Another unfair advantage for USPS

[traveler]

Just saw this article where the postal service will not be allowed to raise rates above the inflation index.

"Congress has passed legislation that will generally prohibit the Postal Service from raising postage rates beyond the rate of inflation for the next 10 years, in order to help the USPS better compete against other delivery companies."

In return they don't have to fund the retirment of the military men.

"In exchange for accepting the new restrictions, the USPS will be relieved of billions in employee retirement expenses. The Postal Service had been required to pay retirement benefits earned by its workers during any time they spent in military service."

I wonder who will fund that retirement? Perhaps you, the taxpayer?

 

[sendagain]

Why don't we all just roll our pensions over to the government? The only way they will be able to pay for these benefits is to come and collect the money from all of us whose companies have to be run well in order to survive. Get ready for big tax hikes ahead.

 

[Keepingthemhonest]

what a load of bull...speaking of that, notice the hike in ups basic/freight only, ...we hubrats do the freight of the packages, the driver delivers them to the post office and they deliver them to the customer .... NOW, I'm no rocket scientist but that seems kinda sortof, maybe, a little like 'subcontracting' ... how did they ever get away with this in the first place....

 

[Joeseph A.]

.... "NOW, I'm no rocket scientist but that seems kinda sortof, maybe, a little like 'subcontracting' ... how did they ever get away with this in the first place..."You're right, not even close to being a rocket scientist; you don't understand how good you have it. Obvioulsy a simple man/woman with no understanding of economics and little insight on how to work with your competition. I pity your family and maybe even you...NOT!.

 

[Keepingthemhonest]

haha, all I see is marketshare...dumping 30 packages @ 1, instead of 30stops that could take a couple hours....yeah, cut the shipper a deal to ship with us, give the ups driver the work that is sorted and hub'd by teamsters.simple. ...what's stopping management from 'working with the competition' by giving them all the non-commit packages and cutting half the routes?


by the way...would you care to enlighten me as to just how good I have it again?

 

[beentheredonethat]

haha, all I see is marketshare...dumping 30 packages @ 1, instead of 30stops that could take a couple hours....yeah, cut the shipper a deal to ship with us, give the ups driver the work that is sorted and hub'd by teamsters.simple. ...what's stopping management from 'working with the competition' by giving them all the non-commit packages and cutting half the routes?


by the way...would you care to enlighten me as to just how good I have it again?

I know some people think it's not right for UPS to ship the pkgs to the post office and have them deliver the last leg. But the vast majority of this volume is new volume to UPS that we wouldn't already have. Would you rather do the pickup, sort and deliver to the post office and get 90% of the work on these pkgs. Or get 100% of 0 pkgs? UPS Service is superior to that of the USPS. But for customers who don't care that it takes a day or two longer, shipping via USPS is cheaper due to their low delivery cost due to their density. By offering Basic to a customer we get revenue and profit (and work) on packages we wouldn't have. In some cases we are offering to customers basic as an option where they used to ship ground, but this was so we could keep business. There's a lot of people in corporate who still aren't sold on Basic, but it seems to me it's better to have a piece of the action instead of nothing.

 

[hoser]

another unfair advantage? what a laughable thread title. OF COURSE THEY GET UNFAIR ADVANTAGES. they're a monopoly! they're the only organization in the USA (other than the military and law enforcement) that will outright admit that they are a monopoly without any reprecussions or dissent. we, like FX, have to mark up our overnight shipping by something like 5% IIRC. that's just the tip of the iceberg.

.... "NOW, I'm no rocket scientist but that seems kinda sortof, maybe, a little like 'subcontracting' ... how did they ever get away with this in the first place..."You're right, not even close to being a rocket scientist; you don't understand how good you have it. Obvioulsy a simple man/woman with no understanding of economics and little insight on how to work with your competition. I pity your family and maybe even you...NOT!.

maybe you should leave economics in the hands of people qualified to make those decisions.... in the mean time, you can stick with leading the union.

 

[Coldworld]

Trust me, the basic service is very good for ups. Almost all of these basic pkgs are accounts that used the post office exclusively. Ups goes in and wins the account. Now ups people are moving this volume through the hubs, and its in the millions people. Ups drivers are delivering most of this volume, which use to be a post office account. Some rural areas are delivering some to the post office. Many of these are because they have a po box address. Think of it this way, we get account from usps that ships 1 million a year. Were doing 95 percent of the delivering and the post office gets the scraps. This is a money maker for ups. There are going to be many more basic accounts within the new year. This is taking millions of pkgs away from the post office yearly. I believe its just the start of things to come where the post office contracts with scs to pick up flat rate and parcels from them for ups drivers to deliver in metro areas for thrm to save money. Their first class mail is down by Billions of pieces. This is their bread and butter. Were already carring their parcels for them. Watch, its going to happen!

 

[Coldworld]

Basically the only thing keeping the post office afloat besides being govt. is amazon.com, flat rate boxes, and ebay. I even had a postal carrier tell me that.

 

[hoser]

Basically the only thing keeping the post office afloat besides being govt. is amazon.com, flat rate boxes, and ebay. I even had a postal carrier tell me that.

...and that they have monopoly on mail

This theory is hard to swallow, considering the USPS is profitable and self-sustaining.

 

[moreluck]

The profitablility & self-sustenance of the USPS is all smoke and mirrors !!

 

[Coldworld]

their mail volume is down big time especially first class mail.

 

[hoser]

The profitablility & self-sustenance of the USPS is all smoke and mirrors !!

i thought numbers spoke louder than rhetoric.

 

[Anonymous Brownclown]

Think it's time for major postal reform, tough being they're the largest government workforce, would affect lots of people. IMHO the postal service has outlived its need, it was created to provide delivery service to the entire US helping to bind it together (letters being to way of communicating besides face to face conversations back then). However now with all sorts of ways to communicate transfer and send documents etc, it is no longer necessary for the government to provide such a service. Time to follow other countries leads such as England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Sweden and privatize the USPS.

 

[hoser]

Think it's time for major postal reform, tough being they're the largest government workforce, would affect lots of people. IMHO the postal service has outlived its need, it was created to provide delivery service to the entire US helping to bind it together (letters being to way of communicating besides face to face conversations back then). However now with all sorts of ways to communicate transfer and send documents etc, it is no longer necessary for the government to provide such a service. Time to follow other countries leads such as England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Sweden and privatize the USPS.

Canada Post is not private, although postal outlets have been outsourced, which was a great thing despite the union whining: if a package needs to be picked up, you just go down to the neighbourhood 7-11 or super drug mart and pick it up; and all the outlets are open 'til 2100-2300. "suburban" (a suburb being any house whose frontage doesn't connects directly to a sidewalk or street; yard between your front door and street? suburb) delivery services have also been outsourced - a good thing because the contractors just leave it at your door, a bad thing for sending customers if a sig is required. Regardless, the USA is more private in the handling of mail, Canada Post does not use competetors to move their mail, only contractors (read: truckers) and passenger airlines.

The argument that "everything is getting more electronic and hence first class mail is irrellevant" is complete BS. They said 8 years ago that package shipments would go down because of the internet, but it has only boomed. Furthermore, letters still have purpose. In this e-age, a written letter has even more purpose, it shows sincerity and that time has gone into the letter. Furthermore, secure and semi-secure documents go through the mail.

Furthermore, as much as I am a strong fiscal conservative who believes that the free market is the greatest thing ever, privitization is NOT the answer for mail. Not only does the UN require mail to be monopolized, if the delivery of the mail were dictated by market forces, majority of the USA landmass would not be serviced.

Speaking of fairness: UPS and FedEx don't have to service every single inch of US soil