I was raised with UPS...After fallout with lost items with UPS and yes USPS along with weekly shipment issue for work never getting where they needed to be I switched to FedEx and never looked back. USPS is a sad organization.
Louis Dejoy is the issue. He owned XPO Logistics and has or had $550k worth of stock in UPS. Supposedly, due to conflict of interest, he sold his shares of UPS stock and XPO Logistics when he became Postmaster General. I'm sure that he still has interests in both companies. He wants USPS to fail. His goal is to privatize USPS. In Cleveland alone in 2020, he removed millions of dollars worth of newly installed mail sorting equipment. Brand new sorting machines and computers sat outside in a parking lot and eventually were scrapped. Plus, in the Cleveland area alone, there are over 400 jobs that they can't fill. I guess that a starting salary over 40k and fantastic benefits including retirement for unskilled labor isn't enough for young people to want to work anymore. Starting at 40k, within two years, you'll be well over 50k. My letter carrier has 25 years in and his base salary is 71k. With overtime, he's making close to 100k. You can retire at 56 with ten years service and get medical for life. The USPS wouldn't be in the red if they weren't required to spend 6B dollars a year to prefund medical and pensions for people that aren't even born yet. If USPS fails, FedEx and UPS rates would go way up. When I would go to the plant to pick up a vehicle for repair, I would see FedEx and UPS trucks at the docks. I always thought that they were picking up packages. They were actually dropping off packages for USPS to deliver. A large percentage of packages that customers drop off at FedEx and UPS are delivered by USPS. The package that you paid UPS $25 to ship, USPS probably only charges them $6-10. Yes, it's screwed up, but until 2019, there were very few problems with delivery. USPS delivers 7.5 billion packages and 127.3 billion letters a year. FedEx and UPS combined only deliver 6.5 billion packages a year.
The USPS only "loses" money because Congress saddled them with s ridiculous pre-funded retirement package requirement. USPS was actually proftable until 2006 when Congress imposed that requirement, which adds billions in artificial / unnecessary costs to their bottom line. USPS is also legally required to do all the costly rural and mundane tasks that FEDEX and UPS don't want to take on. Don't like USPS lost MO policy? Try Western Union -- even worse. Had a WU MO stolen and obviously altered, like 3rd grade level altered -- name of recipient clearly erased with traces of my writing left behind -- no dice, got nothing. I'll take USPS any day.
I believe that the reason Congress mandated the prefunding is because it's the same pension/medical fund that Congress collects.
Most of us have had good and bad with USPS over the years. Right now, it is working for me, BUT, I moved from a larger town to a very small one. The lady who delivers my mail stops and speaks to me for a second--"Hi, how are you today?"--as she puts the mail in our boxes at the street. When I visit the local PO, there are only 3 people working but they are nice and there are never more than 3-4 people waiting. SO FAR, things have gone smoothly. My small packages to my daughter in Brooklyn seem to arrive a day early most of the time. With FedEx, where I have had an account for years, they only have small in-store locations here, so my account does not work and I pay full price. With UPS, very nice and better prices than FedEx. Also, small office with 4 or 5 people working. It is usually busier than either the PO or the FedEx place. I worked at DHL for a while; the entire segment is very competitive and as a bid manager, I saw a LOT of what goes on to win an account away from the competitors. Tough business, but agree that DeJoy is the main USPS issue right now. Replacing him is a difficult process, so we are in for a hot mess there until he goes. Cheers!
I guess anything some people don't like is "woke" nowadays. See if Amazon wants to deliver a letter for you. Or FedEx. or any of them. I suppose legally they can't, but realistically they also have no interest in doing so. It is not exactly a profit center.
If that is a reference to the IRS hiring more employees, it is reported that the IRS help line has been able to answer over 1,000,000 more phone calls than it did last year. Yeah, they hired people, and service improved. Go figger.
I will have to correct you on that, if you don't like it or don't have a good argument against it, the word to use is "racist". Seems like everything is "racist", no clear line anymore. Woke at least has clearer boundaries if you look at it without emotions and use some intelligence. I have been called a racist because I parked a parking spot at the store that for some reason they felt was theirs. Screamed at me through their window and over their 6-year-old child with many F bombs, whitey references along with other words. All this over a parking spot. As for the IRS, at what cost to the American taxpayer is the "improved service"? Why don't they make the tax system easier to use instead of hiring more government workers to answer phone calls? USPS, well they offer a service, I expect them to fulfill that service when I use them. The cost of a letter is still reasonable to me but I want my package delivered when I drop it off, that simple. They don't seem to lose the crap spam mail that makes up 70% of my mail each week but I guess that is another revenue stream for them and the recycle company benefits from that also.
Our post office had a canceling machine so if you mailed your letter here and it was gong to here they would just put it in your PO box { small town of around 3500 people } They took the canceling machine away from here so now when you mail something it has to be sent down to the next town which is 100 miles away, it gets canceled and then sent back up here. Waste of time and fuel if you ask me.
The IRS wants to do both. They desperately want to develop a fully automated system to handle fairly complicated tax returns, but the tax-prep lobby has been working hard to stop them.
Unless you have a slip proving how much you paid for the lost or damaged items, the USPS will not pay an insurance claim.
I know I'm going way off topic. Just to correct the earlier comment about the retirement package of an USPS employee, retirement with 10 years of service will get you a very minimal monthly pension. Medical for life is correct, but a retiree pays the same as an employed USPS employee. Granted, USPS personnel pay less than employees in other branches of the US Government for their health insurance, but it is not free. I am a non-USPS federal retiree, and I paid over $7500 in health insurance premiums and almost $19K in out of pocket expenses in 2022. 2022 was a bad year for us. It is not a free ride. BTW, I really hope the OP gets his money back or the USPS finds the package. UticaGeoff
Sorry, but you can't have your cake and eat it too. We want gold-standard infrastructure, services, and motivated employees but we want it on the cheap. Then we want to blame it on some social ill when we can't have both (it's the young people, political parties, taxes, corporate greed -- social changes - whatever..). Lastly, we want to talk about how much better it used to be. Sorry but it's all BS to me. 90 times out of 100 you get what you pay for....that is why TA Performance is better than eBay... And, organizations that are properly funded and organized usually deliver better customer service. The USPS has requirements to have post offices in every town & they must service every American -- does anyone think that's as efficient as FedEx or Amazon... I don't. However, I prefer that option vs driving 60 minutes to a regional post office. It's a compromise and a choice. I'm not saying that things couldn't be better but it's time to recognize we made a choice and we should understand the impact. Sure we could do things differently, but that will also lead to new compromises.
Rest assured Ups, Fed-Ex, and Amazon are not loosing money on shipping. Their customers, employees, and shareholders seem to be happy.
You know, the USPS is designated in the constitution. I don't see complaints that other things complained about. That damn military just has never shown a profit! Why hasn't Congress shown a profit after 250 years, it was established in the Constitution? It is as old as our country and meant to be a service available to all.
When I was employed with the USPS- it was 21%. I believe back then (mid 2000's) other Federal employees paid 30%. It certainly is not a free ride. One of the reasons I left the USPS for another civil service position with NYS was a much better benefit package. The post 1984 retirement package for the USPS and other Federal jobs is not that great. If one doesn't opt into the the 401k (Thrift Savings Plan), you will be retiring on very little. Most people still think Federal employees have the great benefit packages of the past- they don't. When I was there, the USPS had a major issue with turnover in the maintenance section since private sector retires would work 5 years to get better medical- and then leave. They could care less about the pension. A very common topic when I worked there- we used to say the FBI or the CIA isn't expected to turn a profit.....
