09:16 – Darrell Issa is still pushing for USPS reform. His latest bill in committee would end door delivery for 15 million addresses over the next 10 years, substituting curbside or communal boxes. At the stated cost annually per address of $380 for door delivery versus $240 for curbside versus $170 for communal boxes, the cost savings could be substantial. The articles I’ve seen state that USPS would pay all costs for the change, but I doubt that. I’m sure they’ll pay to install communal boxes, but I don’t see them paying to install curbside boxes at individual homes. Actually, they should. Assuming their numbers are accurate, replacing door delivery with a curbside box saves $140 per year, every year. If it costs $140 to install a curbside box, they’d pay off that cost in one year and then save $140/year every year thereafter.
Actually, I suspect they’d save more than $140/year when you consider the improved fuel mileage and reduction in maintenance costs on their vehicles. Nationwide, those LLV USPS vans are started and stopped literally billions of times a month. They must go through a metric boatload of new starters every year. And, although I’d be annoyed at being forced to pay for a curbside box and installation, otherwise I’d have no problem with shifting to curbside delivery. Obviously, I wouldn’t be able to fit outgoing kits into a curbside box, but I could just make up a laminated sign to hang on the flag and train the carriers on our route to come to the door when I had outgoing packages.
I’m still building kits and filling bottles. Sales are still slowish, but starting to pick up. Starting in mid-July, only two months from now, things will start to get crazy, so we need to be ready.