Postal decline of the electricity dealers to save?

The Caden family of Missouri State in the United States recently launched a campaign on Facebook to encourage people to rediscover the art of writing letters. Haiti Katton has designed a Facebook page, hoping it will become a permanent forum for people who like to write letters to encourage each other.

and Grandma Hernie Katton is the soul of this activity. Hunith, 88, lives in a nursing home in Columbia, where the old man's daily agenda is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the postman.

Hunith told The Washington Post that she "hated" the post Office's decision to send less mail one day because her home newspaper was supposed to be delivered in Saturday.

Saturday Postman Rest

February 6, U.S. Postal spokesman John Ferris announced a new effort to save money: from August onwards, Saturday (002291, Stock bar) postman no longer deliver letters. It is estimated that the measure will save $2 billion a year. Felis has not forgotten to advertise the "thoughtfulness" of USPS, "we announced the decision six months in advance to allow the civilian and commercial customers time to adapt and adjust."

In the opinion of Postmaster General Padrick Donachu, reducing the day's mail will not change the "big picture" that the postal Service has in people's minds: "People still go to the mailbox every day and wait for their mail to arrive." This is part of American life. ”

Last November, Donahue announced the 2012-year operation of the US Post office, which amounted to $15.9 billion trillion this year and 3 times times (5.1 billion dollars) compared with 2011. The flat-mail business was down 5% from the previous year, while human spending, including wages and benefits, accounted for 80% of the post Office's total expenditure. The annual report predicts an increase in the deficit in 2013.

"People say that you don't really understand and appreciate how things are going to work until you have to make a change," Donahue said. I think this is a very false remark. Change is not easy, it is much more comfortable to keep things as they are. But our future is not in today's safe zone. ”

According to the Guardian, the US Postal market survey showed that 70% Americans supported a 5-day weekly messenger to reduce spending.

"The American people understand the financial difficulties the Post Office faces and support the post Office to take reasonable steps to improve our finances," Donahue said. ”

"Wronged" USPS

Since 1971, the United States Postal Service has been forced by Congress to "wean", cut off the financial aid, rely on selling stamps self-financing. The Post office is still a genuine government department, even though taxpayers are not a penny in the bag. It has 32,000 branches across the country, plus more than Wal-Mart, Starbucks and McDonald's outlets. And for tens of thousands of people to provide jobs.

In the 2006, President Bush and congressional directives placed a heavy yoke on the United States Postal Service. The provision, called the Postal Responsibility Strengthening Act (PAEA), requires the United States Postal Service to pay for 10 years of retirement health benefits for employees over the next 75 years. The "shocking" rule is an "innovation" in Congress, "tailored" to the U.S. Postal Service and not implemented in other government departments. Most absurd of all, the US Congress has made too much advance, and the employees who enjoy these benefits are not even born.

As a result, the United States Postal Service annually to the next 75 years of retirement funds "tribute" 5.5 billion U.S. dollars, but also for "active" staff to pay 2.6 billion U.S. dollars in retirement insurance.

There is more to this than a congressional "mess". According to Reuters, it is Congress that does not allow the post office to raise the price of ordinary and first-class mail stamps. That's why it's only 50 cents to send a letter from Key West in Florida State, south of the United States to Anchorage in the North Alaska. U.S. Postal competitors FedEx and UPS last year, the postage price of 5.9% and 4.9% respectively.

The United States Postal Service said that over the years, it has paid 80 billion dollars in advance to the civil servant Retirement System and the federal employee Retirement System. But the federal government refused to return the money to the USPS to help it through.

The Huffington Post accuses the US postal leader of his lack of political courage to confront Congress because Congress is the culprit. "Instead, he always picks the easy way out, and then a little bit of the break-up of the USPS, shortening the length of the messenger, shutting down the precinct, shrinking the scope of the business, and raising the parcel's share of the business, is now Saturday." ”

Everything is a net fault?

The news of USPS's Saturday message of no messenger has provoked a strong reaction on Facebook and Twitter. The Wired website asked the reader the question: "How many stamps did you buy last year?" "It is the Internet's fault that has shrunk the business and position of USPS," the website said.

A report by the Pew research firm says 1 of every 5 Americans don't use the Internet, and the post office is not nostalgic for them, it's a homing pigeon.

An American housewife has threatened to "save the US Postal Service" on Twitter. On Valentine's Day, the housewife declared on Twitter: "From now on, I'm not going to send the message to Twitter any more, but I would argue that" write a letter and post it on a postage stamp. Even receiving a heart-shaped box of cigarette butts is much better than receiving an e-card. ”

Another online activity on Facebook, called "We Love Plain Mail," calls on participants to buy stamps, write letters or send out a postcard. 400 people took part in the event within 24 hours, and thousands of others received invitations.

The Washington Post says the idea of social networking to save the postal industry is inherently paradoxical, as it is the booming web that provides the possibility of e-mail and electronic billing, reducing the need for everyday mail. In 2012, 160 billion e-mails were sent out. But on the other hand, Americans ' enthusiasm for online shopping adds to the energy of parcel delivery.

U.S. postal delivery of parcels business remains the same Saturday, starting from 2010, parcel delivery has become the U.S. Postal Service "cash cow", business volume increased by 14%.

Waiting for Amazon to save

Amazon is not worried about the U.S. postal business adjustment, the company's spokesman thought Tes Stansair told the Los Angeles Times, "We are in the area of business coverage and a number of courier companies to ensure that our products can be delivered to customers in time." ”

Amazon could be a hero in the rescue of USPS. Amazon is planning to start a new "Day on arrival" business, coinciding with the advantages of USPS's package business. In order to accomplish the target of the day arrival, the mail that the Amazon handed out has no time to do two times sorting, therefore needs a huge and orderly postal network covering the whole country.

U.S. Postal spokesman Ferris said that although the delivery business shrank, but the package delivery business is encouraging. The arrival of USPS from last year's pilot in San Francisco was also small. The business has been officially named Metro Post. John says USPS does not even need to add trucks and recruit drivers to the new business, and if it is properly deployed, it will be able to meet the business requirements of the day.

In addition to Amazon, there are a lot of electric Shangdou to the U.S. Postal Service under the 210,000 trucks and drivers interested.

Donahue told the Los Angeles Times: "Our customers see the value of our national delivery platform, as customers increasingly use our services, especially the rise of e-commerce, we can seize the opportunity to play a very important role in the express industry." ”

Global postal Depression

"The end of the letter business in Saturday threatens the future of the US Postal Service, which in the short term could damage small businesses, leaving seniors unable to receive important medicines on time, and allowing more people to abandon USPS and choose FedEx and UPS," The Huffington Post said.

The sunset is not just the United States Postal Service.

Since the beginning of Henry VIII, the Royal Mail has existed for 500 years. But the Las Vegas Sun says the British government intends to clean up the postal industry by selling Royal Mail.

Australia, Canada and Sweden have reduced their weekly messenger to 5 days. New Zealand intends to reduce the delivery of 6 days a week to 3 days a week.

France's postal service estimates that by the year 2015, business will shrink by 30%. Japan's business last year was 13% less than it was 4 years ago. In Denmark, a year's business volume shrank by 12%.

The downturn in the postal industry began in the last 5 years. At the time of 2007, USPS also undertook 40% of the global mailing business, with a turnover of 75 billion U.S. dollars. But since then the business crunch has been so rapid that the volume of mail has been reduced from 212 billion messages in 2007 to 160 billion emails in 2012 years.

The United Nations National Postal Union estimates that worldwide mail volumes fell by 4% in 2011 and developed countries have fallen particularly fast.