The US Postal Service

[IronMonster]

Some of the Amazon packaging is crazy. I have got a couple of things lately in these folded cardbord things that are not even sealed, Hard to explain but there is nothing but a bit of friction holding them closed, no tape, staples or anything, it pulls right apart with no effort. I was shocked that the stuff was still inside.

 

[soberups]

I am a 28 year UPS employee so I will weigh in with a few opinions about the "competition."

As posted earlier, the only reason that the USPS is in the red is because of the ridiculous $8.5 billion pension pre-funding requirement imposed by Congress.

On the flip side, the reason that the USPS is so much cheaper that UPS or FedEx is that they have a monopoly on the delivery of first-class mail, the revenue from which they unfairly use to subsidize their rates on parcels. They are the only ones allowed to place mail or parcels in your mailbox; as a UPS driver I have to bring your package all the way up to your house, so comparing their service to ours for parcels of similar weight is apples to oranges. In terms of labor cost, it is far cheaper for them to park in one spot and deposit the mail and parcels for an entire city block into one of their mail kiosks than it is for us to drive to each house and then walk up to the front door of each delivery. Or in rural areas, the mailboxes they use are right next to the road so they never have to get out of their vehicles or go all the way up the driveway to the residence like UPS does.

As far as damaged packages go, my experience has been that 95% of all damages are primarily the result of poor packaging and my guess is that the same is true for the Post Office.

 

[soberups]

Some of the Amazon packaging is crazy. I have got a couple of things lately in these folded cardbord things that are not even sealed, Hard to explain but there is nothing but a bit of friction holding them closed, no tape, staples or anything, it pulls right apart with no effort. I was shocked that the stuff was still inside.

Large shippers like Amazon have done the math and in many cases it costs more money for them to pay someone to properly pack and tape each individual package than it does for them to do it half-arsed and just pay damage claims for a certain % of their shipments.

A perfect example of this is in shipping bulk light bulbs. We (UPS) generally wont pay damage claims on anything made of glass unless each individual item is encased in 4" of foam. This would often mean that the cost of shipping and insuring the item would exceed the value of the item itself. So what a lot of light bulb shippers would do was to just omit the extra packing material and foam, and ship 3 or 4 extra bulbs with every shipment to make up for the ones they already know will get broken in transit. The switch to more expensive fluorescent bulbs seems to have curtailed this practice but the principal still holds true for shipping many other consumer items.

 

[Oregonhunter5]

< Why they don't have school shootings in Israel.
Notice the long gun slung over the teachers shoulder?

I just got a package delivered today from Amazon, was supposed to have 13 LED bulbs, there were 2. Package was crushed and one end partly open. Over $60 worth of LED's lost somewhere.

That's the price you pay to be a greenie.

Deen
NRA Life Member, Benefactor Level
"Defender of Freedom" award
NRA Golden Eagle member
WAC member
Vancouver Rifle and Pistol Club member

"Having a gun is like a parachute, if you need one and don't have it you may never need it again"

 

[Sstrand]

Can you imagine the uproar if a bunch of broken high efficiency, mercury containing, bulbs are discovered to
be still at the post office???

Sheldon

 

[IheartSig]

I'm torn on the USPS. On one hand I think "I can take a letter, place it in my mailbox, a man or woman comes along picks it up and takes it to Miami Florida for me for 49 cents". If you really think about that, its pretty amazing.

But then, I get home every day around the same time the mail truck is at my house. I have watched him drop mail on the ground and leave it, deliver my neighbors mail to me and vice versa, I've watched him neglect to close the mailbox door. I've heard him curse the people who's mail he is delivering. I've seen with my own two eyes, the mail man walk half way up my yard and throw boxes onto porch and bounce them off the door. I have watched outgoing mail sit in the mail box two business days in a row because he had none to drop off so he didn't bother picking mine up even though my little flag was up. The man who delivers my mail is kind of a jerk.

 

[soberups]

There was a time when giving the USPS a monopoly on first-class mail made sense. Had our mail service started out as a private, for-profit enterprise, there would have been entire rural regions of the country that would never have gotten mail service at all due to the prohibitive cost of serving them. To grow and prosper as a nation we needed a Post Office that provided service to every address in the USA regardless of cost. The advent of email, electronic bill paying and online banking has, in my opinion, made the need for a private Post Office obsolete.

 

[ARKLITE881South]

Guess i'm spoiled, our ''old'' mail man was great, he was on this route for about 15 yrs. He had it figured out, 8hrs. Period! Then he retired, here comes speedy gonzolas, he'd be at our house an honest 2 hrs before the guy who retired was.loll. I"m not knocking the retired guy, he was great, very personal, shooter, I've known him for about 35 yrs. The new guy, he's 23, great guy, shooter, hunter, etc. And, yes, he's still coming 2hrs earlier than the retired guy. I kidded him, telling him he was really setting the pole high for who ever gets this route. Now, we have a temp, he's a good guy as well, slightly over weight, but, he's doing a great job. The other day he carried a 18''x18'' package for me about 5 blocks. The other guys would have done a drive by with it. Hay, not complaining, what ever works for him, he's new.

 

[edslhead]

UPS transfers a good percentage of their packages to the USPS for final delivery. Its not to often a UPS truck comes to my home anymore. This is from the UPS web site,



Frequently Asked Questions
At UPS Mail Innovations, we continually strive to provide the information our customers need to make smart decisions about their mailing services. Explore the answers below. For additional information, call 1.800.500.2224.
Contact Us.
Q. What does Manifest (Postage Paid) mean?
A. This means the package was sorted by zip code, the postage was paid by UPS Mail Innovations, and it is currently being shipped to the appropriate Post Office for the final delivery.
Q. Can an address be changed after it enters the UPS Mail Innovations processing facility or the USPS?
A. It would be extremely difficult, once the mail enters the UPS Mail Innovations processing facility, to locate a particular mail piece. Only the USPS, through a valid change of address order, can redirect the mail to its new address.
Q. I received a yellow slip from the Post Office. What should I do?
A. You can either go to the Post Office to pick up the mail piece or call the phone number listed on the slip to arrange for delivery.
Q. How many attempts will the Post Office make before my package is returned?
A. The Post Office will attempt to deliver your package twice.
Q. Can a customer insure their mail?
A. UPS Mail Innovations does not offer insurance, however insurance is available through third-party providers.
Q. Why can't I see where my mail piece is in the USPS system?
A. Once a package enters the USPS system, tracking updates are only available for those mail pieces utilizing a postal confirmation of delivery service (Delivery Confirmation or Confirm).
Q. If a customer changes their address before the shipment reaches the USPS, will it be forwarded automatically?
A. Typically, the package will only be forwarded if shipper has requested to have their mail forwarded.
Q. Does UPS Mail Innovations deliver to P.O. Boxes?
A. Yes, we do.

 

[mjbskwim]

Just a side note here,I bought a new phone at about 2 o'clock on Thursday.It was in Texas.By noon on Friday it was thru PA and at my door in Sequim.Fedex is on the airport in PA but still that was impressive.
Oh and I keep a PO box and the girls there remember what box # I have,lol
So IronMonster,would it behoove you to just get a PO box and tell folks that shipping day is on Friday?
You said half the time you have to close shop and run down to the PO anyway.Would that work or do you need to ship things out ASAP? Would 3 days be a deal breaker?