to die a natural death. It's 2010....Why do we need a huge, expensive bureaucracy to deliver paper to every door in America anymore? (Email is instant, cheap almost universal & if you need a hard copy of something....Just hit "Print")

[/quote]



What about packages? Do you have any idea how much more expensive it is to mail a small package via FE or UPS?



Besides, the Post Office is in the Constitution.

[quote name='Blueneck' date='03 March 2010 - 08:57 AM' timestamp='1267624639' post='124255']

What about packages? Do you have any idea how much more expensive it is to mail a small package via FE or UPS? [/quote]

OK...OK....If it fits...it ships...But only packages from now on!

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZhjMxM_Giw[/media]



[quote name='Blueneck' date='03 March 2010 - 08:57 AM' timestamp='1267624639' post='124255']Besides, the Post Office is in the Constitution.

[/quote]

So is slavery.

What about thank you notes?

Mail carrier's are often the eyes and ears of a neighborhood.

A Revere postal worker's attention to mail accumulating in a residential mailbox last month led to the rescue of a 92-year-old woman who was immobilized for several days in her home from a broken hip.



Yesterday, Trev Coccimiglio, who has worked for the US Postal Service in Revere the past 12 years, was honored for helping to save the woman's life.



Revere officials said they soon will implement a mail carrier alert system they hope will help seniors who may have no one to look out for their well-being.

This kind of thing happens a lot. They are a walking life-alert system for many seniors and shut-ins.





http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-7697820.html

I like the postal service too, but I still chuckle when I think about the Cheers episode in which Norm gets an ape to deliver a package to him at the bar as a dig on Cliff, the know-it-all mailman.

I have a great idea!.....Close the USPS & use the money to pay for UHC!