The Observation Deck

If I was you I would not invest too heavily in Forever Stamps. Seems like our venerable Post Office is nearing its end. Or at least it should be….

Postal Service Considers Cutting 120.000 Jobs

Seems to me that the mail should be delivered maybe twice a week at most. Why do I need to get that Gerber Baby Life Insurance offer two days after it was mailed? I’m almost 57 years old. And so is my wife! And I’m sure that even first class mail can also wait a few more days, realistically.

I just read where, when you combine salary and benefits, that the average postal service worker earns over $41 per hour. And as near as I can figure the only difference between my letter carrier and my paperboy is that my paperboy gets up much earlier in the day.

It’s time to put an end to the USPS. Fedex or someone else can do the same thing for much less….

They are also proposing dropping out of the federal retirement and health care plans, saying they can get better service at lower costs. And breaching some labor contracts in the process.

Of course, Congress will have the final say and I'm confident political pressure will trump efficiency.

Private companies cannot, of course, handle first class mail, as the law requires it be handled by the post office. And mail service is a complicated problem in a large country where some of us live in cities, while some of us live in remote areas. Much of what I once got in the mail is now delivered electronically, so the USPS is reduced to delivering the equivalent of spam. We get easily eight or ten pieces of mail each day, and just discard unopened the bulk of them.

Perhaps limiting delivery to once or twice a week is a good idea. The USPS is a lot more efficient than they used to be, and I give them credit for that. But the reality is that their market and methods are changing rapidly, and radical change is needed. Perhaps we could combine them with the police departments, giving us a neighborhood police presence while they make their rounds.

Tim Liston said:

I just read where, when you combine salary and benefits, that the average postal service worker earns over $41 per hour. And as near as I can figure the only difference between my letter carrier and my paperboy is that my paperboy gets up much earlier in the day.

Tim-- other than the mere technicality of an unattributed quote, if that's your idea of government workers, let's just get a bunch of cheap ass gang bangers from West Blvd. and Madison and send 'em over to Afghanistan to do the job that our presently "overpaid" armed forces are doing.

Stan

Tim Liston wrote:It’s time to put an end to the USPS. Fedex or someone else can do the same thing for much less….

Ok so federal law requires 6-day per week delivery of first class mail to every US address. I'd be interested in how you think Fedex or UPS could do that for much less than the USPS? Comparing what they do today to the infrastructure and costs necessary for daily mail delivery isn't even anywhere near equal footing.

Stan, a couple things….

One, I looked at my original post, I read it again and again, over and over, and no matter how hard I try I’m not finding any mention of military pay, “overpaid” or otherwise. Please don’t criticize me for something that I didn’t say.

As for what I DID say, that the average postal worker hourly compensation (“salary and benefits”) is over $41 per hour, consider these references….

This one says that the postal service pays more than $80,000 on average to its employees. At 1920 hours per working year that equates to at least $41.67 per hour.

Postal Service Defends New Labor Contract

This one below says that in 2009 the average postal service employee made over $79,000 per year, total compensation. And it cites a document that comes from the gpo.gov (the government printing office) but it costs money so I am not going to track it down. Sorry.

Privatizing the U.S. Postal Service

Now Stan here’s the one that really matters. It’s from the GAO (that’s government!) and it says that “postal retail clerks currently earn an average of over $40 per hour in compensation and benefits.” Those are the people who you wish would work faster or there were more of when you are in line at the post office and just want to mail a damn package to your cousin or something.

U.S Postal Service: Strategies and Options to Facilitate Progress Toward Financial Viability

The above document also happens to be a government document that is pretty much highly critical of how the Post Office is run. It also cites labor costs as the primary reason for Postal Service inefficiency. Anyone who spends five minutes skimming it would be OUTRAGED.

The Post Office has blown through a $15 billion Treasury backstop, has lost $8.5 billion in its last year and is around $100 billion behind in funding its pension and retiree health care plans.

Bryan – you are probably right about my statement. The only way UPS or Fedex can run our Postal Service with less money is by cutting labor costs. That can only be done by (1) paying Postal Service employees less money or (2) by delivering mail less than six times a week (which anyone who pays Federal taxes should be in favor of). I stand corrected.

Now I read where at least some postal workers are engaged in a hunger strike to protect the USPS.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... ivery-cuts

Fair enough, but how does a hunger strike have a pre-determined four-day end date? "We're starting today and ending on Saturday?" I mean even I can last four days without food. Some strike....

The USPS is probably the second-largest waste of taxpayer money, second only to the Department of Education. We need to re-deploy USPS employees into useful occupations ASAP.