Return to Article: Postal Service seeks flexibility in closing facilities
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83720
I live on the Navajo Reservation. We cannot get our US Mail delivered to our homes. I lost my Post Office Box at Ganado because working as a teacher I could not make it to the post office before it closed. The window on Saturday did not open until 11:00. We travel round trip 180 miles just to find minimal shopping. If the Post Office was either open later on weekdays or earlier on Saturdays we could reasonbly complete our shopping and pickup of parcels on Saturdays. There are no lockers at Ganado for parcels either.
Make the Post Office user friendly.
We do not have stay ot home Mom's anymore to sign for certified mail or make trips to the Post Office in the middle of the day. Used to be a stay at home mom. Now a working teacher.
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56102
cutting hours of service, cutting service clerk hours, letting private companies sort mail (no sanctity of mail there, right?) while at the same time increasing management staff, were doing everything wrong that we could do. We should consolidate districts, reducing needless managers, let postmasters do their own managing, contract out management, letting them sink or swim based on their performance. If we appeared customer friendly, and eliminated obscene presort discounts, costs would stabilize and service would improve. Our retail divisions have 4-5 managers, each with their own conflicting agenda.
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55798
There are plenty of post offices, however, closing some will be a big problem, because every local community wants to keep theirs. Face it, no community, particularly in rural areas, wants to lose it's post office, because having a post office means that your town or village is important! It might be easier in suburban or urban areas, where there are other post offices near by that can take the place of ones that are closed.
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55138
The Postal Service Inspector General Davic Williams testified that the agency would have to borrow heavily this year because of operational cost. Postal revenue comes from processing the mail.Pre-paid mail is what keeps the postal service in business.Machines process this mail and most of it shouldn't be run through the machines as it is pre-sorted as well.The mail is run through the machines until the desired mail volume numbers are achieved. This is done to justify the purchase of new generations of mail processing equipment.This equipment is not used to the end of it's useful life.It is re-sold to mass mailers, foreign counties who can't afford to buy it new and what's left goe's to the scrap-man who re-sells it to whoever he can. To save money the agency should be re-organized. Management should be contracted out.The Office of the Inspector General should be eliminated.They are the purpitrators of the waist fraud and mismanagement.E.E.O.,EAP, and the American Postal Worker's Union could be eliminated by letting the employees own the business.Put the Post Office on the stock exchange and make delivery rather than processing the priority. Use the equipment for it's intire useful life and let the people who make it fix it. Sincerely, Allen Sanford,Author of "Going Postal,the Story Behind the Forever Stamp". 102 pages,Trafford publishing,paperback; catalogue#07-2549;ISBN 1-4251-5677-0;$16.00
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55130
As stated in the article USPS management needs t share infrmation with the public. Right, USPS management does not share it's plans with it's own employees. Everything is top secret, hush hush as far as a short/long term business plan goes. If you knew your office was closing in 2 years you could start looking elsewhere. But no, they might give you a 60 day notice if your lucky.
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55129
There are many agencies facing tough economic times and forced to make changes. USPS shoudbe no exception; poor performance, less than effective management, disgruntled, even lethal employees; but alas, CONGRESSINAL intervention also are factors. There is no easy way out, regardless of the union, or what employees want. Simply, let the USPS come up a strategy to reduce cost and increase producitivy. America did thisfor the department of Defense, "Do more with less" mentality; why not with the USPS.
There is no good solution for everyone. As a DOD emplpoyee, I was forced to choose an option under BRAC> 1. Move to a new place and keep your job. No guarantee of doing exactly what you're doing now, but you WILL have a job. 2. Find another government job either on your own, or with the prioirity placement List. 3. take the severance package and go to private industry. 4. Geta place in line at the Unemployment Office.
Tough choices, and thousands of us were forced to retire, severe employment, relocate, etc. like it or not. yes, there is an incentive and financial considerations for moving personnel across the country. Amyone eligible for retirement, should be retired, don't waster time trying to find another job, get it over with.
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55115
This effort reminds me of the military base closure initiative. I say let people on the ground propose the closures and keep politics out of it. The politicians tend to look at the short-term issues such as loss of jobs in their districts. The long-term issues such as a Government's growth (including quasi-Government) that is out of control and the deficit are more important issues for this country. Close locations, offices and sites that make sense but do it with careful planning and compassion. For example, USPS should stop hiring in other locations to train and place people displaced as a result of these closures. There are smart ways to scale-down and smart ways to scale up should the need arise. Think about it from another perspective.....what would a truely private company such as UPS and FedEx do if they faced hugh operating losses? Easy, reduce operating costs just like it is being proposed here.
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55106
The Postal Service gets it's revenue from mail processing. The processing is done by machines. The Postal Service can and should start laying of managers. There was a test done in the early 90's. All the managers were removed from a Processing and Distrobution Center in Florida for a month. It wasn't even noticed the facility hummed right along with no problems. Mr.Donahoe didn't come to Oakland with Mr.Potter in 2006 when the Postmaster General made a personal trip to make sure that the remainder of the overhead conveyor system was removed. This bulk belt system had been used to store hide and delay the mail to pad mail volume figures. These figures would be used to justify the aquisition of mail processing equipment. Postmaster General Potter and his deputy Mr.Donahoe are trieing to avoid extinction.Mail volume is going to go down. Postal officials want to ensure that the cost of mailing a letter continues to go up. The incentives that force efficency and cost control in business are financial reward, competition and fear of extinction. The Postal Service has no competition when it comes to regular mail delivery and the agency is attempting to eliminate the possibility of extinction by focusing on mail processing and eliminating bargaining unit jobs in favor of management jobs(the financial reward)which are non-productive and could easily be contracted out. Machines run the Post Office.Contract all the management jobs out,make the Postal Service a pulicly owned company,offer stock on the stock exchange and let the carriers and the public be the primary stock holders.
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55100
The Post Office has borrowed $2B so far this year and will need to continue to borrow to meet its payroll. Its capped at $7B in borrowing authority and will reach that cap by August. Right now there is a no layoff provision until 2010 and their COLA for this year is approaching 7.9%. Those who think volume is up are living in another world. Postal routes still operate as Ben Franklin designed them. Unless they are able to take action a 1st class stamp will have to rise and needs to go to 60 cents just to make up for the shortfall
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55094
Since the inception of mechanization regarding the processing of the mail,Postal officials in collusion with the Senate, the Congress, and the Office of the Inspector General,have engaged in excluding the American public from the decision making process which determines what postal rates will be. On October 10th,2002 a postal employee was nearly electrocuted while working on mail processing equipment at the main post office in Oakland,California. This accident was covered up. The employee was intimidated into not filing an accident report. He was told that if he filed an accident report that he would face diciplinary action. As a witness I filed a "Safety Hazard Report". The equipment that the employee was working on was not suppose to be in the building. The equipment was deemed obsolete in 1988. This equipment was allowed to remain in service and was use to hide,store and delay the third class mail to pad the mail volume figures. This would be done to justify the purchase of mail processing equipment. This equipment is purchased and re-sold before the end of it's useful life to the same mass mailers who send pre-paid mail to the post office or they sell the equipment to other countries who couldn't afford to purchase it new. A relationship has been established between the mail processing equipment manufatures, the mass mailers(including the non-profits) and the government which creates a loop. The more mail that is processed the more the PPostal Service can charge(base on mail volume). These rate increases allow for the purchase of mail processing eqipment.
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55091
Boy, I'm glad I don't live whereever all the previous posters do. Where I live, the Post Office locations are open until 6 or 7pm Monday-Saturday and until 3pm on Sunday. Also, how can they say that it's too expensive to mail a letter or package? Have they looked at what it costs to send the same things via UPS or FedEX? I can't believe they have if they say things like that. And one final thing - the people who are yelling the loudest about no delivery on Saturday (and maybe even cutting back to 4 days) are probably the ones yelling the loudest when things aren't delivered on time.
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55086
They could make big time bucks for charging more than first class for junk mail and the credit card solicitations. It annoys me to see they get lower rates for stuff I don't want!
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55079
"Poor mail delivery ... will anger the public and trigger political considerations," Davis said.
The public is already angry regardign mail delievery. That is why the use of first class mail is down. We can not trust the USPS to deliver our mail anyway. That's one of the reasons that many people receive their bills electronically and use on-line bill pay. We very seldom get anything useful in the mail and the majority of what we receive goes into the recycling container before it even gets into the house.
The USPS like many gov't agencies needs to look to streamlining their operation to make it more efficient. And if the problem is top heavy mgmt structure then that too needs to be streamlined.
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55077
It doesn't take much to see that the Post Office, by thier high rates and in some situations, why the public has gone to other means of moving mail and packages. My brother worked in sheet metal, and with higher wages their higher salaries caused them to have to go out of town for work; therefore, losing much of their salary increase. The Post Office is working themselves out of jobs. The public has a way of working it out.
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55069
The postal upper eschelon should not be given a pass on this. I question the validity of their claim that postal volume has dropped. I believe it has risen and will continue to rise as more and more people shop over the internet (and get products home delivered) and as gas prices cause fewer people to shop "off-line".
If USPS is incurring losses, it is probably due to the same top-down mis-management from the last 7 years of this administration. This is a government-wide problem suffered due to the WH hostility towards agencies and the fact that they are in bed with private industry.
Many post offices recently lessened their open hours leaving postal customers angry and I'm certain that the number of complaints has flooded USPS. They simply need to hold out until a more competent administration that is less hostile towards agencies can occupy the WH.
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55068
The Postal workers get health benefits that far surpass those of other government workers. How about lowering the Postal advantages and bringing them in line with other government workers, even if they are a semi-private agency. Also cut management that sit in their offices and do nothing but claim large wages. The Postal service pays better than the rest of government even in retirement...WHY? Also if the hours of the post office were more based on the needs of the working class and not on 1943 needs, they might experience greater usage. Every Postal employee needs a course and follow up on good customer relationships, we the general public do not owe them a position or pay! when they are not doing the job.
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55066
The only way the postal service will save money is to close post offices, institute a hiring freeze to not replace retirees, and cut delivery to five (or dare I say even 4) days per week. Most mail received is junk anyway such that people don't look forward to going to the mailbox the way they used to.
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55049
Never do they mention anything about cutting the very "top heavy" EAS positions, other than giving themselves large exorborent pay increases !!!!!
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55047
Those 535 Happy Campers in ol' Foggy Bottom let you folks run the Corporation when it's to their advantage and they run it when it's to their advantage . You can betchur bipsy this AIN'T to their advantage !
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55045
Before the Postal Service considers closing installations around the country I sincerely hope the powers that be take a look at eliminating many management positions. The Postal Servive is the most management top heavy organization that I have ever worked for. Who knows how many millions of dollars could be saved by eliminating some of the layers of useless management and needless paper work.
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55044
The US Postal Service is like a local bus line, an interstate or a public park. It may not be able to make a huge profit delivering 1st class mail, but it provides a necessary public service. If we start closing post offices, it will have a severe impact on both communications and commerce leading to an overall loss of tax revenues far more than what appears on the Postal Service's books. This is part of our basic public infrastructure.
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55032
Mr. Donahoe failed to mention he and the other top 5 Execs. received a nice raise somewhere around the 38% range. Now the Postmaster General makes more than the Vice President of the United States. What Mr. Donahoe proposes will delay the timely delivery of the mail and will result in further eroding of the mail volume. Here is an example: A gal received a wedding invitation mailed from Belleville to Mansfield that took 9 days to get it there because it was cancelled via Pittsburgh,Pa. This letter should have taken 1 day! The Ultimate loser will be the American Public!
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55031
Mr. Donahoe failed to mention he and the other top 5 Execs. received a nice raise somewhere around the 38% range. Now the Postmaster General makes more than the Vice President of the United States. What Mr. Donahoe proposes will delay the timely delivery of the mail and will result in further eroding of the mail volume. Here is an example: A gal received a wedding invitation mailed from Belleville to Mansfield that took 9 days to get it there because it was cancelled via Pittsburgh,Pa. This letter should have taken 1 day! The Ultimate loser will be the American Public!
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55029
how does the post office justify closing down facilities and then outsourcing the same jobs to private companies,when they allready have trained people doing the same jobs who are highly qualified.they state they are losing money. how can they spend money for private companies when when they say they are losing money???
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55025
I believe that Mr. Donahoe is one of the top ranking postal officials who recently received a substantial pay increase. Yep, 'need to be flexible' alright ....
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55024
I believe that Mr. Donahoe is one of the top ranking postal officials who recently received a substantial pay increase. Yep, 'need to be flexible' alright ....
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55023
The post office needs to be reduced by at least 50%. Many people pay most of their bills on-line. Service is for the most part fair. Sat mail delivery should be eliminated.
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55016
We need to face the fact that management will not terminate themselves so their solution is to cut services.
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55011
The USPS is not treating the issue as serious as the problem seems to be. Every other agency offers good buy outs to its employees. Buyouts that are serious will work. Early Out are not the answer. You can't penalized an employee who has dedicated his life for you. USPS needs to get real.
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55010
The USPS needs a massive shake out. Too little service, poor hours, mis delivered mail,sullen employees, etc.
USPS is still in 1935.
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