SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

Each day we send letters via certified mail in order to track the delivery or failed delivery of certain critical documents. However, it appears that the certified mail cost per letter is higher then the cost to send the same material via the private contract carrier (UPS, FedEx, etc.) under currently negoitiated contracts. These contract carriers are able to provide the same level of tracking services. Additionally,... more »

Grant the U.S. Postal Service the necessary infrastructure to be the federal government's go-to domestic shipper instead of giving contracts to Fed Ex or UPS. USPS, after all, is a highly capable government agency and it makes good sense to recognize and utilize this service, particularly at a time when postal revenue is decreasing. Doing so could save federal agencies money on shipping and even save postal jobs in... more »

As a real life example - to ship a textbook from Georgia to Alaska was $65 with FedEx, but $15 was spent through use of the U.S. Postal Service.

For offices that sell items, we should really charge for shipping. Sometimes we send out $4 maps and abosrb $3 in shipping charges. We already have POS systems in place, it would not be difficult to set them up to process shipping charges. Most people over the phone are ready to pay for shipping, they are actually shocked when there is no charge. We should also utilize USPS more. For anything that is larger than a manilla,... more »

As the operator of the largest civilian fleet of vehicles in the country, the United States Postal Service (USPS) could save money by gradually substituting its gas-powered vehicles with hybrid (gas/electric) and/or electric-only vehicles. For residential deliveries, for instance, hybrids would run on electricity alone during delivery stops, and quick runs from one residence to another. Some of the benefits from this... more »

I would suggest that we quit spending huge amounts of money to send overnight shipments via Fed Ex or UPS. The amounts we spend for those private companies could be spent using the USPS. Thus we would help the USPS out of their financial situation, and save huge amounts of money.

USPS Priority and Express Mail are very cost effective and dependable shipping solutions. Yet, USPS is not even available as a shipping option in some federal government facilities. USPS shipping supplies and training should be available to anyone military or civil servant. Granted, not everything can be shipped using USPS, but it should be the preferable option when and where it's most cost effective. It will not... more »

Contract the US Postal Service to use as a government-contracted default shipper. The US Postal Service is a government agency, like the others, that need to prove chain of custody in evidence development when shipping samples for processing. Having the our couriers be government employees would solidify the chain of custody, decrease shipping costs, and increase funds to keep more USPS offices open.

With the cooperation... more »

These entities are guzzlers of federal dollars, yet, they continually are in the red and are not effectively managed. Sell them off to the private sector. Let's have a better, more reliable public transportation system (like European trains) and therefore get more people riding them and off the road (thereby saving gas, reducing pollution, etc.)

While the "Forever" stamp is a nice idea and certainly will be good for consumers, the USPS is setting itself up for even bigger losses 10-20 years in the future. Just imagine if all those three cent stamps in collector hands could be used as 44 cent stamps today instead of their original 3 cent value. It nice to have some "Forever" issues but not every First Class stamp that is printed. The USPS will certainly find... more »

The USPS is failing I understand that services may get cut on the weekend at least. USPS workers make good salaries and work long hard hours especially at Christmas time. The USPS is a quasi government job. They need alot of employees from time to time to cover their peaks. If a employee normally makes $25 an hour they make $37.50 on overtime and alot of overtime is worked during these peaks especially at Christmas.... more »

The US Post Office gives away cardboard boxes, stickers, packing tape, and a whole list of other Priority Mail branded supplies. The Government has to pay for these supplies, but gives them away for free. This seems to me like a huge waste of tax payer money.

Much of the correspondence sent by Social Security Administration (SSA) to its customers contains a request stating "Address Service Requested." As a result, the USPS post office generates address update forms that note the old address and the new address. They then generate an invoice and bill SSA for this service. However, this feature is NOT useful because SSA is not able to update an address without the social... more »

Why are we not using the US Postal Service?

 

Why are we using UPS and FedEx to ship packages, when we have the postal service that is perfectly capable to handle our needs?

 

Not only will using the US Postal Service save the government money, but I believe that the US Postal Service will do an even better job than their commercial competitors that we are currently using.