Re: Letter Carriers vs Private Contractors

Ockham's Razor wrote:

> In article <pPWdnbbmzc-rWGHYnZ2dnUVZ_g-dnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
>  Bill Shatzer <bshatzerNO@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>>Ockham's Razor wrote:

>>>>>FWIW, I'm an advocate of a lot of USG outsourcing but I'm not in
favor of 
>>>>>USPS outsourcing mail routes.

>>>They cannot outsource all mail routes.  The hallowed private sector
will 
>>>never assume delivery to the mail box at the end of the longest dirt 
>>>road in Montana.  

>>Sure they will - if they're paid enough to do so.

> At 37 cents a letter?  

Try 39 cents - 37 cents a letter is just so last year.

> Just what postage rate would they want?

They don't get paid by the letter. They get paid for providing mail 
delivery service to a particular route for a particular period of time.

The postal service kinda -expects- to lose money on delivering mail to 
that mail box at the end of the longest dirt road in Montana, quite 
regardless of whether they do the delivery with USPS employees and 
equipment or whether they contract it out.

If they privatize a delivery route, they're going to do it on a fixed 
price bid basis - X thousands of dollars annually to service a 
particular route; quite regardless of the actual volume of mail which 
might be involved.

And if that X thousands of dollars covers a private contractor's costs 
plus the desired profit, any number of private companies would be 
delighted to provide the service. If that works out to two bucks a 
letter or even ten bucks a letter, so be it.

The cost undoubtably works out to more than 39 cents a letter for the 
vast majority of RFD routes currently serviced by USPS employees.

Peace and justice,