Politics and stuff

[Crowes]

While yes they are not profitable a large part of that is the burden put on them by congress requiring them to fund retirement for people they haven't even hired yet.

IMO it's a national service not a company who's motive should be to turn a profit. Should it always strive to run more efficient absolutely but does anyone say the defense department lost 700 billion dollars last year? No, because it's provides a national service. Especially to rural areas where private companies just won't serve.

[ReignOnU]

While yes they are not profitable a large part of that is the burden put on them by congress requiring them to fund retirement for people they haven't even hired yet.

IMO it's a national service not a company who's motive should be to turn a profit. Should it always strive to run more efficient absolutely but does anyone say the defense department lost 700 billion dollars last year? No, because it's provides a national service. Especially to rural areas where private companies just won't serve.

I don't have the info handy, but the retirement funding is on a 6yr lag of what they owe to future retirees, not future hires. Essentially, they are 6yrs behind being able to kill it without having to make it up.

You can keep the post office, I'll keep the military.

What it should be, is irrelevant to the point. It's been poorly managed and hasn't adapted accordingly. Here's where my conservative bias really shows... if we dissolved the USPS or offered UPS, FedEx or someone else to come in and take it over, not only would they do it, they'd take it and make a killing on it.

I don't recall the site (nonprofit postal something), but they do a really good run down of the financial status of the USPS. Even if you have very basic business sense, you can sort through a few of their posts and you'll immediately see glaring issues that should have never been issues at all. If they just changed the way they invested the funding for the retirement benefits, they'd overcome the 6yr deficit within something like 6yrs and be back in the black.

So... back to the point... is this issue actually a Trump thing that is impacting you? Slower volume and throughput is common for the USPS in the summer (lack of holidays, etc). There was a leadership change in June, when the postmaster general position was changed. The prior lady in charge was there since 2015. Here's some info on the prior 2 people in the position.

Megan Brennan
Feb '15 - Jun '20

In December 2010, she was named chief operating officer and executive vice president of the USPS. In 2012, she began shutting down mail-handling facilities because of budget cuts brought on by less mail and congressionally-mandated pension-funding rules.

On November 14, 2014, the U.S. Postal Service's Board of Governors voted to appoint Brennan postmaster general to succeed Patrick R. Donahoe, who was set to retire in February 2015.

In May 2018, the Washington Post reported that President Trump personally pushed her to double the rates on Amazon and other firms.

Patrick Donahoe
Dec '10 - Feb '15

His predecessor, Postmaster General John E. Potter testified before the Senate[5] that if the Postal Service is not able to readjust their payment toward the pre-funding of retiree health benefits, as mandated by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006,[6] the USPS would be forced to consider cutting delivery to five days per week during the summer months of June, July & August. Donahoe echoed his predecessor's views on five-day delivery when he assumed office in 2011.

On February 6, 2013, Donahoe announced that the Postal Service would implement five-day mail delivery beginning August 5, a move he claimed would save $2 billion annually. Later the same day, the national board of the postal union, the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, voted unanimously to call for his dismissal.[7] July 16, the House passed the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill, which included language protecting six‐day mail delivery, thereby blocking Donahoe's plan.

What I see here is that we've known that we had a problem, we've had solutions to fix it, and we just screwed ourselves repeatedly. The 1 person in all of that how actually did something useful, was driven by Trump to do it. Again, his issues with the USPS aren't new. It's just a really good time to beat that drum.

You've got some pretty clear information here, I think. It doesn't seem to me that he's really the root cause of the issue. It seems like it's been there for years and I think we can agree that the ask that Dems put in to support the work involved is quite excessive. So what do you think about it?

[ReignOnU]

Complete subject change... if any of you haven't taken the time to look at the gun violence stats in major cities so far this year, you should, it will blow your mind. Crazy numbers out there in many major cities. It's not just a Chicago and Detroit kind of thing.

[The_Niddler]

I am not reading all of that, but I can tell you first hand, Trump is sabotaging the post office.
He put their new post master general in place to sabotage it. He feels it should be privatized. This new post master general had zero experience in a post office, was at the job for less than 1 month and started making a ton of changes he has no right to make. He has got yelled at by senators and other politicians how he is doing things that he is not getting approved by the board.

And it was recently found out that the PMG owns around $300k worth of UPS stock, so now some are trying to get him booted out of his position for a conflict of interest.

My family has worked, currently worked, has retired from the post office, so I know all about it first hand.

In the last 2 weeks a story hit about the post master general being turned in for his actions. It was my wife's boss here in Dillonvale, her son-in-law took pics of a powerpoint that the PMG sent out to all Post Masters of local offices and he turned it into the Washington Post.

And the post office is not allowed to run at a profit. The reason the postal service is losing money is because of a congressionally mandated retirement healthcare funding program that no other government agency is required to observe.

And when I say my family has worked there:
My grandfather, my grandmother, my aunt, my dad's aunt (Esther), my dad's cousin (Sylvia), my dad's other cousin (Jodi), my mother, all retired, my wife currently works there.
Small town Ohio, good paying job with a good retirement.

[ReignOnU]

Saying that he has zero experience in a post office may be technically true, but it's a bit misleading. He was the long-time CEO of a very successful logistics company and retired from that role after they sold to XPO. As part of his deal with XPO, he earned a nice sum of stock. The company is a 3rd party contractor for USPS. That's one of the major conflict of interest issues.

AFAIK, he sold all of his individual Amazon and UPS stock. Now it's quite possible that he has some through other funds, but that would be merely incidental. So if something has come up with him still have individual stock in either, that's news to me. He does maintain a very large amount of stock in XPO, which could certainly be a conflict of interest.

As for changes, I'd have to question what they are. Long-time employees don't adapt to change very well. If he's doing something with the intent to streamline, a lot of the noise could be general resistance. So I'd be curious to know exactly what the changes are that are causing frustration. You've got a lot of family working there, so there has to be something that's causing issues if they are vocal about it. What's happening?

I've got a relative that's a retired former local 304 leader (still member) and served for USPS at the state level. I haven't talked to him in a few weeks, but I'm sure he'd have some specifics.

[ReignOnU]

I was too curious, had to shoot him a message. He's a former treasurer of the 304 union and I know he's still in touch with most of those guys. So if it's funny business, I'd assume he'd have a strong opinion on it.

[The_Niddler]

The biggest change that he wants to make is changing their slogan of the Mail Must Go Through.
Not changing the slogan per se, but he said they are going to slow down deliveries to cut out all the overtime and he doesn't care how long it takes mail to get there.
Well, you can't make a major change like that without getting it passed by the board.

He had people post letters on doors of many offices stating how there will be cuts, there will be offices closed, etc. without any notice to any employees.
Luckily, the right people complained and he backed off and had the signs taken down.

So there are some things he has done and it is what you are saying, just people complaining about change, but then there are a few major things where we truly believe he is sabotaging the post office.
And this is coming from a Trump supporting family. Not my wife, but the rest of my family.

I will have to ask my wife what else has come down the pipe as honestly, I have heard my family bitch about how poorly the post office has been run for 40 years +, so most of the time, I half-ass listen.

[Crowes]

Trump just said the post office loses money delivering packages for Amazon. From everything I've read it is illegal as set forth by congress for the postal service to charge less then what it costs them to deliver a package. So that's just a outright lie that he continues to say.

[The_Niddler]

Trump just said the post office loses money delivering packages for Amazon. From everything I've read it is illegal as set forth by congress for the postal service to charge less then what it costs them to deliver a package. So that's just a outright lie that he continues to say.

I am not sure what the cost is, but I can tell you the amount of packages is staggering.
One of the rural carriers in our post office used to deliver 70 packages per week, he had 150 today alone!
We have 4 carriers in our office here.

So if they would charge to make a profit, right there would be enough to get them out of a hole.
And this is one small post office in Dillonvale, Ohio.
I can't imagine in bigger cities like Pittsburgh or Cleveland around here.

[shel311]

I can honestly say i don't think I've given 1 second of time in my entire life to how a post office works.

[The_Niddler]

I can honestly say i don't think I've given 1 second of time in my entire life to how a post office works.

Again, unfortunately, I have heard about it for 40+ years.

[GeorgesGoons]

Trump just said the post office loses money delivering packages for Amazon. From everything I've read it is illegal as set forth by congress for the postal service to charge less then what it costs them to deliver a package. So that's just a outright lie that he continues to say.

With the added deliveries the carriers get added overtime to make those extra deliveries, so you have to look just past the cost of the delivery and understand how the trickle effect works on the monetary side of things. That is how the post office loses money delivering for Amazon and other online stores (my cigars gets delivered by USPS as well even though it is UPS'd to my home city).

[GeorgesGoons]

I can honestly say i don't think I've given 1 second of time in my entire life to how a post office works.

I agree!

I think if we all started sending back those prepaid envelopes from companies that just blast out mail maybe we can do our part and get the USPS back in the black Just start adding rocks into those envelopes

[nick]

you guys with post office =/= me with amazon

watched some videos one night and learned (i think) what "logistics" means and how insanely efficient Amazon is.

[Crowes]

Trump just said the post office loses money delivering packages for Amazon. From everything I've read it is illegal as set forth by congress for the postal service to charge less then what it costs them to deliver a package. So that's just a outright lie that he continues to say.

With the added deliveries the carriers get added overtime to make those extra deliveries, so you have to look just past the cost of the delivery and understand how the trickle effect works on the monetary side of things. That is how the post office loses money delivering for Amazon and other online stores (my cigars gets delivered by USPS as well even though it is UPS'd to my home city).

All of that is seems completely predictable when they set their price which cannot be lower then what it costs to deliver. The cost to deliver includes labor. The parcel delivery side of USPS reported increasing revenue and profit on that side of the business in past years if I was reading correctly.

Could they be charging Amazon more sure but are they losing money everything I've read says definitely not

[ReignOnU]

Trump just said the post office loses money delivering packages for Amazon. From everything I've read it is illegal as set forth by congress for the postal service to charge less then what it costs them to deliver a package. So that's just a outright lie that he continues to say.

I am not sure what the cost is, but I can tell you the amount of packages is staggering.
One of the rural carriers in our post office used to deliver 70 packages per week, he had 150 today alone!
We have 4 carriers in our office here.

So if they would charge to make a profit, right there would be enough to get them out of a hole.
And this is one small post office in Dillonvale, Ohio.
I can't imagine in bigger cities like Pittsburgh or Cleveland around here.

This is the foundation of the 2nd graph I posted. They haven't adjusted their business model at all.

[ReignOnU]

Trump just said the post office loses money delivering packages for Amazon. From everything I've read it is illegal as set forth by congress for the postal service to charge less then what it costs them to deliver a package. So that's just a outright lie that he continues to say.

Do you have something specific that proves that it's an outright lie?

If the USPS signed a contract to do the work for X and their estimate proved it to be profitable, they could have entered into the contract under thate pretense. It's certainly possible that they miscalculated and ended up in a raw deal. If I had to place a bet on who I thought would make a better deal, the USPS or Amazon... I'm going with Amazon.

[ReignOnU]

The biggest change that he wants to make is changing their slogan of the Mail Must Go Through.
Not changing the slogan per se, but he said they are going to slow down deliveries to cut out all the overtime and he doesn't care how long it takes mail to get there.
Well, you can't make a major change like that without getting it passed by the board.

He had people post letters on doors of many offices stating how there will be cuts, there will be offices closed, etc. without any notice to any employees.
Luckily, the right people complained and he backed off and had the signs taken down.

So there are some things he has done and it is what you are saying, just people complaining about change, but then there are a few major things where we truly believe he is sabotaging the post office.
And this is coming from a Trump supporting family. Not my wife, but the rest of my family.

I will have to ask my wife what else has come down the pipe as honestly, I have heard my family bitch about how poorly the post office has been run for 40 years +, so most of the time, I half-ass listen.

So I've dug around a bit and I've yet to see a functional change that has impacted anything. I'm sure there's something with labor, but is it due to summer season, COVID, trying to hit a budget, or trying to interfere in an election? That last one is a pretty big leap to push through an organization. But, we did have the IRS doing some goofy stuff a few years ago, so it could happen.

I'm kind of surprised by the response I got this morning when I asked about it... here's the response:
"The Post Office is on track to lose millions again this year. The big reason is because the deal the post office made to get Amazon’s business. They lose money on every package. They haven’t figured out hold to handle them cheaply enough to make a profit.
You have a new Post Master General that came from the business environment and he is trying to figure it out.

This new thing about the Post Office is a bunch of bull, because of the mail in ballots. The democratic’s are wanting the mail in and the Republicans don’t

What you are seeing now is that media wants to make a big deal to force the mail in ballots."

I kind of thought being a former treasurer for the 304 labor union, that he'd have a grievance with staffing/treatment of employees. Doesn't seem to be the case.

[ReignOnU]

Trump just said the post office loses money delivering packages for Amazon. From everything I've read it is illegal as set forth by congress for the postal service to charge less then what it costs them to deliver a package. So that's just a outright lie that he continues to say.

With the added deliveries the carriers get added overtime to make those extra deliveries, so you have to look just past the cost of the delivery and understand how the trickle effect works on the monetary side of things. That is how the post office loses money delivering for Amazon and other online stores (my cigars gets delivered by USPS as well even though it is UPS'd to my home city).

All of that is seems completely predictable when they set their price which cannot be lower then what it costs to deliver. The cost to deliver includes labor. The parcel delivery side of USPS reported increasing revenue and profit on that side of the business in past years if I was reading correctly.

Could they be charging Amazon more sure but are they losing money everything I've read says definitely not

I think you're mostly right here. Even if they aren't losing money on Amazon, they just aren't making enough and they could figure out a better way to operate to make things more efficient. That's why the guy in charge has the right background for success. He comes from a very successful logistics company.

Everything I've seen in terms of financials agrees with you. Revenue is up, most than offsetting standard mail revenue decreases. Cost to deliver standard mail is going up. That's where I think they've got a big issue. They've adjusted rates, but I don't think they've moved enough to offset the # of delivery locations increasing. I can't find the detailed $ breakdown for each component though. (Typically those metrics aren't released from businesses unless it's in secondary disclosure to hype the business up)

[The_Niddler]

Personally, I have felt that the post office should have been privatized years ago.
They should be allowed to make a profit and such and become a much better ran organization which I feel they would be much better if they were privatized.