Posted on 11/17/2009 1:35:46 AM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Sorry pal, I just can't get enough sympathy for an organization that has dealt with years of deficits and that a product like FedEx can blow you guys out of business in the drop of a hat.
You could not have survived in the private sector working for a loser like the USPS without bailouts I mean subsidies. You may have worked hard but remember, 10’s of thousand of you public servants thought you could get by with bull shit service.
I, an American taxpayer owes you nothing.
You will however get your retirement. You now are the elite! How special you can work for a loser and still get paid. FU!
BUMP
As it turned out USPS also cut costs faster than at any time before in its history ~ and, proportionate to its mail volume at peak, did as well as or better than FedEx or UPS.
What is being discussed here is a loss of revenue due directly to a loss of mail volume. It's an idea kind of built into the business ~ if mail volume pays the freight, then, when mail volume declines, the freight costs have gotta' drop.
There are people who simply cannot understand that concept ~ which is why they don't work as transportation cost analysts. Nor are they allowed near the cash register anywhere.
Now, for the question of a private takeover of USPS, I have a plan all ready for that. If you'd like to discuss it in detail I think I could arrange to post it here all properly annotated and so forth, and you and I and a couple of other posters could go through it paragraph by paragraph. It's pretty much on the order of the Obamacare crap that came out of the House (in terms of size, but not content).
BTW, I never could come up with a cheaper way to do the service, but I did figure out how the owners can make a killing on the backs of the public (if you really want to know what my angle is). The resultant privately owned USPS would be no more burdened with unions than is UPS BTW.
Regarding FedEx, that was invented by a guy named Smith whose roommate was the son of the postmaster of Gary Indiana. He told me all about how he'd do Express Mail before Smith graduated. Where most folks credit Smith with being the smart guy in the deal I credit the postmaster of Gary (at the time).
Concerning UPS, a bunch of distruntled postal workers (at Headquarters) took the challenge of devising a parcel express company and bought an existing furniture moving business in Seattle as a start. They also demanded the Teamsters organize the workforce (to minimize trouble ~ in those days when you invited in the Teamsters you got the Mafia as well).
What else do you want to know about the origins of these other companies?
And, are you willing to put up the billions of dollars necessary to replace USPS?
It's all in the federal law if you want to bother reading about it.
This is not like Department of Defense which is ALL DEFICIT SPENDING and does not return any profits.
Sounds like you are a civil servant yourself. The only folks that ever defend the USPS are it’s employees. Tell me one private firm that can run 3.5 billion in deficits and still keep the doors open without the help of the federal government?
By the way I’ve built several post offices. My checks came from the federal government NOT the USPS.
Regarding defending USPS it's not all that difficult. On the other hand we have an awful lot of people in this country (about 300 million of them) who think they own the place and they are very picky. Most of them are also ignorant as all get out about how "things work".
I don’t think that would work in such a huge country like the US. It’s easier in Germany and far more so in Holland (DHL and TNT respectively), but the US has plenty of folks who live in the middle of nowhere.
Raise the cost of a stamp. $.43 to $.60 isn’t going to kill anyone.
My local Post Office here in San Antonio is a larger facility that covers about 6-8 ZIP codes. Very busy place.
Last week I noticed that the parking was completely full - I had to park at a shopping center across the street. I went in expecting to find people lined up at the counter. There were only about 8 people in line.
I asked why the parking lot was full and the lady behind the counter said the employee parking lot in back was being torn up and re-paved and all the employees were parking in the front.
I asked "So, at the busiest season of the year, all of the employees at this facility are taking up all of the customer parking spaces? Why don't you all park across the street at the shopping center?"
"Those parking spaces are not just for customers", she snapped.
What would happen to folks who lived in the Ozarks? Far away from anything?
HALF the mail in the world??? I seriously doubt that.
46%
The percentage of the world’s card and letter mail volume handled by the United States Postal Service
http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/postalfacts.htm
It's been that way for most of a century.
USPS is quite a large organization. With annual revenues/expenses of about $78 billion, it can well withstand a $3.5 billion deficit ~ not eternally, but they’ve already cut more than $6 billion.
They recently lost an important piece of mail I sent; so I finally came into the 21st century and started paying bills online
They need to cut a lot more. All they’re doing around here is building more Post Offices. Go figure.
Like I said, most people have no idea how large the institution is ~ 700,000+ employees, 28,000 buildings, etc.
Can you imagine how many flush toilets they own? You could have a VP for that process alone.
You have no clue how hard I work. I'm one of those guys that go in a half hour before I'm supposed to and work. I try to do stuff off the clock, I drag my butt around my route as fast as possible to not only give the best possible service to the customers, but also to make sure I'm not going over time.
Next time it's pouring rain for a solid day or two, why don't you get out and walk with the city carriers? It is really an enlightening experience. The walking routes where I work are between 10 and 17 miles. Wet feet, wet clothes, dogs, cold of winter and heat of summer.... Oh, did I mention how fast we have to work? Did I mention all the retarded rules we have to abide? I'm supposed to take two 15 minute breaks and a 1/2 hour lunch. No freakin' way. If I did that I'd not make it back in time. If I take 10 minutes, that would be an unusual day.
It's really amazing what y'all consider a "tax parasite." Really. You think I should go find a "real job?" Simply amazing.
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