Postage stamp keeps going up and there is no end in sight. With the internet becoming popular and people using e-mail the amount of mail delivered by the post office have dropped off. Now with online bill pay more and more people are paying bills on line. Which means even less mail will be delivered. The post office will have to keep increasing the price of stamps. As they do this more and more people will cut back on stamps.
I saw on TV that a huge percentage of the younger population pay bills and use e-mail where as the older generation has been slower to except the new technology. But they also pointed out that it is the younger generation that are having kids and teaching them that using e-mail and online bill pay is the way to do things and the older generation is slowly dying off. So each year the amount of personal mail will decrees.
No other business could keep doing business as usual under these conditions. The post office though seems to think they can just keep raising the price of stamps to make up for dwindling business. Now the latest thing is businesses that are offering online bills. This is where they send you an e-mail to tell you your bill is ready. You then go to their web page and view or down load your bill. This saves the business printing cost and postage and is also good for the environment.
I have a solution that would work. I think the post office should get rid of Saturday delivery. The inconvenience would be very minor. Right now if you get something in the mail Saturday you can reply to it on Monday. Without Saturday delivery you wouldn’t get it till Monday so it would be Tuesday when you replied. One day later is all it would be. Even businesses wouldn’t be that big of a problem.
The plus side of this is the post office could cut their work force by up to 20% which could be done as people retire as to not lay off a bunch of people. But even if you don’t lay off that many workers you would also save one day of deliveries. This would save 20% of their fuel cost which would be huge and again this would also put less pollution in the air. This would be a great thing for the environment and cut our demand for oil.
I know I have tried to cut back on my driving and combine trips when I do go out. I have managed to cut my fuel consumption by about 8% from last year which has saved me money and I feel I am doing my part. Why then is the government unwilling to do their part.
