Stop Staples Taking Over the USPS Offices

[Skeptic Ginger]

This may not apply if you don't live in the US, and you may disagree, fine - go away .

I rely on the post office because I sell a lot on EBay. I'm familiar with the move by the right wing in the government to make it look like the post office would be better run by private companies. They passed legislation putting an economic burden on the post office no private company is required to do, that is to send millions in profits every year to the US treasury under the premise this is needed to guarantee pensions. By doing so the legislation put an undue burden on the post office and they've had financial trouble since.

The goal of this legislation is like a lot of the goals of the right wing, privatize everything and I'm sure there is plenty of lobbying by Fed Ex, UPS, and now Staples to force the post office out of business because they want that market share.

The trouble is, once privatized, there is nothing to keep costs down (competition is a farce, these companies divide up the market share instead of competing for it, and they also increase profits by underpaying workers) and, there's no guarantee they won't just start lopping off unprofitable rural residents from their service area.

But the assault on public services is relentless and now Staples smelled blood and is moving in for the kill. They've bid to replace post offices. It's a bad deal.

There will be a day of action coming up on Apr 24th. Take a minute to look at the issues, feel free to debate them in this thread.

Consider joining in the day of action.

http://stopstaples.com/

 

[Tiktaalik]

I live in a rural area and the Post Office is the only place that can find my house. Everyone else (but especially Fed Ex) just sends stuff back or drops it randomly at some other place miles away. Nobody would deliver regular mail out here if not for the USPS.

 

[Mudcat]

My grandfather was a postman, but I'm not sure if the post office should be preserved.

Does anyone write letters anymore? What does anyone get in the post these days besides junkmail and bills which can be viewed and paid online?

I'm sorry but this is one time I have to agree with the right, it's time to retire the post office. What little they do these days can be covered by FedEx, UPS, Staples, and whatever private delivery service wants the job... Who knows, we might even be able to pay them extra to not receive junkmail as well.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Being anti-USPS is to be anti-business. Most of what I get here is advertising, and I base my shopping on the grocery store fliers. If you kill that mode of delivery you hurt the businesses.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

My grandfather was a postman, but I'm not sure if the post office should be preserved.

Does anyone write letters anymore? What does anyone get in the post these days besides junkmail and bills which can be viewed and paid online?

I'm sorry but this is one time I have to agree with the right, it's time to retire the post office. What little they do these days can be covered by FedEx, UPS, Staples, and whatever private delivery service wants the job... Who knows, we might even be able to pay them extra to not receive junkmail as well.

So because you don't write letters no one else should?

Private delivery companies only want the profitable pieces of the post office leaving people in rural areas without service. And it's Congress that has made the post office unprofitable. One can only assume that is because lobbyists for private companies anxious to steal lucrative market shares leaving the less lucrative ones are behind the push to drive the post office out of business.

Shipping is a growing business. Letters may not be, but there are lots of physical things that need shipping besides words on a page.

No offense but an uninformed opinion is rarely a good opinion.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Being anti-USPS is to be anti-business. Most of what I get here is advertising, and I base my shopping on the grocery store fliers. If you kill that mode of delivery you hurt the businesses.

I like it when people come up with talking points that can appeal to the right wing.

 

[TragicMonkey]

My grandfather was a postman, but I'm not sure if the post office should be preserved.

Does anyone write letters anymore? What does anyone get in the post these days besides junkmail and bills which can be viewed and paid online?

I'm sorry but this is one time I have to agree with the right, it's time to retire the post office. What little they do these days can be covered by FedEx, UPS, Staples, and whatever private delivery service wants the job... Who knows, we might even be able to pay them extra to not receive junkmail as well.

Not everybody owns a computer and uses the internet, you know.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

No

 

[LSSBB]

Why should I want to preserve an operation that offers two day mail, and when it takes a week and you complain they say "Well, it's not gauranteed two day mail"? From what I have seen, the Post Office has to be the poster child for inefficient operations. What incentive do they have to improve?

 

[marplots]

Give Staples a shot. See how they do in the experiment. Then run the numbers to decide whether it would work in other areas. There is nothing to fear here and no reason to poison the well with unfounded fears. Either the Staples experiment will succeed or it will fail - no big deal either way.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Why should I want to preserve an operation that offers two day mail, and when it takes a week and you complain they say "Well, it's not gauranteed two day mail"? From what I have seen, the Post Office has to be the poster child for inefficient operations. What incentive do they have to improve?

I use it all the time, ship packages several times a week. I've rarely had problems. I suggest you had an unusual experience or you believe a false stereotype.

 

[RecoveringYuppy]

Why should I want to preserve an operation that offers two day mail, and when it takes a week and you complain they say "Well, it's not gauranteed two day mail"? From what I have seen, the Post Office has to be the poster child for inefficient operations. What incentive do they have to improve?

Have to agree with the inefficient operations part of that.

However, I found a way to get two day service at a reasonable rate from my particular branch a few years ago: Use the guaranteed overnight service and collect on the money back guarantee when they fail to meet the deadline, which they did 10 out of 11 times.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Give Staples a shot. See how they do in the experiment. Then run the numbers to decide whether it would work in other areas. There is nothing to fear here and no reason to poison the well with unfounded fears. Either the Staples experiment will succeed or it will fail - no big deal either way.

Why do you suppose Staples is closing hundreds of stores? Think they have a good business model and a good track record?

http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/06/news/companies/staples-store-closing/

I take it you are one of the people who don't use the post office? The idea is to lay off all the postal workers and replace them with minimum wage clerks. There will be no cameras keeping low paid workers from stealing your packages.

What's wrong with this picture is the USPS is profitable and uses no tax dollars. The only reason it is having any trouble is the federal government has its hand in the till. You'd think the right wingers would be upset about that.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

It's odd that everyone has all these horror stories and I use the post office several times a week with almost no problems.

 

[marplots]

Why do you suppose Staples is closing hundreds of stores? Think they have a good business model and a good track record?

http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/06/news/companies/staples-store-closing/

Who cares? This is a trial. If they flop, they flop. Your prediction Staples will flop is just that, a prediction. But you seem to be saying, for whatever reason, we shouldn't even do the experiment to find out.

I take it you are one of the people who don't use the post office? The idea is to lay off all the postal workers and replace them with minimum wage clerks. There will be no cameras keeping low paid workers from stealing your packages.

Then they ought to track theft as part of the experiment. From a user perspective, it might require you to insure your shipments, raising the shipping costs.

What's wrong with this picture is the USPS is profitable and uses no tax dollars. The only reason it is having any trouble is the federal government has its hand in the till. You'd think the right wingers would be upset about that.

Would you accept exactly the same reforms but keep the USPS uniform? I'm not sure what you want. Maybe they want to bust the postal union and reduce wages.

The larger point is that none of this really comes up until after the trial and the data is collected. Only then will we be in a position to weigh the costs and benefits. Maybe Staples will do a better job and you'll save oodles of money on shipping. Maybe their employees will start stealing social security checks. Neither of us knows yet.

Even the American Postal Workers Union says the deal is still secret. So why the protests before knowing the details?
http://www.apwu.org/news/webart/2014/14-061-staples-nlrbhearing-140407.htm

 

[Foolmewunz]

People have no idea of the scope of what they're talking about taking over. Who is going to CARRY all those pieces? UPS? Fedex?

UPS choked on the Christmas Rush this year.

Here are the numbers for The Big Three:


Organization|Pcs/day|Employees|
Fedex | 3,400,000 | 300,000 |
UPS | 14,000,000 | 400,000 |
USPS | 564,000,000 | 600,000 |

(Tried to get that in a table, but couldn't make it work.)

The thought that private industry could handle this better ignores the writing on the wall. The USPS has been trying to cut out marginal services for years in order to show the profit that the rules critters are demanding, but they have a mandate to provide a service to the whole country and aren't allowed to drop unprofitable routes or quintuple the rates for Mrs. Naugatuck's delivery on Route 7. The private sector will do that... in a heartbeat.

Look at the numbers above. If Fedex and UPS are profitable, it's not because of their employee efficiency. They give a great service because they can average 12 and 30 pcs/employee respectively. The USPS handles 900 pcs/employee. Fedex and UPS can charge $7 to $25 for a letter. The USPS... under a buck!


ETA: My bad. I was having my usual argument and didn't read the specific focus of the OP. (Comes from years in the logistics business and hearing this discussion for most of them.)

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Who cares? This is a trial. If they flop, they flop. Your prediction Staples will flop is just that, a prediction. But you seem to be saying, for whatever reason, we shouldn't even do the experiment to find out.
...

That's a reckless approach.

 

[marplots]

That's a reckless approach.

Or, alternatively, an innovative leap forward.

 

[Beeyon]

I live in an extremely rural area and all I get is junk mail. I actually cannot receive packages through the USPS because their parcel boxes are so limited in this area. So whenever some idiot online retailer sends a package through the USPS, I have to take time off work to visit the post office during their hours. I wish I could opt out of their services.

However I have mixed feelings about the prefunding mandate. I think that in general, public service unions more or less abuse the fact that they aren't "in competition" with management. But the solution to that isn't for congress to lay down unrealistic requirements, the solution is to force/allow the USPS management to behave more like private management.

Let's just let the USPS go to one-day-per-week delivery. No USPS sender really cares about when their spam or crappy goods arrive. I'll still pay my eyeball tax by having to check to make sure I haven't received any government correspondence. And the dramatic changes in staffing requirements would give USPS management the flexibility/leverage to form a sustainable plan with their unions.

 

[newyorkguy]

It's odd that everyone has all these horror stories and I use the post office several times a week with almost no problems.

That happens a lot. Normally people who don't use a service are the most critical of it. I use USPS quite a bit too and I have had few problems.

Btw people are mentioning delivery to rural areas. My understanding is, that's not what this is about. Staples would only provide what are essentially retail outlets, thus saving USPS tons of money. Delivery would still be by the USPS and USPS employees.

I actually interviewed last December for a part-time job with the post office, only I didn't get it. One reason I didn't was, according to the postmaster who interviewed me, they have not hired anyone for "inside" in a number of years. He said that is because they have closed so many post offices and reduced hours, they have their hands full finding work for the existing staff.

Btw he also told me USPS delivers seven days a week now. On Sundays they do package deliveries primarily for Amazon.