US Postal Service Delaying Mail? Hogwash

[Balto1]

I am rural. Post office is a joke.

They aren’t a joke when they deliver significant percentages of UPS’ and Fedex’s rural packages. Kill the USPS and vast swathes of the country will no longer be able to afford mail, simple as that.

They need to cut retirement benefits,

They don’t need to cut benefits, they need to just not have to prefund those benefits to the insane and economically unfeasible degree required of them by the 2006 law designed to destroy the USPS.

they need to raise prices,

They’ve tried that but guess what? That same 2006 law doesn’t let them raise prices to the degree they would need to.

Court Rules Postal Service's Largest-Ever Stamp Price Increase Is Illegal

Decision sparks confusion as USPS says it is weighing its legal options.

www.govexec.com

Most people don’t know that the only federal money the USPS got before the 2006 nonsense was for mail for the military and mail for the blind.

Everyone with a functioning brain know that the problems with the USPS are entirely fabricated in order to attack unions. That’s all it is, and it’s fine if that’s what you want, but don’t cry crocodile tears over finances. Just say you want to get rid of good-paying working class jobs and prostrate yourself before the almighty private sector and their wage slavery.

It was delivered yesterday. 12 days to go from the mailbox to the sorting facility 3 miles away and back to my post office box. 6 mile round trip. 12 days. 1/2 mile/day average.

You really seem to have no idea what it takes to run a system that delivers like 600 million items of mail a day. It is vastly more efficient to send the mail from the boxes to a sorting facility then it is to sort them all at each post office, like to a comical degree.

Carriers can make mistakes. I’m sure I would make a few myself if I were a carrier. But we get each other’s mail once or twice a month. Sometimes I get mail in my mailbox that is supposed to be delivered on another street.

That never happened until about 3 years ago. And there is no end in sight.

Ah, the joy of replacing career postal workers with low paid temps. I love capitalism!

 

[upant]

They aren’t a joke when they deliver significant percentages of UPS’ and Fedex’s rural packages.

it is cheaper for these companies to push it on the USPS instead of delivering themselves. if the USPS goes under they will pick up the slack and do it themselves

They don’t need to cut benefits, they need to just not have to prefund those benefits to the insane and economically unfeasible degree required of them by the 2006 law designed to destroy the USPS.

the USPS was part of the deal-making, it was for a limited time but they never fulfilled their part of the bargain.

Everyone with a functioning brain know that the problems with the USPS are entirely fabricated in order to attack unions.

really? the billions in losses are just to cover up an attack on their unions?

Just say you want to get rid of good-paying working class jobs and prostrate yourself before the almighty private sector and their wage slavery.

the unions rob Peter to pay Paul. your skilled workers make less so your unskilled can be paid wages in excess of what they would get outside the government.

It is vastly more efficient to send the mail from the boxes to a sorting facility then it is to sort them all at each post office, like to a comical degree.

no, it isn’t. all it takes is an in-house slot for that building. some offices actually have these separate boxes.

Ah, the joy of replacing career postal workers with low paid temps. I love capitalism!

the work is seasonal, it needs a greater degree of temps, the unions fight it so the prices go up.

 

[Nepperhan]

“The head of the U.S. Postal Service acknowledged in a meeting with top Democrats that he instituted new policies restricting overtime and extra mail processing trips, moves that the agency previously downplayed and that postal workers say have caused mail backlogs, according to a letter released Thursday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.).”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...-policies-that-workers-say-are-delaying-mail/

 

[upant]

“The head of the U.S. Postal Service acknowledged in a meeting with top Democrats that he instituted new policies restricting overtime and extra mail processing trips, moves that the agency previously downplayed and that postal workers say have caused mail backlogs, according to a letter released Thursday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.).”

the standard was changed years ago, they were supposed to do this at that time. unfortunately, they didn’t and they are now in crisis mode.

 

[hvizsgyak]

That is not typical of most routes. Most carriers do their very best to get the customer’s mail to their mailbox in a timely manner and in the correct mailbox. There are occasions when our sorting machines reroute a piece of mail (unfortunately) (but for as much mail as we push, it happens a miniscule amount of times) to some other area of the country. The carry who receives that misdirected piece of mail puts it back into the mailstream and it gets to where it is suppose to go (unless the letter has something on it that causes the letter to be redirected).

I beg to differ with you on the packages though. We have been delivering way over our normal amount of packages since December. Also if your route is a starter route (when the next sub becomes a regular carrier; they get the worst route in the office usually) then you might be getting a new carrier every two or three months because the regular has moved on to a new route. It usually takes a new carrier 3 or 4 months to get a route down where they are not making mistakes.

And I beg to differ on overworked carriers. Our offices have been trying to hire people left and right. Out of a hundred people that apply for the positions, we may get ten workers. After a month half of them quit or get fired because the job sucks alot. I’d love for you to try it out. The job isn’t what you think. We don’t just drive around (like Chevy Chase did in that one movie) and throw the mail out the truck window like the newspaper (boy or girl).

 

[upant]

Out of a hundred people that apply for the positions, we may get ten workers.

I knew a girl who worked for the USPS in hiring, she used to tell me they would take 200 apps and half would fail the drug test

 

[CradleRC58]

You really seem to have no idea what it takes to run a system that delivers like 600 million items of mail a day. It is vastly more efficient to send the mail from the boxes to a sorting facility then it is to sort them all at each post office, like to a comical degree.

I never said a word about a sorting facility being a problem. That’s how it works. Back when the mail got put in the right mailboxes they used sorting facilities.Nope, no problem with sorting facilities whatsoever.
Try comprehending what you read before you reply please.

Ah, the joy of replacing career postal workers with low paid temps. I love capitalism!

I would find Joy if they would just hire carriers competent enough to put the letter addressed to 123 Main Street in the mailbox at 123 Main Street

 

[hvizsgyak]

You are absolutely correct but I felt a little awkward in saying that for some reason. We have a drug policy and most applicants fail it. Also the USPS has a good driver policy and here in Florida, well lets just say our auto insurance rates are some of the highest in the country because of accidents.

 

[sallybutler]

I find it amazing that the USPS has managed the Christmas season for decades, yet we suddenly think they can’t manage the voting season?

 

[hvizsgyak]

Exactly. The political season is a breeze compared to Christmas. I never even knew people were worried about the mail-in ballets. They have never been a problem for us and in Florida we cover alot of them.

 

[Pattylt]

My sister in law’s father was postmaster in Salt Lake the Dallas Ft. Worth area. My brother in law worked as a carrier until he retired a few years ago. The SIL father is the most staunch Trump Republican one can ever know. My BIL is an independent. Just thought I’d let you know that!

Years ago when the government was placing restrictions on the PO, they both commented on the government putting restrictions in place that would only tear down the PO. They were absurd in their opinions. The Post Master commented that he’d love to see Fed Ex handle the mail. Wait until they charge 4.00$ to mail a letter from California to New York! Wait for them to have no legal restrictions on the privacy of their mail. He insisted that Fed Ex would crumble under the weight of trying to be the USPO for America. I can’t remember his feelings about UPS…when did they come into existence?

I’m sorry some of you have had horrible experiences with your mail. I only have an occasional problem with misdirected mail going to an identical number on a street two blocks over. We now know each other as we often have to exchange a letter now and then! I’d personally, rather see the system fixed than done away with. I tend to like my mail having legal protections and one price for any letter in the US.

 

[ProVobis]

misdirected mail going to an identical number on a street two blocks over.

You’re right about that. There are many pieces without directional N, S, E, W on them among other ambiguities. This at best slows down delivery.

 

[graciew]

I USPS. Not once did they fail to deliever on time. Just the sight of that little truck made me happy.
Affordable also.
And also part of your identity, isn’t it?
Sometimes …I think we don’t value services enough until we loose them.

 

[sallybutler]

I also love my postal carrier. She is wonderful. She rings the doorbell if she has something that won’t fit in the box instead of leaving it on the front porch so it can be stolen. Or she redelivers it on Saturday I’ve finally trained my Fed Ex guy to do that and Amazon to do that. But I had to put nasty delivery instructions pointing out things would get stolen if they just left it on the front porch. That has never been an issue with my USPS carrier

 

[hvizsgyak]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...stal-service-deputy/ar-BB17UGai?ocid=msedgdhp

Is this what they mean by “fake news”? Getting everybody’s britches in an uproar that their vote is not going to get counted because of the “changes” made at the US Postal Service? First off, bulk rate/non profit mail at the plant has a two or three day turn around time. Then it is hot mail and is treated like real first class mail (pieces that actually have stamps on the envelopes sent out by us common folks). The bulk rate/non profit along with advertisement mail is what most people call junk mail (it comes in the mail multiple times a week and gets thrown in the garbage as fast as it comes into the house). If anything gets held back its this stuff. It is NEVER first class mail with a stamp.

How do I know this; well when our routes our evaluated (to see how much they will pay us for our route) this mail is controlled very strictly so that we only get so much of it a day so our routes are daily balanced with mail. Management will usually deny this but every clerk, mail handler, and carrier know this as fact. So again, first class stamped mail (mail in ballets included) are NEVER delayed (unless the supervisor, manager wants to get fired).

This article just wants to scare people. And as for the overtime, I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. Carriers are SO OVERWHELMED with packages that Americans are ordering that they are getting off their routes later in the day and missing the dispatch truck which takes all the out going mail for the day to the plant to be processed. When the dispatch truck is delayed, they get overtime. If the carrier has to make a second trip delivering extra parcel (that usually don’t fir in our smaller LLV trucks, we get paid extra. And management gets paid extra (in some fashion) for waiting for the carriers to get back off the street. For years, management has tried to keep overtime down to a minimum, this year isn’t any different. With the Post Office in the red each year, you can’t afford overtime.

COVID-19 - don’t even get me started with our workers on this subject. Let’s just say its ripe for abuse with sick leave especially at our plants. Shortage of workers I believe and some due to COVID-19 but mostly because the Postal Service can’t hire the needed people. Not too many qualify but many don’t what this kind of work (you get abused alot as a worker).

 

[RidgeSprinter]

Maybe move to a better state. I lived in Irvington(20 miles south of Fort Knox ) for 18 months. Mail service was horrible. Got back home. Mail service is great. Did same test as you. 2 day turn around. Sorting Facility is 30 miles away in another City.

 

[CradleRC58]

Maybe move to a better state

I’m staying put. The mail service is not a reason to move away from family and friends.