What would you do to save the USPS?
 

Before we begin, there is absolutely no reason to send this to PARF. This is a business discussion. If you can't contain yourself, click through.

So, what would you do? I thought eliminating Saturday delivery was a no brainer. Curbside delivery is the norm in all new housing, but it ain't gonna work hard in the city.

The USPS has lost out to competition re packages. UPS got traction in 1930 when the USPS could care less about parcels. Now that there're too few letters, that has turned out to be the biggest mistake of any business model anywhere.

USPS is trying hard to come back and the future looks like they better do whatever it takes to capitalize on the fact that they visit almost every household in the US 6 days a week.

Can the USPS do anything else? Could they take one day a week during the census and do that?

Should they ramp up tracking so that FedEx and UPS has nothing on them when it comes to tracking? Should the USPS simply contract everything with others? Should they BUY one of the big parcel delivery companies?

Just wondering.

Didn't they already change tracking? They've made a point to tell me that the last two times I've been to the post office.

There's a start..make customers not dread going to the post office worse than going to the DMV. What to those two have in common, the gubberment.

Tracking numbers are now free with Priority mailing.

However, I've found that the tracking information is not as good as FedEx. If they improve that then, they might be able to gain ground as their flat rate mailing boxes do come in lower than FedEx most of the time.

I don't know, this is a tough one. 4th Quarter 2012 deficit was reported to be DOWN TO $1.3billion. That is a lot of money to be losing on a regular a regular basis.

IMHO, they need to go private. Because it is not their money, there is no incentive to improve. Then they should go through a real managed bankruptcy to clear out all the dead weight agreements, contracts and personnel. Maybe then they can totally reorganize and become competitive.

Make it mandatory that every citizen pays for a minimum amount of postage per year (even if they don't use the mail) so that they can lower the cost for those that do desire the service. Charge a penalty on your tax return if you don't pay for the minimum amount of postage.
Require businesses to cover part of the cost.

I really hope you are kidding.

Why? It seems to be the rationale our govt used for lowering other cost.

Absolutely nothing. I'd lift the illegal monopoly granted them by congress and force the USPS to either compete sucessfully with private enterprise, or die and go away.
But first I'd institute a strict no tolerance drug testing policy, that'd weed out at least a third of the PO employees IMO.

I find a msg. that I have pkg..
go to get it..
they close by 5..
figure I swing by on my way to work..
they don't open till 9...
no concept of customer service..
last time I used them..
Christmas cards..
perhaps make them seasonal like firework stands..


Rika

They need to simplify regulations and get rid of some of the special rates. Having a special rate for books is crazy. Ending Saturday delivery is a good idea. Few people will miss it. Raise first class rates. In this day and age, $1.00 isn't too much to pay to send letter. It would cost $5.60 to send a letter by UPS. The subsidized communication network has lost some of its importance, but it is still useful and an important part of commerce in the US.

That doesn't make it a good idea. Going private is a better idea than sharing the cost for a service that is all but obsolete. I use the post office maybe 3 times a year, I save my change and sanity by doing it online orleave parcels to a real parcel service.

They have had unreasonable demands put upon them as far as funding the pension plan etc. A good businessman could find where the revenue leaks are and plug them to start. Possibly renegotiate the employment contracts. 6 day delivery gets us NOTHING but added costs. Why not skip Wednesday delivery too? If that is what's necessary to save all those jobs then that is what has to be done. These decisions are not going to be easy or popular, but they are what is needed to save a business. I am sure the workers at Ford are glad their jobs were not shipped off to Mexico.

End all non-profit and bulk postage discounts. It might be less revenue in the end, but it'd be a lot less junk mail and a hiring freeze would eventually lead to attrition by retirements instead of lay offs.

I see what you did there. SmileWavy

eliminate pensions

That sounds good but to what end? Are you/we willing to pay $10 to mail something? Assuming no, the price would go up or the service would fold. How much would UPS or FedEx pricing go up if USPS stopped carrying their freight? How much business would Amazon lose in their shipping costs tripled?

I like the idea of every other day delivery except for next day service, assuming you pay a premium for it. Much better customer service is a must, way too many stories of long lines and grumpy employees at the local PO.

Even with cutting service, how much longer does it make sense? Most mail is advertising with maybe 3-5 incoming and 1-2 outgoing pieces of mail per week that are important.

Ii think you forgot the green.

I don't know why people dread going to the post office. It's a heck of a lot more convenient than a UPS store or Kinko/Fed Ex, going to the actual UPS office is a nightmare compared to the post office. Of course part of it is where you live. If you are in the sticks, there really is no alternative to the post office because Fed Ex and UPS don't find it convenient to have an actual office you can go to.

They forgot to write the code for our recently started mandatory enrollment in green but it is still now the law.

Did you ever take an economics class?
the PO has an illegal monopoly now. No one else is allowed to deliver first class postage. That inneficiency, that lack of competition drives up the price.
If that monopoly was lifted, the competition for that part of the business would drive the price DOWNWARD!

If the postal service couldn't compete and died, they'd die because they were REPLACED with a more efficient, less costly competitor.

The price to "mail something" as you put it would be regulated by competition.
If it got too high, someone else would step up and do it a little cheaper and take away their business. that's how free enterprise works.

I agree non-profit and other special discounts should go. But bulk and periodical mail is where the PO makes its money. The PO has to deliver 1st class whether they have 1 piece or 100 on the route, but they only deliver bulk mail if they have a certain amount of weight or pieces. They don't make anything sending a truck out two miles from the PO to deliver a 46 cent 1st class letter, but add 100 pieces of bulk mail to the truck at 17 cents and the trip becomes profitable.

Eliminate the postal workers union, restructure the pensions, and drop all the bulk mail. All three of these things are big money losers for the USPS. Offer first class, priority, and next day services only. Stop "designing" new stamps, have a single stamp.

I don't think we would be having this discussion if they were profitable.

No it wouldn't. Nothing stops UPS or FedEx from delivering a letter EXCEPT the price. It costs $5.60 to send an envelope via UPS.

That sounds great until you or a family member has worked there (disclaimer: I don't) for XX years and expected to live on the pension they were promised. I'd be screaming if they decided to take it away.
The service at the local office sucks but that isn't the main issue. There is just less mail being sent. IMO, the main problem with USPS is they have no control over what they can charge, when they are open, what services they offer... The USA needs to suck it up and either subsidize the P.O. (Heck we subsidize farmers, the milk industry, even the oil industry) or release the regulations and allow them to do what it takes to be profitable or fund it as a neccesity.
Go private? I don't think we can do that. The mail is a main part of our infastructure.
Or we could pass ObamaPostage?

Ex city carrier here for 12 years so I've seen the morale inside. I say get rid of the union.

Actually, new stamps are a money maker like gift cards that are lost or never used. People collect stamps and they are not cashed in.
How about no special rates for political organizations?

Better still, charge double if the organization has certain words in the name like... O.K. that last sentence should be in green.

Maybe Ayn Rand should have written a book about the Post Office?

Sounds great that free enterprise should take over but I doubt many/most would be happy with that. Do you actually believe another provider could backfill mail service for remotely the same cost?

The PO vehicle fleet is complex enough to scare away most, not to mention the complex machines and systems. UPS has great tech for parcel shipments/processing, a little different than sorting mail at high volume.

Tons of people have already been cut and I suspect more cuts are coming. How do they cut people that have a current contract? New terms when the contract is up but you cant do that at the drop of a hat. Besides, the mail carriers I know actually do bust ass and earn their keep.

The USPS Media #FAIL

Rewind back to 2006.

Things were going well for the Post Office. They were making money. They were even seriously considering replacing a large part of their fleet – the largest fleet of vehicles in the nation – with electric vehicles. It would be a huge boost for the electric car, and a huge slap in the face of oil barons like the Koch Brothers.

The Post Office had to be stopped, and Republican Congressman John McHugh (NY) was the man to do it. He had been a member of the Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC, and was deeply in the pocket of right-wing interests. In 2006, he succeeded in proposing and then watching pass the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. It was passed by a voice vote in a Republican Congress and signed by Republican President George W. Bush.

What the law did was ram a poison pill down the throat of the Post Office. It required the USPS to pre-funding its Retiree Health Benefits Fund for more than seven decades out into the future – and do it all within ten years. With this law, Congress forced the Post Office to set aside money for the health benefits of future retirees who aren’t even born yet.

It’s an obligation that no other private business or government agency has ever had to comply with before. And it costs the Post Office $5 billion a year.

It would prevent future issues for sure but the pensions are what's killing profitability.

Also concerning taking away pensions:
We can't tell people that they don't get what they worked for. If we did, then what stops any company from breaking contracts because they didn't make a profit? Talk about slippery slopes.
Dear Mrs. Jones,
We aren't going to give you the life insurance money for your recently deceased husband's policy that you've been paying for all these years. We are losing money these days and so you are S.O.L.
Sincerely,

why do people still need to make a trip to the post office? all your shipping needs can be done online, I ship every day with USPS to places all around the world, items big and small. its simple, print a label slap it on a box or envelope, and hand it to the post man when he comes. so they dont really need a retail counter at post offices anymore, get rid of them.

First thing I'd do is make sure every employee knows that it is unacceptable to have a package marked 'Fragile' end up looking like this upon delivery.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1369846346.jpg

Right! Everyone has time to sit at home instead of being at work so they can look out the window for the letter carrier to arrive.

That would also reduce the impacts from cutting down delivery days from a pile up of material.

I believe the PO was ready to do this but was stopped by Congress as six day delivery is mandated.

I agree with you, but it could be phased in. Say all new postal employees hired beginning January 2015 do not have the defined benefit portion in their retirement package. It would be similar to how the rest of the federal government switched from the CSRS to FERS retirement systems in the mid 1980s.

See post #25 "IMO, the main problem with USPS is they have no control over what they can charge, when they are open, what services they offer..."