Save Our Post Offices?

[Wilma]

I have been hearing talk about the postal service maybe shutting down for the winter.  Then I heard a suggestion that made sense.  One of the reasons that the postal service is in trouble is that people are no longer writing personal letters to each other.  Or sending birthday greetings, etc., by mail.

Suppose, just suppose that everyone sent one piece of first class mail each week.  What do you think it would do for the post offices, especially the ones that they are talking about closing?

[mtcookson]

I'm sure most people switching to email hurt them a bit, but there's no way that alone should make them fail. Yes, they do have a monopoly on mail to mailboxes however they offer shipping services just like UPS and FedEx, which can be quite profitable. They need to adjust to the changes, manage their services better, and they can easily become profitable shipping packages with mail here and there.

[kshillbillys]

And they need to quit the mandate of paying $55 billion dollars to PRE-fund their employee retirement that was brought about by the Bush Administration. The Postal Service has to make a payment to the government for $5.5 billion every year. No other company has to PRE-fund anything. It's absolute bull.

Then the USPS needs to start getting rid of managers and higher ups that NEVER touch the mail and sit behind a computer on a desk all day everyday, making $100,000+ a year. Then they need to make regions of 3-5 counties and make ONE postmaster in charge of those regions while delegating daily reports and such to a supervisor.

Just my opinion of course---Jennifer Walker (who walks on average 12 miles a day proudly wearing her uniform in all sorts of weather) 

[flintauqua]

Jennifer,

Being the son of a lifetime postal employee (Joan Durbin, retired as Longton Postmaster) I agree with you on all of these points.  The pre-funding is the real stone around the neck, and is the largest contributor to the annual operating deficits.  I like your idea of consolidation of postmasters, maybe three to five per sectional center (or whatever the correct term is nowadays)?  And there definitely needs to be about a 90% reduction in management/administrative positions at all levels in the service.

[Janet Harrington]

I like the idea of getting rid of all those chiefs sitting behind a desk and making those funds available for the ones who do the real work.

[Wilma]

Well, I have learned one thing.  I have learned that I don't know much about the postal service.  I am curious about this $5.5 billion.  What is it for?  Who benefits from it?

[kshillbillys]

I like the idea of getting rid of all those chiefs sitting behind a desk and making those funds available for the ones who do the real work.

Janet---A couple of the guys I work with and I have said for years that we would gladly give up a few dollars an hour just to be able to keep our jobs. We always thought that the USPS coupling that with getting rid of several upper management positions would help the postal service in the long run. Unfortunately, the National Association of Letter Carriers doesn't completely agree with us. They think that because of our working conditions we "deserve" more. Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell everyone how hard of a job I have because the hardest thing a letter carrier really has to deal with is management. I'm also not going to sit here and tell everyone how physically exhausting my job is either; it's really not so bad physically. It is mentally that most people (myself included) have the hardest time coping. The different weather elements (rain, heat, snow and ice) and the extreme temperatures both in the summer and winter are the hardest parts of the job. I love the heat so that doesn't really bother me and pretty much anything above freezing is good with me; but the rain, snow, ice and extreme cold make me feel down in the dumps pretty quick. I would still take a pay cut though, just to be able to have a job. It just irritates me that we are being told how to do our jobs and how long we should take to do our jobs, by people that sit in a nice air conditioned or heated office and have NEVER touched a piece of mail (besides their own) a day in their life. I always say "you don't know how hard I work until you walk a mile (or 12) in my shoes."----Jennifer

[kshillbillys]

Wilma---this little article discusses it a little but there was also a Postal Accountabiity and Enhancement Act of 2006.

The U.S. Postal Service is pushing ahead with plans to reverse billions of dollars in anticipated losses during the next decade, but a significant overpayment to its pension fund and excessive obligations for health benefits are hindering progress, officials said on Thursday.

"The overfunding of the [Civil Service Retirement System] account is getting lots of attention," Board of Governors Chairman Louis Giuliano said. "No one wants to move forward on other things until we determine what the impact will be."

According to USPS Inspector General David Williams, the $75 billion overpayment was the result of a misinterpretation of a 1974 law regulating pension funding. The Office of Personnel Management incorrectly made USPS fund a higher portion of the pensions than it owed, he said, adding the agency could use the $75 billion to pay off its Treasury debt and its obligations to pension and health care accounts.

The IG's office also found the Postal Service's obligation to fully prefund its employee pensions and retiree health benefit payments to be excessive. For example, the government prefunds a separate federal retiree account at 41 percent and does not fund health benefits in advance, Williams said. The Postal Service is asking Congress to reconsider its $5.6 billion annual health benefits prefunding requirement.

USPS posted a net loss of $1.8 billion for the first six months of fiscal 2010, less than the $2.3 billion lost in the first half of fiscal 2009. The agency was able to reduce cost faster than its revenue declined, through measures such as significantly cutting employees' hours, USPS Chief Financial Officer Joe Corbett said. Processing hours declined nearly 13 percent, customer service hours went down 11 percent and delivery hours fell by more than 4 percent.

"We simply have to make changes that bring our costs in line with revenue projections," Postmaster General John Potter said. As part of its 10-year strategic plan introduced in March, the Postal Service is focusing on reducing mail delivery days from six to five and adjusting its retiree health benefits funding structure.

Despite this progress, the Postal Service will stay in the red in 2011 unless legislative changes are made, including the elimination of Saturday delivery, Potter said.

Several board members highlighted the need to work closely with congressional committees to draft legislation that addresses the Postal Service's concerns. Potter said his team already is in contact with the appropriate committee staffs.

According to a Senate aide familiar with the issues, staffers will be working closely with House committees and the Postal Service on language to address concerns raised during a recent Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management hearing about pension and retiree health benefits payments.

[Janet Harrington]

Jennifer,

Lots of places have too many chiefs and not enough Indians. I wish I knew the solution to the postal services problem. I admire postal carriers. The ones that walk and the ones that do the rural mail. Walking the same route everday. Driving the same route everyday. Just the little bit of mail that I get for the plant 2 or 3 times a week makes me crazy. All those catalogs, etc. I don't know how you guys carry all that stuff. Wow. People would be amazed to see how much advertising goes through the post office.

I for one do not want to lose my mail service. I am almost anal about getting my mail everyday. I try to use the post office as much as I can because there is just something about sending and getting handwritten letters and cards in the mail.

All I can say is, you go, girl.