The current US Postal Service is a waste of money. They are trying to operate under old out dated service policies. Due to electronic mail and other means of sharing information and corporate competition, the USPS is/has become obsolete.
I propose the following revamping of the USPS:
Stop all daily deliveries of all postage mail.
Implement a staggered delivery of postage mail.
A) Set deliveries by zip codes. So, the Postal Carriers will double up in zip codes to ensure faster deliveries and help with carrier shortage.
B) Example: if a county has 4 zip codes then Mon, Wed, Fri all the Postal Carriers in the county would work judt teo zip codes. Then Tue, Thu, Sat they would eork thr other teo zip codes.
C) By doing the above the USPS would be able to compete with UPS & FedEx by using some of the Postal Carriers to do more express deliveries daily.
D) Move to a performance base incentive to encourage on time deliveries, productivity and accountability.
E) Trim the fat at the top. Eliminate positions that are obsolete and consolidate others.
F) Eliminate all unions within the USPS. Unions do not belong in government services and do nothing to help the service compete.
The USPS most under go a reforming of some kind. Without some reforming and out of the box thinking, the US Taxpayers will continue to bail them out of financial issues.
I would add reduce the number of brick and mortar locations. When I lived in Houston, there were 5 post offices within 6 miles of my affluent neighborhood. These buildings do not need to be fancy or remodeled frequently. Maybe they could be in strip Centers with truck parking offsite, that is, separate the lobby from the back room work. Back room work can be done in a more basic building from the much smaller lobby. Obviously the cost/benefit would need analysis.
Check and Balances. I think theft in the postal service needs to be addressed in your proposal. The system in place now the thieves have learned a “co-around.” They cannot compete without lowering their theft rate. The system is set up so the thieves have control. The ones stealing are the ones conducting the investigation! There is no Checks and Balances.
Rural areas are underserved by post office, UPS, FEDEX and other delivery services. Mail from our small town post office, even addressed to someone in the community, traverses 250 miles each way, to be postmarked and returned, which takes several days. Add on unneccessary expense of transporting local mail 500 miles instead of immediately being placed in a local PO or standing mailbox. No wonder costs keep going up. Our postal workers have been advised they will be fired if they postmark and “deliver” locally, which used to be the process.
UPS and FEDEX deliveries (such as Amazon) currently take several days longer than one would experience in a metropolitan area. Overnight delivery is not an option. Some “contracted” shipping companies wait until they have a full load to transport to rural communities, which might take months. In the meantime, box store sellers (such as Home Depot) think the product has been received by the buyer, as they have transferred shipping obligations.
UPS and USPS are currently working proposals to deliver to rural areas fewer days. This will severely hamper local businesses as well as individual consumers. When mechanics and tire shops cannot get supplies timely it affects their business as well as those customers stranded with impaired vehicles. No busses, taxis or mass transit options in rural communities. If your car doesn’t run, you are stranded.
I agree, some form of reform is needed. The prices continue to go up, but the service never improves!
When Congress created the Postal Service to replace the old Post Office Department, it mandated that the new agency support itself through its own revenues, rather than relying on federal appropriations. However, the last year the Postal Service recorded any profit was 2006, and its cumulative losses since then totaled $83.1 billion as of March 31. The Postal Service also owes $11 billion to the Treasury and more than $59 billion in required but unpaid contributions to its employee pension and retiree-health funds.
Regan ‘reformed’ the postal system. Heres the important part, it made the postal system quazi self supporting. It still tun by the government rule book & oversite(bloated at top) with stuff like free postage for all government mail…but told now you must be profitable. Losing propsal. You got 4 people suposedly working in an office…all from seperate unions. You need mail moved. Each of the four can only touch that mail when its their turn. Instead of everyone working together to deliver the mail. You got union reps telling people to fight to keep their part seperate and suing relentlessly. Between the government and the unions, its destined to fail.