The Post Office

[geronl]

@Sanguine

USPS does NO shipping on amazon. Or anyone else.

The sellers sometimes ship by FedEx,USPS,DHL,UPS,or Old Weird Harold,depending on how they feel that day. I usually specify post office because I don't like my packages being left out in the yard,but most sellers sent it however they want to send it.

I always assumed their computer knows the fastest-cheapest service at the time the boxes go out.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

@Sanguine

USPS does NO shipping on amazon. Or anyone else.

The sellers sometimes ship by FedEx,USPS,DHL,UPS,or Old Weird Harold,depending on how they feel that day. I usually specify post office because I don't like my packages being left out in the yard,but most sellers sent it however they want to send it.

That is not a true statement.

I got an item shipped just this week in fact by Fedex and it showed up in my USPS mail with a reminder on line by Fedex that said "shipped by USPS".

[Idiot]

The problem is not with the post office,or even with the majority of the clerks or carriers. The problem IS with congress,and as a result of things like Affirmative Action,with Postal Management. They give preference it stupidity and laziness as long as it is wrapped in a brown shell,and ESPECIALLY if it is wrapped in a FEMALE or HOMOSEXUAL brown shell. Double bonus points for a homosexual female in a brown shell.

I am retired from the post office as a letter carrier,and I have personally seen female and non-whites hired right off the street and be put in management positions within 6 months. NOT talking about college graduates with business or management degrees,either. Talking about home bois and home gurls from de hood that have a hard time reading the weekly safety briefing. I have personally seen two women letter carriers suddenly declare themselves to be a lesbian couple and get promoted into side by side postmaster positions in a rural area. I've seen a black woman that gave birth to her 5th child taken off her letter carrier route and given a job sitting in the break room all day answering the telephone "because of her delicate physical condition". Meanwhile,they hired a series of temporary white workers to deliver mail on her route for her while she continued to draw her full paycheck as a letter carrier and got her regular raises.

And it starts sooner than being hired. When I went to take my test in a major city,there were foreigners there from Asia that didn't speak or read a word of English,and they were actually allowed to have translators there to read the questions to them in their native language,and then write the answers or check the blocks for them. These translators were earning some pretty big bucks and since they took the tests every day for someone,they knew all the right answers. They did the same for illiterate black Americans. I sometimes wonder why they even asked the people applying for the job to show up to be tested when someone else is answering all the questions for them,anyway.

And guess what happens when these people are hired. That's right,the post office has to hire other people to do their jobs for them in most cases. In other cases where the new hire is actually willing to work,they run the new letter carrier employees through a course to help them recognize and memorize addresses,and they are only required to deliver mail on ONE route because they still can't read English. They have memorized the route and the way the names and addresses look on that one route. Every white new employee spends months or even years working different routes every day to cover the regular carriers being out on sick leave,vacation,or to handle the route after the regular carrier retired and the route is up for bid as a permanent route for the other letter carriers,based on  seniority.

I have personally seen a white female hired after me that was fast-tracked into management because she was a female,hot,and was humping someone in management. She had worked for the telephone company before getting the post office job,and won a lawsuit against the telephone company that gave her early medical retirement from the telephone company because there were several telephone operators working out of the same building where she was working that had been raped after leaving work at night,and she claimed to have had a nervous breakdown due to worrying about getting raped that prevented her from coming to work. I know this because she told me about it.

She got her job in management,and within a year she was suing the post office for sexual harassment based on the guy she was humping that got her into the management job "Sexually intimidating me into performing sexually in order to keep my job." Keep in mind this was a woman who went to a carrier union party while still a carrier,and got drunk and was humping people by the side of the swimming pool in broad daylight. Once again,she won cash damages and early retirement with less than two years invested in the job. She even retired at the supervisory level she was working when "the stress got to be too much for me to handle,and I had to start staying home because I couldn't bear the thought of going to work at that job again."

ALL of which decreases efficiency and increases costs,and ALL because Congress mandates they do these things. With every new administration in DC,the US Post Office gets a new Postmaster General,and it is ALWAYS a political appointee pay-off job to someone owed favors.

BTW,for those interested,Affirmative Action beats veteran privilege every time.

Newman????  Is that you???   

[Wingnut]

That is not a true statement.

I got an item shipped just this week in fact by Fedex and it showed up in my USPS mail with a reminder on line by Fedex that said "shipped by USPS".

FYI:

UPS SurePost and FedEx SmartPost are consolidated delivery services, which utilize the extensive logistics of UPS and FedEx, while relying on the U.S. Postal Service to provide final delivery to the customer.

[sneakypete]

I always assumed their computer knows the fastest-cheapest service at the time the boxes go out.

@geronl

The computer knows nothing other than what it is told to do. LOTS of times sellers will ship something using UPS,FedEx,or DHL,and they will deliver it to your local post office. This confuses the hell out of me and makes me mad because it seems like at least once every 3 or 4 purchases I am tracking a UPS shipment to my house,and then get a email from UPS saying the package is undeliverable and is being returned because UPS has a list of USPS street addresses,and I don't live on a street on that list. Which is why I have a PO Box. That's the result of the so-called Smart Mail nonsense,and it is the UPS computer doing this. The UPS driver and the postmaster both know me and know where I live,so the UPS driver drops it off at the post office,and they just put a notice in my box that I have a package.

I do this because if I give the vendor my P.O.Box address,many of them will refuse to ship to a P.O.Box address. They insist on a street address..

I am the only house on this island,and my house is 700 feet from the paved road. Because of the 700 feet distance and me being the only house here,the post office won't come to my house. They want me to put up a box 700 feet away from my house along the mail road,and deliver mail to that. I think we all know how often I would be replacing mail boxes and getting my mail stolen if I did that.

BTW,all the other delivery services base their deliveries on the post office list of addresses. I sometimes have to tell sellers over the phone of by email to ignore the fact that my address doesn't exist in the UPS database because it DOES exist in the county tax office. All the delivery service guys know I am here because I have been here since 1980,and nobody in the county had a street address until about 10 years ago unless they lived right off the main road going through the county.

I actually got turned down for a building supply credit card years ago because they wouldn't accept my P.O.Box mailing address as an address,and they didn't believe I didn't have a street address. A local in the local building supply would have known it right away,but the credit card people were in Nebraska.

One more item on the LOOOOOONG list of things that make my head hurt.

[sneakypete]

    @Sanguine

    USPS does NO shipping on amazon. Or anyone else.

The sellers sometimes ship by FedEx,USPS,DHL,UPS,or Old Weird Harold,depending on how they feel that day. I usually specify post office because I don't like my packages being left out in the yard,but most sellers sent it however they want to send it.

MY post above.

@IsailedawayfromFR

     

That is not a true statement.

Really? You think USPS owns amazon and controls how and when they ship? Is is the SELLERS that determine which shipper handles each package,NOT the post office.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

MY post above.

@IsailedawayfromFR

     
Really? You think USPS owns amazon and controls how and when they ship? Is is the SELLERS that determine which shipper handles each package,NOT the post office.

What I interpreted from your post was that USPS will not ship packages from Fedex.  They do.
It sounded like you said USPS will not ship Fedex.
If that is not what you inferred, I apologize.

[sneakypete]

What I interpreted from your post was that USPS will not ship packages from Fedex.  They do.
It sounded like you said USPS will not ship Fedex.
If that is not what you inferred, I apologize.

@IsailedawayfromFR

I think at this point we are just confusing each other,and need to drop it.

[Hondo69]

The computer knows nothing other than what it is told to do. LOTS of times sellers will ship something using UPS,FedEx,or DHL,and they will deliver it to your local post office.

I've hit some weird situations too, I guess we all have.

For example I was having a check sent to me from a real estate agent and someone needed to be there to sign for the package.  So I told him to send it to my office since a person would be there to sign.  I told him do not send it to my house, no one will be home to sign for it.  We work for a living.

This apparently set off a whole chain reaction of events because his computer was trying to verify my personal address.  Since there was a mismatch between my home and office addresses the check could not be sent.  Lovely.

Which was bad enough by itself.  The killer was the three separate phone calls I had with the same customer service lady where I told her each time, "some people work and are not home all day".  She still couldn't get over the hump.  So I finally asked her if she was at home right this very minute.  She said, "no, I'm at work". 

Well then, you could hardly sign for a package at your house when you are at work.  And here comes the tricky part, hang with me on this, you can't be in two places at the same time. 

You could almost hear the wheels spinning as she mulled that one over for awhile.  In her mind the computer screen was real, I was not.

Maybe if I talk louder . . . 

[Silver Pines]

Okay, my husband is a rural carrier for the USPS.  There are some misconceptions here.

First of all, we live in a small rural village that, unfortunately, is getting bigger as more people flock into the area.  All of the employees are conservative Republicans, and they all work their behinds off---my husband even more than the others, because his is by far the largest of the three routes.  And he doesn't complain.  He was raised to work.  On a normal day, he leaves the house at seven and is home by five thirty.  Starting in October and going through the first of the year, he might get home by seven.  But all of the routes are getting bigger, and there are few normal days anymore.  I pack him a lunch, and he has to wolf it down on the go...he has no time to stop anywhere and eat.  Thankfully his sister's farm is on his route, and she leaves the barn door unlocked for him so he can make restroom stops.

Rural carriers have to provide and maintain their own right hand drive vehicles.  Husband has two---a Jeep Cherokee and a Jeep Wrangler.  The Wrangler is the better one, but his loads have become so large that he usually has to take the Cherokee, because the stuff won't fit in the Wrangler and allow him to see out the back. 

The post office has contracts with both UPS and Fed Ex to deliver packages, which is why @Cripplecreek sees them dropping off boxes there.  Our carriers deliver CRAPLOADS of packages every day.  There have been times when husband has no choice but to make two runs, if time allows---take half of them, then run back and grab more.  But usually there's no time for that, since his route is seventy miles long.  I say this to illustrate the fact that, no, the PO does not just deliver Christmas cards and junk mail, and they're not competing with UPS and Fed Ex, but working with them.  Online ordering has skyrocketed to the point that it's necessary.  Btw, Amazon does use USPS for shipping---Priority Mail. 

@RoosGirl, I saw you post about your carriers not bringing packages to your house.  I asked my hubs about that.  He said they're not allowed to do so if there's a closed gate---they can't just open it and go through---or if the driveway is more than half a mile long. That might be due to time constraints, I don't know.  Oh, and also if there are aggressive dogs.  A carrier at our PO has been bitten twice by dogs who didn't even act aggressively, and both times the owners laughed. 

My husband does well with dogs, so he hasn't had a problem....but then his customers love him, too, because he's a stickler for getting his deliveries right.  /bragging off   

I do think someone should have notified you of why they aren't coming to your house with packages.

I don't doubt the stories about USPS employees goofing off and being incompetent in big cities.  But around here, that isn't the way.  From the time our carriers clock in, they don't have the chance to do any goofing off.  They spend the entire day providing a service that's needed around here in a time frame that barely allows them to do so. 

Also, regarding the comment about cutting deliveries to, I think, once a week....in some communities that might be viable.  But around here, it would be out of the realm of possibility.   My husband's Jeep is filled with packages every day, and when he gets back in the evenings, tomorrow's load is already accumulating.  By the time he gets to work the next morning, there will be much more.

It's a hard job, and he does it well, and I'm not ashamed to be married to a mail carrier. I'll say, too, for those who think it's easy, try keeping six hundred addresses constantly juggled in your head, knowing who has moved, who wants their mail held, who's on vacation, etc.  Our PO once hired a retired engineer for a sub slot.  He thought it would be a part time job he could coast on.  He gave it a try for a few days but he didn't last beyond that.  The day he quit, he called the postmaster in tears and said he just couldn't do it.  My husband had to drop what he was doing and go out and get the guy's mail.  Husband found him sitting on the side of the road, crying.


@sneakypete
@Sanguine
@IsailedawayfromFR
@Idaho_Cowboy
@Free Vulcan
@geronl

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Thanks for the encouraging post @CatherineofAragon I get tired of hearing how much the world, everything "now-a-days", etc sucks. This was a nice change from all of that.

[Idiot]

Okay, my husband is a rural carrier for the USPS.  There are some misconceptions here.

First of all, we live in a small rural village that, unfortunately, is getting bigger as more people flock into the area.  All of the employees are conservative Republicans, and they all work their behinds off---my husband even more than the others, because his is by far the largest of the three routes.  And he doesn't complain.  He was raised to work.  On a normal day, he leaves the house at seven and is home by five thirty.  Starting in October and going through the first of the year, he might get home by seven.  But all of the routes are getting bigger, and there are few normal days anymore.  I pack him a lunch, and he has to wolf it down on the go...he has no time to stop anywhere and eat.  Thankfully his sister's farm is on his route, and she leaves the barn door unlocked for him so he can make restroom stops.

Rural carriers have to provide and maintain their own right hand drive vehicles.  Husband has two---a Jeep Cherokee and a Jeep Wrangler.  The Wrangler is the better one, but his loads have become so large that he usually has to take the Cherokee, because the stuff won't fit in the Wrangler and allow him to see out the back. 

The post office has contracts with both UPS and Fed Ex to deliver packages, which is why @Cripplecreek sees them dropping off boxes there.  Our carriers deliver CRAPLOADS of packages every day.  There have been times when husband has no choice but to make two runs, if time allows---take half of them, then run back and grab more.  But usually there's no time for that, since his route is seventy miles long.  I say this to illustrate the fact that, no, the PO does not just deliver Christmas cards and junk mail, and they're not competing with UPS and Fed Ex, but working with them.  Online ordering has skyrocketed to the point that it's necessary.  Btw, Amazon does use USPS for shipping---Priority Mail. 

@RoosGirl, I saw you post about your carriers not bringing packages to your house.  I asked my hubs about that.  He said they're not allowed to do so if there's a closed gate---they can't just open it and go through---or if the driveway is more than half a mile long. That might be due to time constraints, I don't know.  Oh, and also if there are aggressive dogs.  A carrier at our PO has been bitten twice by dogs who didn't even act aggressively, and both times the owners laughed. 

My husband does well with dogs, so he hasn't had a problem....but then his customers love him, too, because he's a stickler for getting his deliveries right.  /bragging off   

I do think someone should have notified you of why they aren't coming to your house with packages.

I don't doubt the stories about USPS employees goofing off and being incompetent in big cities.  But around here, that isn't the way.  From the time our carriers clock in, they don't have the chance to do any goofing off.  They spend the entire day providing a service that's needed around here in a time frame that barely allows them to do so. 

Also, regarding the comment about cutting deliveries to, I think, once a week....in some communities that might be viable.  But around here, it would be out of the realm of possibility.   My husband's Jeep is filled with packages every day, and when he gets back in the evenings, tomorrow's load is already accumulating.  By the time he gets to work the next morning, there will be much more.

It's a hard job, and he does it well, and I'm not ashamed to be married to a mail carrier. I'll say, too, for those who think it's easy, try keeping six hundred addresses constantly juggled in your head, knowing who has moved, who wants their mail held, who's on vacation, etc.  Our PO once hired a retired engineer for a sub slot.  He thought it would be a part time job he could coast on.  He gave it a try for a few days but he didn't last beyond that.  The day he quit, he called the postmaster in tears and said he just couldn't do it.  My husband had to drop what he was doing and go out and get the guy's mail.  Husband found him sitting on the side of the road, crying.


@sneakypete
@Sanguine
@IsailedawayfromFR
@Idaho_Cowboy
@Free Vulcan
@geronl

I've heard similar things from a lady I know who is  postal carrier.  She said it's amazing how many packages they deliver now.  She said her work has increased dramatically.

My next door neighbor is a retired postal carrier.  He had walking routes.  I think he said he walked 7 miles a day...could have been more.  His knees are shot now.

[RoosGirl]

@RoosGirl, I saw you post about your carriers not bringing packages to your house.  I asked my hubs about that.  He said they're not allowed to do so if there's a closed gate---they can't just open it and go through---or if the driveway is more than half a mile long. That might be due to time constraints, I don't know.  Oh, and also if there are aggressive dogs.  A carrier at our PO has been bitten twice by dogs who didn't even act aggressively, and both times the owners laughed.

Our driveway is maybe 150' feet long, so we're not that far off the road.  I totally get that they have rules they have to follow.  Our dogs are never in the front fenced area, so that's not an issue.  The regular mail carrier during the week will leave packages just inside our gate, it's only about 4.5' high so it's very easy for him to reach over and drop them.  When I have packages I need to be picked up I make a note that they can ring the intercom that we have out there and I will bring the package to them, and there never seems to be any problem with that.  It's whoever delivers on the weekend that is the problem.  They won't leave the package and they won't ring the intercom.  Like I said, the other weekend I was standing out in the driveway and saw them at the mailbox as they were leaving a note in it that they couldn't deliver a package.  That was pretty crappy.  And, I never have any issue with weekday delivery or UPS or FedEx delivery.  It's just Saturday USPS.  I don't doubt that the job takes some effort, but pretty much every job does.  And, there's always that person on any job that just doesn't want to be there.  I suspect that's what's happening on our Saturday route.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Our driveway is maybe 150' feet long, so we're not that far off the road.  I totally get that they have rules they have to follow.  Our dogs are never in the front fenced area, so that's not an issue.  The regular mail carrier during the week will leave packages just inside our gate, it's only about 4.5' high so it's very easy for him to reach over and drop them.  When I have packages I need to be picked up I make a note that they can ring the intercom that we have out there and I will bring the package to them, and there never seems to be any problem with that.  It's whoever delivers on the weekend that is the problem.  They won't leave the package and they won't ring the intercom.  Like I said, the other weekend I was standing out in the driveway and saw them at the mailbox as they were leaving a note in it that they couldn't deliver a package.  That was pretty crappy.  And, I never have any issue with weekday delivery or UPS or FedEx delivery.  It's just Saturday USPS.  I don't doubt that the job takes some effort, but pretty much every job does.  And, there's always that person on any job that just doesn't want to be there.  I suspect that's what's happening on our Saturday route.

Betcha a milkshake the package wasn't even on the truck. 

[sneakypete]

I've heard similar things from a lady I know who is  postal carrier.  She said it's amazing how many packages they deliver now.  She said her work has increased dramatically.

My next door neighbor is a retired postal carrier.  He had walking routes.  I think he said he walked 7 miles a day...could have been more.  His knees are shot now.

@mrpotatohead

When I was a carrier and part-time employee without my own route,I always ASKED for the walking routes. Most people thought I was crazy,but I enjoyed walking,and after having been in the airborne infantry for over 6  years,walking with a mail bag was a joke.

The advantage to walking routes is it's a lot easier to keep to a schedule because no matter who you are,it takes "x minutes" to walk from one mailbox or house to the other,so the supervisors can't bust your chops for going into overtime on the trash pickup days when all the mail boxes are blocked by garbage cans,and you have to park the damn jeep,put the ebrake on,shut off the ignition,then get out and walk around the trashcans to put the mail in the boxes.

Plus,they couldn't/wouldn't load you down with packages. If you had big packages,they would send somebody with a jeep to deliver them.

The last couple of years I worked as a T-6,and had 5 routes instead of one because I filled in for people on their day off.

[RoosGirl]

Betcha a milkshake the package wasn't even on the truck. 

LOL.  Well, we've had that problem (on the weekend) too.  Last weekend my husband was out front, the person actually pulled up to the gate and handed him a couple of packages.  My husband knew there were supposed to be 3, but the guy said he only had two, only showed 2 on his list, rechecked his list, nope, only 2 packages.  Took off.  About 15 minutes later he pulled back in and handed hubby the third package.  At least this time the guy made an effort!  Wasn't our "normal" Saturday person.  Probably some  of the issue is with how the trucks are (or aren't) getting loaded.

[Silver Pines]

Thanks for the encouraging post @CatherineofAragon I get tired of hearing how much the world, everything "now-a-days", etc sucks. This was a nice change from all of that.

@Idaho_Cowboy

So was your post.  Thank you, friend.   

[Silver Pines]

I've heard similar things from a lady I know who is  postal carrier.  She said it's amazing how many packages they deliver now.  She said her work has increased dramatically.

My next door neighbor is a retired postal carrier.  He had walking routes.  I think he said he walked 7 miles a day...could have been more.  His knees are shot now.

@mrpotatohead

Come to think if it, you're right....you never see a walking mail carrier now.  The city carriers all drive now.

[Silver Pines]

Our driveway is maybe 150' feet long, so we're not that far off the road.  I totally get that they have rules they have to follow.  Our dogs are never in the front fenced area, so that's not an issue.  The regular mail carrier during the week will leave packages just inside our gate, it's only about 4.5' high so it's very easy for him to reach over and drop them.  When I have packages I need to be picked up I make a note that they can ring the intercom that we have out there and I will bring the package to them, and there never seems to be any problem with that.  It's whoever delivers on the weekend that is the problem.  They won't leave the package and they won't ring the intercom.  Like I said, the other weekend I was standing out in the driveway and saw them at the mailbox as they were leaving a note in it that they couldn't deliver a package.  That was pretty crappy.  And, I never have any issue with weekday delivery or UPS or FedEx delivery.  It's just Saturday USPS.  I don't doubt that the job takes some effort, but pretty much every job does.  And, there's always that person on any job that just doesn't want to be there.  I suspect that's what's happening on our Saturday route.

@RoosGirl

If your Saturday deliverer isn't willing to put in the effort required, maybe he should look elsewhere.  I would definitely give the post office a call.  They'd probably like to know about the situation.

[Gefn]

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,

[RoosGirl]

I had in incident where we were fixing up a flip house and the neighbor across the street backed into my brick mail box and destroyed it.  I took the mail box and set it on top of the pile of brick rubble..lol.  I was standing there when the mail carrier came by....they looked at the mail box on the pile and said the mail box was too far from the street (maybe 2-3 ft) and they weren't allowed to get out of their trucks to deliver it.  So they drove away without giving me my friggen mail.  This is in town...not some rural route.

Haha, another one of those "I'm doing the bare minimum to get by" kind of people.  You find em everywhere. ;)

[RoosGirl]

@RoosGirl

If your Saturday deliverer isn't willing to put in the effort required, maybe he should look elsewhere.  I would definitely give the post office a call.  They'd probably like to know about the situation.

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. 

[Elderberry]

I was weeding the front flower beds and my Yellow Lab Toby was walking around in the front yard. I noticed the mail lady delivering mail next door. As she was coming toward my yard, I gave Toby a Down command and She saw Toby obey. She refused to enter my yard and deliver my mail. I told her that she was in the wrong occupation as she had no sense of animals. She left in a huff and it wasn't long before I had a new Mailman. They probably promoted her.

[JustPassinThru]

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.   

[sneakypete]

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

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

The two big things wrong with the post off is the postmaster general and his assistants are all political hires that know and care nothing about the post office,and AA hiring and promotions. No matter how bad you think this problem is,it is worse.

For example,when I,as a disabled veteran went to take the exam,there were Filipinos and Vietnamese in there taking the test that couldn't read or write English,and they were allowed to have translators read the questions and answers to them,and then they would answer the questions. No kidding.

Want to rise rapidly in the post office? Apply as a minority and then once you are hired tell them you are a homosexual. I know of 3 women that went this route and went from being part time letter carriers to station managers within 3 years. At least one of them was retired within 4 years. Her claim was related to the stress she felt as a lesbian working in basically a all-mail environment.

I personally know of one black male that was hired that couldn't read or write,and he was born in America. He did have a HS diploma,so they hired him and then sent him to a special school while he was on the payroll to teach him to recognize names and addresses,and he was restricted to only carrying mail on one route. Because of this he got a small route that was in an established neighborhood with no apartments and almost all nobody moved away. Seniority didn't even come into play.

And for every one of these slacers and dummies they are forced to  hire,they are then forced to hire at least two other people to do their work for them.

One black woman just put on restricted duty after giving birth to her 6th child because of her "delicate female condition". She remained in the break room all day playing cards,listening to music,socializing with any of the clerks that came in for breaks,and answering the telephone. Meanwhile,Part Time Flexible employees had to cover her route every day.

One Filipino shop steward that married an American woman that was in the Navy in the Philippines got caught stealing SS checks. They weren't on his route. They were on the route of a hot blonde new employee that refused to join the union. He was stealing checks from her case while she was on break so that it would be her suspected of the thefts. Postal Inspectors caught him. It took a couple of months to even get him off of his route and out of the station while awaiting trial. While he was suspended awaiting trial,the freaking union paid all his expenses to go to the Letter Carriers Union Convention to represent that area. No kidding.

Among that group of slackers,thieves,and hustlers,you have maybe 60 percent of the work force doing all the actual work. Almost all of whom are white males because they are the only ones that can be fired.

It ain't the post office at fault. It is the political creatures appointed to run it,and the corrupt politicians that make the rules.