Mailers Council reacts to USPS deficit projection, 5-day delivery proposal
Mailers Council Issues Statement on Postal Service Projected $6 Billion Deficit, 5-Day Delivery Proposal
ARLINGTON, VA, January 30, 2009—Today, Mailers Council Executive Director Robert E. McLean issued the following statement in response to Senate testimony given by Postmaster General Jack Potter regarding the United States Postal Service’s dire financial situation and their proposed response to it.
“The mailing industry, which represents more than 9 million jobs in this country, is very concerned at today’s announcement that the United States Postal Service could lose up to $6 billion in 2009 and, should that occur, would be unable to meet its financial obligations. The Postal Service is an essential tool of all business. Although the Internet is unquestionably important to the nation’s economy, we must have a reliable and affordable postal system.
“To cope with this situation PMG Potter asked for legislative relief in two areas: a change to the way it prefunds retiree costs and the opportunity to reduce service from six-day delivery to five-day mail delivery.
“We strongly support the Postal Service’s request for legislation that would revise the payment schedule for future retiree health care benefits. This is in no way a bailout but a minor adjustment of payments to this fund that currently contains $32 billion. Making additional payments to this fund during the current financial crisis places an unnecessary fiscal burden on the Postal Service and will add to their losses. Altering the payment schedule will provide time for the economy to recover and mail volumes to return to normal levels, at which time, payments to the fund will resume.
“As for five-day mail delivery, such a dramatic service cut would adversely affect mailers who have built their business models on six-day delivery. It would also harm customers in many ways. If mail is delivered later than expected, customers might not receive essential medicines when needed, critical time-sensitive legal documents could arrive after required deadlines, and mortgage and other bill payments could be delayed just enough to generate late charges.
“Our biggest concern, however, with such a change, is that it will not improve the Postal Service’s bottom line. It will, we fear, result in the loss of revenue because it will drive away customers who count on reliable six-day service that is essential to the nation’s commerce. Furthermore, it is important to remember that postage rates will increase in May. Raising rates and cutting service at the same time would only compound a bad situation. We believe mail volume lost because of these actions would never return. So, although we recognize the serious financial challenges the Postal Service faces, this is not the solution.”
January 31st, 2009 10:39
Come on, who sits around & waits for mail on Saturday? Most big business has pickup service and that mail still goes through even though we might not deliver on Saturday. That is the logical day to elliminate, not Tuesday! That would ceate two mondays a week, yea that saves money! When is people going to realize we need a change and doing away with the Saturday delivery will not only save jobs, but save the Postal Service! Saturday used to be our lightest day until the jerks worked with the mailers to have things delivered on Saturday! We are not talking about not processing mail 24/7, just cutting delivery one day. The people who are against it know nothing about the USPS anyway! So let us decide what is best!!
January 31st, 2009 15:39
5 days should not even be considered.
Reduce or eliminate the prepayments and the PO will be find, create a more efficient business model, reduce locations and make the office that stay more customer friendly. Let us compete
January 31st, 2009 16:04
5 day week is the way to go..Eliminate saturday.. Eventually everyone will adjust to this..I think ups and federal express work monday through friday…90 percent of the mail is junk anyway…If this was a private company this would be a no -brainer.. But this is the government….If you eliminate tuesday the system will be worse than what it is now.. Please Saturday makes sense..Let’s do this..You fools..
January 31st, 2009 18:52
yes saturday wud be the the day tuend delivery. most buissnesses are closed it wud be good for moral yu wud save money and it wud be like working a normal job.p.o can manipulate the on any day they want to make it the lightest day of the week.use some common sense hear and make the right decision.no need for mail on sat
January 31st, 2009 19:50
Unfortunately a 5 day delivery schedule would not be a viable solution. The postal service keeps talking about the volume of mail being down but they cannot get the carriers the mail now-we constantly receive mail to deliver that is dated 2 or more days prior-by cutting out delivery MORE mail will pile up making them further behind schedule.They should really look into cutting back on supervisors and higher ups first before any further cuts be considered.
February 1st, 2009 01:36
Going to a 5 day delivery is just another stupid idea by the biggest, most corrupt crook in America, the Postmaster General! He said that all pay raises for Postal execs are to be frozen. Of course, that is after he and his top cronies recieved a 39% pay raise last year!
There are several ways to save a ton of money.
Stop Micromanaging! Streamline delivery operations by having city carriers be more like the rural carriers. Do Away with those expensive walking routes and make them mounted curbside delivery, allowing far more customers to be serviced by fewer carriers.
Rural carriers are paid a daily evaluation based on a yearly mail count. the same every day no matter how much mail there is to be delivered. The more efficient they are, the better they make per hour. City carriers are paid by the hour, and some carriers don’t want more than 8 hours a day, so if they are not finished with their route, a carrier who wants overtime finishes the route. And there are a lot of good carriers out ther, but there are a lot of slackers, too! If the city carriers were paid the same way that the rurals are paid, th PO would save BILLIONS!
I AM A RURAL CARRIER OF 15 YEARS, AND I SEE THIS EVERY DAY!
February 1st, 2009 09:17
The p o is just like any other gov run biz, (Top heavy). Its the good ol boy syndrome. Most of the sups and upper management are not there because there good, quite the contrary. They get these positions because there as unqualified as the ones promoting them (never give a job to someone better than yourself). Carriers have long known that if it makes sense the p.o. will do just the opposite. Sounds like our government as a whole! I agree with #6 comments, carrying mail the way rural carriers do is much more logical and you could cut supervision in half. Excuse me for being a skeptic, but i remember when the p o did away with assistant p o jobs just to create new titles and add more administrative jobs. I do believe that cutting Saturday delivery is a good thing. People adjust. Heck many of my deliveries don’t get their mail from the box till Monday now. I do believe the moral (at all time low) would improve greatly knowing that they could have a better family life. Did i mention the fuel savings alone would be a huge (one days fuel thousands of vehicles), do the math. If your going to improve the p o overhaul the system. I doubt much will come from this proposal made to congress,with gov there always seems to be a lot more talk than action.
February 1st, 2009 12:03
POTTER MUST GO!!!! Yet another lame brain idea to come out of the Postmasters mouth. He didn’t happen to mention the billions the PO spent on flat sorting machines that they no longer need because of the drop in mail volume. The average route in my office gets about two feet of flats on an average day. By the time they sort those flats by machine which is as large as a football field the carrier could have already cased them in. Not to mention the workers that they need to run these machine’s and maintain them, and the huge building needed to house them. This organization is so top heavy in management it staggers the imagination. Guess what Potter if your managers and supervisors didn’t show up for work the mail would still go out. If the carriers don’t show up your in trouble. Get rid of the glut of excess managers that get paid 60K to 80K to basicly just stand around. Get rid of the goons that come in the office with thier clipboards and stand around behind hard working carriers and jot down thier little notes. Get rid of your ridiculouse street safety program that has carriers do this at every stop— Shut off vehicle-put transmission in park-put on emergency brake-take off seat belt-take key out of ignition-go through 2 to 5 different budles of mail for each stop-roll up window and lock door- and finally make you delivery!!!!!!! No wonder the Post Office is in trouble. Get rid of office time and street time what;s the difference the pay is the same, oh I forgot the post office has to show some kind of benefit for the DPS system they spent untold billions on to sort letter mail by delivery sequence. So if that is true why do rural routes get to case in thier pre-sorted DPS mail? It is already in delivery sequence- why take the extra time to case it in? Why do rural routes get to case in thier marriage mail and other full coverage flyers when the city routes are not allowed to do this. Does the Post Office know that it takes less time to deliver a route when you just have one bundle of mail to sort through instead of 5. Get rid of your DOIS system that is supposed to tell the Supervisor the workload for each carrier. In the last 5 years it has been right twice for my route. The carriers can self manage thier route better than some lame ass supervisor that couldn’t hack it as a carrier so they promoted them to management. Go back to the basics- start the workday early, instead of starting at 8:00AM or 9:00am start the carriers at 6:00am
Let the carriers case thier mail the wayTHEY want to do it that will result in less time on the street. What’s the difference if they are in the office for 4 hours and 4 hour on the steet, instead of in the office for 2 hours and on the street for 6 hours, the pay rate is the same. You don’t need 5 managers to run a station 3 would be plenty. The area Postmaster doesn’t need a company car paid by the Post Office, let him use his own car. I see so much waste and glut from PO management it makes me sick, our office is run more like a prison than a place of employment. NO TALKING, NO LEAVING YOUE CASE, WORK WORK WORK FASTER FASTER FASTER, we must make our figures so the managers can get thier bonus’s.Hey Potter what was the figure for the bonus’s that were paid out to all your managers and supervisors?? You didn’t mention that in your little speach.
February 1st, 2009 12:07
I agree with hb. Moral is at an all time low, we’ve had a hard winter and we are tired. My office has an older workforce and this forced overtime is really hurting our office, both physically and mentally. Our office is already short-handed with 6 empty routes, and we have 4 retiring at the end of February. If the P.o. really wants to save money, then eliminating Saturday delivery is the way. We all have missed many important times with our families because of Saturday delivery. Sick calls might decrease as well.
February 1st, 2009 13:04
They give clerks color days off to shut down movement on Sundays–which means Tuesday will be heavy. And now a proposed Tuesday off? You people are crazy! Essential medicines should be delivered saturdays by te’s/ptf’s. Your so-called critical time-sensitive legal documents should be EXPRESS anyways, which ptf’s and te’s would still deliver on SAT/SUN. Yeah it costs more, but what doesn’t these days? Good luck getting a better deal from Duey, Huey, Louie(DHL) whoops, they aren’t around anymore!!!! Shut down Saturday and save gas, payroll and SICK LEAVE in one shot. Giving Sun/Tue off will ensure record #s of Monday Drs. Appts. and FMLA’s.
February 1st, 2009 13:14
blind leader is the one who is definitely blind. i work for Post office. Ending Saturdays would cost the jobs of thousands of jobs of RCAs. Who were hired to work Saurdays. Plus many medicines are delivered on Saturdays. I pick whole tubs of mail from customers on Saturday. and they happen to be bills. You are the one who doesn’t know…..
February 1st, 2009 13:55
It all boils down to this, the U.S.Postal Service needs to be looked at and looked at hard by the news media, attention needs to be made on how things are ran, it stinks and it stinks bad!! The waste is unreal, P.O.District people standing around our office walking around telling you can’t have lotion,band-aids,or aspirin at your cases, like that is really saving money, While they are staying in hotels, feeding them, driving around in circles just trying to have an important name for themselves, it just makes me sick the waste they(BIG SHOTS)have .
February 1st, 2009 15:19
Ed, you are right on target. I’ve been delivering for 27yrs and I agree with everything you said. Potter and all the dead weight at the top are destroying this co. Let me do my job. Most of the idiots who run the P.O. have no idea how to do what I do. Instead of staring at the numbers on the PC and looking to disipline anyone for not pulling your mail down fast enough, Management should be out knocking on doors selling our products, getting more business. While we are delivering they need to be in sales for our local communities, drumming up business. FORGET looking at numbers all day, get of your chairs and bring in money. Potter, when is the last time you talked with a customer and asked them what THEY needed or wanted. I keep my customers happy because I listen to them, and I work for them, It’s my job. Wake up people, Potter wants the P.O. to go down, we need to work for our customers not the Dois numbers. Sell good service to your customers, talk with them, listen to them, bring back the POSTAL SERVICE.
February 1st, 2009 15:19
Hey pooky1961, I am a 22 year postal employee! I fully understand the situation and if I remember correctly RCAs are not career employees! Hmm, also I know from hiring and firing these employees we cannot keep RCAs or TRCs for any length of time anyway. Looks like if we did not need these employees, we could save some extra $$$$$.
I do agree the micro managing has to stop and the cookie cutter method does not apply all across the nation. Flat sorting is a joke, I made the statement to higher management years ago, “what are we going to do with the machines when we do not have the mail to run them”. Well that time is hear. As an orgainization we cannot look back, only plan for the future and I have several years to go to retire! We have lost our way, and we need to get it back. It would not take long for everyone to adjust to no delivery on Saturday. If it must get there, we have express mail, and that is more revenue for us! Look at what the competitors charge for weekend delivery!! We are still the best bargain out there.
February 1st, 2009 17:16
Right on LRinCA, Bush wanted to priviteize the PO from day one once he took office. He put Potter in charge to see that goal through. If it wasn’t for Iraq I belive he would have succeded. As soon as Potter took office he had his “Manifesto for Change ” distributed for everyone to read. It outlined his plans for the comming years to downsize the workforce and replace people with machines. His thinking was you don’t have to pay a machine a salary or benefits.
The latest brainstorm comming down is that they are getting rid of all the mailhandler in our area. Our mailhandler is now going to be our custodian. They will replace him with a casual
and train the casual to mailhandle. Why didn’t they just hire a casual to be the custodian, and let the mailhandler do his job?
The NALC supported Obama, now I hope Obama will support the NALC and hand Potter his walking papers, and replace him with someone that will give good jobs to poeple so they can support thier families. The PO was never ment to be a profit making organization. At best if it broke even everybody was happy. I would think that Obama would rather help a service provided to the people of the USA since 1775 rather than give money to wall street crooks that after getting thier billions of dollars of relief turned around and gave thier people millions of dollars in bonus’s.
February 1st, 2009 18:46
Blind Leader – I am a 16 year RCA!!! We ARE career employees! How do you think most of the vacant routes get filled? HMMM?? The senior RCA becomes a regular rural carrier. I have been an RCA for 16 years by choice as I am my hubby’s sub and don’t want full time. Another question – WHO will carry your route on your relief day if there are no subs/RCA’s?, how about when you are sick or in the hospital for weeks on end?? You HAVE to have RCA’s to provide RELIEF to the hard working regular carriers – if you work every day – even 5 days a week without time off(no RCA no one to cover your route when you are on leave) we will have more workers going postal!
I agree with the idea to cut the deadwood supervisors, postmasters and upper level management who sit around and create the $$$$ wasting ideas LIKE BACKTRACKING o deliver a single 1st class letter!! This costs MILLIONS of $$$$ a day and makes the carriers look like fools because they have already delivered the mail and then have to go back and deliver a missent, missorted or missequenced DPS letter!
A District Manager ACTUALLY told this story at a conference last weekend – A postmaster was ordered to deliver a mis-sent first class letter from his post office to another – the big problem – it was an 8 hour round trip and he actually had to deliver it AND WAS PAID HIS DAILY RATE OF PAY AND MILEAGE – PROBABLY A HOTEL AND PER DIEM FOR FOOD AS IT WAS 8 HOURS AS WELL – I have a hard time working up any sympathy for THAT type of waste!!!
Stepping down from my soapbox now….
February 1st, 2009 19:58
I am just a craft employee….not very smart. Has anyone thought about closing the small PO’s with no delivery services. ? There are several in my area. The rural routes from nearby towns, travel past these post offices and all the houses in the small communitites every day. That would save building rent, insurance, taxes and utilities. The Post Masters could transfer to rural routes that are now vacant and not being posted.
February 2nd, 2009 10:58
I am a Postmaster in the US Postal Service. I have seen the spectrum of performance from our employees. My opinion is we should continue to deliver for six days a week Our problem is not in the performance of our employees nor our revenue generation efforts. Employees feel they could manage their route themselves. They can, except when there are collective problems then they look for leadership to take care of those problems for them, just like any other company. Our financial outlook is bleak due to the unfair legislative burden placed on the US Postal Service referring to funding retiree health care benefits.
Managers work as hard to provide the resources needed daily. If there was a determination to only deliver 5 days a week I would suggest Wednesday due to Monday holidays. Also, I would suggest one compensation system for all delivery employees. Preferably an evaluated system such as the Rural Carriers.
February 3rd, 2009 20:03
Well I guess I stepped on the RCAs toes. I completely understand what RCAs do. What is the main deal, loose career clerks and carriers due to layoff?? There will be plant closures, and what will happen to those fulltime employees? I agree with the idea of consolidation of the small offices. They are no longer a feasable option. I do agree with the comments from all the people who have recorded them. We need to cut the fat and bad. We spend and waist so much money on nonsense. I see city carriers making over 2 times their salary and mailhandlers making the same amount. It has to stop. Stop trying to micromanage each minute of the carriers day. Evaluated routes might do the trick, but then again how are we going to come up with the right way to do that? When we look at the retention of RCAs, most areas I have seen we have a few RCAs that actually stay and are good employees. We would need to keep them, I am not saying get rid of all of them. We need a restructuring from the top down, not from the bottom up. If they would let us do our job, we would not need so many clowns coming around and doing audits and checking to see if are logs are checked. We have people watching the computer to see if we scan a barcode on time! And a check list to say we signed the last check list. That is what has to stop. We need to get back to delivering the mail. We create a color code policy only to not go by it when a mailer complains. There is no way we can have 5 day delivery week and not be off on Saturday & Sunday. That would not be a cost savings. There is a lot to weigh into the solution. The main savings will be from the city carriers, and from what I read, most are looking at it from the rural delivery side of the house.
February 3rd, 2009 23:12
Yeah BillyD, then you could screw the city carriers like you screwed the rural routes the last two years. That will never happen, rumor is that the rural carriers are upset with thier union and want to come over to NALC. If they are going to 5 days ( which I think will never happen) it should be Thursday-
Monday-heavy mail, Tues + Wed. full coverages, Thurs light day.
What “collective problems” are you talking about? I am not suggesting getting rid of all managment staff, just the dead weight, if you have a problem and need a solution you just need one person in charge not 5. Micro-management is a blight to our system, if upper managment doesn’t trust thier managers and supervisors to do the right thing they shouldn’t have given them the job in the first place.
February 12th, 2009 08:31
I agree with five day delivery. However, I am a T-6 and MY position would be elimated. What do I care about My position or MY JOB. My answer is simple MY JOB. I have been a carrier for 13 yrs and care about USPS. I to think USPS has too much management and that should go first. But, if we continue to just raise rates to save jobs. The big picture is that mailers and the common folks that still use our system are just going to find other methods to either pay bills or advertise their merchdise. Folks let all do the math!!! How much are poeople going to put up with…
February 15th, 2009 22:15
Saturday delivery should end now. Everyone is aware that layoffs are possible. If service continues as it is now, there will be layoffs. If 5 day delivery service is mandated, then there will be layoffs too. Volume is down. P.O. will save alot of money by going to a 5 day delivery service. If UPS and FED Ex can do it, so can USPS. Lets look out for our future.
February 18th, 2009 02:06
I think Saturday delivery is one of the stupid idea to begin with. Only couple businesses are open. Mostly workforce of US had a Saturday and Sunday off. Why not your postal person is not off that too. With no Saturday delivery is the only choice for USPS.
No Saturday mail delivery, no more dog bites. Lay off some big ass sups. who do nothing.
February 22nd, 2009 11:27
5 day delivery—–a great move. cut down on a lot of overtime and elinimate swing carriers.
March 16th, 2009 10:18
USPS is in debt and climbing everyday. Mail volume is dropping and if the work load cannot support and 8 hour shift should people get paid. Obvious routes need to be adjusted to cut slack and enable efficiency. If a Union can believe it can keep a work force despite low production they are looking at there own demise. Cut backs are needed and agreed less workers mean also less management.
Change is here and the internet is reducing mail volume. I would support a mail day where least volume is recorded and that day is Tuesday. Having mail open on Saturday enables customers more easy access obviously since they are off work it makes sence they would be free to do mail. USPS is a service and being available to a client where most clients are available only makes sence to be open that day.
Times are changing the days of delivering mail and hiding your truck because you got done at noon are numbered. I get more junk mail than anything that lands in the trash. I know homeless people who deliver flyers who dont make a fraction what postal people make so what entitles you all because you have a Union. You are a business so act according or shutdown.
March 16th, 2009 17:40
We should get saturday off! I miss alot of time with my kids because of it. It doent make sense to eliminate tuesday. Its a business day. Most businesses are closed on saturdays anyway. You cant go in to mail anything off on sat anyway the counters are closed. You can only drop off mail. So give us time with are family and eliminate saturday delivery!!!!!!
March 19th, 2009 22:52
Postmaster General why in the hell did you just get that crazy raise last year? Why are all these useless supervisors still get bonuses? You guys set behind your desks making more money then we can imagine and just think of ways for you to make more and us alot less. Do you not think about how many employees are going to be affected by a 5 day work week. You guys are already screwing us so bad at the mail the counts. Management preaching about good work ethics, honesty, blah blah but how can they when none of you have any. My supervisor smirks at us when she tells us our routes are now a sub standard rte we been cut 2 hrs, or when she talks about the amount of routes we will lose when those fss machines hit us. STOP taking from those of us carriers and start taking from your management or yourself. Without carriers and clerks the post office would be nothing. I hope congress looks into everything before making a final decision. I have and know many others that have wrote to our congressman to not go through with this nonsense
March 20th, 2009 15:43
5 days would more and likely solve a lot of the problem. But all postal service station branches and hubs would have to shut down everywhere. Remember for every penny gas goes up it cost the postal service millions of dollars across the nation. No delivery would save millions one day a week. No one working in any of the facilities anywhere would save millions on heating bill, air conditioning bill, water bill, electric bill would be a huge savings. Wages paid and accident costs. Extra employees that wouldn’t be needed any more. All this would add int the trillions. If we really want to save the post office then we need to be realistic.
Post Master General Marvin Runyan also wanted to close one day a week. This probably is the only way out as both postmasters have seen. But it would take a lot of work and time to accomplish. The government doesn’t pay our wages and they haven’t since 1970 we our self supporting. So why should they be allowed to put rules and regulations on us that will eventually force us out of business.
March 25th, 2009 19:10
Majority of the population have Mon-Fri work weeks. This is the most feesible solution across the board. Saturday deliveries have been light for quite some time and doesn’t merrit the cost of fuel, resources, etc…to continue. Employess would still work 5 days a week and positions for RC’s would still be available. Postal employees still have sick leave and vacation of which the RC’s would cover. It’s merely a shift in your schedule not the amount of hours or days a week one works. In fact, sick leave would probably decrease because of the infamous ‘Saturday’ flu employees get when they want a normal weekend, watch a childs t-ball game, etc…etc…The cutbacks need to be made not only with Saturday delivery but with middle & upper management as well. 3-4 supervisors per office is excessive and unnecessary. Why do we need to pay 4 people to do the job of 1? If the private sector can work 5 days a week, so can the USPS.
March 26th, 2009 19:20
As a 22 year veteran of the Postal service, I have to agree that the time for 5 day delivery has come. The volume of mail simply does not support 6 days any longer. The internet has taken a large bite out of what was once a very big volume of mail, and we need to adjust, HOWEVER!! Having worked as a letter carrier these last 22 years, I can tell you that almost NOTHING! Postal management does makes good sense, and the idea of making the day to “curb” delivery Mid-week is no different, on MORE levels than one. The LOGICAL day to drop would be saturday. First, the majority of business’s which get the BULK of business mail are CLOSED on Saturday, and therefore don;t get mail that day to begin with, so to take a mid-week day away as well would be telling those business’s they will now only receive FOUR days of mail. You can’t do that! second, letter carriers have lives and family’s as well. We miss out on enough of our children’s lives by working so many saturdays as it is (we get every 5th Saturday now) Now management would like to take even THAT away from us. There are many senators. and congressmen and woman, who are ADAMANT about Saturday delivery being so essential, but I am willing to bet THOSE people are home with THEIR family’s an saturday. Second, Having been in the Postal service 22 yrs I have seen FIRST hand the abuse of “sick leave” that takes place. Try taking the one saturday in 6 carriers get to have off now and watch the Saturday sick leave go “though the roof” If the only way carriers can get a Saturday off is to “TAKE’ it, you better believe they WILL. Finally the notion that Tuesday is usually a “light day” is false to the point of being SILLY. In 22 yrs I have seen the management “manipulate” the mail to make whatever day they WANT be a “light day” If management wanted saturday to be light, it would be light, but their dirty little secret is that the DELIBERATELY make saturdays heavy because they KNOW full well carriers want to get home to their family, so they can get them to take MORE mail in LESS time. It makes carriers rush and it’s dangerous, but it’s done all the time. So while I admit the time for 5 day delivery has come , Saturday is the only day that makes sense. But again we are talking about postal management here!!!
March 26th, 2009 19:31
Hey Ed!! Thursday!!! light day??? what the heck fantasy office do YOU work in lolol
April 3rd, 2009 01:02
Rick, I had 2 trays of DPS, 2 1/2 trays of cased mail, and 4 parcels today. Guess what today is- Thursday. Anybody can have a big route. LOL !
April 8th, 2009 17:29
Blog, blog , blog…changes are coming, so deal with it
April 28th, 2009 16:54
postal management would save a lot of money in removing pm and supv that have put in there time and are eligible to retire especially the ones that are now just working for the paycheck. I have never seen a pm whose way of motivating carriers to work and help out with making the budget for their office is to threaten them with job loss and transfers that are unreasonable doesnt this pm know anything about what it means to be a union you cant break them no matter what you say get a life and retire it make life easier for the carriers they also need to look into combining offices that r small and close driving distances or the mail to be delivered to the closed towns this will save on pm supv salaries and also building costs think of all the $$$$$ saved mp in nj has 3 supv and a pm that stands around teliing people what to do and who is gonna be out of job if its not done maybe it s time for district manager to make a permanent change at this office paying someone a high salary to babysit is like giving the wall street ceo a bonus they dont deserve time to start swinging the ax and keep people who actually work for the pay and step up to the box
May 13th, 2009 16:12
Five day delivery would help the post office with gas and the vehicle fleet; but the window would still be open bringing in the revenue so who cares what day? Saturday makes the most sense you would have less call offs everyone wants Saturday off. The problem with Tuesday is our biggest bulk mailer ADVO/Redplum mails on Tuesday and they are worried about going 2-3 days no delivery what about the Monday holidays? You would still have a 3 day window with no delivery. All I know is that everyone in the Ivory Tower in DC has forgotten where they came from or they were hired in from the outside.
July 5th, 2009 19:59
5 days is the way to go. How long will it take Congress to get around to helping us out?
July 5th, 2009 20:03
Yeah, Do you think it will be by the end of the year?
July 25th, 2009 20:44
The same postal mgt types who ruined the Post Office now recommend 5 day delivery. The 6 day coverage is the only way to compete so they say give it up. The postal Mgt is dysfunctional. They only hire dysfunctional type people. Those who cannot carry or better yet those who are amoral. Whatever they are told over the phone is always the solution. Very few have a clue how to be a leader, just punish and intimidate. Look at all their remedies. GPS, scanners, fill your bag up to 35lbs, and assume every carrier is a robot. Fire the carriers for any infraction. Write them up if they get injured, on and on and on. It does not matter how many days they recommend because management is the cancer.
July 31st, 2009 18:22
Here it is in a nutshell- The people that “have never delivered mail” (the never done’s) and the people that “couldn’t do the job of delivering the mail” (the couldn’t do’s) are telling the people thay have been delivering the mail for the last 20 to 30 years how to do their job. Our Rural supervisor who subs for our city delivery supervisor has never delivered mail. Our city delivery supervisor started out as a carrier but couldn’t do the job, in fact she broke down on the street and started crying because she couldn’t do the job. They didn’t fire her they promoted her to managment.
Sure am glad we spent all those BILLIONS on DPS and FLAT SORTING machines, To bad there isn’t anything to sort. Wish we had all those Billions back, we wouldn’t be 7 billion in the red.
Potter doesn’t seem to be relevent anymore. He has plunged our Postal Service into a sea of red ink, his billion dollar machines stand at the ready to sort mail that never showed up. He didn’t turn down his $180,000 bonus though. I wonder what he has in mind for his Platinum Parachute, hopefully his days are numbered. President Obama do your job, replace Potter with someone that will value people instead of machines.
August 30th, 2009 18:13
Potter takes a huge chunk of change out of the USPS budget for what? The USPS has been in the red almost since he took over. How much would he get if he actually turned the USPS around? They say he does well at failing. Heck I will only deliver half of my route and lose the other half of the mail and then wont I have done as well as Potter? Why don’t I get a bonus is it because I do my job correctly or because Im fat?
December 2nd, 2009 18:49
With 31 years with the postal service as a letter carrier, I never thought I would say this, but here goes. Go to evaluated routes with a 5 day work week. Evaluate routes every 5 years or when a route is reassigned. This would allow us to ditch our bean counters and micro managers. I don’t need to be supervised. I do my route everyday all by my lonesome. Stop counting every peace of mail like it matters. It is simple. Mail comes in, mail goes out. You would only need a supervisor to reschedule for sick calls an vacations. You would still have to pivot but we know that has always been the plan anyway. I’m sorry about the TE’s. They most likely will have to go. Unfortunately, the term “Transitional Employee” was created for the transiton of the post office and not for the employee to transitioned into the full time work force. When I here coments like ” I can do a route in 3 hours” or ” I don’t take a lunch or breaks”, I loose all sympathy for the preservation of their jobs. Any one can work fast, badly. Why do my customers always know when I’m off.That should be the tell all. I want to have a professional work force again. Wear the uniform as it should be worn and install confidence in the public as it was in the past.
March 2nd, 2010 19:41
On five day delivery.Do it now.Technology has simply caught up to USPS like autos caught up to buggy whip makers.Simply not needed in this day and age.The other interesting comment I hear is that the USPS is self sustaining and gets no subsidy from the Government.Question is who pays for a $6,000,000,000 loss that ocurred in 2009?
March 7th, 2010 15:10
With the economy in the state it is in and with gas prices and our need for middle east oil so high. I think it is time for the Post Office to look at delivering mail three days a week. ( Monday, Wednesday and Friday and these days could be 12 hour work days) The benefits of this would be enormous, half the gas, wear and tear on vehicles and overtime, just to name the obvious. Also
with more time off ( weekends for delivers ) it might cut down on the number of workers going postal. If someone gets so much mail that every other day would be to much for their box, then let them get a bigger box. Special delivery could still go out every day and around heavy times of the year, it could go back to six days a week.