No mail delivered on Saturday? Imagine that. If you care and wish to comment you may respond to the Postal Regulatory Commission, via Internet access, or “snail mail,” but that’s so old fashioned.
I took the opportunity to register my sentiments with the PRC regarding Saturday mail delivery. Honestly, who would miss it? All that comes on Saturday 99 percent of the time is junk mail, and the 1 percent remainder may be bills that could wait until Monday.
Since my views may be 180 degrees out from readers’ opinions, I await their replies about this weighty matter, just like the Postal Regulatory Commission.
Losing Saturday mail delivery would be like learning of the passing of a long-lost relative in Wyoming or California. “Oh, that’s too bad. I’m sorry to hear about it,” may be the comment of most.
On the other side of the coin (there are always two sides to each story) the people who are employed, part time, on that day to deliver mail probably think it’s the worst possible blow to their income. No doubt, they are deluging the PRC’s e-mail in opposition to the proposal.
The postal service has been hemorrhaging gad-zillion dollars annually for as long as nearly anyone can remember. Who cared? No one gave a hoot except postal service bean counters. They saw more red on an average day than a Napa Valley wine maker.
Having jacked up the rate to send a first-class envelope to 44 cents, (still not a bad deal considering they will deliver across the street or to Hana, Hawaii for the same 44 pennies) the PRC realized it was time to throw on the brakes and quit spending money.
They should take their penny-pinching campaign to Congress and see how it works there if they really want to save money. Still the focus here is on Saturday mail delivery.
Within the scope of my working life, much has changed. Who among readers recalls the rush to the bank on paydays before they locked the doors at 3 p.m. on Friday? How did we live with such strict financial rules?
Fortunately, banks had their thumb on the pulse of a changing society. They became more flexible with their hours. First National Bank of Cape May Court House opened a walk-up window to service “after hours” customers. Others followed suit.
The post office was never that way. It was always rigid on hours and days.
Banks are now open every day, some from very early until 8 p.m. They have automatic teller machines that never sleep, so getting cash or making a deposit iis possible whenever the spirit moves a patron.
The PRC sees the virtue of the Internet, and utilizes it regularly for sending press releases to the media. Is there a disconnect somewhere along this line? Do the folks at Coca Cola headquarters have a Pepsi machine in the lobby? At a Budweiser brewery, do they serve Pabst Blue Ribbon? Do the candy makers at Hershey’s plant nibble on Nestlé’s Crunch bars?
Use the product. That’s what any good salesman is taught from day one. Don’t expect someone else to do what you do not.
Selling Chevys? Then don’t drive a Ford. Peddling Nikon cameras? Don’t extol the virtues of a Canon.
If “snail mail” is still the rage, and getting better, shouldn’t the chaps in the main office use it?
This boils down to putting one’s money where one’s mouth is. Along those lines, Lower Township Consolidated School Superintendent Joseph Cirrinicione should be nominated for the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award.
In the interest of his school district, to save the jobs of 32 employees in the district and make up for the loss of over $2 million in state aid, Cirrinicione will take a pay cut of over $115,000, and return in November as the district’s interim superintendent at $43,660 salary.
Thus, he will kiss goodbye his $160,000 salary plus benefits. Have we witnessed anyone else in the public sector doing such a thing? In fact, we need many more to so the same thing. This man deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom because his action is like, but not as life threatening as, a soldier jumping on a grenade or storming a gun position to save his buddies.
Some would say, “It makes no sense. Why would he do that?” Others would say, “It makes all the sense in the world. Who will be next?”
Cirrinicione has taken the first step and done his part. The PRC is poised to take another. Saturday mail delivery may slip into the history books. Who will give it a second thought a decade or two hence?
As we attempt to recover from this recession or depression, call it what you will, an understanding must come that we, in the private sector, cannot afford blossoming governmental salaries and services. If mail runs five days a week, we will get used to it. Meanwhile, we will be well positioned to communicate and pay bills.
Saturday mail service is like those luxurious gas guzzling land yachts of yesteryear, terrific, but few want to pay for them at today’s rates.
American car companies learned too late about being responsive to customers’ needs and desires. Banks got the idea. A Lower Township school administrator read the pulse of tomorrow.
It is overdue that postal regulators follow suit.
Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
