Last month, the cash-strapped street urchin that is the U.S. Postal Service pleaded “more gruel, sir” to the Postal Regulatory Commission, asking for permission to expand its test of delivering groceries and other non-postal items during those wee-morning hours when mail trucks mostly sit idle. Today, the PRC granted the USPS its wish. [More]
postal service
USPS To Screw Up Amazon Grocery Deliveries In San Francisco
By 9.4.14
Like that desperate, failing business-owner who keeps convincing people to give them one last shot to prove that it’s not yet time to hang it up and find something else to do, the U.S. Postal Service has somehow made a deal with Amazon to give it a shot at delivering groceries in the San Francisco area. [More]
Report: Most Consumers Don’t Care If The Post Office Offers Financial Services
By 7.16.14
At first glance it wouldn’t appear that the United States Postal Service and banks have much in common. But that might soon come to an end if an idea to expand banking services to local post office branches in an attempt to meet the needs of the underbanked. [More]
Can Postal Service Stay Alive By Cashing Checks & Selling Prepaid Debit Cards?
By 1.28.14
The once-great US Postal Service continues to sink into obscurity and financial oblivion, a destiny that will probably not be saved by all the postage stamp price increases in the world. But could the USPS keep its head above water by offering the financial services that are generally reserved for run-down strip malls? [More]
As U.S. Postal Service Sinks Into Irrelevance, It Seeks Hope In the Bottom Of A Bottle
By 12.19.13
Like too many once-great leaders who have been knocked from their pedestals by the disruptive forces of time and progress, the U.S. Postal Service is turning to wine and spirits while trying to hold on to the belief that it still has a future in the world that has outgrown it. [More]
USPS Seeks Price Increase On Stamps, Pays Futurist $565K To Mull Over Future Of Stamps
By 9.25.13
You know those stamps you use maybe once or twice a month? They could soon be slightly more expensive after the USPS Board of Governors has requested a three-cent price increase on first-class stamps in order to combat the expected $6 billion in losses this year. But since the USPS is already planning on losing that huge pile of cash anyway, why not throw another $565,000 toward some futurist firm that can ponder the destiny of the once-beloved postage stamp. [More]
USPS About To Run Out Of Cash, May Need Emergency Rate Hike
By 9.19.13
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe testified this morning before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, giving senators the bad news that the Postal Service will only have enough cash on hand next month to cover around five days worth of expenses. [More]
Are These The Final Days Of Door-To-Door USPS Deliveries?
By 7.23.13
Inscribed above the entry to the James Farley Post Office in Manhattan are the famous words, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” But you’ll notice that this unofficial postal carrier creed doesn’t specify that your mail will actually be brought to your door. [More]
Forget The NSA’s Hi-Tech Snooping, The USPS Has Been Scanning Our Mail For Years
By 7.3.13
Many people are upset — and with good reason — with the National Security Administration’s concerted and secretive efforts to obtain wireless and Internet data about a wide range of users, but what many people don’t know is that the U.S. Postal Service has been scanning the outside of every piece of mail it processes and making that information available to law enforcement without a warrant. [More]
USPS Hasn’t Paid Insurance Claim After 14 Months, Says “Investigations Take Time”
By 2.27.13
It can take months or years of investigation to bring a criminal matter to trial, and complicated insurance matters can often drag on for extended periods of time without resolution. But does the U.S. Postal Service really need more than a year to pay a $30 insurance claim? [More]
Postal Service Maybe Not Closing As Many Post Offices As Planned
By 5.9.12
It was last July that the US Postal Service announced it was considering closing around 3,700 of its approximately 32,000 outlets around the country, many of them in rural areas. But earlier today the Postmaster General unveiled yet another plan that could keep hundreds of these offices from closing outright. [More]
Senator Bums Everyone Out, Says "Elderly People Love Junk Mail"
By 4.20.12
There are few images more heartbreakingly depressing than an elderly person who eagerly awaits the daily delivery of mail — even junk mail — just so they’ll have something to look at that afternoon. But according to Nevada Senator Harry Reid, this is precisely why everything must be done to save the U.S. Postal Service. [More]
Worst Company In America Sweet 16: USPS Vs. Facebook
By 3.21.12
The old world clashes with the new this afternoon as the company that used to connect people around the country tries to take down the website that everyone now uses to show off photos of their kids. [More]
Worst Company In America Round One: UPS Vs. USPS
By 3.16.12
We hope these two parcel-punting pugilists know how to deliver the punches, because they both seem to have a problem delivering your packages. [More]
35,000 Pink Slips Are In The Mail For USPS Employees
By 2.24.12
As we wrote back in September, the U.S. Postal Service was looking at closing more than half of its mail processing centers around the nation, which was predicted would translate into around 35,000 lost jobs. Last night, the USPS finally announced that while some of those centers have survived the executioner’s blade, the number of layoffs will remain about the same. [More]
It's About To Become 5% More Expensive To Ship With UPS
By 11.18.11
In news that must surely have folks at the Postal Service cackling with delight — or at least it would if it weren’t after 4 p.m. and they hadn’t all gone home for the day already — UPS announced that it will soon be raising its published rates almost 5% on all domestic ground, air and international shipments that originate in the good ol’ U.S.A. [More]
Postal Service Offers Amnesty For Return Of That Mail Bin You're Using For Anything But Mail
By 11.16.11
You know those hard, white plastic bins that the mail carrier occasionally leaves at your office (and which people then take to use for their own purposes)? You’re supposed to be giving those back to your carrier the next day. So after decades of hemorrhaging money over un-returned bins, the USPS is offering amnesty through Nov. 26. [More]
You'll Soon Have To Pay More For Those Stamps You Don't Use
By 10.18.11
Because none of you are using the U.S. Postal Service — unless you are deliberately mailing a check you hope gets lost or delayed — that means it’s time for the struggling USPS to raise rates on first-class stamps… by one penny. [More]
