Feasibility of private, non-profit NH post office?

[scudiac]

If there was a non-profit "freedom express" courier in the state of NH, how many people do you think would use it?  As opposed to the US Postal Service and even UPS, DHL, Fedex, etc?  For in-state deliveries only, of course. 

Would people be willing to donate their time to contribute to a project like this? 

If you wanted to keep using the US Postal Service, you could put up two mail boxes on your property. 

The Freedom Mailbox and Fascist Mailbox.  Be sure to label them clearly

I'm not currently a NH resident, but I hope to be soon.  I wonder how much traction something like this could get. 

Thanks.

[d_goddard]

Why non-profit?
If you want it to succeed and self-perpetuate, aim for making it profitable.

If your vision of how to make it profitable strikes some people as tractable, you may even find people willing to invest in the idea -- making money available to get the project off the ground in return for a future cut of those profits.

[scudiac]

the non-profit part would help mitigate the risk of The Man coming down on the organization.  Also, this means not being 501c3.

the other selling point for non-profits is to solicit donations for time and money.   

[Porcupine_in_MA]

Sounds like a great idea. But I agree with Denis here that it should be a for-profit venture. A Porcupine Mail Service would be awesome. Doesn't the US Postal Service have a monopoly on first class mail though?

[scudiac]

yes, they do have a monopoly, but that doesn't mean we can't compete.  If the service did get popular enough, you would probably have a hard time with the feds.  Hence the non-profit aspect.  You'd probably get more public support this way too. 

You also wouldn't be able to use federal post office boxes.  You'd have to use liberty mail boxes

[Porcupine_in_MA]

yes, they do have a monopoly, but that doesn't mean we can't compete. 

As far as first class mail goes that does mean that you can't compete. Hence it being a monopoly.. 

[error]

Even a private courier service would be a place to start. You could even have natives using it!

[scudiac]

well, there's different levels of competition.  You can pay me .25 to take a letter from your house to a friend's house.  I doubt the feds are going to raise a stink over this.  Now, if you're Fedex and you start advertising national .25c first class rates, they are going to come down hard on Fedex.  That's what I meant by compete.  The scale is simply different. 

[d_goddard]

Either way -- whether for profit, or as a nonprofit -- if you are essentially competing for delivery of 1st class mail, the Feds will come down on the venture.

And that is the kind of civil disobedience I can get behind, can be damn proud of, and that might even win the hearts and minds of NH natives.

[Ogre]

I certainly like the idea -- but I'm not sure about the feasibility.  If you're going to try and compete for letters, I'm not sure how big that market really is these days, what with algore's internets and all.  But if you say that the new company will have individual mailboxes and will have daily delivery, you'd certainly have to charge some fee for that to the people who use it.  The feds charge what, 42 cents now per letter?  So if you can't charge considerably less than 42 cents, no one will want the service.  However, if you charge 25 cents (for example), how much will it cost to actually do the business?

Sure, with it being non-profit, you might be able to get start up funds, but if it's costing more to actually deliver the mail than you collect in charges, you're running in the negative -- which means you've got to find a non-stop influx of free cash (like the feds do with taxes).

The government hates competition and can always beat it down with infinite tax income.

Sure, some people would do this just to poke the feds in the eye -- especially in NH.  But I just wonder if there's enough of a market.  Perhaps once you got some businesses to participate, making mass-mailings to freedom boxes, the income might end up coming up enough to pay.  It might even be interesting to start it on a small scale, perhaps one day a week in one town, but I'm just not sure it's economically feasible without a large startup of cash from somewhere.

[Porcupine_in_MA]

And that is the kind of civil disobedience I can get behind, can be damn proud of, and that might even win the hearts and minds of NH natives.

Strongly seconded! 

[EJinCT]

I certainly like the idea -- but I'm not sure about the feasibility.  If you're going to try and compete for letters, I'm not sure how big that market really is these days, what with algore's internets and all.  But if you say that the new company will have individual mailboxes and will have daily delivery, you'd certainly have to charge some fee for that to the people who use it.  The feds charge what, 42 cents now per letter?  So if you can't charge considerably less than 42 cents, no one will want the service.  However, if you charge 25 cents (for example), how much will it cost to actually do the business?

Sure, with it being non-profit, you might be able to get start up funds, but if it's costing more to actually deliver the mail than you collect in charges, you're running in the negative -- which means you've got to find a non-stop influx of free cash (like the feds do with taxes).

The government hates competition and can always beat it down with infinite tax income.

Sure, some people would do this just to poke the feds in the eye -- especially in NH.  But I just wonder if there's enough of a market.  Perhaps once you got some businesses to participate, making mass-mailings to freedom boxes, the income might end up coming up enough to pay.  It might even be interesting to start it on a small scale, perhaps one day a week in one town, but I'm just not sure it's economically feasible without a large startup of cash from somewhere.

Agree with most points but this:

...if you can't charge considerably less than 42 cents, no one will want the service.

There might be many who would be willing to pay the same rate for the increased privacy. Of course that opens up all types of other concerns...

[d_goddard]

The more I think about this, the more I like it.

If it can be done at a profit, that's great, but I think this could be like how a lot of people see Liberty Dollars -- debatable weather it's a good investment or not, but as long as they're not losing a lot of money, people are willing to participate for the public outreach and education aspects.

Of course it's very hard to compete head-to-head on price with a government-subsidized "business", so you have  to be creative and think of value-adds. Privacy is certainly one. Convenience. Guarantees.

You could sell advertising space, on the mailboxes, on the delivery vehicles, even with stamps or stickers on the letters.

I know a few creative people and a few beers could come up with some ideas to make the service compelling, if they think out of the box and not just about the things USPS does.

[J’raxis 270145]

I agree with making it nonprofit. This goes along with my general idea of privatizing government services by spinning them off as nonprofits instead of selling them off to extant for-profit corporations. It demonstrates to the public that private entities can indeed "serve the public"—that you don't need to government to do so, and that just because something's private doesn't mean it has to be some big, evil, profiteering corporation.

I think the initial market would be mostly among freestaters and the like, not the general public. And perhaps by making this a private service for "members" or somesuch (I'm thinking about how, for example, bar and restaurant laws don't apply to "private clubs") you might also be able to more easily avoid the feds trying to defend the USPS monopoly against you.

[scudiac]

To start, I think starting as a private club would be great way to get off the ground (and keep the Feds away).  I also think it would be really neat to see a bunch of Freedom Mail Boxes on people's property.  I wonder what the USPS Couriers would think when they pulled up one day to see a Freedom Box next to the Post Master's General "Approved" box.