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I have worked for companies that do a LOT of shipping, and got familiar with the personalities of the various carriers. The USPS has its foibles, but UPS and FedEx are not exactly angels. Just TRY to get UPS to honor a warranty for a package damaged in transit that had insurance. You might be able to do it, just like the kids who scored the free Christmas tree in "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn". Customer friendly they were NOT. UPS also managed to misdirect a $1,500 hard drive from E.Hartford, CT to Milpitas, California. They later tried to claim we signed for it, pointing to the signing for a smaller package received BEFORE the drive was sent.

An overnight letter I sent to a residence in Poughkeepsie, NY wound up in a shopping mall.

UPS and FedEx treat you better depending on how close you are to their hubs.

USPS provides a good value in both their Media Mail and Priority Mail.

USPS' biggest failure is not slowness, but paperwork for business customers. The Manifest Mail application is an ordeal straight from the Byzantine Empire. Tracking features are not what they should be. Even when available and paid for, huge gaps are often found even when the item is "in the system".

All told, all are imperfect... all are mostly good. If you don't like unions, then stay away from UPS.

I like the idea of ensuring that there is a USPS, because I want at least one service where the employees can't outright go on strike (like UPS did), and the carrier won't simply file Chapter 7. The post office predates the Declaration of Independence, and postal roads are included in the U.S. Constitution.

There are some parts of the system that are definitely money losers: 45 cent stamps to North Pole, Alaska, Death Valley, Giam, and APOs in Afghanistan for starters. I'd hate to see what other carrier would even send a post card to those locations.

Manifest Mail is one of those cases where it does look like UPS managed to get an old AMGeneral manager infiltrated into the Office of Mail Classification.

Although USPS was already testing out a Manifest Mailing system that was simple, easy to use, and effective, this doppelganger managed to screw it up. He even accused the guy who was in charge of that project of taking a bribe from Illinois Bell.

Both of them are long dead now ~ but UPS has always been a problem. Anything that might improve a parallel service they'll figure out how to get someone to screw it up ~ and that takes management intrigue. They probably have their payoff artists at work while we speak.