the wheels are coming off….
by problembear
i would like to know what in the hell is up with the US postal service lately? at least here in missoula. a very important piece of correspondence was mailed to my address last week on wednesday from seattle.
now usually, in the past (maybe even the dim past- since i have rarely corresponded using US mail for the past 5 years) first class letters mailed from seattle used to arrive at my house either the next day or one day later.
an equally important letter from the same party took 5 days to reach me back in march. and again it took 4 days to reach me this past july. i am not too worried that the piece is lost since 4-5 days seems normal and monday it will most likely arrive. but still…… if ever a service has convinced me to never use them again for important mail it is the USPS.
the poor mail snail delivers our mail and stuffs it with junk mail virtually every evening. all my other important stuff is handled online- bills, payments, etc. so i usually don’t care when he arrives. but i have noticed that he arrives randomly now from noon to eight thirty (that is in the pm!!!!!)
judging from this one bear’s experience with this agency i believe the wheels are definitely coming off of the USPS. am i wrong? is this just an odd anomaly concerning our route or are others experiencing late night deliveries too?
am i crazy or is the USPS just falling apart?
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August 28, 2011 at 8:40 pm
The USPS is a typical union controlled government agency.
August 28, 2011 at 8:48 pm
when i had my business i spent lots on postage every month. mailing out bills and payments to vendors. never had much of a complaint about the service. but seven years later, i have noticed that the wheels are coming off. it has always been union run and for 50 years i have never had a problem.
so i seriously doubt if the union is the cause of the wheels coming off andy.
it looks to me like the USPS has reached a point of critical mass in the curve of lowered revenue due to less people buying stamps. (mostly due to the internet) anyway- it seems to be affecting service now. but that is the question i am asking. has anyone else noticed a drop in service or odd hours of delivery in missoula like i have?
August 28, 2011 at 9:25 pm
I have always had excellent service from the USPS. I’m sorry you had a problem with them. As a former clerk/carrier, I know first-hand how dedicated postal workers are. The current (mainly right-wing) effort to shut them down needs to be resisted. There’s no need to privatize the mail.
August 28, 2011 at 9:25 pm
I find your experience off the norm of my own regular experience.
If I mail something by mid-afternoon, it is delivered to just about any city in this state overnight. Pretty reliably so.
I do NOT like going to the branch over there from Trempers. Pretty much anytime you go there is a long line, even if they’re working 2 or three counters and that gift postcard passport area.
Now my mail delivery? It seems inconsistent but that doesn’t bother me mainly because I used to live where I had to take a 17 mile drive to get the mail, and if the weather was bad you just didn’t do it at all. Then after a while I moved to town but the USPS delivered everyone by PO box, so even then I only got the mail maybe once a week.
More and more we use the internet. As you mentioned – that’s how you pay bills. Me too. Barely write a check ever anymore. Plus – lots of grannies and granpas are using the intertubes too – so no regular letters there.
The world’s changing. I wouldn’t mind if they went to once a week delivery, with the must-get-delivered stuff still getting delivered whatever day people pay for it.
When I absolutely must have it I ask or send Priority 2-day or the 1-day, with signature. Other than that i don’t rely on it to get delivered at all.
August 28, 2011 at 9:27 pm
Yes, I’ve noticed it. It would seem the problems stem from, exactly as you say, lack of volume. That said, reducing the cost structure to match the reduced revenues is going to be difficult for them. But there’s nothing new in this. The news has been full of closing rural and redundant post offices (reductions in fixed costs) as well as reported material changes in their pension benefit plan which, as far as the legacy cost structure, has something to do with union agreements (some part of labor expense if fixed and some is variable.).
I’ve often wondered why they don’t increase bulk mail pricing but that market may be so price sensitive that a marginal increase my result in actual lower revenues. On the other hand, first class mail has no material competition hence it would appear that the price of a stamp could be raised significantly and still increase revenues. That’s just a guess.
But I think the writing is on the wall; if one needs to send out mail prices will go up and service levels will continue to go down.
And for the record, I think there’s a competitive solution to the post office but, and I stress this, the amount of mail they handle each day is mind-boggling and worthy of a good deal of respect regardless of their apparent inefficiencies.
August 28, 2011 at 9:29 pm
i have always had excellent service from the USPS. let’s see that’s about 40 + years worth of service.
you might go to Vote Smart and look up Testers letters, and see the one he recently wrote to the Postal Folks about the changes that are coming… perhaps the Postal Svc has inaugurated the uhhh uhhh quasi service early?
August 28, 2011 at 11:14 pm
thanks william. i did as you suggested and managed to negotiate the fairly labyrinthine vote smart website to access the letters from jon tester. i would have linked to them except they were so bland and bureaucratic in nature that i found them to be too boring to bother any readers with. they were addressed to the postmaster general and were filled with lots of “i hope you will….” blah blah blah. i am aware that we had to subsidize this agency to the tune of 6 billion dollars last year and that they need to save money. maybe j-girl has some good ideas for pay as you go service. and certainly dave budge brought up some well-balanced observations…..
i guess my purpose here is not to belabor what has been up to now an excellent agency, but to find out if my observations are in fact true all over missoula or just this route.
for example has anyone noticed mail being delivered to their house after 7 or 8 at night. the first time i began to notice this phenomenon was about a year ago. and it seemed like a sign of the apocalypse then.
am i overreacting?. are the wheels not coming off? it seems that there is a consensus that this isn’t exactly the thread that will unravel america but bears notice things and tend to extrapolate.
August 28, 2011 at 11:27 pm
Reading the constitution I see nothing in it saying the post office must be profitable. Its purpose is to facilitate commerce for others and it has performed remarkably well over the centuries. It’s part of the commons.
Congress mandated that it fully fund pensions knowing that it would drain revenues in a time of contraction. As with every other successful public enterprise, they want it’s gone.
Contraction is painful. Given the absence of a need for profit, it should be done with top priority being care and concern for people.
August 28, 2011 at 11:42 pm
Reading the Constitution is doesn’t even say that Congress must establish a post office.
Funny though, you being the Europhile you are, that the EU has been liberalizing and deregulating their postal services since the creation of EU. Sweden, Germany and the UK have gone as far as removing the monopoly on mail boxes.
But I just have to say this: spending time on Montana blogs while your touring Europe makes you a complete fucking putz. Get a life!
August 29, 2011 at 11:26 am
But there’s good news on the horizon.
The PO is paying fewer people for just standing around.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/postal-service-paying-fewer-workers-to-do-nothing/2011/08/26/gIQA6b9nmJ_blog.html
August 29, 2011 at 1:04 pm
It’s OK, Mark. Almost everyone knows what a insecure narcissist you are who keep reinserting himself into places where no one wants nor gives a shit about your opinion. It’s got to be tough to be such an emotional cripple who has to figure out ways to allow your comments back in – such as rebooting to get a new IP address or using fake email addresses when, time after time, you’ve been told that you’re not wanted or welcomed.
You’re the Stewart Smalley of bloggers using your ability to go where you’re not wanted and insisting you’re good enough nearly every day as your little reaffirmation of how “and gosh darn it” you’re smart enough.
By any definition that behavior is nothing less than pathetic.
August 30, 2011 at 12:10 am
Oh, Mark, your so cute when you’re upset. The Constitution doesn’t establish the postal service. The Constitution gives Congress the power to establish it just like it gives Congress the “enumerated power” to declare war. Congress has the option not to establish a postal service just as it has the power not to declare war.
But you’ve always had a problem reading (although not quite as much as a problem as you have thinking.)