The Post Office

[JustPassinThru]

@JustPassinThru

Well,no one wants to hear it because you are wrong.

Okay, I'm convinced.  It wouldn't save anything.

It would COST money.  ANY change the unionized Post Office workers don't want, would "cost money."

Such an overwhelming refutation of my silly hypothesis, that making half the trips to each mailbox a week might save time, manpower needs, fuel, and money.

Thank you for illustrating - that the problem of the post office WILL NOT BE SOLVED.

And, by inference, why the Trump people are not investing any time in it.  There's other problems, both more pressing and more open to solutions.

[sneakypete]

Okay, I'm convinced.  It wouldn't save anything.

It would COST money.  ANY change the unionized Post Office workers don't want, would "cost money."

@JustPassinThru

The union in this case has almost nothing to do with it. They are treading water as fast as they can,just trying to stay alive. I am no fan of unions myself and refused to join the PO union when I worked there,but this is one of the rare cases where they have almost no influence.

Once again,the problem is it is controlled by political appointees and the politicians that appointed them.

[Silver Pines]

I have called the PO in the past.  The person I talked with said "Yeah, I know who that is."  when I told him what was happening, like he had heard the complaint about this person before.

@RoosGirl

I don't know how far you want to go with it, but the postmaster would bet he one to talk with.

[Silver Pines]

The bottom line is, nothing will be changed in the post office.  The dissonance here is an illustration why.

There are ALL SORTS of constituencies that the post office must cater to - few of which have anything to do with delivering mail.  Unions, community groups, those who want higher service without rate changes.  Politicians, who resist consolidating zip code areas.  And on and on...even to vehicle and supply vendors.

It's low priority, given our current high-level crises; and the obvious solutions will be ignored.  Such as, cutting staffing, through attrition - by eliminating daily mail delivery.  It's simple:  Every OTHER day delivery, with areas staggered.  Fewer than two-thirds the carrier staff could handle what they do now, by simply switching to M-W-F versus T-Th-S delivery.  The same carrier covers twice the area, by not duplicating daily.

Daily delivery was the thing when phone calls were expensive and First Class mail was delivered less than 24 hours from posting.  Now, First Class takes five days; and nearly everyone has some form of email.  Phones are cheap and almost all of them are portable.

...there.  I just solved half the problems the Postal Service has; their fuel costs; their mileage; their carrier staff.

No one will want to hear it.

As this illustrates, the problem is insolvable.  Solutions do not meet the POLITICAL needs of pressure groups.   

@JustPassinThru

Guess you didn't read my post.  In my area, three day delivery would be absolutely out of the question, as I suspect it would be in many others, because they DO deliver mail, among other things.  Loads of it.

Back to the drawing board, I suppose.

[Silver Pines]

It would COST money.  ANY change the unionized Post Office workers don't want, would "cost money."

The postal union doesn't do anything for the employees. 

But, I know, people who've never worked a day there know so much better than those who do.

[Silver Pines]

I'm In a town of 10,000 and I love my mailman. I have two. They always wave to me when I was a shut in, rang my doorbell to get any mail. They would collect money to bring stamps the next day -and they knew I collected stamps as a girl, so they would bring pretty stamps.

Now that I can move around I go in to my post office and they at some of the nicest men and women I've ever met.

I bought the new JFK stamp for my mom today, she needed stamps and she loved JFK. I bought bird stamps for me, I like birds,

Every Christmas I tip my mailman $10 and bring in a huge box of Duncan donuts for the rest of em.

They are good people. If you are nice to people, they are nice to you.

Btw, most of the times I've been in there the other customers treat the poor clerks at the window like fecal matter, if you catch my drift,

@CatherineofAragon bless your hubby,

@Freya

You're a sweetheart.  Thank you.

I'll bet they love those donuts!

 

[Gefn]

@Freya

You're a sweetheart.  Thank you.

I'll bet they love those donuts!

 

Everyone loves donuts!!!!

[JustPassinThru]

@JustPassinThru

The union in this case has almost nothing to do with it. They are treading water as fast as they can,just trying to stay alive. I am no fan of unions myself and refused to join the PO union when I worked there,but this is one of the rare cases where they have almost no influence.

Once again,the problem is it is controlled by political appointees and the politicians that appointed them.

I know fully-well how useless are most unions.  I was a BLE-Teamsters member for eighteen years.

I ALSO know how much the useless politicized union leadership cultivates fear and resistance to any sort of change.  I understand resisting hourly cuts, or new organizations that would eliminate positions - but just the mindless, reflexive knee-jerk resistance to any sort of working-smarter.

In railroading, they fought the elimination of five-man crews...for fifty years, successfully.  Until it was SO obviously featherbedding, that the union was finally overwhelmed; and what could have been gradual, adaptive change, became sudden life-changing change, with men on the street.

I don't need to be under a mail sack to know that three delivery stops a week is less expensive than six.  I also don't need to be under a mail sack to know that the daily mail haul will then be heavier.  And I also know that routes can be redrawn to accommodate the greater every-other-day volume.  Unless, of course, the union sabotages it.

But, you see?  All kinds of knee-jerking...what we need are BLUE RIBBON COMMISSIONS, MORE politics, special investigators, more pay, more perks, Safe Spaces with puppies and coloring books...THAT'S how we reform the Post Office!

As I said above:  The open-minded reader can see now, why the Trump people aren't wasting time on this insolvable mess.  It will have to collapse before changes happen - as the American railroad system was driven to financial collapse, with the bankruptcy of several major lines and near-insolvency of others.

So...let this cuckoo structure collapse.  Out of it, we can maybe privatize mail delivery.  The Postal Service can be an oversight and governing agency.

[Silver Pines]

Everyone loves donuts!!!!

@Freya

Dunkin makes the best, IMO.

[LateForLunch]

Recent review found that the post office has one administrator overseeing every six mail carriers. So if the Post Office has one million mail carriers they pay 167,000 bosses to supervise them at an average minimum cost per - manager of $75-85 K per year. THAT is one reason why things have to change.

There is no delivery business in the private sector with that many managers per production level employee. None.

[JustPassinThru]

Recent review found that the post office has one administrator overseeing every six mail carriers. So if the Post Office has one million mail carriers they pay 167,000 bosses to supervise them at an average minimum cost per - manager of $75-85 K per year. THAT is one reason why things have to change.

There is no delivery business in the private sector with that many managers per production level employee. None.

True.

But, from what I've seen over my life, NO outfit NEEDS supervision like the Post Office.  For DECADES, in the park across the street from my home, mail trucks would park in shaded grassy turnouts.  For about three hours every afternoon, especially in summer.  Winter, I expect, they were at a donut shop somewhere.

A THREE-HOUR DAILY COOP.  Now, as a kid, I thought nothing of it - it was just part of the scenery.  And it stopped only when those grassy unauthorized parking spots between pine groves, were fenced off.  Now I know they're under the gun...NOW.  How long will that last?  No private business has such an institutional LACK of a work ethic.

The whole system is rotten as a week-old fish.  But, the dug-in responses here show why it's fools' entertainment to try and fix it.

[Silver Pines]

@JustPassinThru

I don't need to be under a mail sack to know that three delivery stops a week is less expensive than six.  I also don't need to be under a mail sack to know that the daily mail haul will then be heavier.

You need to be "under a mail sack" to understand that you don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about.  Forget listening to people who know better when you want to pontificate about your grand "solutions."

[Silver Pines]

Recent review found that the post office has one administrator overseeing every six mail carriers. So if the Post Office has one million mail carriers they pay 167,000 bosses to supervise them at an average minimum cost per - manager of $75-85 K per year. THAT is one reason why things have to change.

There is no delivery business in the private sector with that many managers per production level employee. None.

@LateForLunch

You're right.  Many of them tend to be people who've never been out of an office in their lives, let alone carried a route.  Cluelessness is epidemic.

[Cripplecreek]

@LateForLunch

You're right.  Many of them tend to be people who've never been out of an office in their lives, let alone carried a route.  Cluelessness is epidemic.

Out here in the wilderness our post office has 1 employee who works till 11 AM and we share a rural route carrier with 3 other post offices.

[Silver Pines]

Out here in the wilderness our post office has 1 employee who works till 11 AM and we share a rural route carrier with 3 other post offices.

@Cripplecreek

We have a postmaster, one clerk, and three carriers/routes.  There's a tiny little PO about ten miles down the road that has only one route.  If someone's vehicle is out of whack, everyone in both offices knows that they can borrow a jeep from someone. 

[sneakypete]

True.

But, from what I've seen over my life, NO outfit NEEDS supervision like the Post Office.  For DECADES, in the park across the street from my home, mail trucks would park in shaded grassy turnouts.  For about three hours every afternoon, especially in summer.  Winter, I expect, they were at a donut shop somewhere.

A THREE-HOUR DAILY COOP.  Now, as a kid, I thought nothing of it - it was just part of the scenery.  And it stopped only when those grassy unauthorized parking spots between pine groves, were fenced off.  Now I know they're under the gun...NOW.  How long will that last?  No private business has such an institutional LACK of a work ethic.

The whole system is rotten as a week-old fish.  But, the dug-in responses here show why it's fools' entertainment to try and fix it.

@JustPassinThru

Flat out,I think you are either lying or delusional. Lots of letter carriers have to cut their lunches short or skip them altogether to make their schedule. The mail you carry each day is measured by the linear foot,and you have so many hours alloted to deliver x-amount of feet of mail. Some gets delivered quickly because some routes have cluster boxes,where you just stand right there and deliver to a couple of hundred people. Others have wide yards and houses built in the 50's and 60's that are set way back from the street,and you can NOT drive up their driveways without permission,and you can NOT cut across from one yard to another without their permission.
 
It's not much better if you have a mobile route because lots of people with multiple cars like to park in front of their mailboxes,and on "trash pick-up day" practically EVERY mailbox is blocked so you can't drive up to it.  Same thing on Saturdays. Most of the mail boxes will have a car parked in front of them.

In cases like this the post office demands you pull ahead far enough to park along a curb, put the jeep in park,put the emergency brake on,remove your shoulder harness,and walk to the mail box to pick up outgoing mail and deposit the mail you are delivering that day. AND......,they expect you to do it in the same amount of time as a weekday when the boxes aren't blocked.

And some customers are unbelievable assholes. I once had a woman complain about me using her outside spigot to splash cold water on me and get a drink on a day when the air temp was over 100F with no breeze and I was walking a foot route. She demanded the post office pay her water bill that month because I had "stolen" some of her water.

Then again,there was another woman on the same route that would keep a pitcher of ice tea ready and invite you into the shade of her garage to drink it.

[JustPassinThru]

Thanks, to all the knee-jerk defenders, for illustrating so well why nobody in the Trump or other future administrations, are going to do anything with this mess.

Every suggestion, every illustration of waste, fraud, abuse, inefficiency, rigidity...gets met with ad hominem attacks.

Good luck with your campaign to make the gravy train more comfy.

[sneakypete]

Thanks, to all the knee-jerk defenders, for illustrating so well why nobody in the Trump or other future administrations, are going to do anything with this mess.

Every suggestion, every illustration of waste, fraud, abuse, inefficiency, rigidity...gets met with ad hominem attacks.

Good luck with your campaign to make the gravy train more comfy.

@JustPassinThru


Yeah,everybody's wrong but you,huh?

I bet your mother used to tell you that you are a smart little boy,and that if anyone ever tells you that you are wrong it is because they are jealous of you,right?

[Silver Pines]

Thanks, to all the knee-jerk defenders, for illustrating so well why nobody in the Trump or other future administrations, are going to do anything with this mess.

Every suggestion, every illustration of waste, fraud, abuse, inefficiency, rigidity...gets met with ad hominem attacks.

Good luck with your campaign to make the gravy train more comfy.

@JustPassinThru

Sorry, Skippy, but the crux of the matter is this:  you're enthralled by what you think is your intellect and your laser-like ability to solve the problem.  And you think everyone else is just as impressed.  Look at the way you insist on totally ignoring input from those who actually know what they're talking about.  You're too intent on your "Look at me!  Look at me!  I know everything!" act.  It really matters to you a lot, I guess.

But I'm going to offer you some advice.  There are few things as embarrassing as a gasbag who thinks he's demonstrating his authority when all he's doing is parading his ignorance.

If you haven't learned that lesson, then learn it now, so you can stop making a fool of yourself.

[sneakypete]

@JustPassinThru

Sorry, Skippy, but the crux of the matter is this:  you're enthralled by what you think is your intellect and your laser-like ability to solve the problem.  And you think everyone else is just as impressed.  Look at the way you insist on totally ignoring input from those who actually know what they're talking about.  You're too intent on your "Look at me!  Look at me!  I know everything!" act.  It really matters to you a lot, I guess.

But I'm going to offer you some advice.  There are few things as embarrassing as a gasbag who thinks he's demonstrating his authority when all he's doing is parading his ignorance.

If you haven't learned that lesson, then learn it now, so you can stop making a fool of yourself.

[Silver Pines]

@sneakypete

 

[JustPassinThru]

Facts do not depend on high-fives.

We just demonstrated why nothing will change.

And why, eventually, the Postal Service will be privatized.

[JustPassinThru]

@JustPassinThru

Sorry, Skippy, but the crux of the matter is this:  you're enthralled by what you think is your intellect and your laser-like ability to solve the problem.  And you think everyone else is just as impressed.  Look at the way you insist on totally ignoring input from those who actually know what they're talking about.  You're too intent on your "Look at me!  Look at me!  I know everything!" act.  It really matters to you a lot, I guess.

But I'm going to offer you some advice.  There are few things as embarrassing as a gasbag who thinks he's demonstrating his authority when all he's doing is parading his ignorance.

If you haven't learned that lesson, then learn it now, so you can stop making a fool of yourself.

My experience is, fewer people are more clueless than the beneficiaries of an unsustainable, subsidized or protected industry.

They don't see the need for change because they don't WANT change. 

All this abuse, and no one here refutes my basic assertion.  And this was JUST ONE suggestion. 

Now, how many years did it take for the postal people to finally take prices off stamps, and just sell First Class stamps that were good as full postage?...the "Forever" stamp.  What an imbecilic name.

I was hitting my congressman about this thirty years ago.  Just sell me a stamp marked FIRST CLASS.  Then the PO doesn't need to print up three-cent stamps, and put vending machines everywhere, whenever they get their political sponsors to raise postage, usually to some odd amount.

They could have saved a LOT of money doing this years earlier...but government is never interested in saving money.

And government workers, the smarmy and superior and fast to mock, are never ready to consider anyone's ideas other than their own.

There's a name for that:

NOT INVENTED HERE.

Government offices, departments, quasi-private services businesses...are where good ideas go to die.

[JustPassinThru]

@JustPassinThru

Sorry, Skippy,

And I'm not "Skippy" either.

Address me properly or not at all.

And that is NOT a request.

[Sanguine]

Facts do not depend on high-fives.

We just demonstrated why nothing will change.

And why, eventually, the Postal Service will be privatized.

I have to admit, I don't understand the push-back.  We know the PO is overly costly and inefficient.  It's being supported by working people's salaries.  We need to reform it.  I'm sure there are many very nice, ethical people working there, my postlady is one of them.  But - it needs some serious fixing.