A D V E R T I S E M E N T
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Postal customers need to be willing to have their mail delivered to a curbside box. Eliminating walking routes would reduce the required number of letter carriers and their delivery vehicles by approximately 25 percent.
The Postal Service needs to aggressively pursue use of alternative fuel vehicles. Every time the price of gasoline goes up 1 cent, it costs the post office $8 million. For years, in some high-pollution communities, the Postal Service has used electric delivery vehicles. That needs to become the norm.
A new type of service should be established: “No Frills Delivery.” For a reduced fee, mail would be delivered to your curbside box or to your porch if it is a package.
We would not scan, insure, leave notices, knock or ring your doorbell. For customary services at today’s standard, an additional monthly fee would be required.
The various unions should sit down with management, tear up the existing contracts and start over. Many contract items that benefit employees have a negative impact on the post office.
In many situations, management’s hands are tied by the unions and require that management make decisions that are not financially, ethically or efficiently in the best interests of the organization. It is not in the best interest of the employees of the USPS to go out of business.
Employee unions, which have in large part sought self-serving resolutions to personnel issues and pursued strictly focused union agendas, need to make concessions that will benefit the whole organization. Grievance settlements cost the post office millions of dollars annually.
The postal overhaul is now being decided in Congressional committees. The post office, however, has already announced its decision to reduce delivery to five days a week, eliminating Saturday delivery. It’s a good start, but it’s not enough.
The United States Postal Service cannot continue losing 7 billion dollars per year. The American public cannot afford to lose the Postal Service. It is now time to decide: Will we take the necessary and painful steps required to fix the Post Office?
It is an American question that will only be answered by an American public willing to make tough choices.
Karen Hessen has been a letter carrier in Forest Grove for 13 years.
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Who in the world are you? There is no 5 day delivery as of yet. Congress has that say not Potter. There are many ways to assist the Post Service through these financially difficult challenges but customers paying for mail delivery? You need to get out from under the canopy of Mr. Potter's propaganda and examine the facts. Try reading some OIG reports regarding economic waste by the postal service because there are quite a few of those; outsourcing with Fed Ex, custodial services, etc. Why only a few months ago the service scrapped plans on building new facilities, while they were hell bent on shutting down existing ones - Unbelieveable!
Mr. Potter is using the current financial state of affairs to push through his agenda come hell or high water and from what I read of your article he is quite successful, unfortunately. Just a month ago there was concern over whether payroll could be met and now magically, there's 450 million dollars for 30,000 buy-outs. Mr. Potter has always maintained that there wouldn't be any incentives for postal employees to leave and yet yesterday the announcement was made.
The postal service needs to be returned to the American public as a service and not an entity for big business mailers that are charged cut rate postal fees for their businesses which is subsized by the public.
Do your homework when you submit an article for publication instead of just repeating the big lie and shame that is being perpetrated by the Board of Governors and Jack Potter!
(email verified)
Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 11:23 AM
Shame on Pamplin media group for publishing such rubbish. Don't you fact check your sources anymore? A bunch of lies - WE do not have 5 day delivery as of yet, no one was informed of that fact. WE are not private - I believe the term is "quasi-governmental" AND what is up with your basic math skills? How can you justify an 18% reduction in carriers with the elimination of 1 delivery day? Forest Grove must have all of your city carriers each only carrying mail one day a week, and by your logic all of the "saturday" carriers would be eliminated. Your math regarding the number of carriers and the annual compensation is way off - You never mentioned NON-CAREER substitutes, who are most likely to lose in a 5 day work week scenario.
(email verified)
Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 03:53 PM
this lady doesn't have a clue.
1. congress has not agreed to 5 day delivery.
2. indiviual what's called home to home mailing accounts for a fraction of the post offices revenue. the post office generates the bulk of it's revenue from business mailings.
3. does anyone know that since 1984 public services appropiations from congress to offset some cost has remained at 460 milions dollars every year and the post office has elected every year to not accept it.
4. if congress hadn't put a 5.4 to 5.8 billion dollars a year above and beyond what is required to fund current and future retiree benefits the post office wouldn't be in such a bad state.
5. if it wasn't for congress interference and desiree to use the post office as a way to generate funds for them to spend the post office would be weathering this economic down turn better that the majority of businesses in the world.
(email verified)
Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 07:00 PM
Hey where is the Michael Jackson stamp? That's what we need!! Millions of dollars, for a commemorative stamp
that over half would be sold outside the US. Think about it. By the way, the POS units at the windows are quoting in "# of business days" now instead of the "# of days" for customer delivery. Smells like a change to me.
(email verified)
Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 08:34 PM
Save the Postal Service?
Why?
(email verified)
Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 07:58 AM
Well articulated and right on the money.
If the US Postal Service does not make dramatic changes NOW, five-day delivery, concessions, etc. there will not be a Post Office.
If you wish to receive mail then you need to contact your congress person and tell them to support five-day delivery and other concessions to keep the US Postal Service alive for us all.
(email verified)
Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 08:34 AM
You are a letter carrier, and you want to reduce the number of letter carriers ??? The Gov't said our delivery areas are expanding and there aren't enough of us now...........that's why we didn't get the early out offer.
I think the closest you get to the Postal Service is when you put your stamps on an envelope.
(email verified)
Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 03:33 PM
First of all, the strike in the 70's DIDN'T privatize the Post Office, no matter how hard management tries. It did require that the Postal Service become self-supporting. It's no wonder that papers are going bye bye, with inaccurate reporting being done by those anti-government minority. Some day maybe we can have a media that is required once again, to be "fair and balanced" that the Reagan era took away to favor the few(corporations). What will save the PO is not spending "billions" on equipment that will never support itself, just to reduce employee compliment!!!
(email verified)
Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 06:53 PM
The postal service needs to pay and promote people on job performance rather than senority. I have worked for them and other business. I have recently had to use my pickup truck to deliver because my customers appreciate
my on time delivery and the advent of the flat-rate boxes.I enjoy delivering packages year round, not just at Christmas! Recently, I have been scolded for taking too-much time. Look at what I do, and rate me on what I do today. Not on an evalution from a year ago. I hope the economy contiues to improve. Thank you to my customers, and I will take care of you.
(email verified)
Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 03:25 PM
The carriers need to treat their customers as if they were a private business. I let my customers and business know of the changes and how the postal service can help them. Such as flat-rate boxes or business price shipping. My route has increased, and my customers take care of me.They are why I enjoy my job. I also appreciate the cold bottled water on those 100 degree days. The customers make you or break you.It is the same if you were running an Auto-parts Store or a grocery business. Thanks again to my customers!
(email verified)
Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 04:38 PM
As other people have commented We have not gone to 5 day delivery, and People like to say we have been privatized but I cannot think of a single company that has to go before congress in order to change its rates for its on services. Imagine Burger King Debating the price of its whopper on the Floors of Congress!
The postal service pays out several billion dollars front loading future retirees benefits basically at a rate of over double what any private corporation pays.
The 5 day work week proposal will see its force drop by over 1/6th putting close to another 100,000 people on the unemployment roles across the nation.
Some possible suggested solutions Discounts to large mailers should be geared on the ease of processing their mailings and discounts geared at how easy they can be processed not just on volume.
Serious Looks at upper management and executive Compensations.
Possible Development of contracts for alternative fuel vehicles with struggling American car companies may benefit both parties as the postal fleet in many regions is old and very costly to maintain and gas prices greatly affect day to day expenses.
Lastly Many Employees Might understand wage freezes,changes in benefit premiums. provided Cost of Living increases where to remain intact.
Saving the post office will be a hard but Drivable road.
(email verified)
Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 08:38 PM
This lady letter carrier does not have a clue of which she speaks, much less is she on point in regard to postal history before or since Title 39 USC, The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970. It was NOT just the Letter Carriers who struck in 1970, but various members of the various postal unions that primary sorted and distributed mail troughout the U.S. that conducted "wildcat" strikes that prompted Congress to enact the Postal Reorg Act, which binding interest arbitration and collective bargaining became an inherent component to the principle postal unions.
Through binding arbitration and the tenets of Title-39, the various postal unions agreed not to stike heneceforth. Also, the newly created US Postal Service (no longer the former US Post Office - part of the President's cabinet)became a quasi-governmental corporation vested with the same requirments as before save now it was to act more or less as a business and mandated to operate in such a manner as to manifest a surplus, if possible. The US Postal Service was NOT privatized, as Ms. Hessen incorrectly posits.
In point of fact, should the USPS privatize today or in the future, the mainstay of the Postal Service will be lost to antiquity: the Universal Service Obligation as mandated by Title 39 and relatively low postage rates, which are and have been governed by the Postal Regulatory (formerly Rate) Commission. If privatized, or should service standards be significantly reduced as Hessen suggests, what relevant mail that continues to exist will lack current and historical safeguards guaranteed by law, price rates will soar, and delivery standards will be non-existent and totally determined by private carriers subject to market whim. Good luck.
Lastly, the NEWS-TIMES would do well to check out the facts of any writer prior to publishing a column - in my opinion. Hessen's opinion piece was not simply a Letter to the Editor. Rather, an opinion piece in which the NEWS-TIMES apparently chose to publish believing that Hessen's position as a 13-year Letter Carrier provided some degree of expertise. It appears that Hessen knows not only very little about her craft, but little about the Postal Service and the mailing industry in general.
I began my postal career in 1973, retired in 2007 and have been a long tenured union activist most of that time. I continue to be a union president and union advocate. However, I do agree that both the Postal Service and the postal unions both need to make some serious modifications in the manner in which they deal with one another if the Postal Service is to survive. But with that said, make no mistake about it that my firm belief remains that Postal Service management is the most archaic, out of control, over-bloated, mismanaged bureaucracy within the federal government and is largely responsible for the mess that the USPS finds itself in today.
Notwithstanding the fact of the current recession, the current economic realities, and the ridiculous oversight of Congress as it interferes with the operation of the USPS, it's a wonderment that the Postal Service performs as well as it does. All-in-all, it's a great organization that the American people should be proud of.
(email verified)
Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 10:55 AM
As a letter carrier I believe the post office needs to take care of the volume that they already have. In my office we are instructed to leave mail behind (curtail and rotate)just so we can leave early and do extra time on another route. They expect us to go out and find new business but yet they leave the business that we do have on the floor back at the office. Management will NOT let us deliever all mail that we have. Would you use a company that picks and chooses when to service you after you paid for a service?
(email verified)
Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 05:45 AM
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Re: It’s not too late to save the Postal Service
it wouldnt cost the USPS millions of dollars to settle grievances if they wouldnt blatantly DIS-REGUARD the contract they signed. AND if they would cut 25% of management they would save AT LEAST double the wage savings that a carrier would receive. I dont even think youd notice the managers being gone.
"F. McLaughlin letter carrier"
(email verified)
Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 04:41 AM