posted on November 16, 2002 09:06:12 PM new
Has this been talked about yet?
I was standing about 15th in line at the Post Office the other day and finally made it up to the front after about 20 minutes. There were only two clerks working (in the old days there were 3). I get along well with the clerks because I go in there all the time mailing eBay packages. So I feel comfortable talking to them about the Post Office. Anyway, I was joking with the lady about it being "busy" and she kind of anxiously said "well, it will be worse soon...after the first of the year there will only be 1 person at the counter". I said, "What do you mean?". And she said, "the Post Office is cutting one person from each counter across the country, as well as some of the letter carriers". I've now been to three different post offices and asked the clerks about this and they all verify that it's true.
What "gets me" is the terrific timing the Post Office has for PR. They just had a big rate hike a few months ago. If they were a private company they would have been history long ago.
I did some looking on Google about this. I don't know if this is the pertinent info on this, but it might be. USPS claims they are still going in the hole.....They seem to think by cutting services that they can make a $600 million profit. Well, sometimes your customers find other avenues and then you still wind up losing (more)money. Time to invest in UPS and FedEx.
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"We plan to reduce workhours by 30 million and reduce complement by another 12,000 employees, while at the same time adding 1.65 million daily deliveries," Strasser said. "This will be the fourth year in a row we will have reduced workhours and complement." Cumulative workhour reductions since FY 2000 will total 141 million and the number of career employees will have been reduced by 55,000 over the same period.
For the full text of this see:
http://www.usps.com/news/2002/press/pr02_066.htm
[ edited by bones21 on Nov 16, 2002 09:20 PM ]
[ edited by bones21 on Nov 17, 2002 06:57 AM ]
posted on November 16, 2002 11:01:20 PM new
Good Lord. What a way to run a "business"! We are in a little mountain town in Southern California, small p.o., no home delivery so we're all there every day. The three or four clerks who rotate in and out of the counter work are all buddies of everybody. What I notice is that two have had heart problems or surgery and all four of them look stressed ALL the time.
What's scary is that if workers are cut, deliveries are bound to be slower and sloppier, right?
posted on November 17, 2002 03:06:37 AM new
They just closed our small suburbs post office on Saturdays and the clerks at the main post office advised us to call our local postmaster and our congressman...they are mismanaging the money they do make...that is why they are in the hole.
posted on November 17, 2002 05:19:40 AM new
There should be no cutback! The Post Office just announced they had a $3 billion dollar surplus. This was recognized when the government was borrowing funds from the P.O. retirement fund. My local postal clerk told me that all managers got a $5000 bonus. For at least the past 2 years the non-management employees have gotten 1 cent raises. The clerk I spoke with commented about this announcement being made during elections & that it was hidden in the back pages of the paper.
posted on November 17, 2002 05:57:38 AM new
Already started in my state. They are cutting everyone. Clerks are down to one counter person and if the line goes out the door, they will pull someone from the back to come up front for a little while. Even pulled our mailperson. They told us we can get mail delivered anywhere from 10 am to 10 pm!
posted on November 17, 2002 06:55:17 AM new
dont count on the mailman to miss his din din and deliver till 10 pm,chances are he will go home,have din din and deliver the next day.
posted on November 17, 2002 08:08:51 AM new
They stopped Saturday counter service at the post office near me two years ago. If they take needed counter personnel away from crowded post offices it shows their poor management skills and their desire to have the duped postal patrons write Congressman and demand more money for personnel. The US Post Office is the worst managed entity in the history of business. The longer lines will probably drive more people into UPS and FedEx's arms as the long wait at the post office follows the old adage of "time is money".
posted on November 17, 2002 08:29:20 AM new
Can you imagine what it will be like at the post office in a couple of weeks when
everyone is scrambling to mail packages to loved ones muse over and buy all those
colourful stamps with an eBayer or two standing in line with umpteen dozen packages.
Am I glad I no longer use the post office. It's going to be a riot to behold. Better pack a lunch.
It's bad enough now that I have friends coming to me to ship their packages UPS so
they don't have to go to the post office.
posted on November 17, 2002 10:08:50 AM new
And lets not forget the USPS sponsorship of Lance Armstrong and his cycling team at the famed Tour de France bicycle race for the tune of $24 millim dollars.
When ever I go the Post Office I encounter long lines and waits. They should be adding people not taking them away. Our local branch of the Post office has 300 people working there with 5 people working the counter if were lucky, what gives with that.
posted on November 17, 2002 04:14:13 PM new
The Post Office has to be the most wasteful Government bureaucracy in existence.
Look how many people they could put to work if they just took the stupid Priority Mail adds off TV. My God people know that the post office exist and about Priority Mail so why do they need to waste millions on prime time adds on TV.
Not only that but the area I live in with its bedroom communities has a population of around 100,00 people yet there are no less than one huge post office and about ten branch post offices within ten miles of the main branch.
There are several others just over ten miles away. Some set in fields with nothing around them but trees for miles. Needless to say the personnel that work these rural branches have a great job as they lock the doors from 11:00 AM till 1:00 PM for lunch and close at 5:00 PM.
This has to be the most mismanaged agency in the world.
posted on November 17, 2002 05:49:05 PM new
USPS is being eaten alive by email, Fax & the 2 competitors, i.e. FedEx & UPS. What would you do if you were the COB of USPS?? As Pogo said "we have met the enemy & it is US.
posted on November 17, 2002 05:54:26 PM new
The enemey is themselves. The computer revolution didn't happen overnight. They did almost nothing to adapt to the changing times. Their time has come and is almost gone .....
posted on November 17, 2002 08:29:37 PM new
The problem with the Postal Service is that the agency is totally top heavy; they have almost as many "supervisors" as they do carriers and counter personnel. It's ridiculous.
One thing they could do to increase incoming monies is to do away with the bulk rate mail they offer for all of the magazines and junk mail out there. Imagine the increase in revenue if they just charged everyone the same amount for mailing, regardless of the item. Of course, they could still offer the discount for non-profits and charities.
Another is to cut the funding of the US cycling team, as mentioned by someone earlier. I can appreciate the support they give to the Olympic team, but 24 million? For this people are losing their jobs, and service at the offices will be lacking more than they already are?
Finally, what the Postal Service did with Priority Mail in the previous rate increases was totally idiotic. I'm sure many eBayers, like myself, started shipping more through FedEx and UPS. So, instead of increasing revenue, the Postal Service most likely actually decreased revenue by decreasing volume. In my opinion it wasn't a very smart business move.
I'm a federal employee (thankfully with an agency most Americans think highly of), and what the US Postal Service has done over the past 4-5 years, combined with the lack of service both in delivery and at the Post Office counter, is embarassing to me.
"Who's tending the bar? Sniping works up a thirst"
Sniping works up a thirst"