Post Office Ending Saturday Delivery

[Karen]

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 ....

[phesina]

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.

[Lady's Human]

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.

[phesina]

I'm not surprised in the slightest.

[Lady's Human]

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!)

[Lady's Human]

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 ....

Short attention spans.

The pension and benefit issues would take more than 30 seconds to explain.

[cassiesmom]

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?

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.

[lizbud]

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.

[pomtzu]

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.

[Lady's Human]

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.

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.

[Lady's Human]

It took 10 days for a first class mailing to reach Florida from Indianapolis & I thing that stinks.

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.

[Lady's Human]

if you're going to run out on a Friday and you know your refill won't arrive until Monday, order earlier.

Not always an option, depending on how strict the plan(s) are about order frequency.

[cassiesmom]

Not always an option, depending on how strict the plan(s) are about order frequency.

I'm not a fan of mail-order pharmacy at all (too many bad experiences), but that's a topic for another thread. I'm thinking that the robo-pharms are going to have to work with the USPS and with their clients to accommodate the loss of Saturday deliveries.

[Lady's Human]

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.

[pomtzu]

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.