Mailboxes in HPP

[macuu222]

BTW.... We've been on the list to get a box along Macuu since we moved here in 2005.

[Greg]

No one has responded to my earlier suggestion of a private mail service. A private mail box business just failed in Pahoa in spite of the demand for boxes. (High overhead, no parking spaces, drive to Pahoa?). Why can't a private service be mobile? It seems to me that the overhead of a car and gas wouldn't be more than the $2000 a month store rent plus staffing. Home delivery would be an incentive for customers. It seems like an entrepreneurial opportunity for someone. Would people pay $25 a month for home delivery? That would gross $5000 a month for 200 customers.(about the size of a paper route).

[Les C]

You seem to forget about liability issues for a private business. Also security issues. I think you'd have to have a wall of lawyers and insurance companies (read "lots of capital" standing behind you to help defend your biz from this litigious society.

[jade]

We can solve our own problems by getting a p.o. box but just think 8,000 lot x $25.00 a year the post office would make $200,000 a year and not have to drive to hpp.

[Les C]

Jade, I don't follow your argument. Did you mean to used a figure provided by macuu222 (8000 lots) combined with a figure estimated by Greg ($25/box at a private mail box facility) to come up with the revenue for what the USPS would make? Wouldn't it be better to use the figure that Bob Orts provided ($1200 for an 18 unit CMB - CA price) and macuu222's 8000 lots to come up with about 444 CBMs (18) for a rough total of $533,333 cost to HPP? Of course you would have to subtract however many CMBs already exist and if larger cluster units cost less per box. Also, factor whatever the cost differential for the BI (shipping, you know). Oh, and there is the requirement of making the access to these boxes safe and spacious enough, which might require an easement or land purchase.

Edited by - Les C on 06/29/2007 10:10:37

[jade]

I was refering to how much the post office makes on p.o. boxes. Why should we have to pay extra to get our mail?

[jade]

you are assigned a box number but it isn't considered a p.o. box. You still have to explain to companies that won't ship to p.o. boxes that this is your regular mail box.

[1 STOP MAIL SHOP]

Sir, my mail shop did not fail, not sure where you got that info from, I am in fact in business still and growing strong, 965-1111... I am trying to figure out how I can do a private home delivery to the hpp are in the future, I would need to have several accounts of that nature to justify me doing a route there...after hours, new hire I am not sure at this point, and as for my business July 1st will be our first year in operation, and it is here to stay.

Kevin Costello & Meghan Wobles

[Carey]

Les & Jade, right now a far more pratical figure to calculate would be somewhere under 3,000 lots that are occupied & might want more local service (8,800 HPP lots - there are many that are still undeveloped, and there are more than a few landowners that own more than 1 lot), still enough that you would think that the USPS could provide more boxes (HPP now has the 3rd largest population in the county....Hilo, Kailua-Kona, HPP, then Waimea....would think that population could get their own Post Office....maybe if the township idea was floated....but that might mean that HPP would have to collect more revenues, and they have had problems in the past just getting the road maintenance fees from all of the landowners...& another thread for another time)

[Les C]

Jade, I think I get your point now. I was having difficulty understanding what you were getting at. Yes, I would think the USPS would prefer to get the mailbox revenue and not have to spend on the necessary delivery people that would be needed if they could avoid it.

And I was going to say that I thought the 1 Stop Mail Shop in Pahoa was still a going concern. I saw a lot of people in line out the front door recently. Kevin, I think someone recently posted a link that made it appear that your business was up for sale. It might also be that you moved from one side of the building to the other, at least the front door did, and the old space is empty.