Post Office funding

[pjstough]

Just now, Kirk W said:

Where is it that they are paying this money? I have tired to find out more about it but can find no evidence in my searches. Can you share a link to such information?

https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/financials/annual-reports/fy2010/ar2010_4_002.htm

https://ips-dc.org/how-congress-manufactured-a-postal-crisis-and-how-to-fix-it/

[bigjim]

On 4/18/2020 at 7:03 AM, ARGO said:

Sorry, NOT a big fan of the Pissed Office.

But do you use them or someone else exclusively?

[bigjim]

On 4/18/2020 at 11:48 AM, ARGO said:

hrough rain & storm & dark of night.............."

My second week on a route in Dallas I was taking a bathroom break at a community center with 2 gyms. Litterly on the toilet when the tornado warning actually on top of the building went off.  I was told about rain, sleet, snow or the dark of night will prevent the carrier from from completing his appointed rounds  BUT no one told me what to do about a tornado.  To add to my problems as the pucker factor kicked in and I was  getting up 2 women's volleyball teams started running into the bathroom because it was it was a smaller  all block and brick room vs the gym.  Later in the day I nearly got washed away trying to get through and intersection when I got hit with a wall of water due to flash flooding.  Those old jeeps were really light and easy to float away or turn over.   I almost gave  up carrying mail that day. It it wasn't for he Marine in me I might have.

[bigjim]

On 4/18/2020 at 11:50 AM, pjstough said:

problem with eliminating six day delivery is that t

I mostly see eye to eye with you on the post office but I believe we could adapt to 5 day a week delivery. I think if they do that they should increase  open hours and staffing at the actual post offices or at least key ones.  Now question that there are some locations that should be closed but it sure needs to be done responsibly. 

BTW the post office is tasked to provide other service that I admit I don't know if they are paid for doing some way.  IE: Passports ,draft registration and I believe there are a few others at least that I can't think of at the moment.

Edited April 20, 2020 by bigjim

[whj469]

Of course I use the USPS and will continue to. They do an excellent job contrary to what some of you say. If you want to get rid of Post Offices can we get rid of yours and not mine.

[Ray,IN]

7 hours ago, Kirk W said:

Where is it that they are paying this money? I have tired to find out more about it but can find no evidence in my searches. Can you share a link to such information?

It is explained in that USPS  5-year plan document I linked to, which is quite lengthy.

[richfaa]

One of my sons is a mail carrier and  other family members have been P.O employees. The P.O like any other organization has problems.

[Chalkie]

Another way that the USPS could save both time and money (think fuel expenses) would be to require neighborhood group mailboxes everywhere, even in most rural areas, similar to what you see in newer neighborhoods.

[Kirk W]

4 hours ago, Chalkie said:

Another way that the USPS could save both time and money

And split up rural routes to every other day deliveries. Half of the route on Monday, Wednesday, & Friday while the other half gets mail on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. 

[sandsys]

4 hours ago, Chalkie said:

Another way that the USPS could save both time and money (think fuel expenses) would be to require neighborhood group mailboxes everywhere, even in most rural areas, similar to what you see in newer neighborhoods.

I really liked having those neighborhood group boxes where we used to live--in part because they had two big boxes in each group in which the carrier could leave packages by putting the key to that box in your private box. That worked well.

Linda

[pjstough]

1 hour ago, Kirk W said:

And split up rural routes to every other day deliveries. Half of the route on Monday, Wednesday, & Friday while the other half gets mail on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. 

That might work on a route where there is not a lot of mail,no businesses, or no Amazon deliveries, or FedEX, UPS, DHL, or one of the many services that the USPS provides "last mile" service.

 

[pjstough]

1 hour ago, sandsys said:

I really liked having those neighborhood group boxes where we used to live--in part because they had two big boxes in each group in which the carrier could leave packages by putting the key to that box in your private box. That worked well.

Linda

Central Box Units are becoming more common.  The one thing I didnt like about them was that you had to get out of your vehicle to service them, and with the door open while loading in the mail on windy days you had to be careful that mail didnt blow out of one of the slots you had put mail in, while putting mail in the others.  I did like the parcel lockers, but a lot of the time there were not enough lockers for the number of parcels you had.

[sandsys]

4 hours ago, pjstough said:

Central Box Units are becoming more common.  The one thing I didnt like about them was that you had to get out of your vehicle to service them, and with the door open while loading in the mail on windy days you had to be careful that mail didnt blow out of one of the slots you had put mail in, while putting mail in the others.  I did like the parcel lockers, but a lot of the time there were not enough lockers for the number of parcels you had.

Our boxes had the postal carrier side open towards the street so we had to maintain a path around back for residents to pick up our mail. Were yours like that? 

[pjstough]

Just now, sandsys said:

Our boxes had the postal carrier side open towards the street so we had to maintain a path around back for residents to pick up our mail. Were yours like that? 

Some were, others were in the middle of a cement slab.

[Kirk W]

13 hours ago, pjstough said:

That might work on a route where there is not a lot of mail,no businesses, or no Amazon deliveries, or FedEX, UPS, DHL, or one of the many services that the USPS provides "last mile" service.

We lived on a rural route for the past 8 years and see absolutely no reason for routine mail, including the "last mile" deliveries would need daily delivery. We are only talking about 1 day. Of course, closing small town post offices and cutting deliveries on rural routes would also mean fewer postal employees, which could cause pressure on Congress again via the employee organizations. 

EDIT:  The same action for urban routes would make this a very significant savings. 

Edited April 22, 2020 by Kirk W

[chirakawa]

33 minutes ago, Kirk W said:

We lived on a rural route for the past 8 years and see absolutely no reason for routine mail, including the "last mile" deliveries would need daily delivery. We are only talking about 1 day. Of course, closing small town post offices and cutting deliveries on rural routes would also mean fewer postal employees, which could cause pressure on Congress again via the employee organizations. 

If you suggested that all residential delivery go to every other day, I might agree with you.  To specifically target rural routes would not be fair, unless you cut their postal fees in half.  I'm on a rural route now and the post office is less than a mile away.  When I was on a city route, I was about four miles from the post office.

Also, just because you didn't make use of the postal service doesn't mean everyone doesn't.  I know several people who live in the country and get lot's of deliveries, since they don't like going to town to shop.  I have a friend who hates going shopping.  He buys nearly everything online and has it delivered, mostly from Amazon.  He'll go to town and grocery shop every three weeks or so for meat, dairy, fresh bread, etc.

Also, closing small Post Offices would cause a hardship in many areas and may not necessarily save money.  The small post office is a drop off point for mail in that area, using one postal vehicle which drives out from a larger distribution point to do so.  If every postal vehicle had to make the trip 40+ miles to the nearest larger city, that's quite a bit of extra fuel consumed.  Also, think of the customers who would have to make that 40+ mile trip just to post a package.

I'm thinking that small post offices provide a valuable service, particularly in poor rural areas.  JMO

[Kirk W]

2 minutes ago, chirakawa said:

If you suggested that all residential delivery go to every other day, I might agree with you.

Then we do agree. I probably should have said the same for urban routes. 

Years ago the post office would commission some business in the smaller towns to be able to provide rental postal boxes, to accept mail and to sell postage, as well as most other services that they provide. A relative of mine had such a store in the early 50's and that commission also helped to keep that little store open in the community where one would not otherwise have existed. There is no reason they could not replace many small post offices in that way and save money doing so, still providing the services. 

[Randyretired]

Here there are Post Offices that are not far apart. We have Post Offices 3, 4 and 7 miles away.  The direct distances between these offices is about the same.  Only one, which is the main office is very big or busy.  Each little town has it's own Post Office.  Since all of the carriers are stationed in the main office there is a disconnect between them and the local offices.  This doesn't seem to be very efficient. 

[Dutch_12078]

Many small town PO's are CPU's, privately operated Contract Postal Units that are paid based on performance, essentially a commission based on product sales. There are some seasonal and temporary emergency CPU's that are paid a flat rate though. In either event, the cost to the USPS is much less than maintaining their own structures and personnel. I don't know that shutting any of those down would result in any significant savings.

[Chalkie]

17 hours ago, pjstough said:

Central Box Units are becoming more common.  The one thing I didnt like about them was that you had to get out of your vehicle to service them ... I did like the parcel lockers, but a lot of the time there were not enough lockers for the number of parcels you had.

I don't see how getting out of a vehicle to service the boxes is any different than a mail carrier walking a route or having to get out at every mail box because they are set in the yard opposite the street side walk. Our daughter has the central boxes and if there are too many parcels for the boxes the carrier then delivers them to the individual residences. 

 

[Kirk W]

Quote

Services provided at a CPU Partner/Supplier location are listed below:

• Stamps
• Stamped Envelopes
• Stamped Postal Cards
• Priority Mail®
• Priority Mail Express® Service
• First Class Mail® Service
• Standard Post®
• Priority Mail Express International®
• Priority Mail International
• Insured Mail
• Certified Mail™
• Return Receipt
• USPS Tracking
• Signature Confirmation™
• Registered Mail

Other services that may be provided are: Global Express Guaranteed Service® (GXG).Mail deposited at a CPU after the last collection of the day will be processed on the following postal business day.

But no post office box rentals, which they did have back in the 1950's.

[Randyretired]

3 hours ago, Dutch_12078 said:

Many small town PO's are CPU's, privately operated Contract Postal Units that are paid based on performance, essentially a commission based on product sales. There are some seasonal and temporary emergency CPU's that are paid a flat rate though. In either event, the cost to the USPS is much less than maintaining their own structures and personnel. I don't know that shutting any of those down would result in any significant savings.

The Post Offices I referred to that are just a few miles apart are all owned and operated by USPS.  These are just a couple miles apart

   Each with it's own zip code, full service and box rental.  Each staffed with multiple USPS employees but not carriers.

 

[Chalkie]

22 hours ago, pjstough said:

That might work on a route where there is not a lot of mail,no businesses, or no Amazon deliveries, or FedEX, UPS, DHL, or one of the many services that the USPS provides "last mile" service.

I have been mulling this statement over. First, why is the USPS providing "last mile" service to these other carriers? It is not because the carriers are throwing USPS a bone, it is because the that last mile is not profitable to those carriers. So if it is not profitable to them, is it really profitable to the USPS? As to Amazon, Amazon Logistics is now delivering 50% of all Amazon deliveries and that number is growing constantly. Amazon's goal is to deliver 100% of orders through its own system which will cut off that revenue stream to the USPS. 

[Dutch_12078]

2 hours ago, Chalkie said:

I have been mulling this statement over. First, why is the USPS providing "last mile" service to these other carriers? It is not because the carriers are throwing USPS a bone, it is because the that last mile is not profitable to those carriers. So if it is not profitable to them, is it really profitable to the USPS? As to Amazon, Amazon Logistics is now delivering 50% of all Amazon deliveries and that number is growing constantly. Amazon's goal is to deliver 100% of orders through its own system which will cut off that revenue stream to the USPS. 

The USPS is willingly taking the money for last mile delivery because they pass by virtually every mailbox in the country daily anyway whether they have mail for that box or not. The more boxes they deliver to the lower their overhead per box.

[pjstough]

2 hours ago, Chalkie said:

I have been mulling this statement over. First, why is the USPS providing "last mile" service to these other carriers? It is not because the carriers are throwing USPS a bone, it is because the that last mile is not profitable to those carriers. So if it is not profitable to them, is it really profitable to the USPS? As to Amazon, Amazon Logistics is now delivering 50% of all Amazon deliveries and that number is growing constantly. Amazon's goal is to deliver 100% of orders through its own system which will cut off that revenue stream to the USPS. 

"Last mile" service by the USPS works for these other carriers because the USPS is required to deliver to "every address, every day".  As far as the USPS making a profit on "last mile" delivery, as I said before it is the United States Postal Service, not the USP Business!