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A comment on How Are Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's Changes Affecting Workers?. Parent comment

Re:How Are Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's Changes Affectin... by nickff on Wednesday August 12, 2020 @04:51PM (#24136823)
I was responding to a comment that said: "The day that UPS will be obligated to deliver a first-class letter... for 55 cents". UPS is legally required to charge at least six times more, and cannot use letterboxes.[1] The use of letterboxes is a cost-savings; if it were not a competitive advantage, the USPS wouldn't need a law protecting it.

Whether or not UPS wants the business is beside the point, and they currently cannot have it.

[1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/39/601

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Re:How Are Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's Changes Affectin... by vkou on Wednesday August 12, 2020 @08:23PM (#24138708)
> Whether or not UPS wants the business is beside the point, and they currently cannot have it.

It's the entire point actually.

The key part of my post is:

> The day that UPS will be obligated... to deliver a letter for 55 cents

The USPS is forced to provide this service - at a ridiculously low price. The second that UPS and Fedex have to play by the same rules (By being forced to deliver negative-margin mail), they will stop being profitable.

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Re:How Are Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's Changes Affectin... by triceratops on Wednesday August 12, 2020 @05:55PM (#24137477)
The letterbox might have been a competitive advantage when people weren't accustomed to having stuff delivered to their porch. Not anymore. Ditto for a first-class mail monopoly - advantageous when people actually wrote letters, practically useless today.
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Re:How Are Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's Changes Affectin... by nickff on Wednesday August 12, 2020 @06:19PM (#24137700)
Letterbox delivery is a competitive advantage because it saves money on delivery; the driver can often drop letters off in a mail room at a multi-unit dwelling, or by the road in the suburbs/rural areas.

We're only talking about first-class mail here, so a 6x cost advantage in first-class mail is very important.

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