Would you believe it?

America's Nearly Perfect Postal Workers





From the New York Times.

Andy

That's great! I like the USPS!

When I lived in Bolivia in the 1970s, most letters from the U.S. arrived in about 5 days. Now, I hear, it takes at least 2 weeks. But then the Bolivian government gave the postal services as a sinecure to the head of the "Ponchos Rojos," the revolutionary Aymara nationalists who want to impose their views on the rest of Bolivian society...

Erick

I can believe that. I often send packages and letters overseas to the Russian Far East. A letter takes about 3 weeks, and packages take 4-6 weeks and if I want it to get there I have to request that it be signed for. I think the problem is that it is too easy for things to go "missing' Yet I remember my father sending air mail letters to continental Europe and even back in the 60's it took maybe a couple of weeks. Its too bad in this day and age it takes so long. The experience has taught me to not complain about the USPS.

I notice they mention snail mail is an important commercial enterprise. I wonder if they mean snailing (as in between real people) or snail mail (as in direct mail) is alive, well and not obsolete. Recently, the USPS has been promoting their direct mail service with claims like $12 return for every $1 spent.

As an aside, I was recently chatting with our mail carrier and I mentioned what a nuisance "junk mail" was. He responded that I should grin and bear it because that type of mail was what supported the post office and without it, the cost to mail a letter would be prohibitive. I had not thought of it like that. It is my opinion that the cost of mailing a letter to anywhere in the U.S. is still one of the best deals around. I am on the left coast and my mail to the right coast takes 2 to 3 days for the most part. I can not remember the last time that I had a first class letter go missing either. The USPS has my vote. /Craig

Yes, much like the web is propped up by banner ads and pop-ups, the mail is propped up by direct and bulk mail. I think that is what they are talking about in the article, not so much your handwritten letter to your friend.

Our mail carrier said the exact same thing about the junk mail.

This is an old story, and I (fortunately) have not been able to test whether or not it is still true.

When I was on unaccompanied duty in the Philippines, a letter sent via FPO (Fleet Post Office) US mail on base, would arrive in San Diego (to my wife) in four calendar days' time. A letter mailed the same day, to Florida (to my Grandmother), would arrive in four calendar days' time. If my wife, in San Diego, mailed a letter to my Grandmother, in Florida, it would arrive in four calendar days' time.

I was and remain mystified as to the mechanics of that "anomaly". The mail from the FPO came into San Francisco, and then was routed either to San Diego or Florida, a distance of either 550 miles (San Diego) or 3000 miles (Florida) and it took the same amount of time to either destination. There is no way to determine how long it took to get from the Philippines to San Francisco, but the presumption is that both letters arrived more or less simultaneously, if they were mailed at the same time. Supposedly, any letter traveling over 500 miles is sent via airplane rather than surface, so both letters would have been sent via air, but the kicker was the four days from San Diego to Florida.

Perhaps a postal worker on the forum can explain the anomaly.

Donnie

I love snail mail and have many,many pen pals from this delightful Network.Only lost 1 letter in three years.In fact,almost every one of my wax seals have made it to their intended destination.That's rather good. I figure i mail out 20-30 letters a month.The USPS get my vote as well for shipping Priority Mail.Never an issue there either.And the price ALWAYS beats put UPS,FedEx,etc.

Jim

I have to wonder how Ebay and online shopping in general have changed the ratio of letters to packages. I can remember some uproar about email replacing postal mail, but I'd wonder how much the volume has changed, if at all, and if parcels are taking over.

I am a contractor, working for the Postal Service in the datacenter here in MN.

According to my Postal management, person-to-person mail is just about dead. Just a bunch of Luddites and weirdos use it now. The vast majority of mail that goes out is commercial mailings. I doubt that eBay and the like have changed the percentage very much.

The speed is impressive. Now if they could only get it to the correct box and house on my route...