The U.S. Postal Service

[jakethebake]

I got a bank statement in the mail today that was postmarked Oct. 26, 1999. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[ftball0000]

Damn you Newman!!!!

[Dynasty]

Why don't you tell us a joke about how you can't program your VCR to stop flashing "12:00". Then, all you'll almost be ready to be a late night talk show host.

[jakethebake]

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Why don't you tell us a joke about how you can't program your VCR to stop flashing "12:00". Then, all you'll almost be ready to be a late night talk show host.

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I'm not sure what you're getting at. I was in fact just telling you about an experience I had today with our incredibly competent post office.

[Dead]

I've never had a major problem with the post office.

[Dynasty]

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Why don't you tell us a joke about how you can't program your VCR to stop flashing "12:00". Then, all you'll almost be ready to be a late night talk show host.

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I'm not sure what you're getting at. I was in fact just telling you about an experience I had today with our incredibly competent post office.

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What I'm getting at is that these stories which imply the U.S. Postal Service is incompetant (ala Cliff Clavin of Cheers or Newman of Seinfeld) are old, overused jokes.

Besides, the USPS does an extraordinary logistical job. People take for granted how amazing it is that they can send a letter to any person in the country for $0.37 and have a 99.99+ % chance of getting there in just days.

[mason55]

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Besides, the USPS does an extraordinary logistical job. People take for granted how amazing it is that they can send a letter to any person in the country for $0.37 and have a 99.99+ % chance of getting there in just days.

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And they do this millions of times per day. And it generall only takes like 3 days for the mail to get anywhere. They screw up way way less than UPS or FedEx and charge very cheap rates. The USPS is one of the most amazing organizations ever. Seriously.

[jakethebake]

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Besides, the USPS does an extraordinary logistical job. People take for granted how amazing it is that they can send a letter to any person in the country for $0.37 and have a 99.99+ % chance of getting there in just days.

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*sigh* You've roped me into a debate. It's been quite awhile since I've done any actual serious research on this so I don't have figures at the tips of my fingers, but there was a time when I did.

You're correct in that the vast majority of mail gets there within a reasonable amount of time. But as an organization, it's incredibly dysfunctional and inefficient. The amount of waste is staggering. The $.37 you mention is a multiple of what it should cost, were the USPS at all efficient.

The politics involved are also hilarious. The Seinfeld skits with the postal inspector are closer to the truth than people realize. For instance, why is the post office running advertisements? This is a government entity that competes with free enterprise. If people aren't using it, then it should shrink. But these people are fighting to retain what power they have so they have to artificially drum up business. The fact that at one time the USPS tried to actually get legal authority over e-mail tells the story.

However, whatever my beliefs are about the USPS, it's still pretty funny that I just got a letter 6 years late.

[jakethebake]

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They screw up way way less than UPS or FedEx and charge very cheap rates.

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You'll have to define "screw up". I've had problems with all three organizations at various times. However, UPS & Fedex guarantee timely delivery. USPS is absolutely dishonest about it. The have like fifteen tiers of service, and will imply that you'll get something faster for paying more, when in fact they don't guarantee timely delivery. But they don't tell you that unless you specifically ask.

[mason55]

I meant percentage wise. For me at least, I get probably 20+ times as many USPS deliveries as FedEx/UPS/DHL. True, USPS might not guarantee delivery on anything, that's why those other companies exist but I get hundreds of letters without them getting lost or destroyed, not as true for the big 3 shipping companies.

I think your story is hilarious though.

[bamaboy]

The USPS does not have 99.99% delivery rate. That is impossible. Plus, they can't provide their service levels to the public since they do not have a tracking system for each package.

[Peca277]

My dad works as a mailhandler in the main Buffalo PO. You're very right that the PO is extremely inefficient, mostly because of its preferential hiring of veterans who want a cushy civil service job they won't really need to work at, and a labor union who defends any employee against management no matter how bad the employee fuked up. The organization sure does need to be overhauled, but for what it's working with they do a pretty damn good job (I believe it's about a 95% 1-day delivery in B-lo).

Complaining about the 37 cents is ridiculous, especially since gas prices have gone up 30% in the last 1-2 years. While UPS/FedEx can raise the rates or add a fuel service charge whenever they want, the PO needs government approval (which can take years) to do anything similar.

Remember that the PO is only quasi-governmental. Why would you complain about a business advertising so that it can alleviate the deficits experienced several years ago? The money the PO raises goes to fund the PO... not any other government programs. The argument that if people choose not to use the PO it should just shrink and do nothing to increase business argument is contradictory to any business. I see Republican Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich on TV all the time telling me how great a state MD is... why is the Govt advertising??

It is still funny that you received a letter 6 years later /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[jakethebake]

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Complaining about the 37 cents is ridiculous,

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Complaining about govt waste is never ridiculous. It's that attitude that allows it to continue.

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Why would you complain about a business advertising so that it can alleviate the deficits experienced several years ago?

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A government entity should not produce a profit. If it is, then it just means they're charging too much.

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The argument that if people choose not to use the PO it should just shrink and do nothing to increase business argument is contradictory to any business.

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It's not a business. It's the government. That is exactly ehat makes it WRONG!

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I see Republican Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich on TV all the time telling me how great a state MD is... why is the Govt advertising??

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Good [censored] question. That's another waste of money.


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It is still funny that you received a letter 6 years later /images/graemlins/grin.gif

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I thought so. That was all the thread was supposed to be about. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[mason55]

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The USPS does not have 99.99% delivery rate. That is impossible. Plus, they can't provide their service levels to the public since they do not have a tracking system for each package.

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Right, sorry for the exaggeration. I don't know, I'm impressed by the post office, that's all. True, they can't track packages like UPS or FedEx, and I'm not saying they're perfect. All I'm saying is that what they do is still very impressive.

[Dynasty]

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The USPS does not have 99.99% delivery rate. That is impossible.

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I don't find it the least bit difficult that the USPS delivers 9,999 out of every 10,000 letters to their destination in just days. In fact, I bet their success rate is higher.

[wacki]

http://www.usps.com/ratecase/ratecase_faqs.htm


At $0.37 our single-piece First-Class Mail letter rate still is among the lowest of major industrialized nations. Citizens in Japan, for example, pay the equivalent of $0.62 to mail a letter within their own country — an area somewhat smaller than California in square mileage.

Our record is excellent. We move more than 46 percent of the world’s cards and letters, delivering more than 200 billion pieces of mail a year.


My money is on Dynasty. Jake, you're an idiot for getting into an arguement with Dynasty without doing your homework.

[astroglide]

my dad and my stepmom are both retired postmasters and my dad works part time on some administrative level having something to do with investigating firings. i'll see what i can get out of him but 99.99% wouldn't surprise me at all.

[OtisTheMarsupial]

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I got a bank statement in the mail today that was postmarked Oct. 26, 1999. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

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Whoops. I thought this thread was about the Postal Service, not the USPS... was looking for new tunes. Damn.

Otis

[LAGmaniac]

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Whoops. I thought this thread was about the Postal Service, not the USPS... was looking for new tunes. Damn.



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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v431/AngryCola/kisstokillme.jpg


keep looking

[jakethebake]

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my dad and my stepmom are both retired postmasters and my dad works part time on some administrative level having something to do with investigating firings. i'll see what i can get out of him but 99.99% wouldn't surprise me at all.

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Since they don't track it there's no possible way to know. I never intended to start an arguement about this anyway.

[jakethebake]

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http://www.usps.com/ratecase/ratecase_faqs.htm

At $0.37 our single-piece First-Class Mail letter rate still is among the lowest of major industrialized nations. Citizens in Japan, for example, pay the equivalent of $0.62 to mail a letter within their own country — an area somewhat smaller than California in square mileage.

Our record is excellent. We move more than 46 percent of the world’s cards and letters, delivering more than 200 billion pieces of mail a year.

My money is on Dynasty. Jake, you're an idiot for getting into an arguement with Dynasty without doing your homework.

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LOL...I didn't get into any argument. All I did was post something funny that happened to me. I doubt seriosuly it's 99.9%, but maybe it is. Regardless. I wasn't trying to make any point about accuracy. They can't prove that anyway since there's no tracking of standard mail.

Admittedly, I haven't done any research on this recently. However, at one time i did. In fact I wrote pretty extensively about the potential to privatize the post office. I do not in fact recall the specific figure, but it is a fact that what we pay is a multiple of what we should be. Quoting the price some other inefficent organization charges, which may or may not be well-above the actual cost to the organization, proves nothing about what it should cost.

[Dead]

Fed Ex sucks a lot more than the Post Office. I can't stand Fed Ex and their crappy service and I avoid them whenever possible.

UPS is awesome, however.

[Burno]

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In fact I wrote pretty extensively about the potential to privatize the post office. I do not in fact recall the specific figure, but it is a fact that what we pay is a multiple of what we should be.

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Was this before or after you wrote the book on pseudo-intellectualism?

[jakethebake]

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In fact I wrote pretty extensively about the potential to privatize the post office. I do not in fact recall the specific figure, but it is a fact that what we pay is a multiple of what we should be.

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Was this before or after you wrote the book on pseudo-intellectualism?

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Wow. That was really clever. Actually I wrote three undergrad papers on it, the shortest of which was probably 10+ pages. I wrote one graduate level business paper on it. And I did some research on it when I was looking at the IPO of the Dutch post office. But again, it has been quite awhile.

[blendedsuit]

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The USPS does not have 99.99% delivery rate. That is impossible.

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I don't find it the least bit difficult that the USPS delivers 9,999 out of every 10,000 letters to their destination in just days. In fact, I bet their success rate is higher.

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I'm afraid this is absolutely wrong. I delivered mail as a letter carrier for the USPS. I can assure you the success rate is not nearly this high. I'm trying to dig up the fliers and handouts I received during carrier training that I believe had these statistics.