The Future of Mail Delivery: Cluster Box Units

[odomandr]

My great uncle was the same way. In retirement it was a social outing for him to check his po box

[cabfrank]

I really hope the Post Office is around longer than I am. I think they do a great job. The pension pre-funding seems very unfair to me, and makes it hard for the PO to fund business improvements and infrastructure that would reduce costs. I don't know that much about it, but what I do know makes very little sense. The cluster boxes do seem like a good idea in a lot of areas.

[Pokey]

We've got a type of cluster box system at the apartments where I live. It's a small building with mailboxes on three sides.This type has a flimsy aluminum door and lock on each mailbox. There are larger doors/compartments for packages, but I don't think they're ever used.

In the past I've seen the main door where the mail carrier enters to fill the mailboxes pried open with the lock nearly ripped off. The door had to be replaced. Last week I saw more than one of the larger package compartment doors ripped off and a lot of the mailbox doors opened. The locks on the exterior mailbox doors are easily pried open when someone has all the time in the world in the middle of the night. Just by opening one of the small mailbox doors one can reach in and around to fish around for the mail in the adjacent boxes; there are no doors on the inside of the mailboxes.

I think someone rips the large package door off, kicks in the inner door, crawls into the opening, then rifles through the mailboxes from the inside of the building.

This system is only slightly more secure than the mailboxes along a road.

[Mad Mac]

Mailboxes are protected by federal law, and crimes against them and the mail they contain are considered a federal offense. Violators can be fined up to $250,000 or imprisoned for up to three years for each act of vandalism.

It's not the theft and vandalism. It's the disrespect for other people and their property that sends normal people into a murderous rage. Where is Paul Kersey when you need him.

Security cameras.

[Ankerson]

The concept is not a new one.



In the '50s and '60s I used to see these out in the country. Not now.

Still do and still are today.

[Ankerson]

No other government mandated program is profitable. While not a right in the constitution it is pretty explicit that it is the responsibility of the government, who we pay taxes to, to maintain the program. I can see the cbu being a possible solution, having lived in places with them I can speak from experience that things were still lost, stolen or damaged due to restrictions the cbu has by design. I think it's high time we stop giving corporations breaks within this program. Limits... The classifications need to be refined possibly and rates as well. With the increase in online shipping maybe a new logistics team needs to come in for shipping Amazon or other high volume users

This... The postal service is not a business, it is a government service that we partially fund through taxes. It does not need to be profitable, because it's not meant to turn a profit. However it was turning a profit before a bill was passed forcing the usps to pay 75 years of pensions in the present.

Cluster boxes are a good idea for apartments or maybe a grouping of houses (like a gated community). In fact, I believe every apartment complex or gated community I've seen has them. So good there. It would not work for most of the people in my city or surrounding cities. Most houses are too spread out in rural communities.

I wish people would quit trying to make the usps a business.

^^^^^^ This exactly. ^^^^^^^^

[TomAiello]

In the private sector, a 'non pre funded pension' is called a Ponzi scheme, and is a version of financial fraud. It does not seem unreasonable to ask public sector pensions to behave in the same way that private sector pensions are required (by law) to behave.

[cabfrank]

I don't think pay as you go pensions are necessarily either Ponzi schemes or financial fraud.

[Sober_Survival]

Future? The future of mail delivery will probably be by drones. Who knows.

[TomAiello]

I don't think pay as you go pensions are necessarily either Ponzi schemes or financial fraud.

"Pay as You Go" pension plans involve contributions made by a single individual being held in that individuals name, and paid out to that individual.

Public Sector 'Pay as You Go' schemes are not the same thing at all. They merely use the same name (probably for marketing reasons). Public sector schemes use contributions from current contributors to fund current payouts (to former contributors). This is _exactly_ the definition of a Ponzi scheme, and would _definitely_ be illegal in the private sector. These schemes are illegal in the private sector because they result in extremely large unfunded liabilities being built up over time, and have universally resulted in bankruptcy, with the final rounds of contributors losing all of their investment. In the public sector, they represent a major forward passing of a financial liability, with the only possible eventual resolution being the use of general tax funds to 'rescue' the bankrupt pension scheme.

Basically these public sector schemes build up a large debt that is passed on to future taxpayers. Historically those future taxpayers have been too young to vote (if they were even born), so they are unable to protest at being stuck with the bill for current financial irresponsibility. It's likely, however, that we are approaching the end of this system, and that today's young voters will have to find ways to pay these bills during their middle age (or retirement) years.

An attempt to rescue such a pension scheme (or any other similar plan, the largest of which is, of course, the US 'Social Security' system) is a highly laudable act of financial responsibility (and general politically suicidal), in which the current authorities take responsibility for a very bad situation and try to remedy it rather than simply passing the buck on down the line to their successors.

More explanation here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay-as-yo ... nsion_plan

[cabfrank]

This isn't the time or the place, Tom. I'm just going to disagree, and leave it alone.