The postal service is an outdated means of communication

Banjo String · 12-08-2014 07:42PM

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Without looking it up guess how many items of post are delivered in Ireland every day.

Prob way off here.

But with a population of say 4million, I'm guessing around 20million per day?

Annasopra · 12-08-2014 07:52PM

truffle5 wrote: »

it doesn't make economic sense to keep them open.

Any figures on this? Or are you just making it up?

truffle5 wrote: »

God forbid you have to drive to the nearest city to collect your dole.

Any figures on how many unemployed people own cars?

blade1 · 12-08-2014 08:13PM

shruikan2553 wrote: »

Plus an post charge for attempting another delivery.

Whhhhaaaatttttt??
Where are you getting this from?

shruikan2553 · 12-08-2014 08:21PM

blade1 wrote: »

Whhhhaaaatttttt??
Where are you getting this from?

If you aren't there when they deliver a package you can either collect it yourself or pay 3.50 online to have them attempt it again at some random point in the next 3 days. That's how it was about a year ago anyway.

dmc17 · 12-08-2014 08:25PM

Banjo String wrote: »

Try attaching a packet of rashers, some cheese n onion taytos, and some Barry's teabags to your brother in England in an email.

Get back to me with how it works out.

Next time I'm in England I'll try this and see how he reacts

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 12-08-2014 08:34PM

shruikan2553 wrote: »

If you aren't there when they deliver a package you can either collect it yourself or pay 3.50 online to have them attempt it again at some random point in the next 3 days. That's how it was about a year ago anyway.

Not around here. Our postman will take the parcel the next day if necessary. We get a superb service.

blade1 · 12-08-2014 08:40PM

shruikan2553 wrote: »

If you aren't there when they deliver a package you can either collect it yourself or pay 3.50 online to have them attempt it again at some random point in the next 3 days. That's how it was about a year ago anyway.

Ah forget about online!
Ring them up and if the guy you are talking to is any bit decent at all, he'll ask the postman to drop it out again or if you could have a word with the postman even.

Aongus Von Bismarck · 12-08-2014 08:45PM

The business model looks like it is in serious trouble. The days of some overpaid semi-state worker driving around the country with a couple of letters to houses in the back end of beyond is one that is unsustainable. An expansion of the Parcel Motel concept would provide far greater cost efficiencies and allow for private operators to enter the market with greater ease.

Karl Stein · 12-08-2014 08:47PM

I communicate by scroll, sealed with a unique wax stamp, delivered by a trusted associate on horseback.

.

Sir Arthur Daley · 12-08-2014 08:48PM

They need to get competitive with parcel shipping, anything over 2kg and it big money, far cheaper to send by courier.

Kelly06 · 12-08-2014 08:53PM

kneemos wrote: »

You can pop along to the depot at your leisure though if you miss them.

Which is usually in your local area and not 20 miles away !

keith16 · 12-08-2014 08:56PM

What a poisonous, sneering post. Presumably your letterbox is nailed shut OP?

kneemos · 12-08-2014 09:01PM

Think we'll have a postal service for a ling time to come,whatever the cost.
Don't know if they can be replaced by email or not but the posties round here certainly look laden down every morning.

Shakespeare's Sister · 12-08-2014 09:05PM

Parcel delivery is big business now. Letters still have their role too for more official correspondence. Wow, email might kill the postal service - now that's a maverick notion that wasn't realised many many years ago at all! :eek:
The postal service will probably be downsized, but I don't see how it could disappear entirely.

Pwindedd · 12-08-2014 09:25PM

Magaggie wrote: »

Parcel delivery is big business now. Letters still have their role too for more official correspondence. Wow, email might kill the postal service - now that's a maverick notion that wasn't realised many many years ago at all! :eek:
The postal service will probably be downsized, but I don't see how it could disappear entirely.

Agreed - All the time businesses need to provide or receive original documents the postal service will live on, you can't email a cheque, tax disc, or signed document. Our post at work can sometimes contain literally hundreds of letters. Email is great for most things, but I can't help but think that any one who sends me an email Xmas card is a cheap-assed lazy bastid!

my teapot is orange · 12-08-2014 09:42PM

I do things online as much as possible, but if I want to send someone a card to mark a special occasion, I want to send them a proper card that I will write and post, not some e-card sh$te.

Davarus Walrus · 12-08-2014 09:57PM

Pwindedd wrote: »

Agreed - All the time businesses need to provide or receive original documents the postal service will live on, you can't email a cheque, tax disc, or signed document. Our post at work can sometimes contain literally hundreds of letters. Email is great for most things, but I can't help but think that any one who sends me an email Xmas card is a cheap-assed lazy bastid!

Cheques are on the way out. The use of a paper disc in a holder on the windscreen of your car to show you've paid motor tax is an outdated idea. Will probably be replaced with a system rather like that used to ensure a car has been insured. There will always be use-cases where a signed document is needed. They'll lessen as well though as technology develops. Digital signatures and multi-factor authentication can be used.

I don't think a postal service will completely disappear. We'll always need to have stuff delivered to us. But the idea the service will operate anything like it does today doesn't hold up to much scrutiny.

Son Of A Vidic · 12-08-2014 10:06PM

truffle5 wrote: »

The postal service is an outdated means of communication

Is that you big Phil? Trying to spin and justify more cuts are ya?

Davarus Walrus · 12-08-2014 10:08PM

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

Is that you big Phil? Trying to spin and justify more cuts are ya?

What are you on about?

Son Of A Vidic · 12-08-2014 10:09PM

Davarus Walrus wrote: »

What are you on about?

Need more wattage ya?

Davarus Walrus · 12-08-2014 10:12PM

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

Need more wattage ya?

No, I genuinely don't understand what your post was about. It has something to do with Big Phil Hogan. Who is no longer a Minister. And even when he was a Minister, he wasn't the Minister of the department with responsibility for postal services. So you'll have to enlighten me.

Son Of A Vidic · 12-08-2014 10:15PM

Davarus Walrus wrote: »

No, I genuinely don't understand what your post was about. It has something to do with Big Phil Hogan. Who is no longer a Minister. And even when he was a Minister, he wasn't the Minister of the department with responsibility for postal services. So you'll have to enlighten me.

I'll 'have' to do no such thing. You missed the point, the bigger picture, didn't read between the line. So what, it happens.

Davarus Walrus · 12-08-2014 10:16PM

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

I'll 'have' to do no such thing. You missed the point, the bigger picture, didn't read between the line. So what, it happens.

Fair enough.

For Forks Sake · 12-08-2014 10:28PM

Karl Stein wrote: »

I communicate by scroll sealed with a unique wax stamp delivered by a trusted associate on horseback.

There is wisdom in your methods.

Wibbs · 12-08-2014 10:34PM

I love my postie. Lovely bloke. He has come laden with letters and packages from Peru, Spain, Russia, UK, France, Argentina, US, Lithuania, Japan, Canada and a few others. That's since the New Year. I think it's bloody fantastic. The Interweb is brilliant, but for some of the things you need and find on the same interweb, or you just want to send stuff to people around this world of ours, you still need a bod or bodess to actually deliver the stuff and in most case that's my postie. Long may it continue.

FrStone · 12-08-2014 11:13PM

No courier I've used has been able to provide a better service than an post.

Couriers always arrive when you are in work and insist on getting something signed. They also usually get lost and have to ring looking for my house.

My post man has a key to our garage, if he had to deliver a parcel and we are out.

I also never agree to sign up to services that insist on providing paperless bills.

Ave Sodalis · 12-08-2014 11:23PM

OP, are you aware that the National Broadband Scheme is ending in two weeks? The country is actually starting to get rid of whatever bit of progress it has made in terms of internet coverage, and you want to make more essential things online? From the 25th of August, we aren't going to have internet in our home house until a viable alternative is found (My mother was offered 15gb for €22 between 5 people, as opposed to 40gb for €20).
Plus, with couriers, I will always get the phone call saying "oh, I don't have any other delivery out there and I'm very busy today so I just left it in a random shop that's miles away"

Avada · 12-08-2014 11:24PM

Banjo String wrote: »

Prob way off here.

But with a population of say 4million, I'm guessing around 20million per day?

Yup! Way off....

An post say they deliver about 3 million items per day

thelad95 · 12-08-2014 11:27PM

truffle5 wrote: »

The postal service is an outdated means of communication that belongs in the 20th century. I get all my bills and correspondence via email. I predict the death of the postal service in our lifetime. An Post is losing money hand over fist and the only thing keeping it alive at the moment is online shopping delivery via the likes of Amazon and Ebay.

Email doesn't have the vast overheads of the inefficient postal service – bricks and mortar offices across the country, sorting office and the machinery inside, paying a postman, his van, petrol etc. I realise the culchies are quite fond of their rural post office (as long as someone else is paying for it, in true socialist fashion) but it doesn't make economic sense to keep them open. God forbid you have to drive to the nearest city to collect your dole.

The postman’s job will soon join bank teller and supermarket check-out assistant as one that has been replaced by a machine. At least machines don’t grow beards and join unions.

E-mail is ridculously insecure. If the post office is going to die so is the newspaper but frankly I still find it more convenient to read a newspaper than scroll through hastily written online articles.

LizT · 12-08-2014 11:35PM

I love getting post, especially as I'm away from home. Such a lovely surprise when you get a nice card or parcel, really brightens up your day

The postal service is an outdated means of communication

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