USPS

[RealMuddyboots]

How about not taking on long term package contracts at a miserable loss? Might not be a business but it is the taxpayers money being wasted. Its not a free service, justify its budget, spending, resources and its annual "business" plan going forward. The USPS should be on a 4 year business plan for budget no different than common business practices.

How about employees being managed for their performance instead of everyone gets a trophy for just showing up? No has a guaranteed job with being managed for their work performance. If there is dead wood, trim it out.

 

[RookieSeason]

USPS pension has a $120B unfunded liability. That is why they "lose" money.

The pension certainly is a contributing factor, I find it interesting the estimated unfunded liability in 2022 was $96B. Didn't the Postal Service Reform Act (2022) remove nearly $60B in past due postal liabilites? Additionally, it looked to reduce another $50B over the next 10 years. One would think after recieving $107B you would see a reduction in net loss but this isn't case 2023: net fiscal loss $6.5B 2024: net fiscal loss $9.4B.

2023 reports the USPS retirement cost totaling $10B annually. In 2018 the labor cost was $57B (you can imagine that has increased significantly). Add in the equipment, facilities and other costs to operate and we approach the approx 88B in yearly expenses. They "lose" money because they generate less than they spend. The finical issues experienced by the USPS have been going on for years (bi partisan--lots of years), its probably about time to try something new to improve their efficiency.

 

[RealMuddyboots]

2023 reports the USPS retirement cost totaling $10B annually.

Another reason to move federal employees into Medicare and SS with appropriate funding. The separation of Federal employees from everyone else is bs their retirement packages so different from everyone else. One system, everyone contributes into one system. No more golden parachutes.

 

[SAJ-99]

The pension certainly is a contributing factor, I find it interesting the estimated unfunded liability in 2022 was $96B. Didn't the Postal Service Reform Act (2022) remove nearly $60B in past due postal liabilites? Additionally, it looked to reduce another $50B over the next 10 years. One would think after recieving $107B you would see a reduction in net loss but this isn't case 2023: net fiscal loss $6.5B 2024: net fiscal loss $9.4B.

2023 reports the USPS retirement cost totaling $10B annually. In 2018 the labor cost was $57B (you can imagine that has increased significantly). Add in the equipment, facilities and other costs to operate and we approach the approx 88B in yearly expenses. They "lose" money because they generate less than they spend. The finical issues experienced by the USPS have been going on for years (bi partisan--lots of years), it’s probably about time to try something new to improve their efficiency.

I’m not fully up to date on that but it appears that act removed the requirement to pre-fund retirement benefits and incorporated the health benefits into Medicare, although not sure the effect of that. From my perspective, it created the underfunding of the pension. The pension, specifically the health care part, is the largest financial burden for the USPS. The USPS has more retirees taking a pension than they have active employees. Any time a company reaches that point, it starts to see a financial drag. And you can get rid of the USPS completely, because a letter or package was late or whatever, but you can’t get rid of the pension liability.

 

[timberman56]

had a payment that was late from a co 85 mi. away.. called them after 17 days. said they mailed it. was about to get them to stop payment and send another check. check arrived 21 days after it was postmarked. geesh

 

[noharleyyet]

 

[Laszlo Cravensworth]

View attachment 365596

Amazon last month:

"Your package containing the 3 pt hitch for tractor was delivered."

Me opening the box:

*This box seems oddly large and light* ... *This is a box of 38 gallon storage totes that I absolutely did not order...*

 

[millerkiller77]

Amazon last month:

"Your package containing the 3 pt hitch for tractor was delivered."

Me opening the box:

*This box seems oddly large and light* ... *This is a box of 38 gallon storage totes that I absolutely did not order...*

do implements qualify for free prime shipping? And does Amazon offer flat bed service?

 

[BirdManMike]

Mailed a letter on March 5 from Absarokee to Billings. As of today it has not been delivered.

We should defund/privatize the USPS and use the pensions of the higher ups that are mismanaging it to fund the transition.

Billings USPS Distribution Center apparently had 30+ employees walk off a month or two ago. Its been an absolute mess since then for all mail delivery going thru Billings.

 

[Laszlo Cravensworth]

do implements qualify for free prime shipping? And does Amazon offer flat bed service?

This was only about 30 lbs but a quick search shows me that you can get some rippers and rock rakes with prime shipping

Just have to wonder what other giant tote you may get as a replacement from the YITAMOTOR Amazon store. I'm sure their QC is legit.

 

[MTGomer]

The letter has been found! Delivered a few streets over to a different address. After opening it, and letting it sit on his table for a while ( the contents were a check) the recipient decided that maybe they should walk it over to the person who was intended for.

 

[SAJ-99]

Amazon last month:

"Your package containing the 3 pt hitch for tractor was delivered."

Me opening the box:

*This box seems oddly large and light* ... *This is a box of 38 gallon storage totes that I absolutely did not order...*

You ever find a number to send it back? I keep getting a regular shipment from Amazon of stuff I haven't ordered and I can't find a way to tell them to stop.

 

[Dave N]

You ever find a number to send it back? I keep getting a regular shipment from Amazon of stuff I haven't ordered and I can't find a way to tell them to stop.

Worth keeping/selling? From what I can tell, anything sent TO YOU that you didn't order and/or pay for are yours to keep.

 

[Laszlo Cravensworth]

You ever find a number to send it back? I keep getting a regular shipment from Amazon of stuff I haven't ordered and I can't find a way to tell them to stop.

I filed a return and reordered my hitch. They told me to drop it off at fedex within so many days. I don't think I'm going to though.

 

[Dave N]

The letter has been found! Delivered a few streets over to a different address. After opening it, and letting it sit on his table for a while ( the contents were a check) the recipient decided that maybe they should walk it over to the person who was intended for.

Similar story. I get the email for what I'm getting in the mail each day. One day 3 pieces didn't come. One was my power bill. After 2 more days I filed a "did not receive" notice. Never heard a thing. A week later my folks told me the guy that gets the mail for the church right down the road gave them my mail at church. A week after it was in the box. 1/4 mile away. Right next to my house. He drives right past on his way home. Knows me.

 

[SAJ-99]

Worth keeping/selling? From what I can tell, anything sent TO YOU that you didn't order and/or pay for are yours to keep.

Oh yeah, I still have them. They are electrolyte supplements worth about $50 on a reoccurring shipment. I can't image anyone requiring this much in supplements. I figured that there would be someone else out there not getting their shipment and eventually Amazon would figure it out. Apparently not. I keep thinking I will take the next box to the UPS store and ship it back with a note telling them to get their s*-t together, but never do.

 

[Wild Bill]

I had to resurrect this one.
I grew up knowing a few folks at the local post office who were good people and took pride in their jobs. Part of the reason I’ve always been optimistic in the service. My optimism has been waning lately.
Not trying to stir a political argument by any means, but it’s not shocking to see how things can go off the tracks quickly when you purposely gut the work force and prioritize cutting money instead of providing the service. Not only has our local mail delivery become fairly unreliable (and we live in town), but this is now the standard for about any package I get that is touched by USPS.
For perspective, the departure location was Fort Wayne, IN and the destination is Pierre, SD.
End of rant.



Here is a visual of the route. Madness.

 

[Redmt]

Hmm, based on the service that we get it looks perfectly normal. (new normal?)

 

[MTGomer]

I had to resurrect this one.
I grew up knowing a few folks at the local post office who were good people and took pride in their jobs. Part of the reason I’ve always been optimistic in the service. My optimism has been waning lately.
Not trying to stir a political argument by any means, but it’s not shocking to see how things can go off the tracks quickly when you purposely gut the work force and prioritize cutting money instead of providing the service. Not only has our local mail delivery become fairly unreliable (and we live in town), but this is now the standard for about any package I get that is touched by USPS.
For perspective, the departure location was Fort Wayne, IN and the destination is Pierre, SD.
End of rant.
View attachment 379628View attachment 379629View attachment 379630


Here is a visual of the route. Madness.

View attachment 379633

On the flip side of this, I just sent docs via Fedex from Billings to the Mohave County Recorder in Kingman AZ on a Wednesday.

Standard ground $16. They informed me that it would be there on Friday.
My other options were overnight or two day. I asked about 2 day. $65.
I asked, it sounds like standard ground gets there in two days, so what is 2 day?

They said 2day would guarantee delivery by noon. Not caring about that, I bought standard ground for an EOD Friday delivery

Friday, I get online and find that the docs I sent recorded on Thursday afternoon. So the standard ground I paid for was actually next day delivery.


I just received a USPS package from Dickinson ND to Absarokee MT. 13 days.

 

[cedahm]

I had to resurrect this one.
I grew up knowing a few folks at the local post office who were good people and took pride in their jobs. Part of the reason I’ve always been optimistic in the service. My optimism has been waning lately.
Not trying to stir a political argument by any means, but it’s not shocking to see how things can go off the tracks quickly when you purposely gut the work force and prioritize cutting money instead of providing the service. Not only has our local mail delivery become fairly unreliable (and we live in town), but this is now the standard for about any package I get that is touched by USPS.
For perspective, the departure location was Fort Wayne, IN and the destination is Pierre, SD.
End of rant.
View attachment 379628View attachment 379629View attachment 379630

Long-time supply chain/logistics guy here...while I don’t harbor any love for USPS or their service levels, a lot of this is noise and errors/bugs in the parcel message integration.

E.g.

- Unless they flew it supersonic, there’s no way the package went from North Jersey to Kansas City in two hours



- Similarly, unless they were traveling at near relativistic speeds, it didn’t go from Iowa back to Jersey in 7 minutes




Their IT is horrific. It looks like a package with a similar tracking number (possibly bad barcode, who knows, but still horribly edited by their tracking system) took the trip to Jersey, or there was a duplicate or something that any other tracking software would have captured. I imagine that physically speaking, yours went from Ft Wayne->Indy->Olathe (KC)->Sioux Falls->Fargo. Dumb, but takes advantage of scheduled routes and hubs. They just lack the routing tools to hub-skip a lot of the time, I would guess.

But overall - your point on lack of funding and cuts (and lets be honest, poor performance regardless) has meant that their parcel tracking, routing tools (and physical network) is about 20 years behind the competition.