http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/06/news...-service-cuts/
How sad is this that because Congress is unwilling to do anything about it, people who rely on Saturday delivery are going to suffer?
Any wonder Congress has such low approval ratings?
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http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/06/news...-service-cuts/
How sad is this that because Congress is unwilling to do anything about it, people who rely on Saturday delivery are going to suffer?
Any wonder Congress has such low approval ratings?
Brilliant economic minds at work.
Raise rates (effective in January, more rates than just first class mail went up) and cut service, while retaining inept management and promoting more Vice Presidents with 6 figure salaries and outlandish compensation packages (the postal execs are on a far, far different retirement compensation plan than the hoi polloi).
Kudos.
And for those who think Postal executives are pure as the wind driven snow:
http://postalnews.com/postalnewsblog...ption-charges/
http://www.postalreporternews.net/20...and-lapdances/
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009...rmer_head.html
http://legacy.utsandiego.com/news/me...52-postal.html
There are more, those are just the ones I found quickly.
Those are the rare cases where they actually prosecute. For little things like sexual harassment they normally just move them to a different facility.
How Congress actually believes these people when they testify is beyond me, though it's liars testifying to liars, so what the heck.
Canada lost Saturday delivery back in the 70s.
It ain't so bad really.
Canada doesn't mandate delivery of veteran's meds by the postal service.
Combine no service standards (2-3 day delivery is out the window) with no saturday delivery and a vet or anyone else who is forced into Pharmacy by mail better not have an emergency...like an inversion that makes them use a month's worth of asthma meds in a week, just for an example.
In addition, this is all caused by a backroom deal in 2006 that is attempting to force the Postal Service to pre-pay retirement benefits for employees who haven't even been born yet.
Many other places survive on non-Saturday delivery, and the US will also.
When a holiday Monday follows a Sunday, no one dies. Not sure why it is that much different with Saturday. If you can't get your meds in the first five days of the delivery, then maybe you need to change something.
When a Monday holiday occurs, with no Saturday delivery, and no service standards, when are the meds going to get delivered?
BTW, before someone pipes up with med pouches are packages, not mail, that is incorrect. They are labeled and handled as first class mail, not packages. That was done to ensure prompt delivery.
All this aside, the sole reason for the fiscal crisis in the USPS is not loss of revenue, it's mismanagement from both Congress and USPS management.
Answer one question:
Is there any other entity, public or private, which is required to pre-fund retirement benefits for employees who aren't even born yet?
Minus that requirement, the USPS has actually turned a profit in most years since the legislation was enacted.
And to pose another question:
What other Constitutionally mandated government entity is expected to turn a profit?
I have worked for many companies in my lifespan. We never had Saturday delivery. We didn't mail things out, and things didn't come in. We survived, we made a profit.
If my meds run out during a snowstorm, or I lose them on vacation, or they get disposed of by accident- somehow I manage. I can't call a doctor's office on a Saturday afternoon, and expect to get seen and medicated by Sunday morning. The system will re-work to make it work out. Meds will be mailed out earlier, to accommodate the schedules.
No mail on Saturdays is such a non-issue. People will deal. All this talk about who mismanaged what, when and for what reason has nothing to do with non-Saturday delivery. The post office needs to be like every other place, and cut costs- no matter what the reason for the cost cutting measures.
It has EVERYTHING to do with it.
No mismanagement and there are no fiscal issues. Income isn't the issue, waste, negligence and abuse are the issues. I've worked for private companies. When times were tough, management didn't get 6 figure bonuses.
Congress has punted on the issue and left it in the hands of an absolutely incompetent management team. They spent billions of dollars to automate a dying mail class (magazines). The USPS OIG states clearly that it now costs more to deliver a magazine than ever because of their shiny new toy purchases.
We pay 6 times the going rate for some supplies, and double industry cost for others.
Fire management, get rid of the inept and corrupt, and 5 day delivery wouldn't be required.
Furthermore, several studies done for the OIG and others have concluded that 5- day delivery will cost the postal service far more in revenue lost to other delivery means than it will save in man hours.
The ultimate solution would be to get Congress to do their job pass a reform bill that makes sense, but I don't see that happening with the absolute infantile fools running the show.
Now for another question that will go unanswered:
Just for a moment imagine that you're a regional manager for the Postal Service. You have 5 plants reporting to you. You are on the books officially as working at plant A.
Of those 5 plants, plants C,D,and E are the best performing plants, despite senior management being domiciled at plants A and B.
You need to cut, and district performance is starting to lag on the radar screen.
What do you do?
I only ever get junk mail on Saturday anyway.
I really don't see any problem with no Saturday delivery - it's usually all junk anyway. And as far as meds - then those that get them by mail simply need to reorder a few days earlier than they normally do. I currently get one of my meds from Canada (my choice), and they specifically say to place orders for refills 4 weeks before the current supply runs out so that they will be received in plenty of time. What's so difficult about that???
You do it by choice. Vets do it by order.
As to how difficult it is, easy as pie.....unless something makes you use more than the usual dose of a med and you have to get more quickly (i.e. asthma meds). you order a 90 day supply, and aren't allowed to order more than the allocated dose. You know you're going to run out on day 85, can't order it until you're "supposed " to run out, and then you have to wait to order, then wait longer for delivery. And no, the VA doesn't do emergency refills short of an act of god.
This, however, is all dancing around the real issue, which is incompetent management and an incompetent, partisan, infantile Congress which would rather see things go over the so-called fiscal cliff than actually work out a compromise and fix something.
It is sad that the news media doesn't even touch on the pension issues etc. at the heart of the matter that are most of the reason for all the Post Office debt, but just focus on the things everyday people can see and know about.
Pay no attention to the elephant behind the curtain, folks ....
I get the idea some of these people want to do away with the Postal Service altogether, and we can all just use FedEx and UPS and the rest.
Take a peek and look how much Pitney Bowes has donated to certain Congressional campaigns.
Privatize profit, publicize losses.
Their aim is to run the plants and collection centers, while leaving last mile deliveries to the USPS. You can make money in the processing centers, but there's no way in hades to make money if you have to deliver to every address in the United States.
I'm not surprised in the slightest.
Okay, in an update to the initial press conference, Postal (mis)Management has stated that medicine pouches will be delivered, as will packages. Only letter mail will be held until Monday for delivery, which begs the question how much they actually think they're going to save?
Carriers will still have to go out to deliver the parcels, small bundles, and the packages that UPS and FEDEX drop at the door to the post office for delivery.
That's not going to be much of a savings. (unless, of course, you're an accounting firm hired by the post office to PROVE that it's going to save money!)
Move the best senior managers from A and B to C, D, and E. Leave the weakest managers at A and B. Establish a plan to eliminate A and B.
I worked in a high-performing regional office for over a year. Rumors of lay-offs and downsizing the whole time I worked there. The corporation wanted all the regional offices eliminated and all the business handled in the two home office sites only. It was our pleasure to make it very difficult for them to shut us down. We were the last to be laid off and the most difficult decision of all the regional offices. Take that, home office.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I would think Medco, Express Scripts and all the other robo-pharms could establish a plan to mail meds in such a way that they would be delivered Monday through Friday. They certainly make enough to do more express shipping. And robo-pharm users would need to think before they refill -- if you're going to run out on a Friday and you know your refill won't arrive until Monday, order earlier.
It took 10 days for a first class mailing to reach Florida from Indianapolis & I thing that stinks. I am converting most
of my bill paying to payment from my bank acct electronically. They have next day or same day payment service & that
works just fine for me. I suppose this post office problem all comes down to who's ox is being gored. It ain't me.
I'm with you, Liz - I pay everything electronically, and might rarely mail a check for some miscellaneous reason.. I have also gone green (paperless) on all statements, be it bank, credit card, utility bill, insurance - anything that would have info that could be used by someone if it got in the wrong hands. Since I have received other people's mail from time to time, then I'm sure others have received mine too. So not am I only protecting myself, but I'm doing my part to lighten the load of the USPS. :p
Postal logic? Shutter plants C,D, and E, and move management positions at A and B (on paper) into phantom jobs (Postmasters of towns that don't have offices open more than a couple hours a day) so the top heavy management structure doesn't show up on the books. Just for one example, I know of one office that is no longer a plant, however, still has a position for the postmaster's secretary. She's not on the books as the postmaster's secretary, she's officially the postmaster of a small town out in east overshoe, however, she has never set foot in the office. That situation is common throughout the postal service, and is a major driver of "cost savings" when they BS people and tell them they're cutting management positions. They have positions nationwide that are on the books as existing but have never been filled. Need to say you reduced your headcount? Easily done.
In which case raise hell with your local congressional staffers and get something done about it.
It shouldn't take more than 2-3 days. ANy longer and someone needs to hear about it, and Postal (mis) management isn't listening.
It used to be a firing offense to delay the mail.
Now it's another check block on a promotion packet.
Now the wunderkinde in charge of the Postal Service have decided that universal service is no longer the standard, despite that little piece of law still being on the books.
We can't deliver letter mail on Saturday, but in large urban areas we're going to reinstate SUNDAY delivery of packages.
You guys out in the sticks can go screw, we're just going to take care of the urban centers.
This, boys and girls, is what happens when you start running a Constitutional entity as a for profit enterprise.
I remember when I was a real young kid, that we got 2 mail deliveries each day during the Christmas holiday season. Those days are looooong gone.
Well, as slow as the mail delivery already is, I might have to resort in paying on line. My gas and telephone bills both went out on the first. That means they really didn't get into the mail system until the 4th. Here it is the 11th and neither of them have shown up. My telephone bill is usually the first one I get every month.
The electricity and water bills have both come so what has the post office done with my gas and telephone bills? :confused:
Gee, I can hardly wait for the service to get sloooooowwwwweeeeerrrrrr!!!!! And to think we are getting to pay more for this!!!!!!! :D:love:
The AD at my son's school works for the USPS, and has for years. To him, it is just not a big deal, at all. He also doesn't really think it will go into effect.
I still insist we will all survive. Heck, I don't mail much personal mail anymore, and even business mail is about 45% email generated. Saves trees. :)
It could be that the Post Office has delivered your check, but the gas and phone companies have not yet processed them. Usually the payments are sent in to a separate division - or sometimes even a whole separate company - that processes and logs them in in their own time, so you cannot blame the USPS for that!
Okay, so let's run an equivalent experiment, after all, the Constitution is old and outdated.....
Let's give people in some cities (second tier cities, like Worcester,MA, Akron, Ohio, etc..) Different freedom of speech rights than those in LA and New York.
That's fair, right? No big deal? After all, it probably wouldn't affect YOU.
the offices themselves will still be open on Saturdays so at least I'll still be able to drop packages off and buy stamps and stuff:cool:.
LOL. Comparing First Amendment rights to the stoppage of mail delivery? O.M.Goodness. You have come totally unhinged.
Totally unhinged?
How so?
Both are Constitutional mandates.
If you don't think mail delivery is a necessity any longer, amend the document and delete the offending passage. The process exists, it has been done before, but you don't just ignore a part of the Constitution because it is a personal inconvenience.