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Save the US Postal Service

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sugar magnolia
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#26

Post by sugar magnolia »

I've had 5 deliveries in the last 24 hours. All delivered by USPS. All on different trucks with different drivers. Tracking on an additional 2 pkgs say they will both be delivered today. I'm happy to have the stuff I ordered but, damn, that seems incredibly inefficient.
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#27

Post by zekeb »

I don't think that USPS' problems lay within their delivery vehicles. It needs good people, more sorting equipment and a better delivery model. Why does my in-town mail need to go to a sorting center 85 miles away? Why does it now take 2 or 3 days when it used to take one day and sometimes same day for delivery?
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#28

Post by raison de arizona »

zekeb wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 5:00 pm I don't think that USPS' problems lay within their delivery vehicles. It needs good people, more sorting equipment and a better delivery model. Why does my in-town mail need to go to a sorting center 85 miles away? Why does it now take 2 or 3 days when it used to take one day and sometimes same day for delivery?
I have a monthly piece of mail (a regular letter) that goes from Brooklyn to Staten Island, both boroughs of NYC. In years past, I would almost always get next day delivery, occasionally same day or two days. Now? It usually takes a week or more. I mail two weeks ahead now to ensure it will be received in time. And there has been more than one time that it has not!
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#29

Post by raison de arizona »

sugar magnolia wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 4:46 pm I've had 5 deliveries in the last 24 hours. All delivered by USPS. All on different trucks with different drivers. Tracking on an additional 2 pkgs say they will both be delivered today. I'm happy to have the stuff I ordered but, damn, that seems incredibly inefficient.
Sounds like a huge opportunity for efficiency upgrades.
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#30

Post by AndyinPA »

I've had two different Amazon deliveries on two different trucks on the same day, even when I specified that the deliveries be combined. I've not had such a problem with UPS.
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#31

Post by noblepa »

zekeb wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 5:00 pm I don't think that USPS' problems lay within their delivery vehicles. It needs good people, more sorting equipment and a better delivery model. Why does my in-town mail need to go to a sorting center 85 miles away? Why does it now take 2 or 3 days when it used to take one day and sometimes same day for delivery?
I'm not going to defend the current USPS or, especially its postmaster, DeJoy.

But that example may be USPS trying to emulate FedEx. I don't know if it is still true, but when FedEx got started, one of the things that made their fast delivery possible was that EVERYTHING went through their hub in Memphis. I used to work for a company in Cleveland and we regularly sent packages to Cincinnati. They went through Memphis. The local FedEx depot just collected all the packages and put them on a plane to Memphis. At Memphis, packages from all over the country that were destined for Cleveland, were sorted and put on the plane, which then flew back to Cleveland.

The USPS may have been thinking that, by consolidating all the sorting equipment and personnel in one place, they saved by not having that equipment and personnel in every post office. Each local post office just puts it on a truck to the sorting center.

That being said, I'm not sure that the current post office management can pull this off. DeJoy seems to have the goal of completely destroying the USPS.
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#32

Post by zekeb »

Even before DeJoy, every cost cutting measure the USPS did has resulted in a decrease of customer service. They may have cut some costs, but it has been at the expense of their customer base.
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#33

Post by sugar magnolia »

I can see 6 houses from the window by my computer. 4 of them got deliveries yesterday. 4 different trucks, 4 different drivers. I had never noticed it before, but it looks like something they need to get a handle on. Don't know why it bugs me so much, either.
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#34

Post by Slim Cognito »

About 10 am yesterday, I drove to our local post office to use their drop-off box to mail a large flat envelope. When I tried to push it through the "neck?" slot, it wouldn't go so I pulled it back out and a pile of letters fell out with it. Then I could clearly see the box was packed all the way to the top. Obviously, I decided it best to go inside to drop my ep but what to do with the mail on the ground? And there were cars behind me. Flustered, I opened the door, picked up the letters and shoved them back into the neck, worried that if I took possession of them long enough to transfer them inside, I'd be committing some sort of mail fraud. I was going to tell the clerks the box was full but the line wound through the service area and into the lobby and I had to get hubs to a doctor appointment.

I left shaking my head.
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#35

Post by Frater I*I »

sugar magnolia wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 9:34 am I can see 6 houses from the window by my computer. 4 of them got deliveries yesterday. 4 different trucks, 4 different drivers. I had never noticed it before, but it looks like something they need to get a handle on. Don't know why it bugs me so much, either.
Seeing an inefficient waste of tax dollars perhaps :shrug:
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#36

Post by Uninformed »

I don’t know if it’s true in this case but what people have described, here and in the “lost” thread, sounds awfully like deliberate attempts to downgrade the USPS services so it becomes unviable other than as a “niche” business or perhaps disappears completely.
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#37

Post by much ado »

AndyinPA wrote: Tue Mar 09, 2021 11:08 pm I've had two different Amazon deliveries on two different trucks on the same day, even when I specified that the deliveries be combined. I've not had such a problem with UPS.
On the other hand, Amazon recently combined in one package two items I had ordered separately with no request from me to combine them. It seems to depend on whether the items can both be shipped from the same warehouse/facility. Amazon actually seems to be good at this.
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#38

Post by sugar magnolia »

much ado wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 4:01 pm
AndyinPA wrote: Tue Mar 09, 2021 11:08 pm I've had two different Amazon deliveries on two different trucks on the same day, even when I specified that the deliveries be combined. I've not had such a problem with UPS.
On the other hand, Amazon recently combined in one package two items I had ordered separately with no request from me to combine them. It seems to depend on whether the items can both be shipped from the same warehouse/facility. Amazon actually seems to be good at this.
Sometimes. My girlfriend ordered 3 identical 16" suction grab bars. Ordered at the same time from the same place on Amazon. They were all packed and delivered separately in 24"x24"x18" boxes. She was so put out with them that she called to tell me about it.
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#39

Post by keith »

sugar magnolia wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 9:34 am I can see 6 houses from the window by my computer. 4 of them got deliveries yesterday. 4 different trucks, 4 different drivers. I had never noticed it before, but it looks like something they need to get a handle on. Don't know why it bugs me so much, either.
Lets think this through a little bit.

Lets imagine that after more than 200 years the USPS has figured out how to organize a route that allows them to travel around a neighborhood without going back and forth from one side of the city to the other.

Lets also imagine that they know how to sort packages to match those routes.

Lets further imagine that the 'service hubs' assign a truck to a route and start filling it up with packages destined for that route.

We probably also need to imagine that the 'service hub' itself is receiving packages from all over the country spread out across the day.

Now lets ask ourselves what happens when a truck gets filled up?

Do we just let it sit there or do we dispatch it to make the deliveries?
What if there are more packages for that route after that truck is filled? Do we start filling another truck, or do we take the packages off the first truck (that has been just sitting in the yard already filled for an hour) and split them by street?
How many route splits do we allow before we eventually dispatch the trucks to make the actual delivery?
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#40

Post by keith »

Frater I*I wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 12:25 pm
sugar magnolia wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 9:34 am I can see 6 houses from the window by my computer. 4 of them got deliveries yesterday. 4 different trucks, 4 different drivers. I had never noticed it before, but it looks like something they need to get a handle on. Don't know why it bugs me so much, either.
Seeing an inefficient waste of tax dollars perhaps :shrug:
OH MY GAWD!!!!!!!!!!!!

Martha, come quick... somebody is wrong on the innertubes thingy, AGAIN!.

==> The USPS does NOT RECEIVE TAX DOLLARS <==
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#41

Post by Frater I*I »

keith wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 9:14 pm
OH MY GAWD!!!!!!!!!!!!

Martha, come quick... somebody is wrong on the innertubes thingy, AGAIN!.

==> The USPS does NOT RECEIVE TAX DOLLARS <==
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#42

Post by AndyinPA »

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... y-hearing/
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy asked congressional appropriators for more money Thursday to support his still-unreleased strategic plan for the nation’s mail agency and tried to reset expectations for slower but more consistent service.

Testifying before the House Appropriations subcommittee on financial service, DeJoy said the U.S. Postal Service needs to “recast that expectation of what it is that we’re able to do” to stem financial losses. Lawmakers had previously questioned DeJoy on a Washington Post report that he would stop flying first-class mail cross-country and planned to eliminate a speedier category of first-class mail to cut costs and help the agency make delivery windows.
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#43

Post by zekeb »

A week to get First Class mail from one coast to the other? That's going to go over well, not.
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#44

Post by Slim Cognito »

I'm sure businesses are really going to love that. They'll have to extend amount due by dates by four weeks, if not more.

As it is, I've had several priority flat eps take 2-3 weeks to get from Florida to the Midwest. If it's important, I use priority for the tracking number. I order them in packets of five on-line, prepaid and return addressed. Right now I'm waiting on a death certificate, my original pre-adoption birth certificate (which I understand will take longer than the usual certified BCs one orders) and a full passport as I'm hoping to make a trip to Edinburgh and Prestwick in summer 2022, fingers crossed).

Quick back story on the Scotland trip, my maiden name (which I kept) is British/Scottish. During WWII, my USAAC father had a stopover in Prestwick where they hit a local pub. When the locals learned his name, they invited him to move back home. He said he couldn't but he'd be back for a visit. He never made it so I'm hoping to make it for him.
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#45

Post by realist »

sugar magnolia wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 4:12 pm
much ado wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 4:01 pm
AndyinPA wrote: Tue Mar 09, 2021 11:08 pm I've had two different Amazon deliveries on two different trucks on the same day, even when I specified that the deliveries be combined. I've not had such a problem with UPS.
On the other hand, Amazon recently combined in one package two items I had ordered separately with no request from me to combine them. It seems to depend on whether the items can both be shipped from the same warehouse/facility. Amazon actually seems to be good at this.
Sometimes. My girlfriend ordered 3 identical 16" suction grab bars. Ordered at the same time from the same place on Amazon. They were all packed and delivered separately in 24"x24"x18" boxes. She was so put out with them that she called to tell me about it.
At least on my Amazon order page there is an option to have items combined and delivered in fewer boxes. I use it most of the time. Sometimes takes an extra day for delivery, but that's usually not a problem for me.
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#46

Post by pipistrelle »

realist wrote: Fri Mar 12, 2021 9:41 am
sugar magnolia wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 4:12 pm
much ado wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 4:01 pm

On the other hand, Amazon recently combined in one package two items I had ordered separately with no request from me to combine them. It seems to depend on whether the items can both be shipped from the same warehouse/facility. Amazon actually seems to be good at this.
Sometimes. My girlfriend ordered 3 identical 16" suction grab bars. Ordered at the same time from the same place on Amazon. They were all packed and delivered separately in 24"x24"x18" boxes. She was so put out with them that she called to tell me about it.
At least on my Amazon order page there is an option to have items combined and delivered in fewer boxes. I use it most of the time. Sometimes takes an extra day for delivery, but that's usually not a problem for me.
When I choose that, they often don’t.
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#47

Post by sugar magnolia »

realist wrote: Fri Mar 12, 2021 9:41 am
sugar magnolia wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 4:12 pm
much ado wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 4:01 pm

On the other hand, Amazon recently combined in one package two items I had ordered separately with no request from me to combine them. It seems to depend on whether the items can both be shipped from the same warehouse/facility. Amazon actually seems to be good at this.
Sometimes. My girlfriend ordered 3 identical 16" suction grab bars. Ordered at the same time from the same place on Amazon. They were all packed and delivered separately in 24"x24"x18" boxes. She was so put out with them that she called to tell me about it.
At least on my Amazon order page there is an option to have items combined and delivered in fewer boxes. I use it most of the time. Sometimes takes an extra day for delivery, but that's usually not a problem for me.
She did that. They ignored it.

I got 2 deliveries yesterday, both USPS priority mail boxes, same size. One delivered about 10:30, the other about 3:00. Same truck, same delivery driver. 2 day priority mailed from PA on the 5th, and 2 day priority mailed from NOLA on the 6th, both arrived on the 11th.
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#48

Post by zekeb »

The Amazon issues are not because of the USPS. I have read that Amazon is whining about delivery costs and the cost Prime membership is increasing because of this. What I've seen above is because of how Amazon's inefficiency. I lay the blame for some of the increase of costs on their feet.
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#49

Post by AndyinPA »

zekeb wrote: Fri Mar 12, 2021 10:28 am The Amazon issues are not because of the USPS. I have read that Amazon is whining about delivery costs and the cost Prime membership is increasing because of this. What I've seen above is because of how Amazon's inefficiency. I lay the blame for some of the increase of costs on their feet.
Given their profits, they could afford to do better if they wanted to.
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Re: Save the US Postal Service

#50

Post by neonzx »

AndyinPA wrote: Fri Mar 12, 2021 10:30 am
zekeb wrote: Fri Mar 12, 2021 10:28 am The Amazon issues are not because of the USPS. I have read that Amazon is whining about delivery costs and the cost Prime membership is increasing because of this. What I've seen above is because of how Amazon's inefficiency. I lay the blame for some of the increase of costs on their feet.
Given their profits, they could afford to do better if they wanted to.
I think they are just swamped. Amazon set up their own "last-mile" delivery network -- a network of independent owners they helped fund them for facility, vans, employees to get them started. It's COVID. Yeah, Bezos could toss a few billion back to fix many of these issues, but he's no Bill Gates or Warren Buffet.

All the local vans of the our local Amazon last-mile delivery franchise used to be painted proper with the logo and colors. Now I see often plain white vans or even rental vans from Hertz, etc. These end-line delivery companies can't handle the volume.
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