USPS may no longer deliver mail to your door. Thanks, Republicans.

[Skidmore]

http://wreg.com/2014/05/27/post-office-could-end-delivery-at-your-door/

Post Office could end delivery at your door

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Currently, 37 million American homes and businesses get mail delivered at the doors.

Now, about 15 million of them are at risk of losing home delivery.

It will only affect homes that get deliveries at mailboxes or mail slots at the door, not those that have a mailbox at the end of their driveways.

Already, the U.S. Postal Service has been moving residents and businesses away from doorstep deliveries to cheaper options.

snip

Republicans want to do just that — a House panel passed a bill last week that will end delivery to 15 million doorsteps and companies gradually over the next 10 years....more

[liberal N proud]

1. Killing the postal service step by step

Just like they are the Veterans Administration.

Why? because they see a way to privatize and make a profit for some of their cronies.

[Travis_0004]

2. How is walking to the end of your driveway going to kill the post office?

The post office hasn't allowed new construction to have delivery to your door for decades. You are required to have a mailbox, or cluster box. What is the problem with switching a few to a more efficient method?

[liberal N proud]

5. This alone may not seem like much for those who live in sub-divisions and never enjoyed door step

But it is monumental for those who have always had door step delivery and for those whom it is very difficult for them to walk down to the end of the block Elderly and disabled now have to find a way to get their mail.

FED-EX and UPS still deliver to your door, now the Postal Service will not be allowed to compete there?


Add this to everything else that the postal service has been forced to do and it all adds up to republican led efforts to privatization.

[MohRokTah]

6. USPS will still deliver to your door.

They'll only deliver those things that cannot fit into the box where they will normally deliver mail. Also, when a signature is required such as for return receipt and registered mail, it will still be delivered to your door.

So no, it will be the same space as FedEx and UPS.

[standingtall]

7. Nope it will not be the same

UPS and FedEx deliver everything to your door rather it fits or not.

[MohRokTah]

9. USPS And FedEx don't deliver normal mail. eom

[standingtall]

10. UPS and FedEx will deliver just about anything

someone pays them to deliver. If an item is small enough to fit into a mail slot they will. If it is to big they just sit in on the porch.

[WinkyDink]

23. Key term: "Pays them."

[standingtall]

26. Exactly

Which fits right into privatization scheme of the USPS, by cutting back on services.

[Lee-Lee]

25. It's funny

They will push it through a mail slot, but by law they can't put it in a mail box, by the street or on your house.

I never figured out why if I owned the mail box I couldn't have anyone I wanted put something in there- I had many small packages left on a doorstep exposed to the elements while a safe and dry mailbox sat there unused.

[BarbaRosa]

35. A lot of my UPS gets transfered to USPS

which means a trip to the P.O. in town, plus a day or so more delivery time.

[jwirr]

28. The one thing that UPS & FedEx do not do is a daily delivery. The USPS is still the only one that

does that.

[Lurks Often]

11. Another article stated that the elderly and disabled would be exempt

It was in a similiar article about this proposal a couple of weeks ago

[WinkyDink]

22. Oh, right. The three little old ladies on the block will get specialized deliveries. HAHAHA.

[standingtall]

12. Not everybody has a driveway

and by city ordinances some people cannot have driveways, and it is absurd to have some cluster box a block away to pickup daily mail.

[WinkyDink]

24. What makes you think it's "a few"? My mother's entire neighborhood, if not town entirely, is door/

porch delivery.

[Gormy Cuss]

41. What driveway?

Until I moved to a more suburban area I never had a driveway. The mail was delivered to a box mounted on the building or through a slot. The street side always had cars parked the length of it during the day so even a curbside box wouldn't improve efficiency for the post office and sidewalks were narrow especially in winter with the snow piles. Even kiosks at the end of the block would only provide modest improvements in efficiency because of the narrow sidewalks and street parking. It would still require walking routes.

[KurtNYC]

3. I urge all concerned people to join the boycott of Staples

http://nhlabornews.com/2014/05/aft-nh-joins-growing-movement-of-teachers-boycotting-staples-over-usps-privatization-scheme/

[TBF]

4. I think a big part of this

is killing ALL the unions. They are doing the same thing in the field of education. It's part of the big globalization picture. Everyone, everywhere will be working for comparable low wages. Except for the top 5% or so running things who will continue to be compensated handsomely.

[WinkyDink]

21. BINGO.

[shanti]

29. You got it~!

[jwirr]

34. Yes, that would be a better explanation because I am sure that they will need less route walkers if

this goes into effect. And those workers would be union.

One question: while this seems like the rethug idea for killing the USPS I have also heard the postal spokes person talking about changes they are making to keep the service but make it more cost effective. Are we sure that this is not part of the postal services own plan to economize?

[TBF]

36. Doesn't matter if it's coming

from the elites in Congress or elites at the top of the USPS trying to hold on to their cushy jobs.

Either way it sucks.

[Puzzledtraveller]

8. Personally

I hate the mail. I think the USPS is vitally important, but none of the junk that comprises 99% of what I get in the mail is.

[Skidmore]

14. I understand the distaste for junk mail, but I will tolerate it only because

I get my bills through the mail. I categorically refuse to tender my payments via electronic banking from my home. Paper checks eliminate one step at which my money can get screwed up. Once it is in someone else's hands, then I can say I truly delivered my permission to receive payment to them.

[Orrex]

17. The junk mail that you hate subsidizes the mail that you love.

[starroute]

13. I don't even understand how they intend to do this

We live in a small town. Where would they put these cluster units? In the middle of the sidewalk? Would they use eminent domain to appropriate the front lawn of whoever lives on the corner and plant a unit in their flowerbed? And who would be responsible for clearing the snow after a major storm?

And we're on a side street. The main streets have a lot of old 19th century buildings that go right up to the sidewalk and have no front yards at all. Look at the picture below and tell me where they'd put a cluster unit.

I really can't believe they've thought this through very well.

[Skidmore]

15. We are in a very small village which had a post office until

they closed it a couple of years ago. Most of our townspeople are elderly and do not leave their homes much. And they don't drive. The nearest post office is in a village across the river. We made the adjustment from having a postbox to having a mailbox at the end of the driveway. However the rural areas will continue to need delivery services. I really do think that people need to hit back on trying to kill this essential service.

[Orrex]

16. They should make a pile of mail at the geographic center of the country

Thanks, GOP!

[Lee-Lee]

18. This isn't new- it started years ago

I moved to a new place about 5 years ago and shortly after got a note that I would have to put a mailbox out by the street.

I went and asked at the post office and was told they were phasing out doorstep delivery- people were grandfathered, but any time a new person moved into a home or a new one was built they required a box accessable from the street. They said it was to let carriers serve more homes in a day.

At a time when we need more good jobs like the post office they are doing their best to eliminate them all.

[frazzled]

19. There's a 1998 law that provides door delivery for disabled and elderly

And this proposed bill (stupid as it otherwise is) at least provides a waiver for such citizens, as well as a money-making way to pay for getting it at your door if you're not disabled:

Under the proposal, waivers could be given to people with disabilities who have difficulty leaving their homes, and people who still want door delivery could pay extra for it — something Lynch derided as “a delivery tax.”

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/proposal-stop-door-door-mail-millions/

Here's info about the 1998 law. I know about it because my father (age 97) recently broke his femur in three places and can no longer walk daily down the long long driveway at their home to get the mail. We had to apply to the Post Office with a form and a letter from the physician, and they were approved for the close delivery:

In 1998, the US Congress passed the “Mail Delivery to Physically Handicapped Act.” It provides the service of mail being brought to your door as opposed to being deposited in your mailbox at the street. For door mail deliver to begin, approval of your application by your local Post Master is required . Contact the Post Office and they will inform you of the process. The application needs to include a certificate from a licensed physician stating that the resident is physically handicapped to the extent that anything other than door delivery would pose a medical or physical hardship. If your door delivery is authorized, you’ll need to provide either an approved house-mounted box that provides adequate protection and security for the mail or a door slot. A mailbox with a lock must have a slot that is large enough to accommodate your daily mail volume. The Postal Service neither opens a locked box nor accepts a key for this purpose.

http://seniorassistedliving.wordpress.com/tag/physically-disabled/

[standingtall]

38. Yeah this bill is stupid

It provides a waiver as long as handicapped people are willing to jump through hoops filling out paper work.

[frazzled]

47. They have always had to fill it out

if their mailbox is not at the door.

[WinkyDink]

20. My 89-year-old mother can't make it any further than her porch.

[jwirr]

27. We have a box at the end of our driveway which means we walk to get our mail. I have seen some

neighborhoods where the boxes are clustered at the end of the block meaning just one stop for the mail person. This would mean most residents would have to walk to get their mail about as far as I do depending on how close they live to the boxes.

If this is what they mean I can see where it would still allow daily delivery but in fact some of the elderly and disabled would be hurt by this - I cannot get to the mailbox in the winter months for fear of falling.

[mike_c]

30. we haven't had home delivery for 15 years....

The PO in my town doesn't do home delivery, period. Everyone gets a free PO box and we pick our mail up at the PO. It's a nice excuse to walk the dogs, and only a couple of blocks away.

[Skidmore]

31. Our nearest post office is

4 miles away with a river to cross to get to it. No sidewalks between us and the next town. Highway and ditches. We used to have a post office down three doors and across the street.

[DesMoinesDem]

32. Where do I sign up?

99.999% of what I get is junk mail. It goes straight to the garbage. To think of all the trees wasted, the pollution created cutting those trees down and turning them into paper, the pollution created delivering that junk to millions of houses is just sad. The USPS is far worse than the spammers that are only sending junk to my email.

[standingtall]

33. Instead of throwing in the garbage

Why not put it in a recycling bin?

[mike_c]

40. to be fair, the USPS doesn't send any junk mail to you at all....

The USPS simply delivers the mail. If you get an overwhelming amount of junk mail, it's because someone else is sending it to you. The USPS is no more responsible for that than your ISP is responsible for spammers targeting your email.

[DesMoinesDem]

42. If my email provider got paid by spammers to deliver spam to me

without providing a way to filter it out I would leave them. Unfortunately, I can't stop the USPS from delivering mail to my house. The USPS makes it cheaper for the junk mail spammers to send mail than it is for me to send mail. Charging the spammers the same as they charge everyone else would be a good start to reducing the junk.

[underpants]

37. Making people in the 'burbs get mailboxes would be a great help

During the 2008 campaign I was canvassing in Richmond's near west end and I saw a postman walking. It seemed odd to me until I realized that there were no mailboxes. I had never noticed it before.

[standingtall]

39. It would be a great help

In eliminating post office jobs. This a terrible idea all around.

[Politicalboi]

43. It helps the postman

Instead of walking into someones yard and going to their door, all they have to do is walk the sidewalk. I would think most postmen get bitten by dogs in a home where the mail is delivered at the door. I see nothing wrong with putting mailboxes near your sidewalk. I don't agree with the cluster boxes, only because some will have difficulty getting there.

Here in Ca we mostly have mailboxes at the end of our driveways, and the mail is delivered from the truck.

[standingtall]

46. Again not everyone has a driveway

Nor does everyone have a space where someone can put a mailbox near their sidewalk unless it is in their yard if they even have one, and doesn't solve the problem of walking through yards. All this will lead to is cluster boxes. Where 1 guy can do the job of two. Helping the postman lose his job. Also postmen do not have to deliver mail where a dog might bite them.

[Baitball Blogger]

44. Why do Republicans want to destroy the best of America?

It's a question generations will be asking for, er, generations.

[Zorra]

45. The ongoing nefarious incremental privatization of our government and country, against the

will of the people, just cause for us to break out the torches and pitchforks.