Is the mail jacked up everywhere?

[4651feeder]

I make it a habit to try for at least two Amazon Sundays a month with piddly couple dollar items just to insure the Postal Vehicle continues to rack up the miles with the almost 20 mile round trip to our carrier's PO.
With misdelivered letters if they don't live on my street they are marked as misdelivered, drop into our Town's collection box, and then IIRC routed to Ft Wayne for sort, brought back to Elkhart for the letter carrier and then driven the aprox 10 miles back to our little town for delivery once again.

 

[mom45]

I make it a habit to try for at least two Amazon Sundays a month with piddly couple dollar items just to insure the Postal Vehicle continues to rack up the miles with the almost 20 mile round trip to our carrier's PO.
With misdelivered letters if they don't live on my street they are marked as misdelivered, drop into our Town's collection box, and then IIRC routed to Ft Wayne for sort, brought back to Elkhart for the letter carrier and then driven the aprox 10 miles back to our little town for delivery once again.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that does this to return the misdelivered mail.

I had hubby check the mailbox when we got home this afternoon.....forgot it was No Mail Tuesday. Informed delivery says there is mail...but we don't get mail on Tuesday. Informed Delivery is wrong again.

 

[686 Shooter]

USPS is a delivery service that is held to a higher standard than most of the other delivery services. All delivery services are working at record numbers, though the actual “mail” deliveries are declining, parcel deliveries are increasing dramatically. USPS has the same problems finding qualified workers as every other employer, inability to pass drug screening, unable to pass a simple test that would prove the applicant has the ability to deliver mail, or maybe USPS just doesn’t operate at the hours that are conducive with the applicants desired work schedule. If a person wants to become a rural carrier they will more than likely start out as a substitute and more than likely will be required to provide their own transportation and RHD vehicles are getting scarces, presently even Jeep is not making RHD vehicles. I see that the unions are being blamed for bad delivery service, I think people are giving unions way too much credit than they are entitled to. As for bad management, that’s a whole different matter, I don’t think upper tier management is going to keep your mail from getting to the mailbox. I’m sure some of you have stellar mail service and others may have less than acceptable service, some of that may be the carrier’s fault and yet some of it may be outside of the carriers control. As for how can USPS be operating in the red, take a look at the Social Security administration, the politicians that are dipping into Social Security funds are probably the same ones dipping into USPS funds.
I for one have stellar mail service. As with any service type provider, you will have very few positive comments and an abundance of negative comments, no one ever calls the police department, fire department, water department , street department, etc. to tell them what a great job they’re doing and how we appreciate them, but they’ll call to complain about the cop that just gave them a ticket for 40 in a school zone and all the kids were in the fenced in area. It’s human nature, as long as we don’t have to do their jobs, we’re entitled to complain about them.

 

[CHCRandy]

USPS is a delivery service that is held to a higher standard than most of the other delivery services. All delivery services are working at record numbers, though the actual “mail” deliveries are declining, parcel deliveries are increasing dramatically. USPS has the same problems finding qualified workers as every other employer, inability to pass drug screening, unable to pass a simple test that would prove the applicant has the ability to deliver mail, or maybe USPS just doesn’t operate at the hours that are conducive with the applicants desired work schedule. If a person wants to become a rural carrier they will more than likely start out as a substitute and more than likely will be required to provide their own transportation and RHD vehicles are getting scarces, presently even Jeep is not making RHD vehicles. I see that the unions are being blamed for bad delivery service, I think people are giving unions way too much credit than they are entitled to. As for bad management, that’s a whole different matter, I don’t think upper tier management is going to keep your mail from getting to the mailbox. I’m sure some of you have stellar mail service and others may have less than acceptable service, some of that may be the carrier’s fault and yet some of it may be outside of the carriers control. As for how can USPS be operating in the red, take a look at the Social Security administration, the politicians that are dipping into Social Security funds are probably the same ones dipping into USPS funds.
I for one have stellar mail service. As with any service type provider, you will have very few positive comments and an abundance of negative comments, no one ever calls the police department, fire department, water department , street department, etc. to tell them what a great job they’re doing and how we appreciate them, but they’ll call to complain about the cop that just gave them a ticket for 40 in a school zone and all the kids were in the fenced in area. It’s human nature, as long as we don’t have to do their jobs, we’re entitled to complain about them.

Your assessment is pretty much right on target. My only "not sure" would be with hiring help and Unions. USPS has around twice as many employees as UPS and FedEx, take in nearly the same 70-80 Billion a year, but UPS and FedEx make 6-7 Billion in profit and USPS don't make any profit. They don't really need more employees, they need more discipline and organization. For them to be more organized and efficient, they need to move carrier union jobs to the rural union...and that's the rub. In Danville alone we have 7-10 carriers that could be replaced by 2-3 rural drivers.....if they would just have us put mailboxes by the road. The letter carrier union don't want walking mailmen replaced with driving mailmen....as I understand it, they have 2 different unions and pay rates.

Now in fairness...I don't know enough about how big brother screws it up, or even the unions for that matter. I do know the USPS could have made a profit recently if not for some type of pension payment that congress mandates. In the big picture, I don't even care if the USPS makes a profit. With all the money this country wastes, $5B is nothing...and is probably worth it to keep 700,000 people working and mail moving cheaply. But I would like to at least get my mail everyday, or every other day. They made up for my delay last week....by coming to my house 2 times on Saturday. They must have delivered delayed mail first thing in the morning, then made regular delivery later in the day. I also think the time change throws them off in my area. The mail still gets delivered to the post office at the same time every day, but by 5-5:30, it is dark and they are delivering with headlamps.

My father in law spent 45 years with the USPS. He hated his job near the end, but it provided him with a very good living for a long time.

 

[686 Shooter]

Just a couple of points of interest, comparing USPS to FedEx and UPS is not a fair comparison, USPS is the only house to house delivery service, which is a huge difference in regard to sorting and delivery. As for the letter carriers union stopping street side delivery, again I think you’re giving the union too much credit. It would a logistic nightmare to attempt street side delivery on a busy city street or a street where on-street parking is allowed. As for profits, USPS is not really designed to make a profit, they are basically designed to be self sufficient.
I really don’t have a dog in this fight, I just admire people that work and support their family and make America great again.