I give up on shipping anything USPS

[LONGHAIR]

Originally Posted by 1976gmc20

Can't get much more rural than the Missouri breaks. As I recall they eliminated some zip codes up there.



Yeah, but not building a several hundred thousand dollar building to replace a counter in a little store that served maybe a hundred mail customers. Then close the new PO a few years later so people have to drive another 50 miles to get their mail.

Seriously? You have to drive to get your mail?
I guess that's the ignorance of how life is if you're not living in a big city? I don't even have to go outside. Mine is pushed thru a slot in the wall at the corner of my house, near the front door. If my carrier put it in right now, I could literally see it come thru the wall from where I sit.

[57taskforce]

Originally Posted by LONGHAIR

Seriously? You have to drive to get your mail?
I guess that's the ignorance of how life is if you're not living in a big city? I don't even have to go outside. Mine is pushed thru a slot in the wall at the corner of my house, near the front door. If my carrier put it in right now, I could literally see it come thru the wall from where I sit.

They don’t offer mail delivery to my house, I’ve got a P.O. Box about 7 miles from my house. Fed Ex and UPS only get things delivered to the house correctly about half the time so I have most of those kinds of packages delivered to my work, it’s less frustrating that way. The joys of living in rural America... it’s ok I don’t mind it, I don’t know if I could happily live in the city after being in the country my entire life.

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by LONGHAIR

Seriously? You have to drive to get your mail?
I guess that's the ignorance of how life is if you're not living in a big city? I don't even have to go outside. Mine is pushed thru a slot in the wall at the corner of my house, near the front door. If my carrier put it in right now, I could literally see it come thru the wall from where I sit.

Not exactly - we live farther south than that but I knew about the post offices closing up there and some other places. It was a big uproar a few years ago.

Our mailbox is "close" - a little more than an eighth mile from our house since we live along the county road. I usually walk down there unless it's too icy or muddy. Some folks on the private side roads drive up to several miles to their roadside mailbox. There are actually five mailboxes on our property since the county road cuts through our place.

It's about 17 miles to the PO. They did cut the counter hours way back, so much that our long time postmistress transferred to Billings so she could continue full time the last year or two before retirement. They built that PO and the one in the county seat just before we moved up here from CO in 1997, so I don't remember the previous PO building.

[DeadheadNM]

There’s no shortage of people who rail against the fiscal mismanagement of government agencies and actors and it’s appropriate to ensure that the public funds aren’t inappropriately squandered. If I’m not mistaken, there’s also a loud contingent of people currently complaining that police budgets need to cut or defunded outright.

As for the vehicle fleet, here’s a tidbit from Wikipedia:
“The USPS operates one of the largest civilian vehicle fleets in the world, with an estimated 227,896 vehicles,[15] the majority of which are the easily identified Chevrolet/Grumman LLV (long-life vehicle), and the newer Ford/Utilimaster FFV (flex-fuel vehicle), originally also referred to as the CRV (carrier route vehicle). Made from 1987 to 1994 and with no air conditioning, no airbags, no anti-lock brakes, and lacking space for the large modern volume of e-commerce packages, the Grumman fleet ended its expected lifespan in fiscal year 2017. The replacement process began in 2015, and prototypes have been produced by various bidders, but due to delays as of May 2020, a final contract for replacement trucks has not been awarded.”

[ChevyRacefan]

When I was a child, our mail man WALKED his route, there was a different color mail box in the middle of his route that he pick up the 2nd half of the mail to deliver that half of the route.
MANY seem to not remember this. The number of packages USPS handled was tiny.
Most packages you had to goto the post office to go pick up. The mail man walking his route was not delivering it.
I am home with covid. So over the last week I took time to take note of a few things.
Amazon 4 different trucks delivering packages on monday, 2 on tuesday, and 4 on friday and 3 on saturday. I am on a small side street (14 houses) with no through traffic.
USPS doesn't have the fleet and man power to send 3-5 vehicles up the same roads delivering stuff. Many of these amazon deliveries are sub contractors in their own vehicles. 2 of them are uber drivers doing deliveries between "taxi" run/calls.
Seems like a crap show just waiting to happen.

[mrtoni]

I got my package mailed on 12/8 yesterday which was a Sunday!

Defending usps for a minute. Congress’ mandate that they fund their retirement system is when the wheels fell off and the deficit spending began or accelerated. While this might seem prudent that they have the money to pay pension liability it is not how public industry really does it. Congress would have them cover 100% of the liability. If 100% of employees retired at the same time this would be necessary but it’s unrealistic. In Nevada we have a generous public retirement system. It constantly ranks near the top in benefits but near the top in funding also like high 70%. The fund is paid for by the employing entity and the employee who split the contribution. New employees pay the benefits for older retirees and it chugs along.

[1976gmc20]

I wouldn't care if they only delivered mail out here three days a week. Many days we don't get anything at all.

But then they would have to stagger two different rural routes, one Mon/Wed/Fri and the other Tue/Thur/Sat, because what contractor would want a job that was only three days a week?

And it would be crap to suddenly lay off half your rural route contractors.

BTW, we have a "jumbo" mailbox so most smaller packages will fit. Maybe the USPS should just reduce the size of packages that they ship, and leave the bigger stuff to the private companies ???

I remember decades ago in Colorado when there was only three day a week delivery and that only in the summertime. And you had to go pick up your mail at the local resort store which functioned as a de-facto PO without any officiation or reimbursement. They had an empty candy carton by the cash register for outgoing mail, and there was usually a calico cat sleeping in the box!

[Andy4639]

I have been waiting 4 weeks now on a part I ordered. They sent it it USPS on the 23 of Dec.. They sent a note to my e mail and said it may not arrive on time because of Christmas rush. That's fine but the tracking ended on Dec 27 and it hasn't been updated since. I called the customer service center Friday and they said it was in transit. I said yes I know that I can see that on my own. Their system doesn't give them any better info than what I can see.
I then sent a message to them and they said they would look into the matter but needed details. I referenced the number that the lady gave me over the phone. They replied back that that case was handled and closed out! I replied again in discuss and told them no it was not handled.
Sorryness runs deep in our government agencies now day's on all levels.
I'm still waiting on a response on this.

[Boog]

Your word against theirs. How can you win?

[ChevyRacefan]

Originally Posted by Andy4639

I have been waiting 4 weeks now on a part I ordered. They sent it it USPS on the 23 of Dec.. They sent a note to my e mail and said it may not arrive on time because of Christmas rush. That's fine but thed on Dec 27 and it hasn't been updated since. I called the customer service center Friday and they said it was in transit. I said yes I know that I can see that on my own. Their system doesn't give them any better info than what I can see.
I then sent a message to them and they saidthey would look into the matter but needed details. I referenced the number that the lady gave me over the phone. They replied back that that case was handled and closed out! I replied again in discuss and told them no it was not handled.
Sorryness runs deep in our government agencies now day's on all levels.
I'm still waiting on a response on this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xUYypra4ws

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by ChevyRacefan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xUYypra4ws

I sent a package to Malaysia in 1995 and it never arrived.

[richard2717]

I shipped a package to Canada and one to Germany middle of Dec. They both made it to the other side of the fence & pond before the end of the year and now they are both stuck somewhere.

[Andy4639]

Originally Posted by ChevyRacefan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xUYypra4ws

Maintenance guy didn't do his job. They where working on the signal's and didn't have the manual over ride in place.
Lucky nobody was killed.

[LONGHAIR]

Originally Posted by special-K

Yeah, they probably would. I don't see people complaining that public schools, hiways, police, fire protection, or military don't turn a profit.

But none of those services are paid for on an "as needed" or "per use" basis either. They are paid through taxes and (depending upon how you look at it) you are paying for something that you don't use, at least directly, or you don't pay for specifically when you do use it.

Meaning that you pay for your local school district, whether you have kids or not. or you don't get a bill for calling 911 or from having a fire....but you pay for it nonetheless.

I'm sure that somehow our federal income taxes are supporting the post office at all times, but then when you go to send something, you pay again. So we pay to have it in the first place, then pay more to use it.

[ChevyRacefan]

Originally Posted by Andy4639

Maintenance guy didn't do his job. They where working on the signal's and didn't have the manual over ride in place.
Lucky nobody was killed.

Not for nothing, but a CDL driver should be stopping or at least looking for a train coming before crossing tracks.
Many people failed in that video.

[The Rocknrod]

It got so close to me, then someone had a thought. - https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfi...98666485035679
Went from Michigan to Texas Massachusetts and now it's in New Hampshire?

[Andy4639]

Still nothing!

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by 1976gmc20

When I pay 15x extra for "priority" package that takes almost two weeks to get from MT to NYC, then yeah I complain about that.

...

So now the receiving company claims the documents are "unreadable" and are refusing to process them.

So what the hell did the USPS do, store my priority mail at the bottom of the East River for a few days before delivering it ?????

[LONGHAIR]

Originally Posted by ChevyRacefan

When I was a child, our mail man WALKED his route, there was a different color mail box in the middle of his route that he pick up the 2nd half of the mail to deliver that half of the route.

Mine still does. He does have a truck though. I am right on the edge of a zip code. He parks on the street at the corner of my block, gets out and walks a route that loops back to the truck. Then picks up more and goes another loop. After that he drives away, I assume a few blocks away, and does it again. There used to be a metal drop-box on the other end of my block, but it has been gone for years.

[ChevyRacefan]

Originally Posted by LONGHAIR

Mine still does. He does have a truck though. I am right on the edge of a zip code. He parks on the street at the corner of my block, gets out and walks a route that loops back to the truck. Then picks up more and goes another loop. After that he drives away, I assume a few blocks away, and does it again. There used to be a metal drop-box on the other end of my block, but it has been gone for years.

1 of Mine still walks it, when the weather is nice, But the drop box mail boxes are long gone, So the truck is at end of street, walks the street then back to truck.
The other one, nope in truck , drive one house, shut off truck, put mail in box,start truck, move one house down shut it off. Wonder how many starters they go through in these things.

[68bowtie]

I haven't really followed this thread, but I had to peak and see what the deal was being that we're on PAGE 4!

I've had minor issues with various shippers over the years, including a month long wait for an item coming from TX via USPS recently. But I have to say the branch downtown is a good bunch. Most of them are really friendly, and you never have to wait long in a line.

[special-K]

Originally Posted by ChevyRacefan

The other one, nope in truck , drive one house, shut off truck, put mail in box,start truck, move one house down shut it off. Wonder how many starters they go through in these things.

Must be that carrier or your branch's postmaster. I've never seen a postal vehicle shut off and turned on at every stop. They run all day and get right on up the road. They are hard to catch .

We have great personnel at my town's p.o. Many have worked there for years. We know their name and they know ours. Our facility was built in '96. Good thing, because it used to be a hole in the wall in a shopping center. The new stand alone building and lot is busting at the seems. It's hard to hit it at the right time when there isn't a waiting line. I often see Ebay sellers hauling in a bunch of packages to send. I hope USPS carries on as always. I think what it needs is a new postmaster general who's heart is in making the postal service work rather than put it under to facilitate privatization

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by ChevyRacefan

1 of Mine still walks it, when the weather is nice, But the drop box mail boxes are long gone, So the truck is at end of street, walks the street then back to truck.
The other one, nope in truck , drive one house, shut off truck, put mail in box,start truck, move one house down shut it off. Wonder how many starters they go through in these things.

Just to mix things up a bit ... one has to wonder why the USPS isn't acquiring electric vehicles for city mail delivery ????

Seems like the perfect application: slow speeds, lots of stop and go and idling, fleet overnight parking/charging, and a known number of not very many miles every day.

[ChevyRacefan]

Originally Posted by 1976gmc20

Just to mix things up a bit ... one has to wonder why the USPS isn't acquiring electric vehicles for city mail delivery ????

Seems like the perfect application: slow speeds, lots of stop and go and idling, fleet overnight parking/charging, and a known number of not very many miles every day.

1) not long term tested life span. The guy with a tesla doesn't need to recharge the battery every day, the post truck would, the charge cycle life is not there yet.
2) the cost per unit. 1 electric or 3 gas.
3)A battery fire with a fleet of them parked together, Might be something the town/city fire chief would like to not have to deal with.
4) Power service to the postal hub to be able to charge a fleet of them overnight.

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by ChevyRacefan

1) not long term tested life span. The guy with a tesla doesn't need to recharge the battery every day, the post truck would, the charge cycle life is not there yet.
2) the cost per unit. 1 electric or 3 gas.
3)A battery fire with a fleet of them parked together, Might be something the town/city fire chief would like to not have to deal with.
4) Power service to the postal hub to be able to charge a fleet of them overnight.

Exactly! But I'm supposed to give up my 6.0 ???