Friday Night Massacre at USPS

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Any service needs to adapt to its environment. The USPS still operates like it did when they rolled out ZIP codes long before how time sensitive information is sent and delivered.

It can still be a service and evolve with the times.

Or it could have stayed a department and been funded every year with a budget outlay the way they did from its inception until 1982. Turning into a business because “reasons” isn’t good enough of an explanation. There was no reason to quasi-privatize it. None.

[km1125]

Isn't there something about the USPS not being able to raise rates to where they could make a profit?

If I recall correctly, Congress had to pass a law a while ago that prevented the USPS from putting rates out that were below their actual costs.

Why the USPS would actually want to do that would be anybody's guess, but it certainly doesn't make sense from a business perspective except for those car dealers that "make up for it in volume".

[Deleted User 13307]

Or it could have stayed a department and been funded every year with a budget outlay the way they did from its inception until 1982. Turning into a business because “reasons” isn’t good enough of an explanation. There was no reason to quasi-privatize it. None.

Agreed.

With some kind of checks and balances to ensure actual accountability for taxpayer funding, I have no argument with that.

Putting a genie back in the bottle that's been out for 38 years is gonna take a lot more fortitude than either of our political parties could muster in today's world where lobbyists make the decisions.

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Or it could have stayed a department and been funded every year with a budget outlay the way they did from its inception until 1982. Turning into a business because “reasons” isn’t good enough of an explanation. There was no reason to quasi-privatize it. None.

Agreed.

With some kind of checks and balances to ensure actual accountability for taxpayer funding, I have no argument with that.

Putting a genie back in the bottle that's been out for 38 years is gonna take a lot more fortitude than either of our political parties could muster in today's world where lobbyists make the decisions.

If I’m not mistaken this was the same period that brought mass deregulation to industries like railroads, airlines, buses and others. I think the post office got caught up in that fad. Many of these deregulatory efforts were largely failures as the industries had grown up around the regulations. Suddenly yanking them was incredibly disruptive.

[Deleted User 13307]

August 5, 1981 ... when Reagan fired the air traffic controllers. That, to me, is what really started that in earnest.

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August 5, 1981 ... when Reagan fired the air traffic controllers. That, to me, is what really started that in earnest.

Railroads were first in 1980 but the point is well received. Many of the others I mentioned took place after the air traffic controllers. But it’s become clear as time went on that there were a lot of changes then that people couldn’t see being negative at the time that ultimately proved to be H*** problems. And many of them related to moving to decentralized regulation by the states of national scale industries.

[zzand]

Another thing that has hurt them is that most, if not all, important things like bills, invoices, legal letters and so on can and are done electronically taking the post office out of the loop and costing them untold dollars in lost business. All my bills come email and I did that because every one of them gives a discount for going paperless. I pay all my bills on line and write exactly one check a month which I deliver in person. I can't remember the last time I actually mailed something personal. I do drop off the company invoices to customers at the post office but as far as my personal stuff, It it has been years. I know I am not alone in that. The only thing that comes in my mailbox is your garden variety junk mail. Now I know this isn't standard for every place but in my small city when your postal carrier is out sick or on vacation your mail isn't delivered and you have to call for it at the post office.

[km1125]

Another thing that has hurt them is that most, if not all, important things like bills, invoices, legal letters and so on can and are done electronically taking the post office out of the loop and costing them untold dollars in lost business.
....

Even more of a reason they should be more competitive on the "last mile" delivering packages for folks like Amazon. They don't have to do ANY of the distribution or sorting, just need to take a local shipment from the local Amazon Fulfillment Center and get it to the houses within their jurisdiction. They're already going out to every house anyways, so there is no extra cost involved.

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Another thing that has hurt them is that most, if not all, important things like bills, invoices, legal letters and so on can and are done electronically taking the post office out of the loop and costing them untold dollars in lost business.
....

Even more of a reason they should be more competitive on the "last mile" delivering packages for folks like Amazon. They don't have to do ANY of the distribution or sorting, just need to take a local shipment from the local Amazon Fulfillment Center and get it to the houses within their jurisdiction. They're already going out to every house anyways, so there is no extra cost involved.

Sure there is... they need people to go ahead and go there and they need vehicles assigned just to Amazon to be able to do it and the funding. DeJoy isn't allowing overtime to get it all to you as it stands so don't expect your local carrier to have time to add Amazon to his list. They can't even get all the mail they have out to you where previously they did whatever it took no matter how long it took. With DeJoy at the helm this is a non-starter until he can break the service up and give it to companies he has a stake in.

[km1125]

The volume in first-class mailings has dropped to about 50% of the level it was 20 years ago, but the employment has only dropped about 30%. Are they getting more or less efficient? Shouldn't those employees have MORE time on there hands now to deal with some additional Amazon traffic?

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The volume in first-class mailings has dropped to about 50% of the level it was 20 years ago, but the employment has only dropped about 30%. Are they getting more or less efficient? Shouldn't those employees have MORE time on there hands now to deal with some additional Amazon traffic?

If the Amazon traffic came to the post office... you’re asking them to go to the post office AND the distribution center... exactly how big do you think those mail trucks are anyway? I guarantee you they’ll need two vehicles at least in many areas most days.