Jackson Jambalaya

It's not just the letter-writing that's been eclipsed by e-mail. Online bill-pay and automatic bill-pay have freed folks from mailing several pieces every month. With some foresight, the USPS could have rebranded itself as an efficient package delivery operation, where there is still significant volume. Instead, UPS and, to a lesser degree FedEx, have shifted down to pick up that market. USPS can't be competitive in that market when it doesn't have a reliable and sophisticated tracking system.

Funny that Davey doesn't mention that the unionized USPS has indicated it won't be able to survive without an Obamacare waiver.

Why doesn't he also mention that the union contract with the Postal Service *guarantees* union member employees a minimum number of work hours regardless of mail volume? In FY2009 alone the Postal Service recorded over 1.2 MILLION *guaranteed* hours where they paid employees who were only standing around with nothing to do.

It isn't that Dave has gotten old he just can't control his penchant for intellectual dishonesty any longer. Its "all-in" time for progressives. Hey, maybe Shadowfax is really Davey Hampton?

Why does the USPS have to deliver mail to rural areas -- or any areas -- every day? It wouldn't break my heart if my bills and junk mail came two or three times a week instead of six.

David Hampton should realize that the post office is not run like a business because if it were, it would adapt to market realities or die.

Did he say 'livable wage'. How can we be certain Joe Adkins didn't write this piece?

How to save the USPS:

0. Ask the American public for suggestions on how to save money and listen to what is said. There is a lot of everyday wisdom out there.
1. Stop Saturday mail everywhere except to rented post office boxes and cut personnel to reflect that change.
2. Close all unneccessary post offices, such as the one in Fondren.
3. Control health care costs by shifting it all to the new Obamacare system, especially for postal retirees.
4. Get state of the art tracking system as FREE part of all packages sent via USPS.
5. Promote the one area where the postal service has a full advantage: generally reliable shipping to foriegn countries. UPS and FEDEX can compete here, at least not yet.
6. Jack the price of a stamp up to 50 cents and leave it there for a while AFTER you make the cost cutting measures above and others.

There are some things that just have to go by mail (mainly for legal reasons), and I don't see email ever totally eclipsing this segment. Plus, email is great for documents, but you can't physically send other small things, cheaply, with Fedex (and you'll need your originals at some point). Delivering 2 or 3 times a week sounds like a great idea. The whole thing just needs to be scaled back to reflect demand. That's what they would do if it were actually "run like a business" (along with firing some fairly surly and entitled employees).

"supply in demand" (sic)?

JPS grads proofreading again this week? ;-)

Also, the Fondren post office staff are the rudest bunch I have dealt with in my life. I go down to the Lefleur PO on Old Canton Road just to deal with nice people.

The staff at Lefleur PO are really a pleasure to deal with. That's a busy P.O., too.

Anyone tried to use the downtown postal facility lately. If I remember there are nine (9) customer service windows. On a good day perhaps two(2) of them are manned. On a typical day there are 8-10 customer standing in line. Average wait time is probably 10 mins. Go figure....

3. Control health care costs by shifting it all to the new Obamacare system, especially for postal retirees.

You are dreaming if you think Obamacare is going to control costs.

Hmmm..... wonder what happens to those healthcare subsidies when the debt and deficit force them to cap costs?

The last few times I was at the Downtown P.O. there was one guy running the customer area. I remarked that if he quit, they could just padlock the building since he was the only one working. He was doing a good job, though.

I know Shadowfax, and Davey Hampton ain't no Shadowfax!

The post office, generally, has zero interest in customer service. With the exception of one, maybe two clerks at the Madison P.O. none of them even look you in the eye. You're an empediment to their day. The Ridgeland P.O. is like taking an enema. The male clerks there are so typical of union turds. 'NEXT! YES?' is the typical summons to the waiting customer. Never a smile or kind word. Zero customer service. What did we expect from years in the union trench, entitlement trough and protected-status empire?

Damn I feel lucky because all the clerks at the Lefleur PO are always so pleasant. The only thing I would change is that they upsell so hard but that has to be because they're trying good sales to stay alive.

I know Shadowfax, and Davey Hampton ain't no Shadowfax!

Wow. Based on the Shadowfax markings left here I knew it was bad but never knew before your comment that it was worse than Hampton bad.

Great point KF. Anyone notice the irony of Hampton being oblivious to the advent of the internet and how it affects the P.O. when the very paper he works for is being put out of business by it also? Maybe the C-L should go to 3 days per week. Would any of us really miss anything? Plus the fact that KF's reporting is often superior anyway. Just a thought...

6:36. Lay down the hash pipe and grab a soda.

Have you ever smoke hashish Shadowfax? Seriously. Do you know what the f' you are talking about?

my experience at Lefluer is the people at the counter could learn from convenience store clerks to be quick and pleasant...

Shadow, pick up the pipe...

Show them the car fox. Your personal interest in smoking the chronic is getting old my grey bearded horse.

I had no idea....makes a ton of sense.

Shadowfax was a new age/electronic musical group, best known for their albums Shadowfax and Folksongs for a Nuclear Village. In 1988 they won the Grammy for Best New Age Performance for Folksongs for a Nuclear Village.[1] In 1992 they were nominated for the Grammy for Esperanto.
The group formed in 1972[2] and disbanded after 1995 when Lyricon player and leader Chuck Greenberg died of a heart attack. Having lost their signature sound, Shadowfax's members went on to other projects.
The group takes its name from Gandalf's horse Shadowfax in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
Their song "Angel's Flight" was used in the American importing of the 1982 anime movie Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp made by Toei Animation.

Screw the pipe! More COWBELL. Go Dawgs!

The loss of USPS would, in time, increase the costs of doing business .
There are risks associated with doing everything electronically as well that businesses ( and individuals) need to consider more carefully. If your computer ( or someone else's crashes)where will proof be found on some important transactions?
Junk mail, that we all love to hate, unfortunately does aid businesses. If there wasn't a profit involved, you wouldn't get junk mail.
If you love the increased costs of watching TV ( and now we are paying for radio), you are really going to love seeing the post office functions going private as well.
Business models don't work for EVERYTHING and were NEVER designed to work for EVERYTHING. SOME functions of a society are necessary and need to be governmental.
PLEASE people,start taking a closer look at how well privatization has worked. You might want to START with prisons and military bases. We aren't SAVING money, it's costing us more...nonprofit vs profit models...why is that hard?
It's hard because we've been SOLD bad theory by those who profit and who know you will believe ads,forwarded emails,uninformned friends,and paid talking heads if they repeat misinformation often enough.

Right on KF. I get nothing via FedEx or UPS that I would normally get from USPS. USPS has always been about delivering letters, magazines, catalogs, flyers, and postcards. They have just lately started expanding into the package delivery business.

Two things are killing the USPS.

First, as already mentioned, people are not using first-class mail anywhere near as much as they did in the past due to e-mail and online bill pay. That made a huge cut in the profitable business model of the USPS.

Second, the USPS is offering ridiculous discounts on items. I'm looking at two pieces of mail in front of me now. A first-class presort letter is $0.34 (a 23% discount), and a non-profit presort solicitation package that must weigh three ounces is only $0.09 (yep nine cents, a whopping 80% discount). When they had to hand sort the mail a 25% discount may have made sense, but not now with modern OCR sorters. Subsidizing non-profits may be a noble cause, but not when the USPS is already operating in the red.

Daily door-to-door mail delivery is no longer a viable business model. Daily post office box delivery with once or twice a week home delivery is eventually what the USPS will have to consider.

There is nothing worse than ignorance except mean-spirited ignorance. Because you have a blog and can type (presumably), does not mean you know anything about which you speak (or comment).

I can color too.

Good point earlier about paying bills online or over the phone. More and more billing done online as well. Then there are newsletters. Why send one out in the mail when you can send one out for free online with more material such as videos or other files?

I think Kingfish is spot on noting that Hampton joined Bill Minor in the land of irrelevance. Ladd is on her way but had to stop for a pack of smokes first.

Captain Kangaroo did a pretty admirable job laying out the history and mystery of 'Shadowfax'. If I may return the favor, and assuming memory serves, The Good Captain was a jolly old cherub who wore red or blue Magical Mystery Tour costumes, encouraged small children to visit often and played to more than a few audiences of stoned 22 year olds.

RE: "private businesses have taken the easy, lucrative routes and left the hard and expensive ones for USPS."

This just mindless propaganda...stuff I would expect from an idiot or a government union hack. By law, delivery services like UPS and FEDEX are prohibited from delivering non-urgent mail (i.e. non-express/overnight type mail). It has nothing to do with the private carriers getting better easy, lucrative routes.

I would like to know why some believe " online is free"?

If you are not paying for a server or connection , if you are not paying to purchase and maintain a computer, please tell me how you are doing it.

I expect you are spending more money each month than you ever spent for stamps or spent to buy music or games each month. Indeed, many of the activities you engage in on the Internet were free. Once upon a time, we actually talked to others.

Also, I do realize that some of you have never had a computer crash or experienced a virus or worm, but there are security issues with online business as the Wikileak story should suggest.

Humming " you don't know what you've got until you lose it"

I mailed an envelope via USPS about Sept. 9 from a location on President Street in downtown Jackson. It was addressed to the Hinds County Tax Collector, about two blocks away on President Street. Here we are 3 weeks later and it's still not there. When it's faster, cheaper and easier to literally walk it there, USPS should die.

8:41 - obviously you are a government worker. Maybe even a postal delivery USPS employee.

Yes, I pay for a computer and the server costs - but I use my computer for much more than sending things that I would send by mail. It has not only replaced much of my postage expense, it has replaced my calculator, a secretary (including typewriter, paper, carbon paper - ooops, dated myself - my copy machine replaced that) and many other functions. Besides, it has made my life much easier and efficient. Yes, I also pay for online backup, so your virus issues aren't there either.

Fact is, I own a computer for other reasons, but since I do I am no longer in need of many of the services of the USPS. I also have my own vehicle, so I no longer visit my local buggy-whip vendor or keep my horse at the stable. Although i do have to purchase gasoline instead, but the convenience is much better.