Thursday, December 12, 2013

Why The US Post Office is Broke

I've been shipping a large amount of packages through USPS lately using their flat rate services (hence why the lack of posting). Up until recently, it was more convenient to take them to the larger office in a nearby town than my local.  I dropped off some there the other day though and postmaster started giving me grief.  The sheets I'm sending are about 1/4" to big for the envelope so I've been using tape to completely seal it. Otherwise it is perfectly flat and thin.

Apparently that's against the ruuuuuuulllllzzzzzz.  So said PO(s) employee goes out of his way to find the regulation saying this was a no-no AND emails all the other local PO's to (and I quote) 'Watch out' for me.  All because a few (and I'm talking about 5%) of the packages 'might' garner an extra .50 or a $1 in postage going non-flat rate and that 1/4" offends his sense of order.  

Let's think about this.  I'm using a service that the PO is making a ton of money from and I'm doing much of the work in making/attaching labels, etc. All they had to do is scan them in and send them.  Now I'm being forced to switch to a cheaper, slower service and they're going to have to enter in each zip code individually and put postage on them, costing them man-hours and materials. Net loss for them. 

All the while I can stuff a load vest into one of those envelopes, effectively turning it into a big  ball, and they'll take it w/o question because the flap will close.

Is it any wonder that the USPS is billions in the hole every year?


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7 comments:

Phssthpok said...

But...where would the world be without telephone hand-set sanitizers??

Anonymous said...

Are UPS, FedEx, and DHL any better? They all have their rules.

Thirdpower said...

Oh sure, they all have rules. Going out of ones way to LOSE business seems to be a USPS exclusive though.

Anonymous said...

It's a flat rate service. You know people are always trying to get just "a little more." They need to cut it somewhere. I wouldn't be too upset.

ISH (Mininerd) said...

They United States Postal Service charges me the same $0.44 to mail a postcard across the street or to Alaska. Now, I'm not an economist, nor a logistics expert, but I /can/ read a map. There ain't no way it costs them the same to move a sheet of paper one mile, one hundred miles, or one thousand miles... and yet they charge the same rate.

That is why they're losing money.

Angus McThag said...

Of all the things that don't bother me is the USPS losing money.

It's one of the few things that the Constitution actually says the government can spend money on.

All the money they lose is money that can't go to ATF, and I am OK with that.

emdfl said...

Actually the reson they are losing money is because they were forced by law to forward fund their (union)pension scheme - theonly fed agency that has to do so...