Disappearing Collection Boxes

Filed under Delivery, Finances, Mailing Services  

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picture of a collection box with part vanishing to nothing

News about disappearing collection boxes is everywhere these days. Even BBC News ran a story on the decline of the blue collection box in the United States.

The Postal Service argues that picking up mail from collection boxes is expensive. Removing underused boxes is a cost savings move and a reasonable response to the economic crisis. The Postal Service is removing boxes with less than 25 stamped mail pieces per day.

Critics wonder if there is adequate analysis to support the 25-piece minimum and whether one reason for removing collection boxes — in addition to the minimal cost savings — is that the Postal Service does not want to be criticized for poor service. Fewer boxes mean fewer opportunities to miss a collection or to pick up mail too early.

Is the Postal Service thinking too narrowly and missing some of the value of collection boxes? The ubiquitous presence of the boxes is free advertising for the ailing agency. How much would a private sector company pay to be allowed to put a collection box anywhere it wanted to in the country? Millions? Billions?

What do you think? Is removing collection boxes a reasonable cost-cutting move or a strategic mistake that the Postal Service will later regret?

This topic is hosted by the OIG’s Risk Analysis Research Center (RARC).

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Permalink | Comments (55) | Nov 9, 2009

 

 

55 Responses to “Disappearing Collection Boxes”

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  1. 55
    pilgrim Says:
    November 19th, 2009 at 6:00 am

    So now that the OIG has seen all these comments——what are you going to do about it? Is this blog a smokescreen, or do you really care?

  2. 54
    BornPostal Says:
    November 17th, 2009 at 12:49 pm

    This has been an issue for years. Postal should look at where these boxes are in proximity to an actual Post Office. The goal is to cut costs…maybe they should think about at what cost, costing costs will be…

  3. 53
    cc125 Says:
    November 15th, 2009 at 9:18 pm

    Being a supervisor under a midget general in Georgia, his first objective was to remove all collection boxes in a city of 45,000 and only have one in front of two post office locations. He didn’t want any missed and showing up on a report. He cared nothing about the customer complaints, only looking good on reports. What did they do with him? Why, transfer him to another office, of course!

  4. 52
    Andrea Jackson Says:
    November 14th, 2009 at 11:43 pm

    Change is inevitable, but this seems an all or nothing approach that has not been well considered. If we are looking to save government wastage, there are more lucrative savings and obvious places than in taking away the lines of communication of so many senior citizens in one fell swoop.

  5. 51
    Amazed... Says:
    November 13th, 2009 at 12:12 pm

    My parents are in their 80’s and when the USPS removed ALL the collection boxes in their neighborhood, they were left with unpleasant options. The collection boxes that remained were along busy streets downtown and always blocked by parked.

    They have never paid a bill via the Internet until now. Rather than risk leaving their bill payments in the mailslot for the carrier to pickup, they have starting paying bills via the Internet for the first time. That represents the majority of their outgoing mail.

    This boneheaded move is more likely to accellerate the demise of First Class mail than cut significant costs.

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