USPS ends Saturday delivery (as of August)

[RoJoHen]

I literally receive zero mail that I care about, short of the occasional holiday card from my grandma. I'll be okay.

[Star Wolf]

BillJ wrote:

---

I don not envy you in the current economic climate.

Well I thank you for the membership. Star Wolf himself has put the kid through school and his parents have old fashioned pensions for life. With the last contract which was forced upon us by binding arbitration a couple of weeks ago and my seniority financially this probably doesn't effect me at any greater rate as I have preparred myself for. However I might be forced onto another route.

At this point we have no ideal how it we will cut staff, and staff Saturday parcel runs. And to do so will be in violation of the just arbitrated contract. The PMG thinks he can act because some services are being offerred on Saturday's and he may be thinking it will be easier to get forgiveness then permission from Congress who has the entire federal budget at its borrowing limit just as the Postal Service is.

[Trekker4747]

Really, if they end bulk mailing they could probably solve a large number of their problems when it comes to workload. But, yeah, ending Saturday deliveries makes sense.

I don't use much mail either I have one or two bills I think I still pay through the mail and that's it.

[Scout101]

Ending junk mail would destroy the USPS, not save it. Where do you suppose the biggest chunk of reliable cash COMES from? It's not Aunt Hazel sending you a $10 check for your birthday using a 44 cent stamp. Those mass mailer companies spend a shitload, constantly, to put that junkmail in your mailbox...

Yeah, it creates more work, but it's also paying for the workforce.

[Star Wolf]

Trekker4747 wrote:

---

Really, if they end bulk mailing they could probably solve a large number of their problems when it comes to workload. But, yeah, ending Saturday deliveries makes sense.

I don't use much mail either I have one or two bills I think I still pay through the mail and that's it.

It used to be that "junk" was carried to supplement the first class letter mail. Under the assumption that we were going to the address anyway. Because of their route order prepared packaging and acceptance of a lower standard of service business and non profit mailers were given a reduced rate. Today however it is the "junk" which is the only predictable work load which can be planned and managed should the service choose to do so. However lately overall volume has dropped to the point that everything is shoved out as it comes in cause peaks and valleys in delivery operations.

A big problem today is that parcel volume has spiked but the service is not staffed or equipped to handle it. Especially with the customer wanting parcels scanned at every step in the distribution process. The service has transitioned from a letter delivery service to an advertisement deliver service and is now trying to change into a parcel delivery service. least there are 400,000 added to the unemployment rolls. However the logistic chain is built on picking up a letter, that no longer exist, from anywhere and sending it anywhere, where the receiver has already opened his email.

So far this has caught the union flat footed. I still haven't received an appeal for more contributions to the PAC. To the normal receivership of our PAC money there will be two messages pushed, save the union, heavily minority, member jobs. To the other side stop a government "czar" in this case the Postmaster General from ignoring the law and setting his own policy thus setting a precedent which other czars will follow to deny the will on Congress.

The PMG meanwhile has sent out a video saying this will happen, but no word about how the routes can be reassigned in compliance with the contract in such a short time period. And what will happen to the now excess 15% of the carrier force, almost all of whom have made the six year mark of service thus have lay-off protection.

[Scout101]

Need to do SOMETHING though, don't you? If the usage has steered away from the standard letter-carrying, you have to adapt or die. If that means fewer people, that definitely sucks, but the job those people were doing no longer exists, so what do you propose those people DO?

PMG is right insofar as gearing more towards parcels, which is something actually increasing, and money to make there. People aren't getting letters as frequently anymore, so smiling while walking door to door no longer makes sense.

USPS is losing BILLIONS every year, and that's not counting the stupid benefit payment thing Congress forced on them. Time to modernize. Fighting that just means more likely to fold up shop, not saving jobs.

[Squiggy]

Take some of those letter carriers and make them parcel scanners. You REALLY want to make people flock to USPS Parcel over UPS or FedEx? GPS every single one of your trucks so people can feverishly stalk their incoming purchase instead of waiting at home all day only to have the damned thing show up at 7pm.

Badaboom badabing.

[Star Wolf]

Squiggy wrote:

---

Take some of those letter carriers and make them parcel scanners. You REALLY want to make people flock to USPS Parcel over UPS or FedEx? GPS every single one of your trucks so people can feverishly stalk their incoming purchase instead of waiting at home all day only to have the damned thing show up at 7pm.

Badaboom badabing.

Actually we are still short of carriers. As the service has tried to shed workers all but carriers have been given incentives to retire early. The new generation of scanner just coming online is GPS equipped with mobile uploading replacing the first two generations we carried which only updated at the end of the day when the scanner was placed in its modem dock.

Everybody, even within the postal service balks at paying what we do for the simple matter of finding the bar code on a piece and scanning it but the latest contracts have mandated a two tier workforce and the lower cost new hires are just coming into the service. The problem being since the loss of a service day and at a lower wage they will be starved out and there is no area cost of living adjustment like federal workers have you have the same set of circumstances which caused New York postal workers to go on their wildcat strike against the Post Office Department which lead to the modern USPS.

It is more a matter of equipment designed to speed letters and now standard magazines standing idle while machines needed to move parcels are overwhelmed and since like the nation as a whole the Postal Service has reached their borrowing limit so they can't make the capital investment on more parcel moving equipment, especially after just buying flat moving equipment which because it makes publishers discounted route sorted packing moot has been a waste

[Alidar Jarok]

Squiggy wrote:

---

No, they're a government agency pretty much all the way since they're governed directly by Congress. This entire weekend off proposal isn't going to happen unless Congress approves it.

Actually, while Congress normally mandates Saturday delivery, they forgot to mandate it in the continuing resolution/Fiscal Cliff deal. Because they forgot, the Postal Service is taking advantage of this. The whole thing is basically a political showdown with Congress. Daring them to affirmatively legislate something that will lose the Post Office money. The real target is the pension requirement, which will make them self-sufficient once again, but who knows with Congress.

[Star Wolf]

Alidar Jarok wrote:

---

Actually, while Congress normally mandates Saturday delivery, they forgot to mandate it in the continuing resolution/Fiscal Cliff deal. Because they forgot, the Postal Service is taking advantage of this. The whole thing is basically a political showdown with Congress. Daring them to affirmatively legislate something that will lose the Post Office money. The real target is the pension requirement, which will make them self-sufficient once again, but who knows with Congress.

Possible I think we will still be $5 billion/year in the hole even without the 75 year pre-funding. For the record my union was the only postal union to support the law at first seeing a future where the service ran out of money. The future, like computer technology itself just came on faster then law makers and union leaders anticipated. And the present becomes do you want people on unemployment on my watch with elections coming up.