A 'Very Concerned' Mayor Mike Sends Letter to U.S. Postmaster General Over Possible Closures

Its So Sad

Close em down. Worst service in the world.

Sent an express mail envelope to Georgia last month. Guaranteed Next Day delivery! Took 2 days, of course. The envelope sat in the Coppell center for 24 hours. Now they want ALL of our mail to go there. Did get my refund though.

An invoice I mailed to a client's store 2 weeks ago was returned to me last week. Don't know why, it was just stamped "Return to Sender." Store hasn't moved. Address hasn't changed. Laser printer, QuickBooks and window envelope still working fine. Must be the USPS that is fucked.

As for the scare tactic of "No more overnight mail!" Read the whole story. Currently about 55% of first class is delivered the next day. After closing facilities, 47% will be delivered the next day! OOHHH! BIG DEAL!

If it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight - FEDEX. NEVER THE USPS!

IF IT CAN BE MAILED, IT CAN BE E-MAILED!!!!!

Pretty Perry

lol - potmark would be responsible. Postmark...

Pretty Perry

Oh My, mayor Mike thinks keeping open a money losing business to keep a potmark is fiscally responsible. Quick, recall his mayorship!

RTGolden

A few problems with Mayor Mike's conclusions:

Drive people away from the post office? I thought desultory service, long waits at PO's, and the convenience of email was already doing that.

Postmark as a brand? Really? I thought that is what all these 'Signature' Bridges were supposed to do for us.

The economic impact and job-loss arguments may have some merit to them, I will admit.

Joe

Have I got a deal for you folks! Its an offer you cant pass up!

Our service will hand deliver a written or printed message to the destination of your choice anywhere within the continental US within a matter of days. They will even drop by your house to pick up your message!

How much would expect to pay for this service? $20? $10? $5

No! We offer this to you for the incredibly low price of 44 cents!

That my friends is one of USPS's problems.

EDM

Under the law, the post office cannot raise prices more than the rate of inflation, which is 2.1 percent, unless it gets special permission from the independent Postal Regulatory Commission. The PRC last year turned down such a request.

Scruffygeist

The "brand" was far more impacted by letting the Dallas Cowboys play in Arlington than a postmark that nobody in the age of email looks at.

Yeah, I hated when the Cowboys changed from playing their games in Dallas, to move out to Arlington. Wait...

Scruffygeist

Gee, let's get on Dallas for Texas Stadium being built decades ago!

They had the chance to have Cowboys Stadium in Dallas proper. In a time period where snail mail was already on the fast track to obsolescence. Hearing all about the Super Bowl in Arlington hurts their precious "brand" much worse than a stupid postmark.

Please try harder to be pissy.

Curious

what firm gets listing on the real estate?

Diane Birdwell

I cannot fathom how they could close the bulk mail center or the main post office on I-30. We are a huge metorplex, not just one city. Where would our mail be processed? Somewhere else? Involving transportation? Time lag? I understand consolidation for smaller areas, but Dallas?

Jim

SCF North Texas in Coppell. The majority of the business mail clears there already. SCF Dallas is too slow.

Downtown_worker

Something tells me the USPS could not give a FLYING F**CK about the Dallas "brand".

Facebook User

The USPS is in deep financial trouble - they need to completely revamp their business if they are to survive. The fact that cities like Dallas would prefer that they continue to lose money instead of relocate their operations to lower cost venues is exactly what is wrong with this country.

RTGolden

can anybody, for either side of this particular argument, post anything that supports their statements? Just telling me that the USPS is losing money or in the black does very little for actual understanding of the situation.

Ed D.

The USPS isn't losing money, except that Congress is draining an extra $5.5 billion each year from their coffers to help paper over the deficit. Without that massive forced payment, the USPS would be doing just fine (and without taking a dime from taxpayers in 40 years).

Amuse

Can you provide any evidence of this? I reviewed the latest data which showed the USPS was short over $5b this year - a shortfall Congress covered by allowing the USPS to short pay their retirement system. I see no evidence of a five billion dollar transfer to. Congress from the USPS.

Mike

The sound bite does not explain what is really happening. The truth is the USPS retiree health plan was billions and billions underfunded at the time of the legislation. Additionally management unilaterally suspended that year's payment. Congress on both sides of the aisle went ballistic and mandated that not only would it not happen again, but that the USPS would catch up. Otherwise the Federal taxpayers were on the hook for gold plated health plans for the literally hundreds of thousands of extraneous workers moving into retirement. The 75 year criteria is just a way to calculate the payment of a certain amount. Nobody is planning 75 years into the future. The problem is the group of workers now retiring in place of being laid off.

Mark R

Dear Amuse,

The fact of the "overpayment" to pre-fund the retirement account is a part of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 passed by Congress. It mandated the USPS to pre-fund its retirement by 75 years. Yes, 75 YEARS. This is unprecedented and I venture to say that no private corporation has ever instituted such a policy. Obviously, this capital outflow is crippling to the financial stability of the USPS.

pak152

here in Virginia two local counties that border the city of Richmond got the Postal service to change the postmark for a couple zip codes. so instead of zip code 23235 being postmarked Richmond, it now reads North Chesterfiel, while north of the rivuh certain zip codes now have Henrico as their postmark instead of Richmond. The reason for both changes? The counties claimed that sales tax payments were being missent to the city instead of the county.

My guess is that the Dallas postmark will not disappear except where the zipcode lies in a different city

Dal Guy

If the Post Office was really serious about saving money they would eliminate all the bulk rate junk mail that fills our mail boxes and recycling centers.