let's blast the Postal Service some more

[gregk]

Yeah,  I had to mail out a pair of pajamma bottoms that someone left behind at the Hotel I'm a courier for and I have no choice but to use UPS because of where I work. This burns me every time because I'm a retired P.O. employee. Here's a scam for you. Like other packages I sent this was a pajamma bottom and weighted under 1lb and the cost going Ups was just under $15. Now that's a deal isn't it.

[Bighead]

Keep bitchin and keep mailing. It helps pay my bills.
Everyone especially you as a former USPS  worker should realize that there are very few screw ups per package sent.

[$ Ball]

I just sent a  30" x 3 Tube  at 2lbs. Pirority mail and it was only $ 6.50, so you must have insured your pajamas for $500.

[Mike in AR]

If you come up with a way to get to where ever it is going for the cost that the Post Office charged you, do me a favor and keep it to yourself. I recently retired from the USPS, and like Bighead said, it pays my bills. People complain about the cost of a postage stamp, but are alright with the cost of a loaf of bread, a gallon of milk or gas. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that the rise in price of the three things I mentioned is far greater than the rise in postage. I don't think a gallon of gas will get your mail from coast to coast, but the stamp will.

[gregk]

I think you guys should try to comprehend what I wrote. This was not a shot at the Postal Service but Ups. Signing off before I get my self in more trouble.

[f6gal]

And the kicker is that UPS and Fed Ex use the post office to ship a lot of the packages.

[john]

 ???           

[R J]

And the kicker is that UPS and Fed Ex use the post office to ship a lot of the packages.

Amen to that Connie.

My wife is a Postal Service employee and that weekly paycheck is nice.

When she does retire, if Obama hasn't screwed up the US Dollar, she should have a good retirement when she decides to go out.

[solo1]

Maybe someone here can explain to me why a letter mailed in New Haven, Indiana to someone in New Haven, Indiana, is sent 120 miles to Indianapolis and then BACK to New Haven.????

All of my official New Haven city government mail to me now takes a an extra day. 

[Mike in AR]

Wayne, I'm not sure about Indiana, but I do know that for the last couple of years before I retired, they were closing a bunch of processing plants and combining them in a central location. They no longer do the sorting at the office where you drop your letter, unless that is a major processing plant.

[MarkT]

Yep.  I FIRED UPS a decade ago for malfeasance - or more accurately, "Breach of Contract on Extra Value Insurance", per the class-action lawsuit.  UPS lost.  So the lawyers got $20,000,000 and all the screwed customers got a discount on their next shipment.  Which did me no good at all since I had already fired them.  Plus they took a parting shot by trashing my credit when I refused to pay them the balance on my bill which was less than the damage they had inflicted on my shipments and failed to pay on the insurance I had paid for. It has since cost them tens of thousands of dollars in my lost business plus everyone I can steer away from them.  I still don't get why ANY ongoing business uses them after some experience with them.  I'm guessing they build a "loss to UPS damage" into their business plan, as they are often the cheapest.  Depending on the shipping particulars.

Meanwhile I use Fedex Ground for bigger packages, for purchases nearly always ask for other than UPS, and for sending smaller stuff, USPS Priority Mail is usually the shipper.

[R J]

Maybe someone here can explain to me why a letter mailed in New Haven, Indiana to someone in New Haven, Indiana, is sent 120 miles to Indianapolis and then BACK to New Haven.????

All of my official New Haven city government mail to me now takes a an extra day. 

Wayne, it is called Consolidation and Automation.

[solo1]

OK ???

[Black Pearl's Captain]

How about some truth in this thread.

Does the price that USPS charges cover the cost to run the business (no) or is USPS being subsidized by Joe Taxpayer? (yes)
For instance, is UPS or FEDEX held afloat by Joe Taxpayer? (no, USPS Yes)
Can UPS or FEDEX drive vehicle that don't pass US vehicle regulations? (no, USPS yes)

Will my $180 or the tire shipped and guaranteed by USPS to be delivered ever be returned to me? (no) How the heck can you lose a 30 inch tall tire?

18 BILLION per year from just the first link in a google search. Yes I know all postal employees and formers will claim this is not true:

http://fortune.com/2015/03/27/us-postal-service/


The United States Postal Service’s financial troubles have been well publicized in recent years. The worst of it came in 2012, when the USPS lost a whopping $15.9 billion dollars, followed by $4.8 billion and $5.3 billion in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

Post office officials have often attributed the losses to the decline in demand for first class mail in favor of more efficient modes of communication, and congressional mandates that the USPS do things like deliver mail on Saturdays and to unprofitable parts of the country. In fact, the USPS claims that if it weren’t for such requirements, it would more or less break even.

But as Robert Shapiro—former Treasury undersecretary and chairman of the economic consultancy Sonecon—points out in a new analysis, American taxpayers subsidize the USPS at a rate that surpasses the costs associated with any Congressional mandate. He estimates that, all told, the subsidies and legal monopolies that Congress bestows upon the post office is worth $18 billion annually. These include:

Laws that bar any other shipping service from delivering mail and packages directly to residential and business mailboxes. Shapiro estimates that this gives the Post Office a $14 billion annual boost, more than three times what the Postal Regulatory Commission estimates it to be. Shapiro argues that the PRC’s analysis doesn’t take into account the productivity gains that the Post Office would be forced to make if it really had to compete for mailbox delivery. He points out that productivity at USPS has only grown by 0.7% per year versus 2.5% for its competition.

Tax breaks. The Post Office is exempt from state and local property and real estate taxes, along with other burdens like tolls, vehicle registration fees, and parking tickets. These exemptions save the USPS $2.18 billion per year.

Cheap borrowing. The Postal Service, writes Shapiro, “can borrow from the U.S. Treasury through the Federal Financing Bank, at highly-subsidized interest rates.” It currently borrows the legal limit of $15.2 billion at a rate of 1.2%. Without this access, it would be paying somewhere between $415 million and $490 million per year more in interest.

Finally, Shapiro points out that the USPS pays its workers salaries and benefits far above the rates paid to similar workers in the private sector. Labor accounted for 78% of the organization’s costs in 2014, “with about 89% of those costs involving employees represented by collective bargaining.” These higher labor costs, plus the absence of a need to innovate due to government-granted monopolies, has freed the USPS from $20 billion in labor and productivity costs per year, Shapiro estimates. “While we do not technically count this as a subsidy,” he writes, it represents an economic burden on others arising directly from USPS’s monopoly position.” Postage, for instance, would likely be cheaper for everyone if the organization were subject to the same competitive pressures as private firms.

[Tx Bohemian]

Will my $180 or the tire shipped and guaranteed by UPS to be delivered ever be returned to me? (no) How the heck can you lose a 30 inch tall tire?

Wait, really??

I also had a tire go missing!  And the dealership blamed it on UPS as well!!

Of course, it could've been that the dealership forgot to order it...

I did get my tire a week later though.

[J.Mencalice]

Just received our package that was shipped via FedEx/Post Office from Florida to the wilds of Western Colorado in just 6 days of traveling three quarters of the way across the country.  It was intact with no hint of being mishandled or damaged.

We have a great rural delivery lady who put the package in our quonset hut so that the rain wouldn't soak it and left us a message in our mailbox to that effect.  She's a peach.

It pays to leave them something sweet around Christmas in appreciation for the "above and beyond the call of duty" efforts that they make for us.
We thank all of our UPS and FedEx drivers personally; maybe a little more of that would help than the constant barrage of horse-hockey that they get on a regular basis.

[Jess from VA]

For many years, I used to give the garbageman, mailman, paper boy, etc something or cash at Christmas.  Now in this skitso (urban) world, they change around so often there is very little continuity of service with anyone.  When the high temps of summer come around, I run cold bottled water out to my garbage crew from time to time.  (They don't care what I put in my dumpers  )

George, my mailman for many years, retired a number of years ago, and lives just up the street and rides his old minty Goldwing around.  We stop in on each other and visit from time to time.  

[Black Pearl's Captain]

Will my $180 or the tire shipped and guaranteed by UPS to be delivered ever be returned to me? (no) How the heck can you lose a 30 inch tall tire?

Wait, really??

I also had a tire go missing!  And the dealership blamed it on UPS as well!!

Of course, it could've been that the dealership forgot to order it...

I did get my tire a week later though.

My mistake, the USPS lost the tire not UPS.

[solo1]

Just went into our small USPS to get stamps. Only one of the three counters was open.  !5 minutes with four waiting behind me and the postmistress saw that as she walked into her office. My Kroger grocery store mans another check out immediately if there's more than 2 carts piled up, but that's Kroger. 

In fairness, my regular postman, Don,  is good.  However, the sub stinks, can't even put the mail in the right mailbox.

[Serk]

I can walk into a UPS or a FedEx shipping center while legally carrying, I can't even park my car in the USPS' parking lot with a weapon in my car if I want to stay legal.

[mrtappan]

I worked for the Post Office as my first federal job.  I ran the bar coder. 

I think the Post Office should be a paid service that you subscribe to.  I don't get "regular mail."  All my "regular mail" is junk mail.  Any correspondence between any entity I care about is electronic through email.  I would love to "unsubscribe" from the Post Office and save me the headache of burning hundreds of pounds of junk mail a year. 

Once the Internet became a quality of life issue, the Post Office became effectively obsolete in my mind. 

[J.Mencalice]

I worked for the Post Office as my first federal job.  I ran the bar coder. 

I think the Post Office should be a paid service that you subscribe to.  I don't get "regular mail."  All my "regular mail" is junk mail.  Any correspondence between any entity I care about is electronic through email.  I would love to "unsubscribe" from the Post Office and save me the headache of burning hundreds of pounds of junk mail a year. 

Once the Internet became a quality of life issue, the Post Office became effectively obsolete in my mind. 

Kramer tried to do that and look at all the trouble that he got into!

[mrtappan]

I took a picture of my "mailbox" when I got home.  That's about four or five days of junk mail.  I got one set of dogbones in the USPS for a M109 in the shop and everything else came UPS or FedEx.  That is literally a pile and box of wasted time and money.

[solo1]

This morning I was talking to our retired New Haven  postmaster.  He said originally that a postmaster had to be living locally, but not any more.  He mentioned that our current postmistress lives in Ohio and doesn't know or care about our people.  That definitely figures.

Both Fedex and UPS use the USPS for some packages. Seems like it takes longer now to get a package.

[R J]

It is just automation Wayne.

Nuttin to do with delivery however.

Livin in the region, yup, my Uncle had to move 6 blocks so he would be in the loop to be a rural carrier.   He carried rural for over 25 years after his stint in the Air Force.

[solo1]

Automation in private industry reduces the need for warm bodies. Is the postal service doing RIF's (reduction in force)?

[Jess from VA]

I haven't looked at the rules lately, but I thought you could go down to your local PO and fill out paperwork to stop all 4th class (junk mail) delivery.  

I guess not.
https://drowndinginmail.wordpress.com/start-here/
  
I keep my garbage dumper out next to the mailbox 24 X 7 (against the county rules), and 85% of everything in the box goes right into the dumper.   Since I rarely bought anything from Victoria's Secret, they finally stopped sending me crap every other day (for years).