Improvement isn't what it used to be at the USPS

[Blumlein 88]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/22/usps-dejoy-plan/
10 year plan to improve the USPS unveiled.

1st class mail delivery will become 5 day norm instead of 3 day norm.

Prices for mail will increase.

They will hire more employees to sort rather than using automated mail sorting machines as it is cheaper (which I guess is why the higher pricing??).

1st class mail will be ferried cross country in trucks rather than planes.

Now this is an effort to focus more on package delivery as traditional mail is declining and packages is where the growth in the future will be. I can believe that, but why the need to worsen mail delivery if there is less demand for it anyway? At a minimum they need help with their delivery of the new plan. Almost sounds like they got help from ATT Direct Tv execs. Worse less convenient service than ever coupled with higher pricing. Just the ticket for the expected loss in customers.

 

[blueone]

The NPR article is free (Washington Post article requires a subscription) and is amusing.

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/23/9800...-10-year-reorganization-of-u-s-postal-service

 

[Blumlein 88]

The NPR article is free (Washington Post article requires a subscription) and is amusing.

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/23/9800...-10-year-reorganization-of-u-s-postal-service

I don't have a subscription. It worked for the link I gave. But thanks for your link.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

I'm ambivalent about regular mail since probably 80% of what I get is purely junk, and the remainder could just as easily be delivered electronically. I already do most bill payments electronically but there are still holdouts who send invoices, and that seems a waste of resources and time. USPS is by far the worst at package delivery to the extent that I joke with my wife that if a package is sent via USPS, there is a good chance we'll never receive it.

So, the mail could go away entirely and I could honestly care less.

 

[blueone]

I'm ambivalent about regular mail since probably 80% of what I get is purely junk, and the remainder could just as easily be delivered electronically. I already do most bill payments electronically but there are still holdouts who send invoices, and that seems a waste of resources and time. USPS is by far the worst at package delivery to the extent that I joke with my wife that if a package is sent via USPS, there is a good chance we'll never receive it.

So, the mail could go away entirely and I could honestly care less.

I also get very little first class mail, but, unfortunately, by far the most important first class mail I receive is from governments, local, state, and federal. If you're the subject of an IRS audit, or any tax issue for that matter, US Mail is how you'll find out. Getting a Social Security card? Yup, US Mail. A passport? US Mail. FOIA request? County property tax bill? Like it or not, the USPS matters.

I've never had a problem with USPS package delivery. Their employees are also more considerate than most UPS and FedEx drivers I run into.

Louis DeJoy is, IMO, a classic example of what happens when the CEO of a private company gets a senior job in a government agency. CEOs are the closest things to kings or queens in the US, and they're not much used to having constituencies including the US Congress. I predict numerous bloody noses for him until he is finally replaced by yet another career bureaucrat.

 

[Midwest Blade]

USPS is supposed to be a service to the citizens for the good of the country. There are surely things that can be improved but De Joy's actions seem contrary to the main mission of the postal service. So far count me as suspicious if this guy will survive the upcoming new board appointees. Secondly, his attitude towards congressional inquests is nothing short of contempt. I hope this passes quickly.

 

[GeorgeWalk]

I know a lot of people that depend on the USPS to deliver medications another important packages on time. Since DeJoy has taken over the service has gotten more unreliable. As a CEO, he views this as profit v. loss. The USPS is a constitutionally mandated service. There is not requirement to make a profit. If you live in NY City or alone at the end of dirt road 20 miles from Hooterville, you get the service. Ask the USPS to make a profit is like asking the the Army or Navy to make a profit.

 

[Martin]

USPS service has gone in the shitter. I used to use them as a less expensive alternative to UPS and FedEx. No more...

I sent a pair of headphones from Florida to Anaheim, CA via USPS 2-day Priority Mail on December 26, 2020. They were delivered 12-days later on January 7, 2021. The USPS put them on a truck to Atlanta where they spent 4-days being trucked around to different USPS facilities until they were put on another truck to Anaheim, CA. The USPS did not even attempt to provide 2-day service. I paid for shipping using PayPal and I got my money back after opening a case with PayPal to which the USPS never responded.

My wife shipped a box of books from Florida to Las Vegas, NV via Media Mail on February 1, 2021. The tracking number shows it left New Jersey on February 19th. The last update on February 23rd says it is in transit, arriving late. The USPS has no clue where it is.

A case opened with USPS on the first shipment went unanswered. They responded to a case opened on the second saying we need to file a claim.

I will never ship another package with USPS.

Martin

 

[Tks]

To anyone who thinks USPS is going down to drain due to their own incompetency, just so you know, they're being destroyed from within, and due to external pressures of other shipping companies, as well as demands from Amazon for example.

There's a whole disaster waiting to happen for folks who depend on med delivery for example (private shipping companies are simply indifferent on this matter, for all they care, you can go die in a ditch, as they're not mandated to ship anything that isn't to their preference).

Like most public services, the idea that they must generate a profit is complete and utter stupidity. In reality, public services are doing something wrong if they're generating a profit - in fact that is contrarian to the idea of why they even exist. They're supposed to be draining because alternatives from any other source are simply unviable (and any other source is a business, and businesses don't have reason to exist outside of profit initiatives).

Think about amenities like parks, or recreational public services.. The ideological idea of why they exist in the first place, is to produce a society that is high with well-being, as it has been shown that as a species, we produce better results the higher the well-being markers are. So for businesses that want better employees, they can't get it if you're going to have an oppressive life experience for said employees as they grow up and eventually reach the age of employment by businesses. The hope is that, with enough public investment (everyone's taxes as agreed upon the universal understanding of providing people a livable world to inhabit, and not some jungle that it's starting to trend toward regress in some parts of the world now), the people living and working can be more productive, and everyone enjoys the fruits of their work, their life, and the society they live in.

To then turn around with this retarded idea that public services ought now generate profits, is something a robber baron could only conjure, or just pure retards. The reason being, is it would be like having your cake and eating it twice. The public services are already aiming to produce better people to fill a society with content and highly functioning citizens. The fact that some people are saying a public service should also generate profit or be eradicated, would be conflating what a businesses should be doing... But also betraying through dishonesty, implying that a public service doesn't ultimately generate more profits in virtue of producing citizens that then go on to produce better products and generally well-being and lives for everyone at the end of the day.

This level of retardation is tantamount to expecting the act of washing your hands itself to generate profits, before the actual monetary profits are generated from someone cooking your food when folks go out on a night of dining..

Like why would the act of washing your hands be expected to generate a profit in of itself? Or why would the act of providing that water be expected to generate the profit, instead of simply businesses that rely on clean employee hands for the meals they will be selling on behalf of a business?

Straight up insane - and the fact that stuff like this goes completely ignored in discussions with adults is honestly unbelievable. This stuff not being caught by kids would be believable, but by grown ass men in the halls of legislature? Did any of these people attend school and absorb any knowledge beyond their workplace mandatory knowledge they needed for function for their occupation for goodness sake? Or are Libertarians all over societal thinking these days?

 

[Wes]

His days are numbered

 

[hex168]

That the Post Office is the only government service that has to prepay its retirement obligations is a knife in its back.

 

[30 Ounce]

I didn’t see anything about USPS operating with a goal of profit in mind. Last year they lost $9 billion dollars. Several years ago congress forced them to pay healthcare for future retirees up front to the sum of $80 billion. With stupid shit like that why even try?

 

[Wes]

Certain elements in govt. want to cripple govt. That is one major problem for USPS.

Another problem is the requirement to deliver mail to lonely outposts that can be reached only by small airplanes, or kayak.

Then there is the decline in letters (1st Class mail).

 

[Colonel7]

Please people. USPS has been required to be self-sustaining since early 70s, not profit making. And there were a number of laws passed in early 2000s for reform (unanimous I believe in both chambers of Congress) and with USPS signing off on the reforms, one of which was dealing with the overfunding of the account. It did require a level of competency that USPS doesn't have. If you want to bore yourself read the GAO and Congressional Research Service reports from then and you will not be overly sympathetic to the poor-me syndrome. That said, yes private shipping is making it difficult. There are 2 million more physical addresses than at the time of the reforms. But it is still incompetence to send stuff randomly around the country, back and forth between the same sorting centers, and to skip neighborhoods for days at a time.

 

[Blumlein 88]

That the Post Office is the only government service that has to prepay its retirement obligations is a knife in its back.

Yes, I don't know why it was done that way other than politics. It makes anyone running the post office in an impossible position in regards to income from its operation being sufficient. If private companies had to pre-fund retirement the day they hire someone they would all be bankrupt.

 

[restorer-john]

The same happened here in Australia with our Australia Post.

People aren't sending traditional mail anymore and all they were using Australia Post for was inexpensive package delivery, leveraging the systems and delivery network that was created for envelope based mail. Something had to give.

Packages are a nightmare for our posties. Instead of one trip to from a drop box that would last for their whole run (motorbikes), they have huge groaning bags with only a few packages. They make many returns to the drop boxes and runs take a lot longer. Adaption has occurred with funny little three wheeler package bikes, but they are slow and awkward. Running contractor vans around delivering the packages and motorbikes doing the small medium stuff all costs extra.

And there's the vast amount of small packages they are delivering essentially for free out of china via china post. They get placed on the front door steps or signed for- something that was extremely rare back in the normal mail era. All that time costs money.

Sure, the cost of stamps has skyrocketed and we are only getting half as many deliveries a week, but it's a small price to pay for the convenience of getting overseas small packages for essentially nothing.

 

[Chrispy]

I live in a small town where USPS is the only game in town....no presence from the others unless you pay thru the nose for a pickup (and UPS and Fedex are no prizes as far as operations go, they don't do any better on packages IME....and I spent a lifetime in the logistics industry). I still use the mails for a variety of things, so while sorry if you don't need it, but some of us do. It's a service that we are better with than without. We vote by mail here in this state, too....as we should all.

 

[restorer-john]

I live in a small town where USPS is the only game in town....no presence from the others unless you pay thru the nose for a pickup (and UPS and Fedex are no prizes as far as operations go, they don't do any better on packages IME....and I spent a lifetime in the logistics industry). I still use the mails for a variety of things, so while sorry if you don't need it, but some of us do. It's a service that we are better with than without. We vote by mail here in this state, too....as we should all.

Your mail system in the US is way better than ours for sure. You even have your residential mail boxes all a standard size and placement/height don't you? Or was it like that once?

We have your FEDEX here and my Mouser orders from the US get here in unbelievably fast time.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Your mail system in the US is way better than ours for sure. You even have your residential mail boxes all a standard size and placement/height don't you? Or was it like that once?

We have your FEDEX here and my Mouser orders from the US get here in unbelievably fast time.

No there is a variability in mailbox size and placement though there are some limits. I just replaced my sisters mailbox. She has a huge mailbox on the curb. It is at standard height. She gets lots of small packages and this way the carrier can leave it in the box without having to trot it up to the porch.

EDIT: well they do have standards which do include having a Parcel sized mailbox. As well as mounting heights, but apparently such is often ignored. If you are close no one complains I guess.

https://www.mailboss.com/guide-usps-mailbox-regulations/

 

[Jim Matthews]

The 2006 PAEA placed a requirement for the agency to prefund both retirement benefits and health coverage for the *next* 10 years based on costs over 75 years.

If private competition is carrying the same liability on the books, including Congressional oversight - I would welcome citations.

Given that the "consultants" brought in to modernize the Postal service hold similar positions in competition with the agency, suspicion about motives is appropriate.

As to allegations of "incompetence" explosive growth in online shopping, ancient sorting gear, decrepit cargo fleets and rampant Covid infections in sorting centers resulted in the predictable backlog.

https://www.govexec.com/management/...nts-sparking-more-concern-over-delays/167761/


https://www.forbes.com/sites/ebauer...ns--some-key-myths-and-facts/?sh=2d0d975847f5