US Postal Service

Privatizing or Going Postal

by Alex Hutchins

 

Going postal, in American English slang, means becoming extremely and uncontrollably angry, often to the point of violence, and usually in a workplace environment.  The expression derives from a series of incidents from 1983 onward in which United States Postal Service (USPS) workers shot and killed managers, fellow workers, and members of the police or general public in acts of mass murder. Between 1986 and 1997, more than forty people were gunned down by spree killers in at least twenty incidents of workplace rage.

Source:  Wikipedia

LaborUnions Negotiations 2011

The Postal Reorganization Act authorizes collective bargaining on wages and working conditions, generally under laws applying to private industry. As the Postal Service is an essential service to the nation’s economy, Congress mandated that employees represented by unions cannot strike. Impasses in collective bargaining negotiations may ultimately be resolved through arbitration.

·         Seventy-nine percent of Postal Service costs are linked to wages and benefits.

·         To remain relevant while meeting today’s changing mailing trends, the Postal Service must manage its labor costs by matching workforce to workload.

Most hourly employees are represented by four unions. The American Postal Workers Union AFLCIO (APWU) represents employees who work as clerks, mechanics, vehicle drivers, custodians and some administrative positions. Employees represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO (NALC) deliver in metropolitan areas; National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association (NRLCA) employees deliver primarily in rural and suburban areas; and, employees represented by the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, AFL-CIO (NPMHU) work in mail processing plants and Post Offices.

 Federal Daily News

Lawmaker wants USPS revenue study made public

Mar 14, 2012

A Virginia congressman is asking the Postal Regulatory Commission to release a study that reveals the impact of mail service cuts and downsizing efforts on U.S. Postal Service revenue.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D) filed the motion on March 13, noting that USPS has asked the PRC “to keep the study secret.” The motion argues that making that information public is particularly relevant in light of USPS plans to close facilities and legislation pending in Congress to restructure the Postal Service.

“It has come to my attention that the Postal Service doesn’t want the public to see the results of this study,” Connolly said in a statement. “In a competitive marketplace, you lose customers and revenue when you raise prices and reduce services. That simple fact has been missing from the debate.”

 

While the USPS is structured like a business, Congress often prevents it from actually operating like a private company, such as taking actions to reduce costs, improve efficiency, or innovate in other ways. The agency is also obligated by statute to provide mail services to all Americans, irrespective of where they live and the cost of serving them. It is required to deliver first-class mail at a uniform price throughout the nation.

Is it any wonder why the USPS is in debt? The USPS fiscal year 2011 debt was $13 billion and in the first quarter of fiscal year 2012; it had a $3.3 billion operational loss. The USPS can borrow money from the U.S. Treasury but its debt limit is set at $15 billion by federal statute. Thus, the USPS will no longer be able to absorb operational losses by the end of this year.

The USPS is losing billions of dollars annually because of declining mail volume and increasing labor costs. According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report , first-class mail volume peaked in fiscal 2001 at nearly 104 billion pieces, but has dropped by about 29 percent, or 30 billion pieces, in the last decade. For the first time ever, in 2010, fewer than 50 percent of all bills sent to Americans were paid by mail.

by Ralph E. Stone

Saturday April 14, 2012 - 10:34:00 AM

What are your thoughts about the fate of the US Postal Service?  Yes, it is flawed . . .  but, no worse than anything else in this country of ours.  Still, is this a service that our Federal Government should provide to her citizenry or not?  Is this another example of yet another right our Founding Fathers put into place because it served a purpose then, but no longer serves a purpose now?

We We Just Wondering how you felt . . .  about all of this.

US Postal Service

Feds Foil Competition
by Alex Hutchins

All my life, I have listened to the bureaucratic inefficiency of the Federal Government comments from family, friends, and co-workers and have developed a pre-conceived idea regarding this truth that makes it very difficult for me to view the Fed any differently.  And, I am confident that you and most Americans share this same paradigm with me.

This is an “ideal” example of how our preconceived ideas will and have led us astray.

The USPS (US Postal Service formerly referred to as Post Office)  BEATS competition as UPS and Fedex executives hang their wealthy heads in shame.  The New Paradigm is Efficient Feds Rock with cheaper costs for overnight delivery than their competition.

If it fits into the envelope,

USPS can send it anywhere

overnight for $17.50,

regardless of the WEIGHT

for-$25 $75, FedEx will ship same envelope overnight

          for $30-$63, UPS will ship same envelope overnight

USPS does not stop with what fits in the envelope. 

USPS again ships cheaper than both FedEx and UPS even when the package wieghs: 5,10, or 15 lbs.

Read more

Other views:

While USPS is the cheapest shipping carrier in most cases, their reliability is easily the worst among the 3 carriers. Our online store primarily uses USPS because most of our orders are under 2 pounds. But we routinely get packages delayed or lost in the mail. This past few months alone, we have had 3 customers email us wondering where the hell their order was. Given our volumes, 3 customers is probably statistically insignificant but having to deal with any unhappy customers is a pain in the neck.  Read more

The Happy Housewife is all about shipping via USPS. 

Why is USPS so much cheaper?

Here is a possible reason:

Sunday, November 28, 2010

WASHINGTON -- The United States Postal Service is routinely castigated for losing money, but in a series of internal audits it has identified $94 million in unnecessary expenses linked to its lack of diligence under its FedEx mail-hauling contract.

The Inspector General of the U.S. Postal Service audited all eight Postal Service regions across the country beginning in 2007 and ending earlier this year. It found the same problems in each region:

Mail that should have been shipped by surface transportation found its way onto expensive FedEx jets.

First-class mail that could have been sent on cheaper commercial airlines instead went on FedEx jets.

By failing to sort mail to specific locations into cargo crates, called bypass containers, it incurred FedEx sorting charges.

Nothing in the audits reflects badly on the Memphis logistics giant, but the implications of the findings, once the cost-savings opportunities identified are achieved, could affect the amount of money flowing to FedEx. 


To read this entire amazing story, click here

An interesting sidebar

When the founder of FedEx, Fred Smith, was in college, he presented this concept of FedEx

 in a paper to one of his professors  who gave him a “C” stating  this idea would never work.

SANDER'S BILL COULD SAVE USPS

Congress Would Have to Act Fast
by Victor M Adamus

Bernie Sanders

When we wonder about the future of the U.S. Postal Service we have to consider that it’s still controlled by the U.S. Congress and a new Regulatory Commission that was created to replace the postal commission in 2006.  At the same time George W Bush signed the new law the legislation called for the Postal Service to set aside billions of dollars over a 10-year period to fund health care benefits for an unbelievable 75 years.  Tying up that much money would drive any corporation to the brink.  Many people saw it as Republicans using the set aside money as a union busting tool.

Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wants that required $5.5 billion prepayments per year freed up so the postal service can draw down on the money to balance their books and not have to close postal facilities nationwide or cancel Saturday delivery.  The postal service lost revenue to digital online banking and bill paying and is struggling to compete with overnight delivery against competitors who have been in the overnight delivery business for more than 30 years.  The postal service delivers daily to more than 150 million households and businesses. 

The Bill Sanders introduced would establish a new business model for the postal service that would expand services and boost revenue.  The post offices throughout the nation are unique in their location to customers they serve in local communities.  This bill would allow the local post office to charge for notarizing documents for customers; provide check cashing services; make copies for customers; even sell hunting and fishing licenses, all these services are currently against the law.  It could be a “one stop shop” in thousands of communities especially in rural areas.

“The postal service must change,” Sanders told a group of Postmasters recently.  With gas prices increasing and the cost of competing against the digital world we can’t chance “making mail delivery slower and less efficient”.

The postal service runs out of money in August so Sanders bill, introduced in November, 2011, is hoping to gain traction in the Senate before June.

US Postal Service

Kevin Kostner in The Postman

When the Continental Congress named Benjamin Franklin the first Postmaster General in 1775, the United States was a weak confederation of colonies scattered along the eastern seaboard. The postal system that the Congress created helped bind the new nation together, support the growth of commerce, and ensure a free flow of ideas and information. In the more than two centuries since, the United States and the Postal Service have grown and changed together. Today, the Postal Service fuels the nation's economy and delivers hundreds of millions of messages and billions of dollars in financial transactions each day to eight million businesses and 250 million Americans. The Postal Service is making history, too, as it helps lead the way in making the federal government more businesslike and responsive to customer needs. This is the story of the evolution of the Postal Service and the role it has played in the development of the United States.

The USPO has had a colorful history with numerous transitions during its lifespan almost 237 years ago this July 26^th.  Too detailed of a history to summarize in this post, so if you want to read more, click here. 

Today, the US Post Office is referred to as the US Postal Service and has been fighting an uphill battle with its numerous competitors, the least of which is the Internet with emails quickly replacing mailing letters.  The USPS employs over 574,000, operates over 218,000 vehicles, and operates a post office in almost every city in the US at an annual operating cost of $100,000 for each office; and, since most of them are not even breaking even, numerous closures are imminent.

In my opinion, the most brilliant invention (for lack of a better word) was the creation of the 5 digit zip code that was later replaced by 9 digits which pinpointed the exact location of a residence or business or even an apartment and on which floor.  In 1962, the President authorized the USPO to looking into a coding system to deliver the mail and by July 1963, every address in the nation was assigned a 5-digit zip code but use of the zip code was not mandatory until 1967.

While the Postal Service does not have a creed or a motto (which is appalling to say the least), it does have a clever inscription on the James Farley Post Office in NYC, that reads: 

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night

stays these couriers from the swift completion

of their appointed rounds

Library of Congresss - Postal Carrier

One would think that the USPS, aside from the fact that they are losing money, would be squeaky clean; I mean, what could a Post Office do that would get themselves into trouble?  Well, if you think like me, then, you would be just as wrong as I am because in 2002 the following was published:

Deborah Willhite

“USPS Senior VicePresident Deborah Willhite resigned abruptly Friday amid allegations she used the federal mail budget to hurt the re-election chances of Arkansas Republican Sen. Tim Hutchinson. According to U.S. News and World Report, Willhite, the postal service's top lobbyist, pushed to have the budget of Arkansas post offices cut--and Hutchinson blamed. The dollars were to be transferred to Georgia's post offices, allowing supporters there to credit Democratic Sen. Max Cleland. The outcome of the Arkansas and Georgia races could tip the balance of power in the Senate.”

USPSStats

• Average salary is $48,000
• Over 700,000,000 pieces of mail sorted and delivered each month
• Each letter carrier delivers more than 43 tons of mail each year
• The number of delivery points increases by 1.8 million each year
• The USPS processes over 44 million address changes each year

If the USPS is 99.7% accurate with its performance, then 20,000 lost articles of mail occurs each hour