Post office going broke

[ironglow]

  Yes, the PO is pooping out !  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/09/postal-service-loss_n_1759792.html
 
   Do you suppose it might be so, because the employees are treating it like a "government job"? 
     http://firsttoknow.com/postal-service-duped-by-employees-for-1-million/?utm_source=d_e&utm_campaign=postal-service-duped-by--19731
 
   After all, other government employees (supposed "leaders") have set the example; hitting taxpayers with multi million dollar "conferences" in Hawaii and  multi-million dollar golf weekends in Florida..

[Anna]

They have knocked our little PO down to four hours a day and two on Saturday . The people there
I've known for years have been laid off and someone drives the round trip of 30 miles to run it .
They blame the Internet but from the junk mail I get I can't see how they were hurting .
The crazy thing is that UPS and Fed Ex have increased their staff and are delivering mail !
UPS brought me my electric bill and asked me if they could put this little drop box out on my gate .
DHS is saying they are shifting to delivering only letters and small packages now and guess who is
contracting them to do that ? The old USPO ! So where are they saving any money other than not
having as much labor overhead . After getting hacked once I'm very leary of online anything
especilly banking . All it takes is one bad employee in the mix somewhere like what happened to me .
And all your info is sold to some jerks operating offshore .

[powderman]

As of Aug there will be no Sat mail, I won't miss it. Hors cut at a lot of local P offices. Being govt run there no doubt a lot of waste in resources and man hours. It needs trimmed I'm sure. POWDERMAN. 

[scootrd]

  Yes, the PO is pooping out !  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/09/postal-service-loss_n_1759792.html
 
   Do you suppose it might be so, because the employees are treating it like a "government job"? 
     http://firsttoknow.com/postal-service-duped-by-employees-for-1-million/?utm_source=d_e&utm_campaign=postal-service-duped-by--19731
 
   After all, other government employees (supposed "leaders") have set the example; hitting taxpayers with multi million dollar "conferences" in Hawaii and  multi-million dollar golf weekends in Florida..

No ..it's because of the ridiculous mandate Congress has imposed on them to fund their pension for 75 years within a 10 year window.  The P.O does not take one single dime in taxpayer monies.  less can be said for special interests from the private sector and congressional quid pro quo's
.
Our so called Congressional leaders are idiots.

[blind ear]

The PO delivers as many or more UPS packages than UPS does to me. If the PO goes out of business we will get hung on shipping charges. ear

[Empty Quiver]

I cannot remember a time when the PO was not in some sort of financial distress. It is by design, they are not allowed to "make" money. It isn't a profit driven operation either for that matter. About one step above a charitable organization tasked with delivery.


They are losing the efficiency of scale that once allowed for a wasteful business plan. The question now is how handy is it to have a mail delivery scheduled whether you need one or not vs. a UPS style delivery only when a parcel exists. Like drinking water at the tap or buying bottled.

[jhm]

     They could cut my mail delivery to thursday as friday is trash day and the problem would be reduced to 1 day a week instead of 6.  Jim

[scootrd]

The PO delivers as many or more UPS packages than UPS does to me. If the PO goes out of business we will get hung on shipping charges. ear

UPS , FEDEX and the like rely on the P.O to deliver their packages as well.

[dakotashooter2]

Guess who the highest paid person is at our PO.......................... The maintenance guy..............who in any other successful business would likely be the lowest paid..................  In the last 15 years our PO went from 2 trucks to 5 or 6. The carriers really don't "walk" a route any more. They park, deliver on one side of the street, walk back to the vehicle, drive to the next block and repeat, all the way down the street then when they get to the end they do the other side of the street. Highly inefficient.

[vabeachman]

I really like the USPS.  Generally great service.  I wonder if the Post Office scandal involving the Congressional members kiting checks through them is somehow responsible for their pension plan requirements that no other industry or government agency has to adhere to.  I think the Congress is mad at the USPS and flexing their muscle.

[Oldshooter]

I think the Congress is mad

Add a "D" and you'll be correct. Scooter said the other day that congress is the problem here for the USPS. That pretty much makes congress the blame for everything but global warming. And if it aint "W"'s fault then it has to be them! 

[Anna]

In some rural areas that was the only community center there was . You could go there looking
for directions to a friends house and the Postmaster would call you and ask you if that was ok .
Or you could just go meet them there . There was always fresh hot coffee there and it was free .
It sure beat the 25 mile drive into Roswell just to mail a letter or a package .
There were never any lines like there are in the city and the service was five star.
Baby's were born there because they couldn't get the mothers who were in labor into town fast
enough . Does Congress ever take things like this into account except their own next pay raise ? 
Solders went off to war there because that was where the bus stopped .
Now people waiting for the bus have got to stand outside because the place is closed . 



 

[scootrd]

I think the Congress is mad

 Scooter said the other day that congress is the problem here for the USPS.

And I stand by my statement

Congressional mandated restrictions is killing the USPS

Congress requires the Post Office to make inordinately huge pension-plan payments

Congress forces the Postal Service to prefund retirement benefits for employees it hasn’t even hired yet or employees that heve even been BORN yet for that matter (perhaps we should impose the same mandates on a UPS, FEDEX, or DHL)  how dumb can you get.

Congress prevents the USPS from entering new businesses

In spite of congress:

The USPS is well run -

It has a network that stretches across America, 461 distribution centers, 32,000 post offices, and 213,000 vehicles, the largest civilian fleet in the world. Trucks carrying mail log 1.2 billion miles a year. The postal service can physically connect any American to any other American in 3.7 million square miles of territory in a few days, often overnight.

1775: Benjamin Franklin is appointed the first postmaster general.
1811: Fast-moving steamboats replace rafts and rowboats for mail transportation.
1833: Abraham Lincoln is appointed postmaster of New Salem, Illinois, at the age of twenty-four.
1847: The first U.S. postage stamps are issued, featuring Ben Franklin on the five-cent stamp and George Washington on the ten-cent stamp.
1860: The Pony Express is contracted as a mail carrier until the transcontinental telegraph line is finished.
1933: President Roosevelt's New Deal sponsors the placement of more than a thousand public murals and sculptures in post offices to boost morale during the Great Depression.
1957: First semiautomatic sorting machine installed in Silver Spring, Maryland, doubling the sorting capabilities of clerks.
1958: Harry Winston sends the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution via first-class mail from New York City to Washington, D.C., for $2.44.
1963: ZIP codes introduced. 1970: President Nixon changes the postal service from government Cabinet department to independent federal agency.
2006: The last year the postal service turned a profit — $900 million.
Interesting 2006  was the year When Congress imposed those ridiculous mandates. Up until then the post office was  doing just fine.

Again I repeat I stand by my previous statement

Semper Fi

[blind ear]

Congress requires the Post Office to make inordinately huge pension-plan payments

Congress forces the Postal Service to prefund retirement benefits for employees it hasn’t even hired yet or employees that heve even been BORN yet for that matter (perhaps we should impose the same mandates on a UPS, FEDEX, or DHL)  how dumb can you get.

-
Would seem that  congress would require that Social Security Taxes at least be put in a designated account rather than poured into an ab-bis and issuing IOU's that the congress can't fund. ear

[Oldshooter]

You cant see me now but I am laughing

poured into an ab-bis

  Congress is the "friendly"(*) ab- bis (is that a word?) 
   
 
 
* word I use these days in lieu of profanity!

[blind ear]

You cant see me now but I am laughing

poured into an ab-bis

  Congress is the "friendly"(*) ab- bis (is that a word?) 
   
 
 
* word I use these days in lieu of profanity!

-
Don't know, tried to describe a deeeep hole in the ground and that is what spell check gave me. ear