The USPS

As the Postal Service fails and has been totally reluctant to change, the threatened end unless bailed out should fall on deaf ears. With the advent of e-mail as well as online bill pay (deemed to be the final straw breaking the back since 'bills' were the mainstay of snail mail)the end of daily mail delivery is at hand.

Now there will always be a need for postal service bu the daily need seems to be at an end. Private operated package delivery services 9UPS, Fed Ex, etc) has taken a big bite out of that end of the USPS also. Seldom do I use the USPS to send packages or bussiness mailings anymore. I use Fed-Ex actually cheaper, and reliable delivery with verifacation and tracking service make it far more efficiaent for my needs than the USPS.

Now a restructure of the USPS with maybe a weekly two day delivery and the reduction in man power could 'save' the USPS, but for example the Union contracts where mail service workers sit in waiting rooms at full pay unless needed is rediculus in todays bussiness enviornment. Raising rates is a pure no-win as the competitors (UPS, Fed-Ex, etc) pricing can be seen as almost less in some cases, which will direct more mail to the private entities.

Just as with the telegraph succumbing to the telephone, the telegraph industry failed to adapt and insisted that thier tech was far superior than the 'talking' telegraph, the USPS is finding itself in the same position.

Adapt or die is my opinion to the USPS, restructure, reduce costs, whatever, but throwing more money at another technological dieing 'government' (yes I know USPS is not technically government, but the public perception is out there) entity is not a solution but another problem in the making if noting internally changes within the USPS. It does not 'have' to be saved, like the telegraph it was replaced by more advanced systems.

I actually still use USPS a fair amount. Since the local PO is only 3 block away, it is much more convenient for me to use it rather than having to drive 15-20 miles for the closest UPS drop off. I also like the flat rate box system as there is no guesswork. My only complaint is that I can't seem to figure out how to use Paypal to pay for my shipping unless I am using Paypal for the transaction as well.

oldsoldier wrote: As the Postal Service fails and has been totally reluctant to change,

 

Edited by agentwhale007 - 06 September 2011 at 12:14pm

Honestly I haven't had any real horror stories with FedEx, UPS, or USPS, but I tend to use UPS because I can use my mom's employee discount (since her company has a contract with UPS), or USPS if I'm in a rush.  Flat rate boxes are handy.

One thing that's helping kill off the postal service is the heavily subsidized rates for advertisements.  Either way, they probably can't operate at the prices they're running at now, but it would help narrow their margins to charge what it actually costs (and perhaps add some profit) for mailed ads.

agentwhale007 wrote: They were told to start operating like a corporation - in that, be self-sustaining. Which is, at times, an unusual thing to ask of something that is intended to be an infrastructure-based public service.

Came here to say this - there appears to be a common misunderstanding these days that various government services (including the post office) need to be self-sustaining, or subject to some other business concept.

Government is not business, and government functions should not be run like businesses.  FedEx is a business - the USPS is a government service.  The two are not the same, and should not be.

My father is a 40+ year letter carrier, so I've heard quite a bit of the viewpoint of your basic carrier.

The problem as I understand it is management. Due to all this pressure and panic from above, the managers have gone beauracracy-crazy in the USPS. Enormous amounts of paperwork for routine crap, nitpicking carrier speed to death with typical numbers-only business techniques, and failing utterly at offering decent online services.

Enos Shenk wrote: My father is a 40+ year letter carrier, so I've heard quite a bit of the viewpoint of your basic carrier. The problem as I understand it is management. Due to all this pressure and panic from above, the managers have gone beauracracy-crazy in the USPS. Enormous amounts of paperwork for routine crap, nitpicking carrier speed to death with typical numbers-only business techniques, and failing utterly at offering decent online services.

This, I found out the guy following our carrier around was doing a "monitoring" to determine if the carrier was performing his job correctly (i.e. fast enough).  I wonder how much more efficient the post office would be if they took all the people involved in this (knowing bureaucracies, it will be quite a few . . . not just the guys watching but a whole chain they report to as well) and gave them mail bags instead?

A buddy of mine is a letter carrier up here in NY and he's never had a good thing to say about those trucks. He was also yelled at pretty seriously for backing one of the trucks up.