The USPS
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Category: News And Views
Forum Name: Thoughts and Opinions
Forum Description: Got something you need to say?
URL: http://www.tippmannsports.com/forum/wwf77a/forum_posts.asp?TID=189050
Printed Date: 16 December 2025 at 6:49am
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Topic: The USPS
Posted By: oldsoldier
Subject: The USPS
Date Posted: 06 September 2011 at 8:41am
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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. ------------- 
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Replies:
Posted By: Chadb1520
Date Posted: 06 September 2011 at 8:52am
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I know that fed ex ships stuff even for the usps ------------- All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. Thomas Jefferson |
Posted By: oldpbnoob
Date Posted: 06 September 2011 at 9:50am
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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. On another note, I am the treasurer for the local athletic association and pay bills on a monthly basis. We are a small community and use as many small/local companies as we can and many of them do not have any sort of online bill pay system so without the USPS I would be at a loss as to how to pay these people. I would agree though that bi weekly deliveries would be sufficient for the most part for bill paying/receiving. ------------- "When I grow up I want to marry a rich man and live in a condor next to the beach" -- My 7yr old daughter. |
Posted By: Yomillio
Date Posted: 06 September 2011 at 10:58am
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I use USPS a ton, for both sending out personal packages and small business mailings (contracts, invoices, everything). A few times a week would be acceptable, but for me one of their perks is being able to send out Priority Mail packages / mailings and have things get where they need to be extremely quickly and for minimal cost. I'd hate to see that change, but I could ultimately deal with it, because they need to do something very different than they way they're operating now. ------------- 
http://www.tippmann.com/forum/wwf77a/forum_posts.asp?TID=172327 - Forum XBL Gamertag Collection |
Posted By: agentwhale007
Date Posted: 06 September 2011 at 12:11pm
"Change" is partially responsible for their budget problems. 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. But I do agree that their lack of change has lead to this - the problem with that, though, is that they need to get Congressional approval for pretty much every large-scale change they intend on making. Their prices should have been substantially upped a long while ago, for example.
I'll generally agree that the threat of closure is essentially that - a threat. The USPS wants to kill Saturday deliveries to save money, and they need Congressional approval to do so, I do believe. If they can show they'll go belly-up without it, well, there is their tactic.
It's way down, that's for sure. It's one of the main cultural shifts that has caused the monetary problem with the USPS. But there will -always- be a need for some kind of controlled infrastructure for postage and delivery. It'll cost more. Supply and demand, and all that. But it still needs to exist.
I, like others in this thread, still use USPS to send things, primarily. (And, part of the problem is that I use it because it's cheap. Too cheap to survive, under current structures).
I would bet a three-day delivery system will be considered.
This is, I believe, the problem. At some point we took something that was a part of the government's maintenance of infrastructure - in this case, communications infrastructure - and tried to make it run like a private company. Public services were not really meant to run that way.
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oldsoldier wrote:Posted By: agentwhale007
Date Posted: 06 September 2011 at 12:13pm
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I do agree, though, that in the tech department, USPS has woefully lagged behind the private companies, as far as package tracking goes. I've just had one too many bad experiences with UPS and FedEx to the point I no longer use them, unless purchasing something from a company that uses them. If I ship something, it goes out USPS. It's a trade-off.
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Posted By: ParielIsBack
Date Posted: 06 September 2011 at 12:37pm
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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. ------------- BU Engineering 2012 |
Posted By: mbro
Date Posted: 06 September 2011 at 2:45pm
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http://www.economist.com/node/21526393 - The economist did a write up on the subject 2 weeks ago. Basically they argue that the USPS has its hands tied by legislation that do not allow it to control costs, revenues, or to enter new business markets like warehousing. ------------- 
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos. |
Posted By: Donald Blake
Date Posted: 06 September 2011 at 3:34pm
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. ------------- 
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Posted By: Rofl_Mao
Date Posted: 06 September 2011 at 4:41pm
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Canada Post > USPS Just saying. |
Posted By: Enos Shenk
Date Posted: 06 September 2011 at 5:22pm
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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. ------------- 
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Posted By: The Guy
Date Posted: 06 September 2011 at 5:27pm
But I can get free boxes and build forts!!!! ------------- http://www.anomationanodizing.com - My Site 
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Posted By: Mack
Date Posted: 07 September 2011 at 12:52pm
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? ------------- 
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Posted By: Enos Shenk
Date Posted: 07 September 2011 at 3:19pm
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They did that to my dad once. A manager was following him around in a car watching him. My dad couldn't resist trolling him, he stopped at our house (Which is on his route) for lunch, had a stopwatch running so he was in for EXACTLY the alloted time for a lunch break. Oh, another problem, the post office trucks are terrible. They're constantly breaking down, my dad has had to have his truck towed back to the shop something like 4 times in the past few years. They're also completely useless in snow, as the front wheels are a narrower wheelbase than the rear, so they get zero traction in even an inch of snow. -------------
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Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 08 September 2011 at 7:29am
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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. ------------- ? |
Posted By: jmac3
Date Posted: 08 September 2011 at 8:49am
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"l know how to save the USPS and make millions of dollars. Legalize weed and make the USPS in charge of delivery"-paraphrased jimmy kimmel ------------- Que pasa? 
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