The Post Office…who needs it?

[Pommer]

Not us!

 

[jacorian]

Not us!

It's sad but the US P.O. is inefficient & has not blossomed. Snail mail is still snail. Transactions at the counter are lengthy & inefficient. You go in for just stamps. There should be a kiosk but they did away with those because they kept breaking. In addition, any efficiency consultant can dissect part of the operation is so inefficient because they don't set up the counter for quick transactions, medium speed transactions, or for lengthy transactions. Some people can only access the P.O. say on lunch hour. You see 2 people in line & think it will be quick. As it turns out, it goes beyond your alloted lunch hour.

 

[Fantine]

Although most of the time we can learn some very positive lessons from Canada, our neighbor to the north, we can learn from their mistakes when we consider the privatization of the post office.

They have had numerous strikes over the years when mail delivery has been suspended or greatly affected--and I am going back as far as the 1980's when we had a summer place in the Adirondacks and visited Montreal each summer to give our children an experience of a different culture.

https://financialpost.com/pmn/busin...-of-strikes-lockouts-and-a-few-quiet-contract s

Oh, I know what some of you are going to say already. Down with unions! Down with fair pay and living wages for workers! To which I say, ugh!

Yes, Canada has 30% union membership, one reason why they have less poverty, homelessness, and hunger than we do. But we voted against the Vice-President who stood on picket lines with unions in favor of someone whose policies have exacerbated income inequality.

 

[Always in His Presence]

The US Postal system has not been efficient in a long time. My business ships a number of times a week and we have been notified by our insurance carrier that they will no longer offer insurance for packages sent USPS because so many are lost - even the Express overnight service.

We were forced to use FedEx.

Getting rid of the governing board and merging with Commerce makes sense - has ZERO to do with Unions.

 

[Always in His Presence]

Thinking about it - just from a personal perspective - I don't remember the last time I have used the post office? Besides cards - I really have no use. All I get is junk mail. Everything important is in email format or online.

Heh - same with my bank - I think it has been close to two years since I was in a bank. I don't write checks anymore either.

 

[Vambram]

The only thing really important my wife and I still get via the USPS are packages. But, UPS and FedEx are better, much better, than the post office at delivering packages. Unfortunately, they are also more expensive.

 

[FireDragon76]

The only thing really important my wife and I still get via the USPS are packages. But, UPS and FedEx are better, much better, than the post office at delivering packages. Unfortunately, they are also more expensive.

UPS and FedEx often depend on USPS for last-mile delivery in rural areas, because otherwise the routes would be unprofitable.

Abolition of USPS would be a disaster for rural residents.

 

[Servus]

Potential changes = Trump is definitely getting rid of USPS.

 

[FireDragon76]

My grandfather worked as a postal worker most of his life. He did alot of walking delivering mail (and dodged quite a few dogs in his time), which probably contributed to the fact he lived into his mid 80's and was in good shape, despite being a pack-a-day smoker for fifty years. He didn't exactly get rich as a postal worker, in fact his pay was relatively low and my dad grew up in near poverty. But he was always proud of his service, and rightfully so.

The US Post Office actually predates the US Constitution. It doesn't operate at a profit because it's chartered as a public service, not a business. It has to take unprofitable routes to serve the American public.

 

[Always in His Presence]

Abolition of USPS would be a disaster for rural residents.

That is why he is not getting rid of USPS, just the governing board

 

[Fantine]

Things will be fine on profitable routes near population centers. Rural residents will be hurt, as well as online shoppers.

 

[Always in His Presence]

Things will be fine on profitable routes near population centers. Rural residents will be hurt, as well as online shoppers.

How does the governing board effect online shoppers.

 

[Pommer]

The US Postal system has not been efficient in a long time. My business ships a number of times a week and we have been notified by our insurance carrier that they will no longer offer insurance for packages sent USPS because so many are lost - even the Express overnight service.

We were forced to use FedEx.

Getting rid of the governing board and merging with Commerce makes sense - has ZERO to do with Unions.

It’s right there in the name the United States Postal Service.
It’s a “service” administered by the government.
If President Trump thinks that the Commerce department can do the job, (which he apparently does), then I guess we will see if it’s up to the task.

 

[Arcangl86]

The US Postal system has not been efficient in a long time. My business ships a number of times a week and we have been notified by our insurance carrier that they will no longer offer insurance for packages sent USPS because so many are lost - even the Express overnight service.

We were forced to use FedEx.

Getting rid of the governing board and merging with Commerce makes sense - has ZERO to do with Unions.

It might, but that's a Congressional decision, not a Presidential one.

 

[Fantine]

It might, but that's a Congressional decision, not a Presidential one.

The President is deciding lots of things he shouldn't. The Supreme Court won't have a summer break this year.

 

[Nithavela]

The President is deciding lots of things he shouldn't. The Supreme Court won't have a summer break this year.

They could save a lot of time by holding an official coronation ceremony and being done with it.

 

[FAITH-IN-HIM]

It's sad but the US P.O. is inefficient & has not blossomed. Snail mail is still snail. Transactions at the counter are lengthy & inefficient. You go in for just stamps. There should be a kiosk but they did away with those because they kept breaking. In addition, any efficiency consultant can dissect part of the operation is so inefficient because they don't set up the counter for quick transactions, medium speed transactions, or for lengthy transactions. Some people can only access the P.O. say on lunch hour. You see 2 people in line & think it will be quick. As it turns out, it goes beyond your alloted lunch hour.

Although I am unsure of your location, my experiences living in three different Midwestern states have been significantly different.

Every post office I've used in the Midwest has been friendly. Despite being short-staffed, the employees work hard and strive to do their best. Post offices are very busy during lunch hours as many people visit them on their breaks. Yes, some modern technology used by UPS and other businesses is not available at the Post Office, which may cause tracking delays. However, they are not as inadequate as you are suggesting.

It is not only the post office, but also whenever I visit any government office, whether state or local, the majority of the employees are proficient and work as diligently as those in the private sector.

It appears that some conservatives, who have been told past 50 years that the government and its employees are inefficient, consistently report negative experiences in government offices. Observations include employees engaging in personal activities such as playing games or chatting with colleagues during work hours, and taking extended lunch breaks lasting up to two hours.

For rest of us, government offices are perceived as bureaucratic entities that require time and patience, similar to the experience of calling AT&T, Charter, or my bank—all private companies. Typically, one might spend 30 to 40 minutes on the phone listening to music before finally reaching an operator who then apologizes and transfers the call to another department.

 

[iluvatar5150]

It's sad but the US P.O. is inefficient & has not blossomed. Snail mail is still snail. Transactions at the counter are lengthy & inefficient. You go in for just stamps. There should be a kiosk but they did away with those because they kept breaking. In addition, any efficiency consultant can dissect part of the operation is so inefficient because they don't set up the counter for quick transactions, medium speed transactions, or for lengthy transactions. Some people can only access the P.O. say on lunch hour. You see 2 people in line & think it will be quick. As it turns out, it goes beyond your alloted lunch hour.

You can order stamps online. Breaking up the counters by transaction complexity sounds like a good idea, but can fail in a bunch of ways: First, it only works at scale. When you only have 1-2 people working at the counter, you can’t divide things like that, or else the people with the bigger transactions will inevitably get pushed to the back of the line. Second, IME, the problem in most cases are the customers not having their acts together- things aren’t packaged correctly, they don’t know what they want, etc. Customers make things much worse than they have to be.

IME, the UPS store isn’t really any better than the post office when it comes to private customers trying to ship things to residential addresses. Where the UPS store excels is in their self-service kiosks for amazon returns, but that only works with amazon. You can’t necessarily scale that to other businesses.

 

[JEBofChristTheLord]

Also worth mentioning, is how Amazon uses USPS for a large number of deliveries.

I see quite a lot of baseless accusation against USPS. They'll do overnight if you pay for it. They'll pick up from your door.

 

[Nithavela]

It's been a conservative pet project to neuter, privatise or completely abolish the USPS in favour of private post companies, to the detriment of the public, especially in rural areas. Now it seems that they finally get their wish, why all of you impotently watch as another part of your country gets destroyed.

Lol.