Quote from bigarrow:
It's called marketing. The senders are paying the post office to deliver the mail so that is what they do. You don't have to read it.
I did some post card direct mail marketing for the first time about a year ago, it was very profitable and I'll probably do it again. I spent thousands of dollars on cards, mailing lists and postage. Just think of it this way guys when you get all those annoying mail outs what you are really getting is the American free market experience, you are seeing our economy work. Every company busting their ass to get your business. You can't have a healthy free market and not be hit with all kinds of marketing.
Quote from AK Forty Seven:
1.Just look at most private industries that doesn't have government competition
2. UPS is not cheaper then the post office,for example
5 pound package from 70122 to 90120,compare the prices
UPS next day service 78.00-121.00
Post office next day service 37.00-40.00
Quote from Epic:
You need to consider the entire universe of package shipping. Those rates only apply to their supplied boxes. How much market share do you think those little boxes get? I'd guess that less than 15% of all packages are shipped in the little flat rate boxes.
Let's look at another common package description.
24" cube
40 lbs
Approx 1500 miles
Drop-off at location
Residential delivery
USPS --- $67 --- expected delivery 5-10 days
FedEx --- $50 --- delivery 2-3 days
UPS --- $54 --- delivery 2-3 days
For smaller boxes it would appear that USPS is competitive until you compare apples to apples. To get equivalent service and transit time you'd have to select "priority mail" to compete with Fedex Home Delivery and UPS Ground. This almost doubles the price from $22 to $40, where both FedEx and UPS come in at about $28.
You can forget about the USPS for any freight shipment.
And these are just rates for people off the street. We get even better rates through our UPS and FedEx accounts. In the end, for about 80-90% of all shipments, the US Postal Service is slower and/or more expensive.
Quote from Epic:
Tools, electronics, etc...
Winding down now. Too busy with asset management and wife is working less.
Quote from cgroupman:
OK, one of my companies would spend a lot on shipping as well. The 40 pound range was standard, the U.S. was 75% of our market. I thought I remembered that 40 pounds was a 'limit' of sorts that could cause a much higher shipping price if we went over. This was a while back of course. Easier to take it public and sell it, lol.
c
Quote from Epic:
Yes, unless you are talking "freight". Then I believe it is about 200lbs or over 8' length before higher charges. But the point stands either way. USPS is a worse option for anything but envelopes and the little flat rate boxes. Even then if you have a business account then UPS and FedEx get pretty competitive on price and will pick up at your location.
Then add to it that when talking freight shipments, there are any number of regional trucking outfits that give even better pricing. It gets really hard to argue that USPS is worth keeping around.