USPS

They're still in business? 🙂

> Do you use the mail? or some knock off like fedEx? or do you even send out paper invoices?

Yes, sometimes I use USPS. They appear to be getting up to speed with tracking. After years if issues with lost and miss-delivered mail (Zero security if it goes to BFE) so I am still concerned. They still have a LONG way to go on forwarding mail with any accuracy.

I prefer to use a private mail service for Important Mail. The is quite timely for me: I will have a pile of paper that needs to be promptly and securely delivered in a couple of days.
I would like some recommendations.
Willing to sacrifice Time for Security!

i use a hybrid

i email everything if possible, less paper = less overhead

i mail everything that is not time sensitive

i fedex everything that needs to go quick or need delivery confirmation, i try to bill it back to the client whenever possible as a passthrough. if they request it be overnighted they get charged for it.

Ditto Snoop,
Of course most my clients were local. So, If something had to be there immediately I would get in the truck and deliver personally. Along with the product I would also deliver a paper copy of the invoice. All invoices were delivered via email.

USPS has had it's share of problems. But, given the amount of mail it handles I'm not to concerned since there are other alternatives.

Norfolk Va. is closing one of their processing offices. USPS is like a fax machine...it's been outdated but still has it's upside.

If I can get it in an envelope I just mail stuff from home pickup. Otherwise it's Fed Ex from the local mom & pop store.

I have boycotted UPS for all shipping since they went on strike circa 1997. My recently fixed robot was on the loading dock 15 miles from my house for a week, and they wouldn't let me come and get it. Boy did the driver get an earfull when they finally delivered it.

All the USPS's problems stem from the fact that they are a bunch of lowballers 😉

Someone walking up to my front porch, picking up a document, moving it cross country and delivering it in less than a week, for half the price of a cup of crappy burnt gas station coffee is the best bargain going.

Almost always use the US Postal Service.

There's one very close to the office, another one very close to home.

Paper copies are always needed here in the metro NY/NJ area, so it works.

Overnight is between $17 and $19, depending on how far it's going and on the snail side, I mailed six copies out for $2.00 just an hour ago.

I'm 40 miles north of Atlanta (still considered suburbs). It may take me 2 hours to get downtown to an attorney's office to deliver plats plus $10-15 in gas. FedEx delivers next day by 10am around Metro Atlanta for $20. Hard to be that. USPS can have it there in 2 days around the metro for $2. That saves even more.

USPS - PRIORITY MAIL for 20 + years

extremely reliable and convenient

>
> Someone walking up to my front porch, picking up a document, moving it cross country and delivering it in less than a week, for half the price of a cup of crappy burnt gas station coffee is the best bargain going.

:good:
Like you said a while ago (I think it was you, probably referring to GPS), every once in a while socialism hits one out of the park

:good:

> USPS - PRIORITY MAIL for 20 + years
>
> extremely reliable and convenient

Every postal employee I've ever talked to said that Prioriy Mail gets the service as Frist Class, they just don't tell you that.

Nearly all of my mail starts from BFE and goes to BFE. All this idea of "overnight, before 10:00 a.m., etc. etc." doesn't really work that well between BFE and BFE. You city slickers get all the perks. I use our little local PO as much as possible to help keep their doors open. We are on the theoretical list of PO's to be closed in the near future. I get a half ton of magazines delivered to my home every month, mainly to help show how busy our little PO must be. Anyone remember the old comic strip Gasoline Alley? The last time some little gal from India called offering me a free subscription to some magazine, I told her my first name was Skeezix. Now, in addition to the magazine, I get various pieces of junk mail addressed to Skeezix.

Don't be messing with Skeeziks. Knew some way back when, and every one of them was state champion wrestlers, several all 3 years of HS.

There is a place in town call Mail Madam. She collects packages and looks up delivery for UPS, FedX and for USPS late night and weekends. I have trusted her to pick the best service since she opened and she has always been reliable.

Cow, that reminds me of when I get these calls from associates of my cards and such that can call to sell me something. Their information is not all correct and I always tell them to send whatever and hang up quickly cause the address they have is before 911 responders and though it was once my address, no one will deliver to it any more. That makes much of my junk mail wind up in the dead letter bin.

My local post office, in a town of 30,000 just doesn't seem to give a damn anymore.

Last month I had registered mail coming and the tracking indicated that it was out for delivery. I knew I had to sign for it and was looking out the window as the truck pulled up to my mail box. Stuff was shoved in and the truck drove off. A registered mail notice was left in the box. Go to the post office tomorrow and you can pick it up. I did that and had some choice comments for the assistant postmaster.

I have had Express Mail packages which I tracked to the post office arriving on a Saturday morning before 8 am. All Express Mail is to be delivered by three PM the day it arrives at the post office, seven days a week. It's supposed to be the modern equivalent of special delivery. Both times the packages arriving at the post office on a Saturday morning were delivered on Monday. If you challenge them they will lie to you about when it came in, apparently not realizing that it is tracked.

Any insurance claim for more than $50 is likely a waste of time and money and you will get no response from the Post Office to your submitted forms. Your next stop is your Congressman or Woman.

In earlier days the Post Office was totally reliable. I liked it. My late Grandfather was the Assistant Postmaster until his death.

Nothing beats the U.S. Mail; they will go to any address for cheap.

The USPS is a national treasure; to just blithely throw it away seems extremely short sighted to me.

> All the USPS's problems stem from the fact that they are a bunch of lowballers 😉
>
>
>
> Someone walking up to my front porch, picking up a document, moving it cross country and delivering it in less than a week, for half the price of a cup of crappy burnt gas station coffee is the best bargain going.

a blurb about the USPS:

The United States Postal Service (also known as USPS, the Post Office or U.S. Mail) is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution. The USPS traces its roots to 1775 during the Second Continental Congress, where Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general. The cabinet-level Post Office Department was created in 1792 from Franklin's operation and transformed into its current form in 1971 under the Postal Reorganization Act.

The USPS employs over 574,000 workers and operates over 218,000 vehicles.[3] It is the 2nd largest civilian employer in the United States.[3] The USPS is the operator of the largest vehicle fleet in the world.[4] The USPS is legally obligated to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at uniform price and quality.

On December 5, 2011 the USPS announced it will close more than half of its mail processing centers, eliminate 28,000 jobs and end overnight delivery of first-class mail. This will close down 252 of its 461 processing centers. On December 13, 2011 the USPS agreed to delay the closing of 252 mail processing centers as well as 3,700 local post offices until mid-May 2012.[5] The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA) (HR 6407), enacted on December 20, 2006, obligates the USPS to prefund 75-years' worth of future health care benefit payments to retirees within a ten-year time span — a requirement to which no other government organization is subject.

The USPS has not directly received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980s with the minor exception of subsidies for costs associated with the disabled and overseas voters. Revenue in the 2000s has been dropping sharply due to declining mail volume,[6] prompting the postal service to look to other sources of revenue while cutting costs to reduce its budget deficit.[7]

>The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA) (HR 6407), enacted on December 20, 2006, obligates the USPS to prefund 75-years' worth of future health care benefit payments to retirees within a ten-year time span — a requirement to which no other government organization is subject.

That right there is the main reason for all the current cuts.

Most people don't know that in many rural areas UPS will drop off packages at the local post office for delivery the next day just so they don't have to drive out to your house.

James