Hi all! I’m interested in writing an article about the scaling back of mail services, and how people who use the mail system very frequently (like us!) feel about it. I recently started a job as a mail carrier, and it strikes me how little hand-written and international post that I see. I know this is sometimes a discussion on other parts of the forum, but I think it would be interesting to collate these sentiments in some way and I would rather have active consent to talk about your point of view in this thread than collate ideas from elsewhere.
In a little bit more information about me, I’m an anthropology student from the Netherlands and this sort of thing does really lie within my interests of how people communicate and relate to ‘technologies of the past’ (even though I don’t think sending mail is old fashioned!).
I’d love it if you could respond and say what you’ve heard your local mail service will do to international mail/home delivery, if you’ve noticed changes in your experiences with your mail service, and most importantly how you feel about it! Feel free to also give your opinion of how you would feel if home mail delivery/international mail would be suspended in your area. I’ll show you all what I write, and ask for explicit consent from you if I want to quote you (although everything will be anonymous). If you’d like to chat more in-depth and have an interview call/private thread of sorts, I’m also more than happy to listen!
We’re passionate about our mail and I want people to know that us mail senders still exist and we want to exist for as long as we can. Looking forward to your responses!! <3
Most people who appreciate mail have something to say about their experiences and their concerns for this issue, but I will leave it up to the members who know how to make a succinct and coherent response. I could write a huge, rambling essay about it.
Congrats on your job, and thank you for your interest and efforts!
There were many post offices closed last year. It is fair to say that we had a very dense network so some of them probably really deserved to go. Others maybe not so much. The queues definitely look longer now in the shopping centre where I frequently shop. On the other hand, when I went to my nearest post office to get some mail, it certainly wasn’t busy. We have a few other delivery services for parcels that are cheaper and more convenient than post and I believe vast majority of people use them when shopping online. They deliver to many, many shops (that sell other stuff, they just partner with those delivery companies as a pick up point) so you can send your parcel where it is most convenient for you. Now there are also delivery boxes in the streets where you just put a code and pick up your parcel at any time. It is amazing and it definitely takes a huge market share away from Czech Post.
I recently heard that it is being discussed whether to introduce another big change to post offices - they might be closed on some work days. Now they must be open (some may be open also on Saturdays or even Sundays but it is only the biggest ones).
There is discussion in the UK about dropping the Saturday delivery and also in the future possibly ending up with no deliveries at all so that people would go to collect mail, as I think Norway is mooting.
Personally, I would be very disappointed if they dropped the Saturday collections and fairly put out by a cessation of Saturday deliveries to homes. I feel that it would be very difficult for many people to go and collect their post in person and that these are probably the people who need to receive (happy) mail the most. However, I also appreciate that maybe many of them don’t receive letters and cards often and even that some of them wouldn’t want to, anyway. I feel a lot of people would use their cars to collect their post so it wouldn’t be any better for the environment and those who would walk to collect it likely have a healthy and more eco friendly habit of walking, anyway.
I also admit, however, that from my own point of view, if I didn’t Postcross I wouldn’t honestly be very troubled by the end of Saturday services. It would be a bit annoying but other post could probably wait a day or so. I understand this is selfish and rather obsessive but it is truthful, at least. Going to collect my mail would be much more of an issue for me in all respects.
Another issue is that in some communities the post carrier is a real part of that community and a friend of sorts to many people. Further face to face contact between people would be lost; okay, so just one person but it adds to the gradual vast reduction of human contact in society.
However, it seems that the postal service is just too expensive to carry on. We are already paying premium prices for postage - each postcard I send to another country costs £2.20 per stamp. I think first class post is £1.25. I often go for several days with no post and then get it all at once but in many places, and not remote or very rural areas, post is delivered once a week as it is.
It would be interesting to know exactly what demographic is using the postal service, and for what.
Good luck with your research and sorry for the long post (no pun intended!).
I have to admit, I intentionally avoid going to post office so it wouldn’t be a huge deal for me personally. I buy stamps online from Czech Post’s website and there are at least 6 posboxes in a 10 min walk radius from my house. And two more on the 5 min walk from my office to the restaurant we go for lunch. And I use those other companies for my package deliveries when I shop online. So I don’t really go to the post office except once a year to pick up that stamp order A lot of retired people pick up their retirement at the post office though. You also need to go there to pick up formal letters that are given only to your own hands. So it certainly wouldn’t be the end of the world for me but I can’t say how much of an impact it would be to close on some workdays on others. I also believe it wouldn’t affect all post offices.
My country often goes back and forth with getting rid of Saturday delivery. The post office often wants to get rid of it but the public does not. It is sad to see that not many people send letters to others anymore. I didn’t grow up receiving mail, I grew up in the silicon Valley when Facebook and Youtube and all of the other social media companies were forming, so the only mail I would actually send to anyone was electronic. However, since it is so rare now I send a lot of mail because I realized how special it is. I’d be curious to see more of your experience as a letter carrier and how much actual mail you see vs junk mail. Do you get surprised when you do see a letter?
To be honest, although I know that postal system is losing money every year, I often complain about the careless service they provide . But in our country, everyone generally has a natural sense of trust in China Post, including me!
The delivery of some important mail through postal registration is equivalent to the timeliness guaranteed by law, such as court summons, important documents and admission notices. Moreover, China Post promises that under normal circumstances, as long as it is within China, whether it is snowy mountains or swamps, deserts or ice fields, it will deliver it to you, as long as you are willing to wait…
I think this is the greatest thing about their willingness to deliver letters to places where private couriers are unwilling to deliver, and to serve those who are inconvenient to use other means of communication.
However, I learned before that postal workers often receive lower salaries , which also makes me sad.
If one day, the postal service really dies in my country, I think I will always remember the day when I took my college admission notice from the postman, including the heavy red envelope and his Warm smile .
Just saw in the news yesterday that Deutsche Post in Germany will be taking 3 to 4 days to deliver postcards or letters within the country. Usually inland post arrive the next day or maximum by second day in my experience. This will be quite a change in delivery time. No idea how it will affect international postal services.
Thank you for sharing your experiences. I grew up in the UK, and I remember as a child having two deliveries a day! If what I was expecting didn’t come in the first one I remember waiting and waiting until 1pm until the postman came back around again. I feel it’s sad that Saturday delivery could be out now, even though I don’t live there anymore. Do you hear non-postcrossers in your life speaking about the potential end of Saturday deliveries? What do they say?
Hi, yes, I also remember the second post. I remember waiting for letters at college and going to ask the porter if the second post had arrived yet. Actually, I am reading a biography of the women of the Rotheschild family and, when living outside of Victorian London, Charlotte Rotheschild was shocked to find that a letter from Frankfurt would take five whole days to reach her! Postal services were definitely better when everyone relied on it for most of their communication.
My husband isn’t a Postcrosser and sees it as fairly inevitable but isn’t that bothered as he communicates pretty much entirely using email and WhatsApp - and that includes talking to me, sometimes! The only time he uses the post is sending a birthday or Christmas card to a family member and then I would be one posting it anyway.
My parents are in their seventies and they would say it is a shame but it would not affect them too much just now as they are active and also use email/WhatsApp for keeping in touch with friends and family, they bank online, etc. A lady the same age as them said to me last week that postboxes would soon be a thing of the past. She didn’t seem very bothered but I couldn’t ask further because we were helping in a children’s group at the time so couldn’t really talk in depth.
At my house the postman no longer makes his rounds on Monday and Saturday. I can no longer find beautiful stamps at the post office in my small town. And in so-called philatelic post offices, the choice of stamps is not present and the tellers are not aware of much. They are not even aware that there is a special stamp in these philatelic offices. I have the impression that the mail no longer interests them. It’s a shame. Every year the postage rate increases. Even though my country is not the most expensive, it is difficult for me to send as much mail as before. I have to reduce my postcrossing sends. The Europe rate has disappeared for the world rate. I very much regret that the Post Office is no longer a mail-based company.
I can also understand that we are writing less and that we must find a solution so that the Post Office continues its work but not to the detriment of its postal service.
How do I feel? Resigned is the best word to describe the way things have gone. Our Postmaster General is quite clueless when it comes to running the USPS. No big surprise since he owes his position to politics rather than qualifications. The Postal Service is supposed to be financially self-sufficient, which means it "should cover its expenses through the sale of its products and services, not taxpayer money. That hasn’t happened since 2006.
The USPS focuses on service cuts rather than cost cuts. As @NihaoDragon noted, eliminating Saturday mail delivery has been floated almost every year and the idea has been dropped quickly. This could save the USPS many millions of $$$. You have powerful vested interests (primarily advertisers) who oppose this. Also certain labor unions oppose the idea.
To recap, I don’t have any confidence that things will turn around with the USPS. After a 35 year career in sales and marketing, I observed a few things: The chief one is - if you don’t achieve your goals or continue to sustain losses, it’s only a matter of time before you are shown the door. But in the case of the USPS, even Ray Charles can see a need for the change…that won’t happen.
Frankly, I feel sad. It takes simply longer for postcards to arrive nowadays. When I started postcrossing in 2013, we had a five-day delivery, so everyday was a mailday. Postcards arrived fast even within Finland and we had two mail classes (priority/economy) also in domestic mail.
Around 2016 domestic priority and economy was merged in one class. In 2017 we got a four-day delivery and now we have a rotating delivery: delivery on Mon, Wed & Fri one week, on Tue & Thu another week. That’s why it takes longer for domestic cards to arrive (about 5 days or longer). With any luck my cards abroad arrive faster than my domestic cards which is just weird. We pay a priority price domestically, but got an economy speed. In Finland domestic stamps cost around the same as international stamps, unlike many other countries where domestic stamps may be up to 50 % cheaper than international stamps.
There has been talk about reducing collecting days from five days to three days in a week, but this hasn’t been implemented yet. Also there are practically no real post offices left except Santa Claus’ post office in Rovaniemi and Helsinki main post office. Otherwise you just have to visit some post office desk at a supermarket or a kiosk.
I live in New York State, which has a lot of rural areas, where postal service is spotty. Normally, the mail is supposed to be delivered Monday thru Saturdays. According to my sister, who lives in Northern New York State, in Elmira, the mail delivery system is spotty. They don’t get the mail every day because they are short staffed. Currently I live in Southern New York, outside of NYC. Recently, our mail delivery has become spotty as well. We have an occasional day where no mail is delivered at all. I live in an apartment bldg with 70 residents, so we notice if no mail is delivered on a certain day. I worry about this trend continuing. I love receiving postcards and personal mail. It brings me joy. Feel free to DM me if you’d like.
Did they cite any reason?
for example, wanting to reduce fuel consumption for truck-parts of the trip is a motive I can resonate with. But I would be surprised if it had to do with the unavailability of workforce.
According to a news report “According to the Federal Ministry of Economics’ proposal, in the future there should be a requirement that 95 percent of letters reach the recipient on the third day after they are posted and 99 percent on the fourth day. With this reduced time pressure, the postal service could reduce costs and cancel night flights”.
Until now to meet the demand of 80% delivery next day and 95% delivery on the 2nd day and 99% delivery on 3rd day is possible only with many night cargo flights crisscrossing north-south corridor. To sink costs as well as cut down the flights, the new delivery plans are proposed for the postal services inland by Deutsche Post.
A lot of retired people pick up their retirement at the post office though. You also need to go there to pick up formal letters that are given only to your own hands. So it certainly wouldn’t be the end of the world for me but I can’t say how much of an impact it would be to close on some workdays on others. I also believe it wouldn’t affect all post offices.
. But in our country, everyone generally has a natural sense of trust in China Post, including me!
, which also makes me sad.
Postcards arrived fast even within Finland and we had two mail classes (priority/economy) also in domestic mail.