Let UPS and Fedex Ship Letters!

[kerrywins]

Title 18 (I.83.1696) says that "Whoever establishes any private express for the conveyance of letters or packets" can be fined and jailed. Moreover, the law (39.I.6.606) says that any letter delivered by unlawful means can be seized and stolen by the government.

Its time to let UPS and Fedex compete with the post office and be able to legally ship our letters.

Many of us choose to have UPS and Fedex ship our packages, we want to have the choice to let them ship our letters as well.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

1. I doubt they could compete with the usps.

[enlightenment]

2. I disagree.

I like the Post Office and feel no need to privatize the postal service. It's worked soooo well for other things . . .

[otohara]

3. We Do?

I like the post office and my carrier is the BEST.
The USPS is in dire straits - are we sure we want them to go belly up?
Not me.

[HopeHoops]

4. LOL - Yeah, for $2.50 a letter, sure.

UPS and FedEx can't even compete with the USPS Priority Mail service for price and they only deliver to houses with packages. The USPS hits every house with so much as one piece of junk mail. If they thought they could compete for the equivalent of "first class" items, they would have entered that arena LONG ago. All Title 18 really says is that they can't put it in the official mail box. They can deliver any damn thing they like otherwise. There's nothing to prevent someone from putting up a "FedEx/UPS" mailbox on the same post with the USPS mailbox - same as a newspaper delivery box.

[kerrywins]

9. seems alot easier to give them the freedom to put it in the box already there

then to make someone build another box.

seems like a waste of resources to make me build another box.

[HopeHoops]

12. The rule is there for a reason. It keeps political and advertising from being hand-inserted.

If they don't want to pay for postage, they have to deliver to the door. That takes a lot more time than driving by and depositing it in the boxes. If UPS and FedEx were granted the right, pretty much anyone could also have the right.

The current fine is a good deterrent. At least it was 19 years ago when my wife ran for (and won) a seat on a NH school board. One of her supporters decided it would be a good idea to put her tri-fold flier in mailboxes. The initial fine was like $25/instance and for a SHITLOAD of them. We talked it down to $50 or so on the grounds that we didn't condone the actions. Still, I agree with the restriction. Just think about how cluttered the box would be without it - and that's on top of all of the junk mail that already clutters it. At least the junk mail is paid for and frankly, that's what pays for the overhead that allows us to send First Class mail for so little.

[kenfrequed]

5. Uhm no.

If you further move it in that direction it will cost more, not less. The Post Office is servicable now and there is no reason to wreck it.

[Sebastian Doyle]

6. FedEx and UPS actually DO ship letters

If you're willing to spend $20 to ship a piece of paper, they're more than happy to do it for you.

[customerserviceguy]

7. Letters are so 20th Century

Just about anything that can be put in a letter can be sent electronically. "Stuff" is the only place where delivery services are viable, and FedEx/UPS has almost got that completely locked up for the foreseeable future.

[FSogol]

8. Wrong and sorry to see the RW viewpoint being promoted here.

Stop the privatization of the USPS. Restate that the sending of mail cheaply from state to state is a common interest of the citizens of the US and give the USPS the funds they need. FED EX and UPS would not be profitable if they had to stop at each address in America daily. The cost of having them mail items would be astronomical. I blame Reagan for convincing people that the USPS is a problem.

[FormerDittoHead]

11. +1. They'd only do it in areas where profitable, making the USPS even more burdened.

+1 re: right wing "government is evil" talking point....

Furthermore, and I think this bears stating, there are any number of Federal laws protecting my letters and their privacy which don't apply to private carriers.

[denbot]

13. +2

If you dismantle the post office instead of .50 cents, a letter would cost 5x+ and take just as much time if not more.

[napi21]

10. They couldn't possible compete with USPS. They don't have the vehicles to go to every

home, no matter how remote, EVERY DAY! The post office does just fine! I've never had a piece of mail or package lost or undelivered EVER. The reason they are hurting so much is because of email, online billpay, instant messaging, fax machines, and losses in the magazine industry circulation. If Sat. deliveries would help fix the problem, I can accept that, but they need to stay around!

[sharp_stick]

14. They do ship letters

I send documents out with FedEx all the time at work. It costs a small fortune, but they get there the next day.

[Jane Austin]

15. You do know that FedEx and UPS slap a hefty surcharge on residential

deliveries, as well as deliveries to "remote" locations.

"Remote" locations are pretty much everything that isn't a big city.

How would you like $4 worth of surcharges on that letter to Grandma back home?

[fasttense]

16. Yeah like privatization of government functions have worked out so well.

Like the billions we give away to Halliburton and Blackwater for something our military can do for half the cost.

Like the million we paid out to Halliburton to electrocute our soldiers and to give them tainted food and water.

Like when Bolivia privatized municipal water and it became illegal to collect rain water.

You must be crazy to think privatization as anything but welfare for huge corporations. Yeah they would probably charge minimal rates to people who are easy to get to. But every person in rural America would be required to pay 5 to 6 times more. Why do you think the federal government had to get electricity out to rural America? It wasn't profitable enough for corporations to do it.

[kerrywins]

17. those of government intervention failures

none of those have anything to do with free markets, those are government intervention failures.

[fasttense]

22. Blackwater and Halliburton are government intervention failures??????

Sorry to inform you but both those corporations are private. Not owned by the government. How could they possibly be failures of government?

And Bechtel, a huge multinational conglomerate was the corporation that went around fining people who collected rain water in Brazil.

Privatization of our common resources is designed to provide corporate welfare and always costs the customer more and more and more. Privatization has never saved money in the long run and always provides draconian control over individual behavior while providing the least amount of service.

Privatization is the issue of this forum and "free" markets are a con. Can you say NAFTA and CAFTA? Do you like all our good paying middle class jobs going to China and India? The "free" market brought us this 2nd Republicon Great Depression we are experiencing now.

[CatholicEdHead]

18. They do

The USPS contracts with FedEx to fly letters to and from Hawaii (saw an media shot after 9/11 with loaded planes).

Also, FedEx saves money by sending many of their packages from regional center to regional center via the USPS. They just charge more and take their cut off the top.

[FormerDittoHead]

19. Here's your answer...

I bought some memory from NewEgg.com.

It was shipped DHL. So I checked on the tracking.

Guess what DHL did.

THEY MAILED IT USPS.

[sendero]

20. The USPS ..

... is a pretty efficient organization. The other carriers want to deliver letters BUT they don't want to cover expensive rural routes, they don't want to do Sat delivery etc etc etc.

The idea that "private industry" could do a better job is patent bullshit. Within years, they'd set up a monopoly situation and be charging you $1 per letter and there wouldn't be jack shit you could do about it.

I'll stick with the USPS thank you.

[pokercat999]

21. I see no problem if the USPS cuts delivery to M-W-F, I only get

what seems to be limitless offers from casinos and other junk mail. Getting junk mail and xmas cards three times a week would be enough. All my communication with people is done by, phone or email, I can't remember the last time I received or sent an actual letter.

Besides there is no spell check on my hand written correspondence.