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Post by ClassicPhilatelist on May 27, 2023 16:17:55 GMT
The USPS announced their second quarter 2023 losses (yeah, losses). The unfathomable amount of bad management is clear. The USPS reported a $1.8 billion loss for the second quarter of fiscal year 2023, which is a significant increase compared to the $639 million loss for the same quarter last year. Second-quarter operating revenue dropped by $484 million or 2.4 percent, while operating expenses rose by $1.6 billion or 7.6 percent. Despite these financial setbacks, USPS Chief Financial Officer, Joseph Corbett, noted the organization's commitment to counterbalance costs and declining mail volumes by implementing necessary price increases. Despite the disappointing results, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy expressed his commitment to the 10-year Delivering for America plan, aiming for a break-even financial outcome despite numerous challenges.
HA! All this while getting dismal service? It's time to privatize the USPS. Many other countries have done so (Australia, Austria, the UK, Germany and Portugal, with Japan's plan to finalized privatization next year).
US Postal service (or lack there) really needs an overhaul. It's a debacle compared to what they used to be, and compared to other countries.
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Post by khj on May 27, 2023 18:19:09 GMT
My wife received her Mother's Day card from my oldest daughter 8 days late.
I am still waiting on a priority mail package after 7 days.
So, the 10-year Delivering for America plan is that they intend for all of us to receive our mail within 10 years or our money back?
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Post by khj on May 27, 2023 18:36:49 GMT
In all fairness, privatizing USPS is a very different beast and is difficult to compare to other countries that have done so for one basic logistical reason -- US has a very significant percentage of rural delivery area/population/density. This is why almost all the private carriers re-contract out rural delivery to USPS for rural deliveries. I live in the suburbs, and I find that FedEx sometimes re-contracts out heavy packages to USPS for delivery to me!!! Rural free delivery and the like, are issues that may need to be re-discussed if USPS solvency is insisted upon. As long as USPS is expected to not be federally funded and also meet the requirements of government-dictated services, the problem will only become greater.
It's interesting to note that when postal delivery was part of the budget (remember the pre-1971 days before USPS?), and service was placed above balanced budgets and seniority, things were running relatively quite well! Even in the 1970s going into the early 1980s, I felt service was timely and reasonably priced. A lot of today's problems are tied in one way or the other to the disbanding of USPOD into USPS and subsequent transitory developments of those years. Really, a classic case of don't fix what wasn't really broken. It's too late to go back. But is moving forward with privatizing (i.e., further and further away from government budgeting/administration) going to make things better or worse?
As for me, I'll just push around little bits of colored paper with a metal stick, and let others worry about what happens if they stick the colored bits of paper on an envelope...
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Post by stampie83 on May 27, 2023 19:12:02 GMT
And here I was thinking our Postal service was bad. My mail gets picked up at a local gas station Post box, gets sent to a sorting center a hundred km from here and then comes back to Truro, about 5 min drive from where it started. ( assuming the mail was for Truro in the first place)
And now with another 14 cents per ltr on gas in July I can see the postage rates going up shortly after.
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Post by khj on May 27, 2023 20:55:55 GMT
I think it was a big mistake for USPS to drop intrastation delivery. In decades past, I could get same day (or at least next day) delivery for items mailed to same or adjacent zip codes just by putting into a special slot before Noon. These could be found at almost all post offices. Now, nothing gets delivered until at least 2 days later because everything must get trucked to a regional sorting facility and then trucked back to your local post office.
When you can get 1-2 day delivery, even if not every time, people will still think the post office is functioning. When everything takes minimum 3 days, how do you expect customers to react?
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Post by ClassicPhilatelist on May 27, 2023 22:35:13 GMT
khj, That doesn't hold water. Australia has a much more vast rural expanse than the US, with a much lower infrastructure (roads, aircraft, trucks) to get stuff there. There are no divided highways once you are more than about 10k outside the major cities (of which there are 5: Sydney, Melbourne, Camberra, Brisbane and Adelaide). Everything after that is miles between. It's worse than driving across Montana, for frequency of stops in between, and again, NO divided or 4 lane highways, only 2 lane and in some cases 1-lane roads (which are really amusing to dive down when you see another car coming at you head on). Australia managed to privatize their postal system ages ago, and it works a hell of a lot better than the US. The US has massive infrastructure advantages that Australia (which is essentially the same size as the continental US, less the size of New Jersey). And their towns are more remote, and much harder to reach. The next thing you know, there will be a "tipping culture" for mail delivery in the US... Or your mail will arrive weeks later... oh wait.
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Post by khj on May 28, 2023 4:08:48 GMT
I would have to say we may have to agree to disagree. It's still no comparison. Large swaths of Australia are completely unpopulated -- it is not even necessary to provide service to 75%+ of the land area of Australia (these are areas where the population density is 1 or less per square kilometer)!!! Just check out one of the population density maps of Australia and you will see. This is completely opposite of US which has a large land area (continental US) much of which needs postal service. In fact, the population density of all of Australia didn't even approach 2/sqkm until the late 1960s!
A comparison of Australia population distribution to Alaska population distribution is more apropo, although Alaska is far more skewed than Australia. There is also an issue of population distribution, which is tends to concentrate along coastal areas in Australia and spotted towns/cities. Whereas small towns are literally everywhere in the US. I never checked, but I would think a quick comparison of the number of post offices service rural areas in the US far exceed the number of rural post offices in Australia.
My basic point is that if one insists on equal delivery rates, the total required service area will by far be one of the dominant cost factors. When we run a service project, the very first question I ask is what is the service area. In our long-distance radio broadcasting planning, that additional 100 miles of reception radius might cost us an additional 2x-10x to our total cost. If only 100 additional people are benefitting in that increased radius compared to 1 million in the original zone, I'm going to say no unless there is a governmental/administrative requirement that I cover that additional 100 mile radius -- let them listen to some other radio program or nothing at all. FedEx/UPS are highly profitable as long as they are not required to service all areas without surcharge. USPS does not have that freedom (I'm not say they should have that freedom), I'm just noting they are legally under one of many significant cost burdens that are not required of private/public companies. JMHO
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Post by ClassicPhilatelist on May 28, 2023 15:08:41 GMT
khj... I lived there a third of my life. I have experienced it first hand.
That vast distance with few people still gets serviced on a regular basis. One person in the far outback of North Queensland still gets their mail daily, whether there is one house in 300k or 5 houses. It's the same. There is a "per-capita" issue here that is the real metric.
In fairness, one thing the USPS does that Aus Post doesn't do, is Saturday delivery. No mail on the weekends. It wouldn't kill the US to do the same thing.
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Post by fairyfoot on Jun 3, 2023 20:06:56 GMT
Well, it is everyone else's fault! Just have a look at what has been happening with Royal Mail!
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angore
Junior Member
Posts: 75
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Post by angore on Jun 4, 2023 11:00:44 GMT
USPS has tried to eliminate Saturday delivery but Congress has not allowed it. They want to close distribution centers but unions are opposed to that but then they still cannot deliver mail in the Chicago area well.
We presented a small package (7 ounces) for shipment from North Carolina to Mississippi (about 700+ miles to drive) on a Monday via priority mail and they stated estimated delivery was Friday! Setting low expectations!
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Post by CatnapStamps on Jun 23, 2023 20:12:01 GMT
Here's another reason why the USPS sucks. We paid $75 to send a very valuable package via Registered Mail with Signature Confirmation.
We were just notified by the recipient that the package was left at their front door, with a made-up signature. There was someone home, so the carrier didn't even attempt to get a signature.
Thankfully, the package arrived. But we probably could have saved $65 and had faster delivery had we just sent it first class. I'm not even sure Registered mail meant that the package was secure as it made its way from me to the final destination (it's supposed to be extra secure ... like locked in cages at the various facilities ... during postal handling).
USPS is a joke!
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Post by Ted Talks Stamps on Jun 23, 2023 20:46:27 GMT
that’s outrageous. UPS delivered our $1,000 electric piano to the house across the street. Luckily we had an honest neighbor who got it to us.
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Post by CatnapStamps on Jun 23, 2023 21:34:28 GMT
This was a bit more valuable. That's why not getting a signature and leaving it on the doorstep was completely unacceptable. I have contacted USPS about the issue. I needed to refill the cat medical fund so I sold my one valuable comic book. It was purchased as an investment 8 years ago, so it served it's purpose. Ties in with the "Busy With Non-Stampy Things" thread. Our little Molly is just 2 years old and was diagnosed with serious kidney disease. Lots of vet visits, tests, and now a super-pricey prescription diet. Of course our other two cats want to eat that food too, not their only slightly pricey food! But she's worth Every penny. Unfortunately, this also means there aren't many stamps coming off the "want list" for the foreseeable future. There's another thread idea: "Stamps you'd like to collect, but are unattainable (for whatever reason)."
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Post by Ted Talks Stamps on Jun 24, 2023 3:27:07 GMT
CatnapStamps sorry to hear about your Molly (and, as a comic collector, the forced sale of your book). Reminds me of when my little Milton had to go to the vet because urinary crystals had blocked his plumbing. I spent more than I imagined I ever would, to get him fixed up.
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Post by CatnapStamps on Jun 24, 2023 5:22:25 GMT
Thanks Ted. I'm guessing Milton needed surgery to clear the crystals and his urinary tract. Hopefully it all went well and he didn't have any additional problems. I still have a small collection of 1950's Felix the Cat. "reader" copies, nothing special.
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