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.