why the USPS is going under

sweatybetty

New member
this is our tax dollars at work. between the usps being a government controlled cluster [beeep] and the union workers, no wonder its going under.
i placed 2 orders with the same company, in sparks nevada. 1 shipped on the 22nd with the usps, the other with ups on the 24th. guess which one got delivered today? not our efficient usps!!! no, they had to send the package all the way up to washington state and then back down to southern oregon. and it might be here on the 29th? what a bunch of idiots
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UPS

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USPS

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Yeah been seeing same thing... bought two scopes from Shanedog here on the forum. He delivered them to the post office, and they sat there from Monday to Saturday afternoon before showing up in New Jersey. Not sure why they got to go through New Jersey to get from Arizona to Florida, but... then 2 days later they made Jacksonville, FL and the next day they finally arrived here.

I wouldn't brag UPS up though, bought a gun cleaning kit off E-Bay it left Fargo, ND next day USPS, went to Minneapolis and went to UPS, 9 days later it made Jacksonville and transfered back to USPS, and was delivered the next day.

On the other hand... Ordered calls off the site, coming out of Oregon, shipped USPS, had one of them arrive the day after it was mailed! Others have all arrived 2 days after mailed.
 
Quote:I wouldn't brag UPS up though, bought a gun cleaning kit off E-Bay it left Fargo, ND next day USPS, went to Minneapolis and went to UPS, 9 days later it made Jacksonville and transfered back to USPS, and was delivered the next day.


That's interesting; never heard of switching carriers like that and I've shipped a lot of parts via both carriers albeit 14 years ago before I retired. How did you find out about the switch, Rocky?

Regards,
hm
 
That's weird. Would be interesting to find out what the arrangement is between carriers. Didn't know they ever did any co-op arrangements like that.

Regards,
hm
 
Originally Posted By: hm1996That's weird. Would be interesting to find out what the arrangement is between carriers. Didn't know they ever did any co-op arrangements like that.

Regards,
hm

UPS and FEDEX are not required to deliver to every address, they are private and can pick and choose the lucrative destinations. USPS is required to deliver to every address, even if it means driving 20 mile out in the middle of nowhere for one 44 cent letter or one package that UPS pays a couple of dollars to have the USPS deliver.
 
Originally Posted By: sweatybettythis is our tax dollars at work.

You might read the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, the USPS does not operate off of taxpayer dollars. they do get some tax money to deliver free matter for the blind and voter packages. But day to day and other operating expenses are paid by postal revenue that comes from the sales of postage.

If Congress would screw the operations of the USPS they could make a profit like UPS or FEDEX. The USPS asked to close about 5000 non performing post offices and the people called their Congressman and the post offices that have a full time employee keep sitting their doing nothing to keep the Congress happy. Then the Congress tells them they have to break even but restricts them from operating using sound business practices.

In New Mexico we drive a 30 mile stretch of highway that has 8 post offices. the USPS wanted to close 5 of them. Congress said no, so the USPS pays someone to sit in each PO to do basically nothing every day of the week. The people have to go to the larger town for groceries even gas so why not stamps? Because Congress thinks it is better to spend $50,000 a year for each of these non performing offices. That amounts to $250,000 wasted by Congress while in the same breath Congress tell the USPS to break even.
 
Originally Posted By: dogcatcherUPS and FEDEX are not required to deliver to every address, they are private and can pick and choose the lucrative destinations. USPS is required to deliver to every address, even if it means driving 20 mile out in the middle of nowhere for one 44 cent letter or one package that UPS pays a couple of dollars to have the USPS deliver.

Now that makes sense, private carriers gaming the system at the expense of USPS, thanks dogcatcher. I'm pretty sure they had not figured that out 14 years ago when I was using mostly USPS Priority for much of our shipping. Priority mail was/is still the biggest bang for the buck for small parcels IMO.

The fact that USPS is not taxpayer funded is largely misunderstood by the public, probably because, as you point out, congress controlls (but doesn't directly fund) the postal service. Who else but the federal government could come up with such a plan?

Have a great Memorial Day as we pay tribute to those who sacrificed so much!

Edit to add: Another little known fact about USPS: In the event you ever have an oversized or overweight package to ship that neither UPS or USPS will accept, try a rural post office. They are required (by congress) to accept such oversized shipments (within reason) in order to "serve the underserved rural community". I assume this policy is still in effect. I shipped a number of rather large/heavy hydraulic cylinders over the years that the urban post office/UPS refused by driving a few miles to a nearby rural PO.
Regards,
hm
 
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When I get stuff that switches from UPS to USPS it takes 2 or 3 days longer to get the package.Stuff that ships USPS from start to finish gets here faster.Funny thing is UPS truck passes my house every day.I have seen the UPS truck pass when I have a package sitting in the terminal in Russellville about 20 miles from my house be transferred to USPS and go to Knoxville,about 70 miles away then back to Greeneville to be finally delivered by the carrier.I have not been able to figure out how that is cheaper.Most times I order from Midway on Monday morning it ships USPS and is here Wed,Thur at the latest.
 
Originally Posted By: tnshootistWhen I get stuff that switches from UPS to USPS it takes 2 or 3 days longer to get the package.Stuff that ships USPS from start to finish gets here faster.Funny thing is UPS truck passes my house every day.I have seen the UPS truck pass when I have a package sitting in the terminal in Russellville about 20 miles from my house be transferred to USPS and go to Knoxville,about 70 miles away then back to Greeneville to be finally delivered by the carrier.I have not been able to figure out how that is cheaper.Most times I order from Midway on Monday morning it ships USPS and is here Wed,Thur at the latest.

There could be several reasons for the delay, one, when they are scanned it just means the bar code was scanned, it doesn't mean it was delivered to USPS. Another, like where I live there is no USPS distribution center, so the package takes a 200 or 300 mile round trip to get back here. My guess is the latter. They closed ours awhile back, it adds a day to the delivery time on the piggy backed UPS and USPS deliveries I get. I easily solved that problem, I just order more and earlier.
 
Originally Posted By: hm1996 Quote:I wouldn't brag UPS up though, bought a gun cleaning kit off E-Bay it left Fargo, ND next day USPS, went to Minneapolis and went to UPS, 9 days later it made Jacksonville and transfered back to USPS, and was delivered the next day.


That's interesting; never heard of switching carriers like that and I've shipped a lot of parts via both carriers albeit 14 years ago before I retired. How did you find out about the switch, Rocky?

Regards,
hm



E-Bayer provided tracking number HM. Tracking on the package showed it pre-scanned for delivery, received Fargo Post Office, then transfered to UPS to Minneapolis. Attempted tracking through UPS, but the postal tracking number would not work there. When it was scanned back into the postal tracking system in Jacksonville, FL it showed back up.

USPS is contracting much of their shipping through private carrier. Here in the southeast, SAIA hauls mostly mail, Southeastern Freightlines and FedEx haul mostly packages to my understanding. SAIA has been in that game for years, I have an uncle that drove mail from Jacksonville to Charlotte for SAIA for 15 years.

FedEx and Southeastern you'll see their trucks on the road down here with signage on the truck and/or trailer occasionally indicating it is leased or contracted to USPS.
 
This is just an aside, but here in the Seattle-area it seems to me like most of the USPO workers I see are foreign-born (Many Asian) and do not have English as their first language. Also, most that I see are female and not terribly friendly to 'customers'.

I have no idea if this is a national trend or not, but if it is, in this economy it would seem to me that there are plenty of American-born citizens for those jobs.
 
Originally Posted By: HunterBear71It seems that FedEx and UPS sometimes use USPS for final mile deliveries.

They have been doing that since 1984 that I know of personally.
 
Originally Posted By: JavafourThis is just an aside, but here in the Seattle-area it seems to me like most of the USPO workers I see are foreign-born (Many Asian) and do not have English as their first language. Also, most that I see are female and not terribly friendly to 'customers'.

I have no idea if this is a national trend or not, but if it is, in this economy it would seem to me that there are plenty of American-born citizens for those jobs.




I would imagine that dependent upon locale Javafour. Up in ND, pretty much your run of the mill Norwegians, Swedes, Russians, and whatever other heritage is dominant in a given local. Same here in my hometown in Florida, except they're all rednecks.

Postmaster friendliness would definitely be questionable! Ours gets grumpy if you disturb her during her frequent phone calls. She gets grumpy if your package isn't addressed perfectly. She gets grumpy if the mail backs up in your box. She just gets grumpy about most anything!! Can't understand the concept of E-Bay and thinks I should know how everyone is going to ship, and should provide each with a correct street address, which USPS doesn't deliver, or a correct PO Box which UPS doesn't deliver too. Simply has to grouch about me putting both on the account for an address, says it's not a legal address, LIKE IT MATTERS IN A TOWN OF 500 PEOPLE!!Circulars arrive addressed incorrectly, junk mail now... get a little yellow sticker on them telling you to advise your correspondents of your correct address. When she knows she just put one of them in every box in the post office, it should be a sign that you ain't necessarily corresponding with them!!!


 
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