Post office

[North Idaho Wolfman]

EVERYONE: Please be civil to each other.

 

[WFM]

January 2nd i mailed a package to a customer in Star Junction, PA.
I emailed him the other day as I hadn't seen a check yet. He said no package yet. So I dug out my receipt.
Did the tracking , it was in Indianapolis....So. it went across Pa, across Ohio and had been sitting in Indianapolis for several days. I just checked tonight it says arrived in Pa now it says inroute to customer. Lolol. A couple yrs ago I shipped a order and no check. I checked with the ohio customer and he emailed a tracking number for the envelope and said I just checked it, it's headed to Puerto Rico!!!!!
I checked it, sure enough. Went to Puerto Rico
He mailed another check to me. And two more weeks my Puerto Rico check rolled in. Stupid.

 

[jyoutz]

Well, they are so fabulously efficient when they are there, they deserve more days off.
Like the rest of the federal gubmint.

The post office is far better than FedEx; more reliable and they seldom mis-deliver like FedEx does all the time. They also do the final mile deliveries for Amazon because Amazon doesn’t find it profitable for rural area service. The Post Office delivers to everyone in rural areas where private companies say it’s not profitable. USPS does a pretty damn good job considering the volume they handle and the locations they service.

 

[jyoutz]

The USPS has been working on a poor business model for many years.

After all, it's a business run by the government.

Ever know the government to run a business successfully?!?!?!?

The increases in the price of postage stamps doesn't fill the loss.

They still deliver mail on Saturday. How many business customers are closed Saturday?

Why do Saturday delivery at all???

They now deliver Amazon and other retailers' packages Saturday and Sunday.

Betting their Amazon, etc. contracts don't cover costs.......their track record isn't good.....

I worked in the government for 37 years. I did a quite a few years in the private sector (bar/restaurant) before that.

Public sector is not the place to get any business acumen......

The postal service isn’t supposed to operate as a business. It’s a service to U.S. residents. That we pay for through postage and taxes. The constitution specifically directs the establishment and services of a postal service to provide for the common good of the country. Do away with the USPS and privatize it and see reduced services and probably no service in rural areas. At a higher cost.

 

[jyoutz]

Don't get me started about the Post Office
I have rural delivery but should be called rude delivery
I don't get all my mail, I get other people's mail.
Mail I send now takes longer
And Banks are now advising they do not recommend mailing checks
But, the price of stamps keep going up

We had some mid-delivered letter for awhile. I talked to the Postmaster and he fixed the problem. Try that with FedEx who keeps delivering my packages to people down the road a mile away. You can’t even talk to a live person at FedEx. It’s all telephone and chat robots. I specifically tell merchants that they must ship through USPS or UPS, not FedEx.

 

[jyoutz]

Question: are postal route drivers paid overtime
Answered by Google AI

The key word here is “employee.” Contract mail carriers are independent contractors, not employees. They agree to service a route for a given price.

 

[Yotekiller]

From what I gather, it’s not a bad gig if you don’t mind working. My nephew was going to paramedic school and wasn’t enjoying it and dropped out. He landed this job and is only 20 now making $60k which isn’t bad for a kid his age.

 

[Old Machinist]

IMO USPS should not be in the package delivery business. They should remain government run and not handle anything larger than a letter size envelope.

Our rural route carrier is pretty good about delivering packages to our gate but when they are off and the task falls to an actual USPS employee they have on occasion left packages by my mailbox on the highway. Talk about inviting package theft!

Let the private companies handle all the package delivery.

I think DeJoy was put in place to run the USPS out of business so they could privatize it anyway.

 

[Yotekiller]

The key word here is “employee.” Contract mail carriers are independent contractors, not employees. They agree to service a route for a given price.

Rural carrier associates aren’t contract mail carriers, they’re US post office employees. There are contract mail carriers but that’s not what his position (Rural Carrier Associate) is. You are a union member and receive benefits, PTO, etc.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Rural carrier associates aren’t contract mail carriers, they’re US post office employees. There are contract mail carriers but that’s not what his position (Rural Carrier Associate) is. You are a union member and receive benefits, PTO, etc.

It can be different for different people at the P.O. and in different locations.
There are P.O. carriers, P.O. rural carriers, and rural contract carriers.
Our rural mail carriers bid on routes, they are independent contractors.
They only get paid on a fixed route, they do not get paid to deliver packages off route, like up our driveway.
If your house is 1/2 mile from your mailbox, they will not deliver to your house.
We fall just inside the line for distance so we get packages delivered, and we really appreciate our carriers!
They work hard and in hard conditions, as do UPS and FedEx.
I'm not about to knock anyone that drives as many miles and conditions that do it in.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Rural carrier associates aren’t contract mail carriers, they’re US post office employees. There are contract mail carriers but that’s not what his position (Rural Carrier Associate) is. You are a union member and receive benefits, PTO, etc.

I think you've got it a little off.
Your right in that they are not contract employees.


Join Our Team! Rural Carrier Associate
Would you like challenging and rewarding work with the United States Postal Service?
Are you looking for work that is both rewarding and challenging?
As a Postal Service™ Rural Carrier Associate (RCA), you will have a continuous, part-time job with a reliable employer. If you are retired, self-employed, an at-home parent, an educator, night student, or are employed on an evening shift schedule, this on-call position could be the ideal job for you.
RCAs are responsible for the safe and efficient delivery and collection of the U.S. Mail™, working part time when regular carriers have scheduled days off or take vacation days. RCAs also sell stamps, supplies, and money orders. RCAs perform a vital function in the Postal Service, serving thousands of families and businesses in rural and suburban areas while traveling millions of miles daily. The work can be demanding—but also rewarding.
Becoming an RCA is the first step on the path to becoming a full-time, regular rural carrier with full benefits, since RCAs are eligible to bid for these positions after 1 year of continuous service.

Join Our Team! Rural Carrier Associate

 

[GreensvilleJay]

'courier comics'....
1) every so often I get new computer chips. they ARE stocked in Toronto, 40 miles away. Instead of shipping from there, they come from Thailand-->India-->Germany-->Canada( Hamilton airport)-->to me. ususally takes a week( I can track UPS progress.) Hay, shipping is free so what do I care !

2) buy from local Princess Auto($10 shipping ,2-3 days). package goes from Hamilton to Stoney Creek to Hamilton airport to Burlington then on truck to me. Asked driver why ? He said 'that's how it's done'. sigh. better route is 1/2 distance and 1/3 the time... oh well, for $10 not worth ME getting onto the highways around here !

3) NO pharmacy,drug store, whatever... has 'tubular gauze' in Hamilton,Ont ( pop 525,000). so I order from Red Cross in Montreal,Quebec, comes 2 business days later, via Canada Post...hand delivery to my door ! Not my mailbox,100' away. If you saw my big toes, then you'd KNOW why front door delivery was GREAT !!

 

[The Evil Twin]

What is this "mail" thing? I used to look in one of those steel boxes at the end of my road that says "mail" on it. Haven't done so in a while. Thought it looked silly so I took it down.
Seriously... we haven't had a mailbox since we moved here. Haven't needed one in a decade so we never put one up.

 

[Sidekick]

I just had a problem with a ebay purchase shipped USPS. It went from Florida to Rochester in 2 days and then I watched the package go to a surrounding town west of us and back to the big Rochester distribution center. Every 2 days it went to a different town and then back for over a week. I contacted the Postal Service and was told it was caught in a loop and would have gone back and forth forever if I hadn't contacted them. It happens when a barcode gets damaged in shipping or is bad and the automated readers don't know what to do so they just keep sending it to different post offices only to have it shipped back. They finally caught it at a post office about 50 miles away and had them pull it from the line. They had a courier take it from there to my post office in the end. Package was really beat up but luckily contents not damaged. Address and barcode were still intact and I bet the sending post office had a problem with printing a bogus bar code. Their system is so smart that it is dumb.

 

[Yotekiller]

I think you've got it a little off.
Your right in that they are not contract employees.


Join Our Team! Rural Carrier Associate
Would you like challenging and rewarding work with the United States Postal Service?
Are you looking for work that is both rewarding and challenging?
As a Postal Service™ Rural Carrier Associate (RCA), you will have a continuous, part-time job with a reliable employer. If you are retired, self-employed, an at-home parent, an educator, night student, or are employed on an evening shift schedule, this on-call position could be the ideal job for you.
RCAs are responsible for the safe and efficient delivery and collection of the U.S. Mail™, working part time when regular carriers have scheduled days off or take vacation days. RCAs also sell stamps, supplies, and money orders. RCAs perform a vital function in the Postal Service, serving thousands of families and businesses in rural and suburban areas while traveling millions of miles daily. The work can be demanding—but also rewarding.
Becoming an RCA is the first step on the path to becoming a full-time, regular rural carrier with full benefits, since RCAs are eligible to bid for these positions after 1 year of continuous service.

Join Our Team! Rural Carrier Associate

This is exactly what it is. You’re considered part time even though most RCA’s average well over 40 hours a week and often times 50+. And while they get health insurance and PTO, it’s not as much as as a “regular carrier” who owns a dedicated route and is considered full time. You do get all the same union protection as any other PO employee which is good. But RCA’s don’t get the pension until they make regular full time. I know they’ve told him within another year he should make regular carrier so he’s looking forward to that. He gets loaned out to other post offices on a regular basis. Apparently they can send him to any PO in 50 mile radius.

 

[jyoutz]

“I think DeJoy was put in place to run the USPS out of business so they could privatize it anyway.”

I agree, but privatization means say goodbye to rural service. We will all have to get our packages at a central location. The private carriers are paying the Post office to do rural deliveries.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

I prefer getting bills in the mail ! I don't know of anyone who gets a discount for choosing Ebilling. Between a stamp, envelope, invoice, etc. the company spends $5 to mail your bill yet so far, no one I know gets a $1 discount, let alone $5 discount for Ebilling. Start doing the math, 10,000 clients, $5 saved each month, 12 months in a year and they're making serious cash for doing NOTHING !!!

 

[KKBL]

The post office is far better than FedEx; more reliable and they seldom mis-deliver like FedEx does all the time. They also do the final mile deliveries for Amazon because Amazon doesn’t find it profitable for rural area service. The Post Office delivers to everyone in rural areas where private companies say it’s not profitable. USPS does a pretty damn good job considering the volume they handle and the locations they service.

FedEx - "when it absolutely positively needs to be there" (sometime - maybe when we get around to it - and don't loose it)

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

What is this "mail" thing? I used to look in one of those steel boxes at the end of my road that says "mail" on it. Haven't done so in a while. Thought it looked silly so I took it down.
Seriously... we haven't had a mailbox since we moved here. Haven't needed one in a decade so we never put one up.

Think about all those checks you haven't gotten!

 

[chim]

When the USPS started delivering for Amazon I asked a postal worker friend if they started weekend deliveries because they couldn't lose enough money delivering mail 5 days a week.

The revenue from postage stamps should be high enough to run the postal service. It's a crime to hand them our tax dollars because they're incapable of running is as a business. Besides, if the price of a stamp went to $10 I'm sure there would be pressure to whip them into shape.

Delivery problems aren't only found in the postal system. I know of a case where the service delivering the package provided a picture of the package on the porch as proof of delivery. Problem was it wasn't the correct porch.
Then there was the case of the missing equipment for a project I was doing. The Motor Control Center we needed vanished en route to a project near Coatesville PA. It wasn't the size of a shoe box, but rather somewhere around 90" tall and 20' long. A couple weeks after we should have received it we were informed that it was found on a dock in Chicago.