SENATE BILL: The Duke-Marokai Postal Service Act of 2013 (Law'd)

[Frodo]

Is there going to be any relief from the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act which forces the Postal Service to prepay employees' retirement pensions? 

[Frodo]

Is there going to be any relief from the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act which forces the Postal Service to prepay employees' retirement pensions?  

I was under the impression that this bill wasn't law in Atlasia; if it is, I'm in favor of relaxing its requirements.

It isn't; US law only goes up to 2004 (when the game began).

Oh.  That's good to know, then.
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I would like to know why people find it so necessary to cut Saturday delivery when the long-term financial situation is taken care of in other parts of the bill that relates to internet purchases and deliveries (part 2, section 2).  

[Frodo]

Passed.

If it has, the updated version of it at the beginning of this thread isn't showing it. 

[Frodo]

Just a few last points of inquiry, for Barnes or whoever, how was 70% determined to be an appropriate level?

The original bill called for labor and pension costs to remain below 60% of the APS's expenses. This exchange between GM Shua and then-Senator Marokai convinced me that a slightly higher ceiling would be a more feasible goal.

As for Oakvale's question, I think that a public postal service offers some important advantages (e.g. regular and affordable rural delivery that the private sector probably wouldn't provide), but I agree that the inconvenience of ending Saturday delivery is probably worth the savings. Barnes or Frodo could probably best explain the disadvantages involved in making this change.

Simply put -eliminating Saturday delivery would severely impact the speed and delivery of mail service in Atlasia, and undermine a key growth sector: parcel delivery.  Some of the Postal Service's biggest customers like Netflix and various newspaper publishers would be adversely affected by this change.  That in turn reduces revenue that the Atlasian Postal Service takes in by $5.3 billion, more than outweighing any savings gained by eliminating Saturday delivery.

It isn't worth it.  I would know since I work in RL for a union that represents USPS letter carriers.  

[Frodo]

Speaking as someone who in real life lives in a country without Saturday post I can categorically say you're vastly overstating the impact of removing it.

Am I?  Wasn't a lawsuit filed last year against An Post (the Irish equivalent of the USPS) by the Communications Regulator over the quality of its postal service?  

[Frodo]

Speaking as someone who in real life lives in a country without Saturday post I can categorically say you're vastly overstating the impact of removing it.

Am I?  Wasn't a lawsuit filed last year against An Post (the Irish equivalent of the USPS) by the Communications Regulator over the quality of its postal service?  

Not exactly sure how it helps your point that an unwieldy government bureaucracy is performing poorly. An Post has been a mess for years, I'm vaguely surprised we haven't sold it yet. It's possible no one would buy it.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with Saturday deliveries. I have no idea when that was abolished (or if it ever existed), but I can't remember there ever being regular Saturday post - they make exceptions at Christmas and elections if I recall correctly - and it maybe inconvenience one or two people on very rare occasions.

Bear in mind that the vast majority of post is advertising these days - parcels are commonly sent by courier service, and, well, who writes letters anymore ?  

If An Post is an as sh**tty a state as you suggest, why on earth would you advocate apeing it by eliminating Saturday delivery?  And how are you so certain that Saturday delivery (or lack thereof) has nothing to do with its financial troubles, which seems to have been there since its birth?  

The financial problems at the USPS, by contrast, only have become chronic after 2006.

The elimination of Saturday delivery -either here in Atlasia or in the RL United States- will do nothing to solve our problems.  An Post -by your own admission- is a perfect example of that.

[Frodo]

I'm more suggesting aping Deutsche Post, which, come to think of it, provides Saturday delivery!

My view on this is very simple - I believe the government should provide necessary services to the public to improve their quality of life - universal healthcare, public education, transport, etc, etc. I don't think Saturday post falls under that category.

Your argument that eliminating Saturday postal delivery is some kind of crucial milestone that effectively destroys a national postal service is absurd - An Post doesn't deliver on Saturdays, thus the company is doomed?

I just don't see how this is supposedly such a major issue - post on working days should suffice for the vast majority of businesses and citizens, and if it's really necessary people can always avail of a private delivery service on weekends.

The fact is if we're to have a national postal service in this country that we should at least make sure it's not massively loss-making. Eliminating what's effectively a luxury service achieves this.

Allow me to reiterate what I said earlier -the elimination of Saturday delivery is a penny-wise, pound-foolish option.  You will lose more revenue in the long-run than you will gain in the short-term, while letting private companies step into the void, thus contributing further to the downward spiral of the public postal service as it makes do with less revenue and a smaller workforce working fewer days, and earning less.  What benefits will we gain that will not be offset by lost revenue?  

By your own admission, the elimination of Saturday delivery has not helped An Post at all, apparently.  In fact, it is still suffering chronic financial problems.  

Why on earth would we want to follow the Irish example?  The elimination of Saturday delivery hasn't helped An Post, and it is definitely not going to help the Atlasian Postal Service either.  

[Frodo]

I will be merely repeating myself (again) if I were to respond to you since it is apparent you aren't really reading my posts, but I will be more than happy to fit numbers to words once I hear back from the Postal Regulatory Commission about that ORC International study concerning the impact of eliminating Saturday delivery.  That will be immensely helpful to that study committee to be formed as a result of the passage of this bill.