Mail needs an overhaul

I think we need a more streamlined postal system. I'm no expert, but I've thought about what I envision the system would work like.

Having to line up at a postal outlet would be a thing of the past. You would create a postal account online. Got something to mail? Sign in online and indicate the delivery priority. You then get a bar code label to print out. This identifies the item for mailing as yours with the delivery method your chose. Then you just drop it off at the nearest.... whatever. The people who would normally be working the postal outlets, processing countless impatient people through the lineups? They would be processing pre-bar code labelled parcels that had been dropped off. Once each package is measured and weighed, you'd be billed based on the dimensions and weight plus the delivery method you had chosen. Hell, they don't even need people to do this part - machines could do it faster and more efficiently. Customs declarations could be built into the bar code too.

While we're on the topic, I'd like to send out a hearty thank you very much to the inefficient folks who process our mail across the border. Things are so bad that many eBay sellers now refuse to ship to Canada from the US because of the bad feedback they get from the 6+ weeks of delivery time it takes to get to a Canadian destination. This isn't heresy, a poster print Darlene ordered from a US retailer took so long, she thought for sure it had been lost in the mail. So - to all responsible - thanks so much.