US Postal Service

[Oaktree]

Around here, UPS is great and for the most part the post office is as well. It really depends on the individual carrier. A couple of them really have an attitude and could use a beating, however, but that's another story.

I'd say most rural areas get treated pretty well because locals are usually the delivery people.

Where we live now I haven't had any problems with any of them, all 3 (USPS, UPS, Fedex) will put a package on the porch if we're not home unless it's something that needs to be signed for. Just as well, the regional UPS office is only open for a couple hours a day, and both them and Fedex are a good half hour drive away. It's rare for me to have misdelivered mail.

I did have a run of bad carriers with the USPS back in the 80s (lived somewhere else at the time), I complained to the postmaster about it. He was sympathetic, but told me that between union seniority rules and civil service it was almost impossible to get rid of incompetents, and not even all that easy to reassign them.

If I sent a letter through USPS to the neighbor across the street it would go to Kansas City for sorting & postmark before coming back to be delivered, close to 200 miles round trip! Some of our mail goes to KC, then through MT Ayr, IA to Des Moines, then back here according to an assistant postmaster at Mt Ayr. Mt Ary is 20 miles off I 35 which would be the direct route from KC to DM!

Keep in mind that UPS and Fedex do the same thing, use a national or regional sorting center for all packages. If I'm not mistaken, that business model was the college thesis for the guy who started Fedex. I'm sure it's much more efficient to have a few large sorting centers rather than to do so at every facility.
Did you know that the USPS scans every piece of mail and archives the images? There was a reference to that on the tv show "Hunted". My wife was a bit skeptical of that, so she asked our postmaster who confirmed it.

 

[300UGUY]

A little history here - the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) of 2006 decimated the USPS. One of the main features of the act was that the USPS pay 5 billion dollars a year to pay for future employees health benefits. This 5 billion dollars was submitted to the Treasury which in turn applied it to the Federal deficit. These payments would pay for employees that haven't even been born yet, as far out as 75 years! Congress saw the USPS as a cash cow and tapped into it. No other business or agency in the US was subject to such an onerous payment. This in turn resulted in what was once a profitable, self sustaining entity, becoming a failing business model that was bleeding red. In order to try to stem the bleeding, the USPS took to divesting itself of its' largest costs - employees. Employees account for approximately 80% of their expenditures. In doing so, they offered early outs for their senior and most experienced employees. A large number of these employees have left, only to be replaced with non-career employees who are paid far less. The non-career employees are given little training, and because of their non-career status, do not have much investment in the job. After over 5 years of wrangling, Congress has yet to do anything to overturn the PAEA. The poor service you are experiencing is the result of the PAEA. Just sayin.....

There is a mindset of certain folks that all government entities should be destroyed, to further a political point.

 

[JPRambo]

I live in a rural area and my mail lady delivers packages to large for my mailbox on the front door step. I worked with her husband a bunch of years ago. And we get weekend deliveries with the USPS service from UPS.

 

[rekees4300]

And we get weekend deliveries with the USPS service from UPS.

Amazon has been sending packages via UPS. Before they are delivered they are transferred to USPS. Anybody understand this procedure? Packages have been lost and/or delayed after USPS gets involved.

 

[Mendonsy]

Trying to understand the way Amazon ships packages is nearly impossible. I ordered 3 items from Amazon on the same order last week. One arrived on Fedex the 2nd day, another item arrived by USPS the same day, and the 3rd item arrived on UPS the next day.

 

[Bird]

Amazon has been sending packages via UPS. Before they are delivered they are transferred to USPS. Anybody understand this procedure? Packages have been lost and/or delayed after USPS gets involved.

And it's not just Amazon and UPS. I've had packages shipped via FedEx and transferred to USPS for delivery.

 

[sixdogs]

What amazes me is I bought some micro batteries on Amazon for $2.25 postage paid, and a week or so later they showed up and came from China. I couldn't send it to the next town for that. How can this be?

 

[ovrszd]

What amazes me is I bought some micro batteries on Amazon for $2.25 postage paid, and a week or so later they showed up and came from China. I couldn't send it to the next town for that. How can this be?

One of those things that makes you go Hmmmmmmmm........

 

[japody]

What amazes me is I bought some micro batteries on Amazon for $2.25 postage paid, and a week or so later they showed up and came from China. I couldn't send it to the next town for that. How can this be?

The volumes that Amazon is tendering to the USPS qualifies for massive discounts at bulk shipping rates. The packages are processed on high speed machinery, which read and sort them, and in most cases are not touched by human hands until they reach your local post office. Economy of scale = lower costs.

 

[KubotainNH]

Amazon ships from multiple places and some of the items are from other sellers also. I would guess they do whatever seems cheapest for whatever is going out. They seem to have it down pretty well. It would be nice to have something like what Rockauto does, you can see where the item is for grouping but they charge shipping so a bit more helpful.