USPS in serious trouble

[mellowgerman]

usps wilting away
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/busin ... nt.html?hp

 

[silverfox103]

It doesn't surprise me. A small box was sent to me from Green Mountain Coffee, August 31 by USPS from 70 miles away. Today is Sept 7th, I am still waiting for it. I have a small business and do shipping in the northeast; for UPS or FedEx that is a next day delivery. I could walk there in 2 days, but the Post Office can't get it here in a week. This is 2 months in a row that I have had this problem. I called GMC and went ballistic on them for using USPS and taking so long for the delivery. I told them if you can't do better, don't bother. Next month it will be FedEx.

Good news (maybe), I checked the tracking number and it said the package was in transit. Whatever that means.

Tom C.

 

[idealassets]

Hopefully we can depend on Fedex and UPS if the USPS succumbs to all the unfavorable news we are hearing. Lets just hope for the best.

 

[adorshki]

Good news (maybe), I checked the tracking number and it said the package was in transit. Whatever that means.
Tom C.

Transit is just before purgatory. :wink:

 

[Default]

"It's a contract year".

Usps is not going away. As I've said before, we are the only part of the government that has to prefund it's own retirement.
As for the service issues, they have cut so much staff on the clerk side, in Philly, that they don't have enough people to run the Dps and flat sorters. They cut routes and the result is the carriers are working 10 and 1/2 hour days because it's cheaper to run everybody into the ground than to pay enough people for 8 hour days. They bitch about low floor traffic when they refuse to have the retail sections open after people are done work.
Packages are delayed because we don't have enough mailhandlers to unload the trucks or clerks to sort them out to the proper routes when they do arrive.
That's what you end up with when the organization has no one (no one!) Who understands the retail or service industries.
Rant over.

Did I mention it's a contract year?
Rant over.

Did I mention it's a contract year?


The worst that will happen is they end Saturday delivery, one out of five of us will lose our jobs, the layoffs will further throw the economy into the crapper.
The silver lining to this is the big bosses will clap each other on the back and give each other bonuses.
Break over, rant over.

 

[twocorgis]

It doesn't surprise me. A small box was sent to me from Green Mountain Coffee, August 31 by USPS from 70 miles away. Today is Sept 7th, I am still waiting for it. I have a small business and do shipping in the northeast; for UPS or FedEx that is a next day delivery. I could walk there in 2 days, but the Post Office can't get it here in a week. This is 2 months in a row that I have had this problem. I called GMC and went ballistic on them for using USPS and taking so long for the delivery. I told them if you can't do better, don't bother. Next month it will be FedEx.

Good news (maybe), I checked the tracking number and it said the package was in transit. Whatever that means.

Tom C.

I've had very similar experiences with the USPS as well Tom, though there's some here who would disagree with me. I order all the coffee I don't roast myself from Dean's Beans in MA (nectar of the gods it is), and using UPS Ground it gets to me overnight invariably. Fedex Ground did a similar great job getting that wonderful Mark V from you to me overnight as well, and you're well beyond the typical 200 mile radius for overnight Ground delivery. The biggest problem with USPS is that their tracking engine is basically useless. You have absolutely no idea where your stuff is by looking on the website (sorry Steve!).

 

[walrus]

Well said, default - if they were a private business they would have been done a long time ago, just like the DMV and other chronically inefficient government agencies. My local post office is a well-oiled machine compared to my local DMV office.

It's really too bad, the postal service is a great American story, going the way of the phone booth. And even today, they still have many very dedicated mail carriers.

walrus

 

[capnjuan]

USPS has the least-cost, most-reliable domestic and international shipping; commonly 60%-70% of what the biggies charge.

At the Palm Beach Gardens PO, the counter people are cordial, knowledgeable, and above all, have the patience of Job when it comes to woolly-headed Floridians who ask the same dim-witted questions day after day.

Whatever they get paid, it's not enough.

 

[learnintoplay62]

I personally love the P.O but unfortunately I don't think they adjusted well in the upper ranks to weather the storm. Our p.o is ok but most that I've been to have not been to friendly at the front desk. The general attitude in the P.O is the same as most gov. places they know there is not anything a customer can do about it. Now the guys that deliver the mail are always pleasant even when they have to work in bad weather. Again , it seems the problems are at the top and they just can't get rid of the dead wood.

 

[adorshki]

Again , it seems the problems are at the top and they just can't get rid of the dead wood.

Anybody remember when the phrase "goin' postal" was in vogue?

 

[CA-35]

I see my postman every day walking house to house to house. He is not a young man. He walks with a limp because either his hip or his knee is bad, I forget the story, rain or shine he is there walking house to house. He's been my postman for 12 years. Never complains, never takes a sick day, just drops those envelopes in a box all day every day. Hard working guy.

In this day and age of instantaneous delivery via electronic media you kinda have to wonder what is the USPS missing? Why haven't they too jumped aboard the internet somehow some way? These are hard working individuals corralled in to something they have no control over. Who is guiding that ship any way? I'm certainly no expert but something tells me having people park their vehicle and walk house to house dropping envelopes in a box is antiquated at best.

 

[RussD]

Big fan of the USPS here. Who else would get my mom's birthday card directly from my house to her's for less than 50 cents? I can't buy much of anything for half a buck.
My wife is a busy eBayer and her business would take a huge financial hit without their priority service. Cheap insurance and consistently reliable service; not perfect but solid.
FedEx and Brown both do a good job for me at work, but USPS makes my world a much better place.

 

[CA-35]

Big fan of the USPS here. Who else would get my mom's birthday card directly from my house to her's for less than 50 cents? I can't buy much of anything for half a buck.

Don't shoot the messenger but the USPS can't do it either without losing money. You cannot deliver door to door for 50 cent. No business in the world could survive. They need to stop the door to door delivery...it's killing them.

 

[bluesypicky]

FedEx and Brown both do a good job for me at work, but USPS makes my world a much better place.

Mine too.

The silver lining to this is the big bosses will clap each other on the back and give each other bonuses.

Everywhere the same story: Squeezing the juice out of the middle class, by overloading their schedules with the tasks of those that have been fired, so the fat cats can get fatter...
When is America gonna wake up?.. oh... I forgot: The fat cats own and run the country. :roll:
Rant over, won't go any deeper in this murky water.

 

[kevin the bass man]

I really like my local post office branch. the people who work the counter are great (although one lady gets upset if she has to put the delivery confirmation sticker on for me.) aside from that, the lady who works the counter 95% of the time is awesome. she remembers my name, asks how my folks are doing and occasionally asks about any progress I've made on my car.
as for the shipping rates, I can't complain. the post office is way cheaper than ups or fedex. I've never had any package destroyed, and have only had one go missing (coming from OK from a friend of mine and never got here.) when I ship, packages usually get to either the east or west coast quicker then I could drive there, although occasionally packages have sat at one place for a day or 2.

 

[Dr. Spivey]

I too, support the Postal Service. Have enjoyed excellent service throughout my lifetime. Sometimes when I lived in big cities the counter service was less than cordial, but still miles above the average government office. Good men and women, doing a difficult task under incompetent management.

 

[Default]

What's killing us is the requirement to fund retirement for people we have not hired yet and may not hire in the numbers mandated by the formula imposed on us. Think of it this way, you save for your retirement. In this case, the company pays into my retirement(along with my contributions), but is forced to fund the retirement of future (unhired, non-existent) employees, in effect, doubling the retirement burden on the organization.

As far as inefficient goes, we would have turned a small profit for the past 4-5 years if we weren't helping to fund the retirement system for other agencies. The PO, will always be around, after all, we keep prices down and UPS and Fedex (neither of whom matches the volume that we handle) can't overcharge you as much.

Again, this is contract-year negotiations where they weep and wail and bang the drum.

 

[Bill Ashton]

I too must stand up for the USPS. Much as our esteemed Cap'n and Walrus have experienced, our p.o. is always pleasant and helpful, though the counter is usually understaffed which I am no shy of commenting on to the supervisor (in tie) that Frequently comes out to see what is going on...much to the delight of the counter clerks.

One thing they do that does bug me though is the new process of taking in passport applications at the counter. So a family with three kids comes up and you can guess how long that takes. One would think, if the business is that brisk, that they could set times and a separate office or counter for that.

USPS generally will not just leave a package on the front porch like UPS does. And there is pretty much a truck routine in our neighborhood, so if the big truck coming to fill the relay box doesn't then deliver your package, its not coming today. With UPS or FedX you never know, their vehicles seemingly criss-crossing our street all the time.

Never know who will deliver for UPS. The local Fedx "contractor" lives a couple street over so she knows us, and if I am not home, she looks in the library for my wife.

I have sent amps and guitars via the USPS and never had a problem or reason to file a claim.

 

[adorshki]

Don't shoot the messenger but the USPS can't do it either without losing money. You cannot deliver door to door for 50 cent. No business in the world could survive. They need to stop the door to door delivery...it's killing them.

If it was one man one truck one letter, sure, but the cost is based on the efficiencies volume handling. And the original model was proabblay based on tax-subsidized costs, and since it was "semi-privatized" they've been having to fight to "break even" since day one. I don't dispute that the cost could probably stand to be increased, but I strongly disagree with eliminating door to door service. i like getting my mail delivered. What about you?
Nt to mention a sizable and ever-increasing chunk of the population for whom having to implement other means of getting and sending mail could be a significant hardship.
Default says they might have actually made a profit if some expenses not truly there own were factored out.
And I like that part about keeping OOPS and Federal Distress honest. :lol:
Like I said, that was one of the original intents, way back when it was up to you to pay some guy in a wagon to take it to the next state over.

 

[Guild Dawg]

The Postal Service is one of the few things government does of which I approve. That said, the structure they have set up is unsustainable. It cannot be a public service and a for-profit institution.