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The Post Office will ride off into Pony Express Heaven

You read the headline and think, "NO WAY is that going to happen in my lifetime." And you may be right. However, I feel that the end is more near than most people think for the United States Postal Service. The First Class rates increases are happening at faster rates. History of Postal Rates from the Postal Rate Commission for proof. This can only mean that the amount of money being generated by the mail system is dropping. Email vs. Snail-Mail Obviously with the acceptance of email as a form of written communication the USPS has to have suffered serious losses from those "Thinking of you Letters" when an email is just so much faster. Also, with Instant Messaging has probably impacted those numbers as well. While I wouldn't even consider sending a physical letter to someone saying, "How R U?", I would now think twice before sending a physical letter to someone just to how their lives have changed over the past few months. Wouldn't you rather hear from them within hours instead of days as you would have to wait up to 4-5 days before a simple letter would get there, then 4-5 more days to get their response? I wouldn't think so. Cost of Online Pay vs. USPS sending bills Most would argue that businesses would be the ones to keep the USPS alive because of the sheer amount of bills that need to be generated each month that need to be paid going out and coming back. But now with eBill and ePay provided by most major Banks it seems that isn't a viable option anymore. At the time of this writing Bank of America provides a "free" bill pay services that has many features that are nails in the coffin for the USPS. There are three parts to this service: eBill Service - emails to Bank from Billing Agency showing up in your Bill section online. They will also be set up to electronically receive your bill payment. The list of participants is continually growing. ePay Bill Payment Service - Bank pays Electronically if possible, or they send a check by mail themselves. And just because your bill originator is not set up for eBill doesn't mean they can't receive payment electronically from your Bank. Bill Management - Register your regular bills with your bank to "click and pay" them easily. You can even pay your infrequent bills through this same service. Resulting effects:The Banks are reducing the amount of actual mail having to be sent by both the Bill Originator, through eBill, and the Paying Party, through ePay. Other Banks are doing the same types of services which will continue to reduce the amount of USPS assistance needed in this area. Even the price itself helps your bottom line. When sending 10 bills out a month on average you would have to spend $3.70 ($0.37/stamp) in stamps and $0.28 ($0.0276/envelope when bought in lots of 500) for envelopes. Now this doesn't include incidentals like pens or printer ink if you print your mailing labels, or the cost of your checks themselves which are based on how "special" of a check you want to use. That's about $4.00/month that you spend just to pay your 10 bills. If you have more bills then that, and most of us do, that's more money out of your pocket versus free from BankOfAmerica or Wachovia (which is currently $6.95/month after a 3 month free - with a break even at 17 bills/month). USPS vs. UPS/FedEx Reviewing a few charges for sending mail it seems that $0.37 cents is indeed cheap. But how many of us trust the USPS to deliver important mail knowing that it could be lost without repercussions. What I mean by that is the fact that if you send something certified return reciept mail (currently $4.42) for something like a late bill, or some other important piece of mail. Do you realize that if the Post Office losses that mail, they aren't liable for any loss whatsoever unless you put an additional insurance cost ($100.00 of insurance for $2.20). That insurance brings your package up to $6.62. UPS and FedEx both have an automatic $100.00 insurance upon request without additional cost. UPS charges $7.59 for local delivery while FedEx charges $4.38 for same local delivery which is $2.24 cheaper than USPS. That's not including the Priority Mail charges or Express Mail Services. This is simply First Class Mail with signature confirmation which FedEx and UPS have signature confirmation as their base service. Thinking "Greener" You might think based on my last blog that I'm some kind of Tree Hugger, but I'm not really that extreme. Yes, I hate paper. I hate the print button. I hate printers, but that's another issue. If you were to think about how many trees we may save by simply paying your bills online, 10 bills a month each year by 3 million people, has to be a lot of trees even if a lot of that is recycled. So, it's a good thing for the world. Monopoly Advertising? Yes, the USPS is still considered a monopoly. No business can touch your mailbox in your front lawn or your PO Box unless they are USMail employees or it is a FEDERAL offense. UPS, FedEx, Airborne Express, MailBoxes Etc can not put mail into your mailbox. They also can't deliver to PO boxes Closing Thought I can see the service of USPS going down as it is already an unreliable, mostly monopoly, over executively staffed company that should be working more like a non-profit company rather than a for-profit since it's governmentally caressed. With the lack of true leadership, choices for expenditures, and the constant postage increases that will bypass even those of us with only a few bills a month it will be no suprise when the USPS starts slowing down it's services to only a few times a week, then month, then "going out of business" sales.

Vehicles and their Doors!!

It frustrates me that car manufacturers really lack in serious motivation in upgrading or inventing a new door for the vehicles that we drive. Now here in the Christmas season we pack ourselves into parking lots that aren't designed for keeping our cars "ding free." Most of us hate it when we come out of a store and head back to your vehicle only to see a good sized "ding" in your side panel which most likely came from the vehicle next to you. They were probably not realizing how close they were to your vehicle before they "popped" open their door right into yours. Now your stuck with either trying to repair it yourself or just letting it go because you don't want to spend a couple hundred dollars trying to make the paint match again on that color that only the dealership has the ingredients for, which is another Rant of its own. Troubles with today's vehicle doors. I had a Cougar car when I was younger and couldn't understand why my doors had to be so incredibly long. Parking spaces were small and parking next to a vehicle almost guaranteed that I would have to at least touch the vehicle next to me just to get 6 inches of space at the back where I would have to contort myself to get through. We've all had times where the driver would have to get in and then pull the vehicle out just to get the rest of the group into the vehicles because the doors simply wouldn't open far enough for people to get in. The Inovation has been here for years. We see vans and mini-vans that have their sliding rear doors that would hardly ever be able to hit the car next to you. The answer seems simple enough: put a sliding door on the front doors as well. Put that sliding rail at the half way point vertically on the door and have it slide down the side of the hood of the car. Is it that difficult? I wouldn't think so. Wouldn't it be nice to be parked next to a vehicle and when that door slides completely out of the way, you would be able to easily exit the vehicle without having to worry about hitting another vehicle with your door. Reasons "They" will not upgrade doors. You get that first "ding" and then the next, and next, and so on. Those first few hit you like a ton of bricks while fadding in impact after that. Next thing you know, your car just doesn't have that luster it once had. The biggest reason, besides needing to wash it this month, are all those dents, scratches, and other "dings" that have just accumulated over the years. Result: you want a new car. Who does that make happy? The Car Manufacturers. Who would introduce the new doors to keep those dings away, keeping you in away from the dealerships longer? The Car Manufacturers. Any questions? The Greater Good. From a business perspective I can completely understand why the Car Manufacturers don't put better doors on vehicles. However, looking from a nation and world that is trying to keep our resources as long as we can I have to question the big businesses motivation of money and start thinking about our resources. The Greater Good would be to upgrade those doors and if your company was first to do it, you'd be the first praised for a "greener" car.