Postal Reform Bill Not Ready to Deliver

Townhall.com ^ | February 19, 2017 | Brian McNicoll

[Runner4life]

Exactly!! Lots of generalities being thrown around here! Are there bad employees at the USPS? Sure. Just like everywhere. Is it heavily burdened with management who never touch a piece of mail? Absolutely. How many of you have a gps chip tracking you all day long on your job? With FedExand UPS offloading more and more of their “ last mile” deliveries to the USPS, the USPS now deliver more packages every day than those two combined. New employee turnover is close to 50%. You can’t find anyone who wants to be a carrier. They are worked to death and treated like sh$t. It’s an organization that operates like a private business but managed by government blowhards. Privatize it totally, not just half assed!!

[spintreebob]

Privatize it totally. Not just half assed.

That says it all.

[oldvirginian]

I live in a rural area, small village, and my closest neighbor works at the post office which is only 1/4 mile away.
She and the rest of the people at the post office are great!
My carrier still carries stamps with him. If I don’t have a stamp and don’t feel like going to the PO, I either leave the change for a stamp in a jar lid with the letter or tape a dollar bill to it. Problem solved, letter mailed.

I once ordered an electrical part for a home appliance. Wasn’t home the day it was delivered. The box was too big to put in the mail box and it was raining so the carrier left it propped against my side door inside my enclosed porch.
Good people.

Rural and city people have different needs and there are different solutions to meet those needs.
A one size fits all approach won’t satisfy anyone.

[Vaduz]

Privatize it along with Amtrak they will never make a profit Amtrak haven’t seen a profit in 40 years both are rat holes.

[Impy]

My postal reform, end civil service, fire them all, hire out of work Trump voters.

[Svartalfiar]

Yep.
They don’t need to “discontinue Saturday delivery”.
They need to allocate every delivery route to “Group A” or “Group B”.
Group A routes get delivery Monday/Wednesday/Friday.
Group B routes get delivery Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday.
Lay-off half of all employees at all levels of management involved in the delivery of mail; that cuts the payroll costs of that segment in half.
It also makes the existing fleet of delivery vehicles last twice as long.
The only exception to the every-other-day policy would be business customers that get enough mail that it would require an extra vehicle trip to deliver it.

Decent idea, but really only a temporary solution. Back in the day, governmental post made sense as government business was the main (and sometimes only) way some towns had relations outside of themselves. Postal services are essential to society, but weren't practical for a private venture.
Nowadays, however, our world is so interconnected, and travel is so easy, that the main needs for the government having a post office is gone. Constitution needs to be amended to limit gov post to military bases and some essential gov business. Otherwise USPS needs to just go away.

[b4me]

postal workers near me move at a snails pace and don’t care how long the line is waiting. they take breaks at the busiest times and other unpopular times i’ve been in they have 2-3 workers at the counter spots with nothing to do. VERY mismanaged.

I actually worked for the postal service less than a week in 1990(ish). they had me sorting mail in back room and I took it seriously until a certain time came and they told me to just pile it all back in the big rolling bin and it would get sorted a automated mail facility. They had me do the same the next day, I wanted a job that actually was part of accomplishing some thing so I found work elsewhere.

[noah]

1. Repeal Private Express Statutes
2. Divest PS into several regional delivery companies and a clearinghouse
3. Privatize all companies

[noah]

1. Repeal Private Express Statutes
2. Divest PS into several regional delivery companies and a clearinghouse
3. Privatize all companies

[Dustoff45]

The clerk was combative.

Full disclosure - 45 years ago, I spent some time working as a window clerk so know what I am seeing at the counter.

Sometimes I see a well-oiled machine. Clerks in the back, doing other tasks, but quick to come up if the line gets long. Clerks looking ahead at the line, noticing what is in customers hands and asking informed questions, like, "Are you picking up, let me have that slip while I go back, and I will get both on one trip. Are you just dropping off, just set it her and I will get to it. The line starts moving.

But when I visit post offices in the inner-city, I see angry employees taking it out on the customers.

Here they have a line of 40 people and just watching them, they start to go into slow motion. They are too young to have seen Stepin' Fetch It on the old movies, but you would think they were performing a character study. What really galls me is when another employee, no doubt on the clock, comes up to the front counter and starts to visit with a co-worker, right in front of all the customers. Everyone sees it, it is truly "In Your Face". Those particular offices are out of control. But when I see a good one, I am truly appreciative.

[Dustoff45]

The USPS can not even deliver their so called Priority mail on time.

I could write a book, lol. I bounced around, doing odd postal jobs while going to college. One morning, we had just finished sorting the letter mail for the letter carriers to come get, and the 7:30 mail truck brought another sack of letter mail from the big office. I started to jump on it, knowing we could knock it out before the carriers came for their last pull and could get that mail delivered today.

The Postmaster himself stepped in and said that mail would wait for the next day, as he had no obligation to deliver it until tomorrow.

This is the same Postmaster, who at Christmas time gave each of us a bright shiny dime to get a hot coffee from the vending machine. A dime, wow, was I ever impressed.

[DAC21]

All I know is that every January the USPS jacks up International rates to try to keep down domestic rates. It is really hurting my mail order business. Costs $19.25 to mail a 9oz package to Europe now and that is with eBay discounted rates. $15 bucks to just add registered service. Italy used to be a decent percentage of my business now next to nothing as Postage and Registered service increases (Italian Postal Workers are kleptomaniacs hence the need for the security of registered package) are $28.50 for a package under 8oz. and over $37 for a package 8.1oz. to 2 lbs.

Of course FedEx and UPS options are a non starter. No idea how they have any international business with their rates.