What with internet banking and bill paying I’m kind of surprised they’ve waited this long. I feel for any impacted postal employees, however.
Name these communities.
1) Cut vacations to only 2 weeks a year. They already get two weeks for federal holidays. End personal holiday days.
2) Provide only basic emergency medical coverage, let employees purchase any extra coverage on their own dime.
3) Reduce pension programs to match Social Security, let employees contribute whatever extra they want.
There. Eleven billion saved, without closing a post office.
Wow, what a tear-jerker from the WSJ. Where is this theoretical remote community? Barrows, Alaska?
...so, it wasn't just my imagination, they really were sleeping on the job.
Kinda explains why they are losing so much money.
.
Probably no union layoffs.
I worked as a casual clerk, then later as a post master relief at small post office in small town, AZ. The post master was the laziest person I think I’ve ever met. She worked at doing as little as possible. She was also a nut. One day, there was a bunch of stuff going on and she was very angry. She was on the phone for a while, then just disappeared. My self and another clerk were working our butts off. I get a call from the post master’s boss who informed me that if the post master came back we are to evacuate the building and call 911. The post master wasn’t around for a couple of weeks (sick leave), then she comes back as if nothing had ever happened.
I have no idea what she said that prompted her boss to tell me to call 911. I eventually quit because the woman was a flipping nut. The post office can save several thousands of dollars a year by sacking her.
I loved that job. But it got to the point where the post master was actually putting my life, as well as her own, in danger by not following security regulations. I also sent confidential information to one of her bosses about her behavior - who sent it right back to the post master. So much for protecting their employees.
Like any govt agency the USPS has something like 6 administrators for every employee who actually handles mail particles. Reducing that number to 1 administrator for every 6 working employees would put the USPS nicely into the black.
Just great. Now where will I get those pre-approved bank card offers??
“The news is crushing in many remote communities where the post office is often the heart of the town and the closest link to the rest of the country. Shuttering them, critics say, also puts an enormous burden on people, particularly on the elderly, who find it difficult to travel out of town. “
Ok? Why is this reason enough to keep pissing away money?
These areas can get mail delivered twice a week, and the USPS can contract with a local store to set up a postal booth where you can go and get your mail or mail something.
Or they can adapt to modern times and use the internet?
In other words, because they can’t handle their taxpayer paid finances the taxpayers have to now have less service. We’re taking away your post office, raising stamp prices and maybe cutting delivery days. Not that this will influence mailing or shipping costs in any way.
I think the author of this piece must be at least 60 years old. The post office hasn't been the center of anything since maybe Douglas, Alabama in 1953. These days in small towns, people meet in coffee shops, diners and maybe the Wal-Mart.
So what exactly is it that we get in the U.S. Mail these days that can't be obtained online, sent through email or in the rare instance, sent UPS or FedEx?
The US Postal Service has been rendered obsolete by the internet and by private enterprise (FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc.). It's only apparent purpose is to allow mass marketers to send billions of pieces of bulk junk mails cheaply.
Shut down the US Mail entirely. Then I can remove my mailbox from the front of my house (the one that occasionally gets whacked by kids driving by with baseball bats).
lol! from the nothing is ever enough club.
Thanks to Tip O’Neill, my small town of 20,000 has three post offices. It’s a waste.
Unions run amok! No wonder the USPS is going broke. Post office employees make $32.50 an hour to stand behind a counter and sell stamps and ask you 14 questions. It doesn’t take a Masters’ Degree to put something on a scale and weigh it or place the letter in the correct PO Box. Pay the going rate for a cashier at a convenience store ($10.50) who does the same thing and add up the savings. A maintenance man who sweeps the floors and mows the grass for the Post Office once told me he made $18.50 an hour. But the unions will continue to fill their pockets until the Post Office goes tits up and then whine because the Government won’t give them more money to operate in the red.
I like my local PO, but would be delighted if they shuttered it in favor of providing us home delivery (and we live 3 miles from the post office and 1000 other residents, 5 miles from the big box stores, and 10 miles from the state capitol building, so we’re not exactly in the sticks.)
They might be able to work a deal with UPS and FedEx for rural delivery, that would save billions, by allowing the rural PO’s to go. There are thousands of them, in small buildings in towns that literally do not exist except for the PO, Wyoming has lots of them, and so does SD.
With apologies to those who will lose their jobs. The PO cannot run in the red, on our dime, nor any other business that desires to keep the doors open.
“The news is crushing in many remote communities where the post office is often the heart of the town and the closest link to the rest of the country.”
I think, in reality, many of the rural offices (sometimes employing no more one or two people) cannot be where cost cutting will achieve the most results.
I think the biggest problem is the postal workers union and their influence, including the influence of their crony political friends in Congress. The largest excess expense is most likely not where there are few employees, but where there are many and where there are more than needed post offices in a particular urban or suburban area. Those interests, not rural postal service, is where the biggest lobbying against the cuts will come from. Its also where the biggest cost savings could be made.
I can drive within less than five minutes to four different post offices. But, I imagine my entire are could be served by one, with maybe 2/3 the staff of the four we have now.
Watch, the actual closings will shut-out some entire rural towns, while all four in my area remain open.