USPS: There is no longer enough mail to sustain six days of delivery

[Lunican]

Postal Service Files 5-Day Delivery Plan With Postal Regulatory Commission

WASHINGTON â€" The Postal Service today took its case for five-day delivery to the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC).

The Postal Service is required by law to seek an advisory opinion from the PRC any time a nationwide change in service is proposed. Today’s filing begins the PRC review.

A report accompanying the request notes, “The Postal Service does not take this change lightly and would not propose it if six-day mail service could be supported by current volumes. There is no longer enough mail to sustain six days of delivery.”

The five-day delivery proposal is part of comprehensive plan announced March 2, “Delivering the Future,” a roadmap intended to bring certainty to a viable Postal Service well into the future and to help it recover from dramatic losses in volume resulting from electronic diversion and exacerbated by the economic recession.

The five-day report notes, “Ten years ago, the average household received five pieces of mail every day. Today, it receives four pieces and by 2020, that number will fall to three. Reducing street delivery to five days will help rebalance postal operations with the needs of today’s customers. It also will save more than $3 billion a year, including reductions in energy use and carbon emissions.”

Postmaster General John E. Potter said it was important to stress that the proposal dealt only with Saturday street delivery and that Post Offices will be open on Saturdays, access to P.O. boxes would continue, Express Mail would be delivered seven days a week and incoming mail would still be processed.

“It’s five days of delivery, six days of service and Express Mail seven days a week,” Potter noted adding that postal processing operations would continue on a seven-day schedule.

In addition to a review by the PRC, it’s also necessary for Congress to refrain from enacting legislation that would require the Postal Service to generally deliver mail six days a week after the end of fiscal year 2010.

The Postal Service report can be found at http://www.usps.com/communications/five-daydelivery and the request for the advisory opinion can be accessed at prc.gov.

http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2010/pr10_031.htm

[Lunican]

The U.S. Postal Service Nears Collapse

Delivery of first-class mail is falling at a staggering rate. Facing insolvency, can the USPS reinvent itself like European services haveâ€"or will it implode?

http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/11_23/b4231060885070.htm

[Bativac]

There is a serious problem when most of your business comes from something almost nobody wants (junk mail). The internet and email have been around a long time now and are getting more and more sophisticated. I can send a video to family on the other side of the world in seconds, for free. A package with a DVD would take a week or two and cost who knows how much (and may not even make it thru customs).

If they could close down a few post offices while simultaneously improving efficiency at the offices left, surely that would help. Also, non-traditional business hours - I used to ship stuff I'd sold on eBay but it was just too hard to get to the post office before they closed. I know they have Saturday mornings, but a couple hours in the evening would be nice. Of course, that means more employees, which is more money... I for one wouldn't mind not getting mail on Saturdays.

[wsansewjs]

The United F***ing States Postal Service needs to yank its entire letter mail service, reduce its services days from 6 to 3 days (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) while privatizating fully away from the government, then offer much more sophiscated carrier services similar to UPS and FedEx.

F*** the postal workers' OVERBLOATED benefits, ultra-early retirements, and pensions.

-Josh

[copperfiend]

There are enough Red Plum circulars to keep my mailbox full once a week.

[danem]

But what about Netflix and Amazon packages? I sure would miss those presents to myself coming on Saturdays.

[copperfiend]

Netflix will be all online eventually

[tufsu1]

on this Stephen and I agree

[wsansewjs]

The United F***ing States Postal Service needs to yank its entire letter mail service, reduce its services days from 6 to 3 days (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) while privatizating fully away from the government, then offer much more sophiscated carrier services similar to UPS and FedEx.

F*** the postal workers' OVERBLOATED benefits, ultra-early retirements, and pensions.

-Josh

This is silly Josh.  Postal workers are about the only people in the United States that are being paid fairly.  There is a very good reason why we havent privatized the mail and never should.

Communication should never be controlled by any one private interest, much less a conglomeration of them.

I think the postal service needs to modernize, and do not doubt that it will, but your post is a bit bizarre.  Instead of trying to take away one of the few middle class jobs left to us, you should be demanding that everyone should be so well paid.

*Also, arent you intelligent enough that you don't have to post pretend curse words in order to make your point?

For the record, I apologize for the curse words. Secondly, I am and will still stand by my words on the postal workers' benefits.

Pardon me for making myself sounds like a fat annoying politician that goes out and trash talk without thinking twice. Have you heard of what kind stuff going on internally at the Post Office? This is one of many stories I have heard from few friends of mine who has and some still work there.

The way USPS does promotions is bizarre. Regardless of how HARD you work at USPS compared to a slacker, those who been "there" the longest gets paid higher wages, shorter hours, more vacation days, etc. How does this work for a slacker? Not quite fair, eh?

When you said the USPS postal job are one of the last middle class jobs left in United States that has been compensated fairly as you called it "being paid fairly," that story crossed my mind and contradicts against your point. Ah, Stephen, I am more curious of why and how you got your source / knowledge about this.

From what I learned so far in life, I thought your action speaks for yourself, not your own words alone in the workplace.


-Josh

[danem]

Netflix will be all online eventually

Yes I thought about this too. I have so much online that I haven't bothered to trade in my current DVDs for a while.  Poor post office.

[cityimrov]

I have no inside track or any idea how the postal service works but most the jobs there seem fairly standard - at least from the mail carrier point of view.  Your given a set route and your job is to deliver mail to all the addresses at that route.  Once you done that, then your day is over.  There's a lot of nuances and important details there but the job is pretty straightforward.  As long as you get your job done before the end of the day, I don't care if you spend hours day napping at a doughnut shop.

Before we enter the good old phrase of economics here, I really like the idea of keeping my old experienced mail carriers.  I can't believe how many times I've seen letters that were addressed in the oddest fashion somehow reach it's destination correctly.  

What the post office does need is more modernization and more convince.  That problem is out of the hands of at least 75% of the employees working there.  The tracking system is bad.  Buying a stamp is a hassle - especially after they took away the vending machines.  Sending a package is a hassle.  The post office doesn't even offer extras that could easily be handled by the carriers - such as electronic signatures!  USPS still needs to send a paper backwards into the system in order for me to verify some types of mail delivery!  Let's not forget the millions of rules that limit what you can and cannot send in a particular package.  All this isn't controlled by my local mail carrier.  

We're going to regret giving up weekend delivery and most the conveniences of the post office if some of the future predictions of this message board comes to fruition.   USPS is still the most economical way for sending personal items from one home to home to another.  

Now if our predictions don't come to fruition and we to stay and continue the path of a mass consumption society which relies on buying all our items from some big box corporation and having so and so corporation do all the mailing and shipping to us, then maybe USPS can shut down....  I mean, by then we definitely won't be buying this little one of a kind trinket from this ultra cool and unique downtown store to send to our friends in Iowa who've we've been spending all day talking about it on Facebook, right?

[Ocklawaha]

The United F***ing States Postal Service needs to yank its entire letter mail service, reduce its services days from 6 to 3 days (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) while privatizating fully away from the government, then offer much more sophiscated carrier services similar to UPS and FedEx.

F*** the postal workers' OVERBLOATED benefits, ultra-early retirements, and pensions.

-Josh

Interesting take their nephew Josh... AS ONE WHO ENJOYS THE RETIREMENT BENEFITS of a postal supervisor I might have a slightly different take on this.

1. NOBODY ANYWHERE deserves their "bloated pay" like your urban inner-city letter carriers that walk 8-14 miles per day in 100 degree heat, battling dogs, sour customers, stroke, ice, snow, etc... Oh and those wonder holidays you think they enjoy? Not until they have YEARS of service, because otherwise they are often working in those back rooms behind locked doors on Christmas, New Years and Easter Sunday!

2. We had some YAHOO from DC come down to talk to all clerks and carriers when I was in Sanford. Oh it was golden, they told us how bulk mail was SOOOOO IMPORTANT, and how it represented 75% of our volume and 25% of our total gross income! The meeting denigrated into complete mayhem when questions came around the I dutifully raised my hand and said, "There is something wrong with your math!"

3. As a Postal Supervisor I could actually line up you and your family (if you worked for the USPS) and slit their throats one by one in front of the entire work force. Guess what? If it was "in the line of duty" let's say to get your attention, I cannot be prosecuted under state law... Congress nor any body short of the Constitution can stop me, I answer to NO ONE! There isn't an attorney in the land who will take your case either.  Whoa, how'd you like that cushy job?

4. Postal Unions are not needed? Ours was on the take right and left and the boys had the Postal Inspectors raid the Union Presidents house and confiscate his gun collection... bad people? Well maybe so, but try and get sick while your a postal clerk, carrier, RR carrier, truck driver etc. First you'll be told go home and stay there, we have 1,000 people who will take your job tomorrow. REALLY SICK? Sucks to be you, because you WILL go to their doctors, follow their instructions, and come back when they say. Die on the job? Sucks to be you again doesn't it? Family survivors? HA! HA! HA!  SUCKS TO BE THEM TOO.

5. Going Postal? You better damn believe it. How would you like to work in that pressure cooker where the only, and I mean ONLY thing that is counted is the amount of mail each facility processes IN, each day? Never mind the customer, never mind the employees, never mind the service, never mind the costs, never mind the humanity, just run the numbers... fail to meet your last numbers and you'll be harassed to death literally. Let's see, old Stephen and Josh didn't get back in 8 today, let's put a clip-board behind them and have them followed for a week... maybe two... EVERY MOTION of the hand, movement of the hips, step on the grass or the pavement will be scrutinized to the extreme... JOSH, DAMN IT MAN, you could cut .0534 seconds off each delivery if your stride was only .004 feet longer. GET WITH THE PROGRAM.

TESTIMONIAL? Yeah, old nasty Ock went Postal on the whole damn bunch in Oklahoma City... I watched them run a beautiful young woman right over the edge, break her back LITERALLY, and DEMAND she keep right on carrying mail. That tough union? Yeah, about as useless as tit's on a boar. My moment came in the same week when I took an express mail out (it really is premium and ANYONE in the office will be required to deliver it the moment it gets through the back door). That's when I met "Goldie" the pit bulldog on a freaking balcony and I learned to fly... I just don't land worth a damn. The postal doctor put me on back on my desk with orders not to carry ANYTHING out that door again. It lasted about a week when a station manager caught me trying to resolve some carrier problem with accountable mail, and slammed a rolling container of mail into my side and mumbled "why don't you go to work". I looked at this sorry excuse for humanity and asked him, "Gary were you born an asshole or did the Post Office send you to school for it?" He jumped back and yelled "What did you say?" So I cupped my hands and yelled to the top of my lungs repeating the statement so every customer in that end of the city could hear. Gary suddenly got nervous. So I started walking rings around him telling him to "Hit me again Gary, go ahead, hit me... PLEASE, PLEASE!" Gary started to shake visibly. By now I had a HUGE audience. "Why won't you hit me Gary? Too many witnesses? No! Your a coward GARY! A little #q(^$# GIRL! Everyone look at Gary wet himself... He won't hit me because he knows I'm ex-military and I'd love to stomp his @#$^%#@$% ASS INTO THE FLOOR..." Gary started crying and told his "other" supervisor to call the cops, "he's gone postal!"  I walked out the back door, telling him as I went, you better keep one eye on your back GARY because you'll never know when I'm there, you'll never see me coming, and you'll not know what I did..."
I walked right out of a job, a career, a life, that nobody should ever have to endure... The VA intervened as I am a disabled Vietnam Veteran and bodda bing-bodda biff, I'm retired from the Navy, VA, USPS, and free to go back to transportation planning, my first love.

If they cut Saturday, it won't be the Supervision that suffers, it will be the T-6 (carrier techs) the poor schmucks that have to learn 5 different routes for a few extra dollars a week... you know them as the professional substitutes. Better get ready for the subs that don't know you, your business or your mail. The current Postal Week runs Saturday-Friday with Sunday off (except as noted above). The other off day rolls on a weekly basis, Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday, finally Friday of this week, Saturday of the next plus Sunday, so every 5 weeks a clerk/carrier has a 3 day weekend and every 5 weeks he/she gets a Sunday-Monday combination... so much for weekends. Your local T-6 carrier covers that rotation and he/she will now be without a job and/or a pay cut.

SUCKS TO BE A POSTAL EMPLOYEE I GUESS...

OCKLAWAHA

[Mueller]

Well, one way to help out the Post Office is to take those self-addressed return envelopes enclosed in junk mail, and just seal and drop in the mail box.  As long as your name isn't on the envelope, they can't get onto you, the post office gets paid, and the junk mail senders in Delaware get stuck with the bill.  Everybody wins!

Also, since the prepaid is a weight-based postage rate, feel free to drop in any "ballast" you want: bottle caps, small rocks, old Mike Hogan flyers... anything you want! 

[riverside_mail]

The United F***ing States Postal Service needs to yank its entire letter mail service, reduce its services days from 6 to 3 days (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) while privatizating fully away from the government, then offer much more sophiscated carrier services similar to UPS and FedEx.

F*** the postal workers' OVERBLOATED benefits, ultra-early retirements, and pensions.

-Josh

This is silly Josh.  Postal workers are about the only people in the United States that are being paid fairly.  There is a very good reason why we havent privatized the mail and never should.

Communication should never be controlled by any one private interest, much less a conglomeration of them.

I think the postal service needs to modernize, and do not doubt that it will, but your post is a bit bizarre.  Instead of trying to take away one of the few middle class jobs left to us, you should be demanding that everyone should be so well paid.

*Also, arent you intelligent enough that you don't have to post pretend curse words in order to make your point?

For the record, I apologize for the curse words. Secondly, I am and will still stand by my words on the postal workers' benefits.

Pardon me for making myself sounds like a fat annoying politician that goes out and trash talk without thinking twice. Have you heard of what kind stuff going on internally at the Post Office? This is one of many stories I have heard from few friends of mine who has and some still work there.

The way USPS does promotions is bizarre. Regardless of how HARD you work at USPS compared to a slacker, those who been "there" the longest gets paid higher wages, shorter hours, more vacation days, etc. How does this work for a slacker? Not quite fair, eh?

When you said the USPS postal job are one of the last middle class jobs left in United States that has been compensated fairly as you called it "being paid fairly," that story crossed my mind and contradicts against your point. Ah, Stephen, I am more curious of why and how you got your source / knowledge about this.

From what I learned so far in life, I thought your action speaks for yourself, not your own words alone in the workplace.


-Josh

Holy crap! Where to start??? As a 13-year carrier in Riverside, I had a hard time reading this without taking it personally. After a few deep breaths, I calmed down enough to let it go.

I won't have you laboring under the misapprehension of your belief that I am overpaid and overcompensated, so I will try put that to rest. Am I overpaid? I don't believe so. As Ock said, I walk about 6 miles a day, up and down stairs all day (remember, most Riverside houses are built above grade and Riverside is still mostly door service. Thank RAP if you enjoy this service). This is done everyday, regardless of weather and the physical toll it takes on me.

As for ultra-early retirement, I don't see that happening. We retire at the same age as most everyone else. In fact, I just read an article stating that the USPS has more older workers than any Fortune 500 company. Here in Jacksonville, the senior carrier has been serving since 1968 (the year I was born).

When I retire, will I get a pension? Not in the sense that I believe you mean. Since I am under the FERS program, I will receive a SMALL pension, Social Security (if it's still around), and any money I can sock away in my TSP account.

Is it fair that slackers make as much as the hard workers? 100% YES. Didn't expect that, did you? The pay scale is set up to be fair to everyone. If it wasn't this way, then those carriers who are disabled veterans that don't move quite as quick as the young guys, or the carrier who falls foul of the manager with an axe to grind could find their pay falling behind. Besides, being a carrier isn't for anyone. The slackers eventually weed themselves out by becoming management.

I don't want this to come off as a rant, but I do get tired of listening to those who are of the opinion that my job is just one rung up the ladder of respectability from used car salesmen and lawyers. I try not to take life too seriously, but I do take my job seriously. To me, it's not so much a job as it is a chance to serve my community.

Oh and BTW, if you live or work in 32204, you have 12 of the best damn carriers in the city. I cannot tell you how many times that we disregard postal regulations or advocate on our customers' behalf to a numbers-driven management if it means better customer service is the result. So, if you happen to see us at lunch, stop by and say hi. Just don't ask "Who's delivering the mail if you're all here?" or I may be tempted to chuck my iced tea at you.

My thanks to Stephen and Ock for your kind words.

[wsansewjs]

Beside all of the intense conversations and pressure on me, the statement I have made were completely unaccounted for because they were stated without any support or any merit to the proper rules here on MetroJacksonville.

I completely regret the post I made, attacking on the postal workers and USPS. I cannot take back what I said or reverse the damage. I can assure you that I am not that kind of a person who hates or against USPS and its workers. I know I should be better than that. I do not want to delete my own post where the bad statement I had made, because I don't believe in censorship. I want to serve as a reminder for myself as the kid who "attacked" postal workers on MetroJacksonville, and let those young incoming folks like me to learn from it.

All of your responses were extremely eye-openers especially both of you, Uncle Ockie, and riverside_mall. I am sorry if it really stings you, Riverside_Mall. My "attack" was merely toward the slackers. I wish USPS could just get its own stuff together and turn 180. Uncle Ockie, I appreciate your sense of humor and holding your frustration back, because you went out an extra mile to understand where I was coming from.

Basically I take this experience as part of my baggage in growing up. I am still young and immature. The best thing I can do is to learn from this experience, grow up a little bit, and value your patience and respect.

Thank you,
-Josh Simpson