[rescue] FedEx Ground

[David Cantrell]

On Wed, Aug 07, 2002 at 08:57:48AM -0400, William Enestvedt wrote:

>    I agree -- but I wouldn't mind paying a _small_ difference in postage for
> slightly better service. That is, when I lived in England -- whooops, I'm
> aging -- ten years ago, there were two classes of mail, one a few pence more
> expensive than the other, but the better service got there sooner. I know
> that USPS has different classes of mail, too, but the British class
> differences were a little less drastic.

FYI, first class letters are 27p, second class 19p.  I think they aim to
deliver 97% of first class letters the next working day, and 95% of second
class in two working days.  They just about achieve it too.  I think they
may have different targets for stuff going to weird outer islands in
Scotland and stuff.

There's also guaranteed next morning or next day delivery which is, IIRC,
a few quid.  Parcels are remarkably cheap to send - under a tenner to send
monitors cross-country, for instance.

Whilst the post office is government owned, it is entirely self-supporting.
It's lost money in the last year or so, but for most of the last decade
has been profitable.

And on the subject of post offices - I got a little package from Hong Kong
today (I had to go to the post office to pick it up, and didn't have to
queue).  Hong Kong has very pretty stamps, with watercolours of famous
Hong Kong landmarks and buildings on them.

-- 
Lord Protector David Cantrell     |     http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed
 (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless
 series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary"  -- H. L. Mencken