Benny here.
Well, I usually don't like to talk about bad news, but here it is.
The Postal Service ended its first quarter of fiscal year 2010 (Oct. 1-Dec. 30, 2009) with a net loss of $297 million. This compares to a loss of $384 million for the same period last year.
Mail volume for the quarter was 45.7 billion pieces, a decline of 8.9 percent.
The one bright spot was Shipping Services, with a volume increase of 2.5 percent.
What do you think about this? What can we do about it? Comment here.
12 comments:
Reduce you employee base to match your income base. RIF.
Get rid of some of the people on top that do not handle the mail, take some of Potters money back that he does not earn, cut out more of the managers that do not handle the mail, and hire people that do. Go back to the basics and have the USPS stop using emails, speedy, ups, and all the other companies that do not contribute to our mail flow. The Post Office should use their own services and not pay for all the internet connections. Don't they believe in their own products?
Whenever the powers to be throw out some of there outdated models and replace them with newer more realistic models will this mess ever straighten out. I'm not a Harvard Business School graduate but have been in business for myself some of my working life.
By previous year end fiqures most recently those of 2008 when 30% of total mail volume is first class but accounts for over half of total revenue. Business bulk mail accounts for 70% and less than half of total revenue then something needs to be done and its not raise first class postage.
Most high school graduates would realize that business bulk rates need a huge increase. Forget all the rheotric about those catalogues generate first class mail in orders with the purchases being sent by package services. Look at the catalogue and usually there's a toll free number to call or URL for on line ordering. Then the order is usually shipped by our competitors. Tall about burying your head in the sand.
I agree that some of the management positions are probably unneccessary. Craft employees are adults and should be able to do their jobs with little or no supervision. But we all know there will always be some who don't do their jobs so, supervisors will always be there unless the crafts are given the responsibility and trust to do what needs to be done & to "self-police" those who do not. The same goes for management that micro-manages post offices instead of letting postmasters do their jobs. Postmasters know their offices better than someone in a distant city and most postmasters can be trusted to do the best job in their office. Despite many support functions like accounting and Human Resources being centralized, there are still many support employees that may or may not be neccessary. Currently we produce more reports for more people than we need to. It is interesting to note that we lost less money than SPLY but volume was down 9%. That must mean the mail was made up of higher cost items, so those Priority Mail commercials must be working. It also shows that is what we should be focusing on - promoting our premier products and making sure we deliver the level of service that is expected for them.
Privatize and offer employee profit sharing. I bet you would see more postal employees using our services. How many valentines did you send this week??
Have one Postmaster in charge of 5 post office, create a Clerk in Charge for Adm Service only all paper work for that office, have only 1 surpervisor to oversee the operation for the day...
Create a flat rate postage for a First Class Letter @ a rate of 33cents under 3/4 oz. Offer Priority Flat Rate Bag. One truck deliver per day Full of incoming. Use the same truck for out going dispatch that it.
Would love to know how who figures what !
Hudson Station
Modesto,Ca.
RR 17
D.Carey
Why not just get better supervisors that will hold people accountable for doing the work. If you could get everyone to work at 60% productivity it would be an increase of 100% and you could lay off those that don't want to work!
It's all about attitude. If you don't use our products, don't work for us. Cut unnecessary positions (those that generate reports all day that go no where) and focus on having more people to service and sell our business. The last time I was in a station the clerk looked like they were dead they moved so slow. Obviously they didn't have the right attitude. Anyone with the "entitlement" attitude just because they have worked here for 20+ years, should be let go.
The term Postmaster literally means the master of his/her post. It's suppose to mean a person who is "in charge" of their post office. Over the years their authority has dwindled to little or nothing and that is why they appear to be "unnecessary." The smaller offices annual budgets may be $250,000 but in reality they manage less then $1,000 in costs. All other costs are forced upon them by upper management and tough universal service laws. The authority to hire/fire is held two levels up. The ability to reduce work hours on full time employees is managed 3 levels up and has strict union oversight. The ability to change your retail hours or start times is managed 2 levels up. The decision to be open 5 or 6 days rests with congress! We can sell only “authorized” retail products, despite the fact that we can show the community wants other products and will readily purchase alternate products. We can buy our office supplies cheaper in local retail outlets versus the large government contracted businesses. The list goes on and on.
City carrier overtime nation wide is a big issue in time wasting. Postmasters try to hold them accountable, but because of the union it is very difficult to get anything done as far as removing non-productive employees. The next national city contract should be changed to have city carriers paid by the day like rural carriers are paid. This would make them accountable for getting their work done. It would also make it possible to do away with some of the upper management supervisors that spend their day on the street supervising the carriers.
HELLO PEOPLE! The real problem is the intranet. No one person is at fault, only the users that elect to do all of their business online instead of using postage. And I might add that these same people are not contributing to USPS and getting free mail delivery, forwarding service, etc... when is the free service going to end?? Maybe we should charge for some of these services to recoup costs.
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