Think tank to study privatizing most Postal Service operations

[happyslug]

57. Pitney Bowes is PAYING for this study?

The US Postal Service has ALWAYS been a public-private partnership. Unlike UPS, the Postal Service contracts to PRIVATE HAULERS, the hauling of mail and packages between cities., It contracted with Amtrak to haul mail and packages between New York City and Chicago via Pittsburgh till the mid 1990 (When Amtrak lost the contract to private trucking companies). Mail and Packages go via "Space Available" bases on Airplanes (Which is also an indirect subsidy to the same air lines). Bitney Bowes sell and operate almost all of the metered mail devices used by businesses and it is a PRIVATE COMPANY. In many ways the US Postal Service uses a lot more outside contractors then dies UPS and other package delivery firms.

Thus why is Bitney Bowes FUNDING this study? Is the drop in BUSINESS USE OF THE MAIL THAT SIGNIFICANT? Maybe, but NOT due to the drop in first class mailing by businesses but the drop in usage of postal meters due to the Postal Service adoption of getting stamps via the Internet. i.e. people who uses stamps, have dropped using first class mail, but businesses, who use to use postal meters have NOT reduced their level of mailings.

I suspect Bitney Bowes is worried that its business may decrease if the Postal Service reduces mail deliveries to three days a week, thus Pitney Bowes wants businesses to send mail, and this is the first shot by Bitney Bowes in the fight on HOW the reduction in mail service takes place. Given that the Postal Service already hires outside contractors to most mail (Registered mail is an exception, that stays within the hands of Postal Service Employees, but it is a very small part of the Mail Service, way smaller then its often confused cousin Certified Mail).

Side note: People confuse Certified Mail with Registered Mail all the time. The Confusion is both cost extra, and the received of both must sign for the Mail. The difference is how it is handled in between. Certified mail is treated like any other type of mail except the end user must sign for it. Registered mail is signed for by everyone who had possession of it at any time. I.e, you go to the Post Office, the Clerk accepts your Registered Mail, he then gives it to the truck driver driving to the local distribution point, who signs for it, When the truck driver gets to the local distribution point, it is again signed for by whoever receives it. That person then transport to the next distribution points and hand it off to the next person who also signs for it. This signing for the package continues till it is delivered to the recipient., who also signs for it. Please note, it is the INDIVIDUAL Letter that is signed for, if they are dozens, the person receiving the Registered Mail MUST sign EACH as the receiver of that package.

The key to Registered mail, is if the package is lost, you know exactly who had possession of it at that time and that person is liable for any content of that package. Thus registered mail is generally restricted to packages of high value, for example when the Hope Diamond was given to the Smithsonian Institute, the Diamond dealer who owned it and donated it, shipped it the way he always shipped his diamonds, by Registered Mail. My Father had to delver Diamonds, via registered mail almost every week when he worked in Downtown Pittsburgh in the 1970s (He delivery the diamonds to one of the few diamond cutters in the US outside of New York City, it has been out of business since the elderly owner closed shop in the 1980s). He once delivered a heavy package to a Lawyer in Pittsburgh, he had the lawyer sign for the package (it was registered mail) and asked why was so small a package was so heavy, he was told it was two gold bars. I do into Registered Mail for people confuse it with Certified Mail all the time. Certified mail is used when someone wants a signature that someone received something (generally a legal document). Registered mail is used when the sender wants to know WHO HAD THE PACKAGE IF AND WHEN IT IS LOST. If it is received, no one really cares (Except the Letter Carrier who has a signature that he delivered it and did NOT lose it).