The Office of the Inspector General for the Postal Service conducted a study mandating centralized delivery for new delivery points another $5.1 billion.
They also estimated that by consolidating current curbside delivery to centralized delivery and by converting door-to-door deliveries to curbside delivery we could save more than $4.5 billion.
What do you think about this concept? What do you think about the estimated savings? Comment here.
31 comments:
This is one change which does not require congressional approval. USPS should send notices, letting customers know by "date" their box needs to be at a certain location.
My sister lives in a Phoenix suburb, where mailboxes are placed along the sidewalk. The carrier just walks down the sidewalk to deliver. Carriers will gain delivery points, but will save wear and tear walking up and down steps, across bad yards, etc.
Rural customers are served from the street, city customers should be served from sidewalks or have the boxes at the curb. Why should customers determine placement of their box, we are providing the service.
I believe all new city deliveries are already mandated to be centralized delivery. Plus, this makes for longer street time for carriers to be out in extreme weather conditons longer as well. If there is a bad yard, it becomes a safety issue and the carrier doesn't have to deliver until the problem is fixed. I was under the impression that walking and stair stepping was good for one's health, instead of standing for 10 or 15 minutes in front of a/several cluster box(es). Most cluster boxes have no overhead protection from the elements either, so you are getting no relief from the weather either. As far as having established door to door deliveries converted to curbside or centralized, the OIG doesn't seem concerned about the elderly or disabled who would have to walk or drive to get to their mailboxes in all sorts of weather. The USPS is supposed to be a service for the customers, not the employees. Regarding savings, curbside or centralized delivery would cost more in fuel costs than having a carrier park and walk door to door. I also read about countless rescues by carriers who deliver to the door, upon hearing the customer call for help. Savings over service, making the postal service a faceless entity, is not the way to go. The OIG shouldn't be telling the USPS how to provide service to the customers.
If you live in a small town or rural area you have to walk a few blocks or sometimes drive several miles to the Post Office. Why should customers in the city be different?
Obviously the 2nd Post above has never delivered Mail in the "Blazing-Hot" Mississippi heat, loaded down with "Marriage-Mail" and Parcels!!! Then, perhaps, he/she would understand the concept that they are trying to implement!!! You just don't know what a relief this would be to our Letter Carriers!!!
City carrier office time has been consistently diminishing for several years. Having clusters, or boxes located on or near the curb will make it easier for substitute carriers to locate delivery points.
For the elderly or disabled, hardship would be determined on a case by case basis, as is the current practice.
I think this is one of the best cost-savings ideas I have seen. Anything which will assist USPS in maintaining service to customers must be considered.
Yes, curbside or centralized delivery is an incovenience. How much more incovenient is driving miles to the next community or having no service at all?
Seems like all of the concern is for the letter carriers, and not the customers.
Once delivery method has been established, it is up to the customer to change the delivery method, not the post office. The post office can only request that the customer change from door delivery to mounted delivery or NDCBU.
For offices being closed, customers with PO boxes might have a choice of receiving mail curbside or cluster box, depending on the number of customers.
The concern is for the overall well-being of USPS. While current regulations have city delivery box locations "grandfathered in," the financial limitations may lead to a change.
When I was converted to the NDCBU, I was angry. Afer a while, however, I realized I went from an unsecure box on the side of my house to a locked box nearby for free. Think of it as identity theft prevention.
So who is going to PAY for all those CBUs? The USPS? yeah right ...
There is more concern about the dirt in the corner than trying to be a more organized, efficiently run company.
If it was privately owned, it would have been bankrupt and then offered a bailout... which may not be too far-fetched!
If the Postal Service were privatized, that company would have switched to the most efficient method of delivery years ago, which is centralized delivery. If customers want to maintain door delivery, they could pay a monthly fee for this first class service. For those who are opposed because of the costs of CBUs and gas, these costs are recouped many times over with centralized delivery. The Postal Service can't continue to provide first class service when revenues are less than enough for coach fare. Haven't you heard about Borders Book Stores?
I am a carrier in Boulder, Colorado and I have a walking route which requires climbing many porch steps, going in fenced yards, dealing with dogs, etc. Going to curbside delivery would at least lower medical costs from injury due to falls and dog bites, etc. At least, mailboxes could be put out at the sidewalk for a walking route if not putting them at curbside and turning the route into an out the window route. Doing this would cut down on injury possibilities, as well.
I've been saying that for years, go all curbside delivery. With routes getting longer and longer, it's putting more wear and tear on carriers. The USPS is going to have to have a telethon to raise money for a new fleet of LLVs though...
I have been with the Postal Service for over thirty years and was a carrier for many of those years. I've carried in 105+ degree heat with high humidity and I've carried in ice storms, but understand this, USPS is not doing this for the employees, they are CUTTING SERVICE. Now I agree curbside boxes are okay as long as the handicapped and/or elderly could still get door delivery. USPS is now about bonuses to the HQ personnel and Vice-Presidents, what happened to SERVICE TO OUR CUSTOMERS. Centalized delivery is not service. The Postal Service was set up to deliver mail to the people. Get rid of bonuses, give everyone a fair wage and most importantly, give our customers true service.
Submitted this idea many years ago in "eIdeas" which is a big joke! This would be great for carrier's safety and protection of customer's property. The carrier could serve curbside boxes or a centralized box. In centralized delivery, customer's mail is secure. Great idea for USPS and customers. Change is difficult, but necessary for survival!
Love It!
When they have talked about privatizing the PO, any private company would not only make this move but they would group rural deliveries in rural areas on (or just off) hard surfaced roads. The PO needs to look at this too!
It all sounds good but show me the cost savings (dollar for dollar), not just words about what we will save. Carriers sign on to do the work (walking and driving) and if they don't like the work then quit. (another money saver). How many carriers have been killed on driving routes verses park and loop. Can you put a savings on that? Keep delivery the way it is and for new delivery make it curb side or central delivery (once you figure out who is going to pay for the CBUs). It isn't about the mode of delivery as much as we have way too many employees that feel they don't really have to work to earn their pay. Look at the performance numbers - carriers not making standards; what if everyone was an evaluated route like rural - I bet we would see a lot of city carriers working alot faster. Also, get rid of some of the upper levels of management (more savings)and keep the service to the customer. My mail is at the NDCBU but not by my choice. I didn't care for it when it happened but I was told if I wanted my mail I either pay for a PO Box or accept the central delivery. I live in a big city so it wasn't because we are rural. The carrier doesn't even get out of the vehicle (and he could use some exercise)When we get packages (we live across from the box, he puts a slip in the box for us to go pick it up the next day at the post office. This is customer service?
Any discussion of what the Postal Service does is inevitably fraught with anguish. Whether you call it “eliminating door-to-door” or “curbside delivery” someone will cry foul because of diminishing service or because our delivery service should (or shouldn’t) be treated “more like a business.” One thing I can see from my rural perspective, though, is that one of the Postal Service’s greatest assets is the fact that it delivers daily to all Americans regardless of where they live. Here in the hinterlands, UPS and FedEx don’t deliver daily – or even weekly- and if I want to send something via their services, I have to pay a huge fee to have them pick it up, or I have to drive 60 miles to the nearest store. If the Postal Service announces that it is reducing service, private companies will rush to fill the perceived void by advertising that they will come to my door – regardless of the fact that they’d charge handsomely for it. If one of those companies wanted to reduce door-to-door deliveries, they’d certainly not broadcast it to the world as a reduction in service in order to save money. They’d quietly convert more and more neighborhoods to NDCBUs on a case-by-case basis. But we aren’t a private company. We have to be accountable to the American public, so lets stop focusing on how much we can take away from the services we’re providing them, and focus more on what else we can do to add value to the fabulous framework of stellar services we already provide.
It's just another dumb idea. As I said years ago if congress had any guts the Post Office could be debt free in no time. Just change rural free delivery to charging every address a $10.00 fee for delivery per year. Charge it on the tax base and have that money credited to the Post Office. End of any short falls. Congress just doesn't have the guts to change the law for fear of not being re elected. Oh Well, congress never had any guts and there is never anyone to vote for that does.
I know that everything possible must be done to keep the U S Postal Service operating, but then we must also maintain our integrity by changing the name of our company from U S Postal Service to U S Postal Delivery - the service will be gone.
if there is already curb service, i believe that it should just be left alone. Door delivery should be changed to curb service.
On the flip side of the argument that "carriers" need the exercise, what about the customers? They, too, could use more exercise. A nice evening stroll to the curb never hurt anyone. With all the hype about how overwieght Americans are, one would think that this would be a great solution to obesity in America. I say "good move" to the idea of curbside delivery.
Why is a change where mail is received viewed as a loss in service? Every address still has one option for free delivery, that is the service we provide, free delivery.
We still provide delivery to every address. Curbside delivery began in the 1930s. To the house delivery should have ended when we stopped deliving twice daily in 1950.
Times have changed, USPS needs continue to change or there will not be free delivery in the future.
There are many ways USPS could save money. First off by not giving upper management raises so that their wages aren't equal to UPS and FEDX top dogs like was done with Potter. Secondly as stated in other comments going curb side or centralized delivery for all city routes. Having rural customers locate their boxes on main roads instead of present way. People in small towns not allowed to be on a rural route instead rent a box at the PO. Rural and city routes cost us a lot of money. You are already paying a PM to be in an office so it would be cheaper for them to put the mail in the box than for the carrier to deliver it. I have worked for the PO for many years and have worked as a city carrier and in management. I have seen the ways we waste money. I too like the person in one of the other comments also suggested years ago to make the waking city routes curbside deliveries. Was told this would upset the customers. I do however believe that these custoemrs would rather get their mail in their home town and still have a PO in their town than have to drive 30 miles to another town to do their postal business. However the unions are strong and won't allow this to happen because it will effect their people. They aren't as concerned about the Service in Postal service as they profess if they were they would make those people that belong to their unions do their jobs instead of trying to beat the system and adding to our bottom line. If the unions were as concerned about service they would work to keep the small town offices open so that the customers in the small towns have the same service that is offered to those in the the larger cities. Most people don't get enough exercise in a day that walking to the curb or a cluster box would really harm them. Most elderly and handicapped are willing to make the treck to the box to keep the service to their area.
When the trash man comes to our homes to pick up the trash, they require that it be placed at the curb. They don't care if your a senior citizen or handicapped. And this is a service that we pay for. I agree that we should stay sympathetic to those situations, but my point is, this is how the disposal service operates and with no debate. The USPS should be the same way. If it is a cost saving measure that needs no congressional approval, then implement the idea and be done with it. We all know that change is hard in the beginning. But in time, people will conform and it will become a daily part of life.
Giving free Post Office boxes tocustomers who do not live on the rural carrier's line of travel should be the first regulation changed. Our customers can put a box up on the carrier's line of travel if they want a free box, so why are we required to give them a free Post Office box? This regulation has decreased my revenue by several thousand dollars yearly since it was enforced.
They just keep chipping away at customer service.
To the 16th posting. You apparently aren't familiar with rural america. Grouping rural deliveries on or just off of black top roads. There are customers who live several miles from a black top road. I have some.
I agree with comment 26. My MPOO won't let me charge any one for their box so am losing a lot of revenue each year.
I had a customer tell me once that he would not mind being charge
$50/year for his rural delivery. He thought it would still be a bargain! About $1 a week for 6 days, well-maybe 5 days, well- maybe 3 days as I read in the Des Moines Register today..... (that will save fuel-and who would be delivering? Who will want a 3 day a week job and still put food on the table?-this is all for another debate)
I believe that "curb side" delivery would work IF we still lived in the 50s'/60s'.. the Problem w/today's generation is WAY TOO MANY young/idle/curious hands and most "curb side" boxes don't have proper security to keep those idle hands OUT!!!
Proper security: S & W ;)
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