Plan to fix Postal Service passes Senate

[alp227]

Source: CNN/Money

The Senate on Wednesday passed a plan to save the struggling U.S. Postal Service, an effort that could save thousands of jobs and 100 mail processing plants now slated to be closed or consolidated next month.

In an unusual showing of bipartisanship, the Senate voted 62-37 to throw a lifeline to the indebted Postal Service. Without help, the Postal Service would otherwise cut Saturday service, delay mail delivery and close hundreds of postal processing plants and post offices, triggering thousands of job cuts nationwide.

"My hope is that our friends over in the U.S. House, given our bipartisan steps we took this week, will feel a sense of urgency," said Sen. Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat, one of the Senate bill's co-sponsors. "The situation is not hopeless, the situation is dire."

The House has yet to take up a different bill to reform the Postal Service. However, Rep. Darrell Issa, a key Republican on postal service legislation, called the Senate bill "wholly unacceptable," in a statement released Wednesday.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/25/news/economy/postal-service-senate/

[IamK]

1. there will be huge cuts at some point due to decreased volumes....

sad but true... the internet and the barcode is not going away...

[julian09]

3. Should contact Rep Darrell Issa

one man shouldn't have the power to ruin thousands of lives.
He should put himself in their place, because he is one of the richest men in congress,doesn't mean
others don't need a job. He's got money now he wants power.

[Occulus]

13. Issa has been pushing for the destruction of the USPS for some time now.

I am fairly certain at this point that he thinks he can cash in on a privatized system.

[madrchsod]

6. package delivery anywhere in the usa

thousands of online business use the postal system for delivery. both private delivery services use the postal system to deliver packages to places that are to expensive for them to deliver to. the internet has cut into some of the post office business but the internet will never replace the postal system.

remember the postal system is profitable and they are not allowed to develop new services that could make the system more profitable.

[SomeGuyInEagan]

21. Exactly. USPS's problems are caused by Congress ...

... who is working hard to put them under. This is not a USPS-created problem, Congress is killing it on purpose.

And FedEx, UPS and other carriers know they can't fill the void if the USPS does down because they all use the USPS to deliver their stuff to the areas they will not cover.

[freshwest]

2. Thank you, all those who contacted their representatives to show their support.

[shcrane71]

4. Iowa's Republican governor bemoaned the closing of post offices.

He owns many buildings that are leased to the postal service. Hopefully, Republicans in Congress also own buildings leased to the USPS. If so, we've got a fighting chance of keeping our small town post offices.

[former9thward]

5. They need to eliminate Saturday delivery.

A real waste of money.

[dmrtndl1]

7. saturday delivery is necessary

i am not sure how much you know about the mail service, but their is as much mail generated if not more on a saturday. this is when periodical magazines are delivered. there are just as many package as any other day. for the post office it is just another day. where the post office does save money on saturday closures of businesses, as management can use personnel with under-time to assist on vacant or overburdened routes. with business closures on saturday there will be an increase overtime hours on monday. so basically without saturday delivery overtime will nearly be a third to half more which would negate any savings of saturday closure.

saturday closure would affect package delivery from shippers
medicines that are vital to public are delivered on saturday

[cstanleytech]

8. What about keeping saturday then for packages and next day delivery?

And just leaving most letter delivery for mon - fri ?

[dmrtndl1]

11. keep saturday delivery

the reason is that the post office gets as much mail on saturday as it gets on any other day besides monday. thus eliminating saturday delivery would increase office and street times on monday by 1/3 to 1/2 more. this overtime would be more expensive than the cost of saturday delivery

[former9thward]

10. You could make the same argument about Sunday.

Should we have delivery 7 days a week? I suppose you would say yes. The post office used to have twice a day delivery. Should we go back to that? I suppose you will say yes. The post office is a dying institution killed off by the internet.

[Occulus]

17. Actually, you can't make that argument.

Back when we were delivering twice daily, we were using the Letter Sorting Machine, or sorting by hand. With the development of the DBCS (Delivery BarCode Sorter), we were able to cut the second delivery without impacting overall service, because the mail was being processed so much faster.

However, to fully understand why] we can't eliminate Saturday delivery, you have to- have to- know how the mail is processed. Without going into a long explanation, each piece of mail letter mail moves through our machinery at least three times. The first run processes the mail from a raw 3-digit ZIP prefix into individual ZIP codes (a 5-digit sort). After that, the mail is run twice more, in an operation called DPS (delivery point sequence).

Once mail is run through the first pass of that two-pass process, and the second pass is started, no mail can be added. Period. We have to run what we have and get it out the door because of the way the machines do it, and this can't be changed. Once that first pass is done, that's it until the next day. Then, the second pass places the mail into the carrier's walk sequence and it's shipped out of the building. We can set aside one day's worth of mail to add to that first pass, but no more than that. Those same machines are used to perform the same 3-digit sort I spoke of above, on other shifts.

When we process mail on Saturday, we run as much as we can that night because there's no delivery the next day. This is the only day we can do that. Were we to eliminate Saturday delivery, we wouldn't have enough physical space on the machines to process all three days of it and Monday's mail would be late, which would ripple through the rest of the week.

You have to actually work in the plant, doing the operation, to fully understand why eliminating Saturday delivery just is not an option. We don't have space on the machines, in the plants, or in our delivery vehicles to deliver three days' worth of mail (Saturday, Sunday, and Monday) in one go.

[former9thward]

19. Sorry I can't buy it.

There are several times during the year where the post office does not deliver for two days because of federal holidays. The U.S. does not seem to mind that and a way will be found around Saturday delivery. I'm sorry but the internet has killed you off.

[Occulus]

23. That is because you don't work there.

We don't DO the operation I was talking about on federal holidays, and we almost always have to delay some mail the day after. We recover, but there is a ripple effect.

I am an expert in this subject. I've been doing this exact job for over fifteen years. Eliminating Saturday delivery will- not might, not can, but will- cause more trouble that it will solve.

The health benefit prefunding rule is the real problem. We need to get rid of that, not Saturday delivery.

[sketchy]

24. +1

Thank you for the information! There's a lot of ignorance out there about this.

[0rganism]

9. Democrats really should have fixed this in 2009

Post office was doing fine until the GOP fucked it over. All the Dems needed to do was scrap the pension sabotage bill the GOP thugs passed during the lame duck 2006 session.

Now we have to close post offices? Balls to that.

[jpak]

12. Susan Collins, Bush and the GOP screwed the Postal Service back in 2006

They forced the PS to fully fund its pension program 75 years in advance over a 10 yer period.

That is why the PS is in financial straits.

Yet another ploy to "privatize" a quasi-gov't service.

Collins is under fire in Maine for pending closing of a postal plant in Maine.

She fucked up - and everyone knows it.

yup

[Freddie Stubbs]

14. Why didn't ANY Democrats oppose this?

[jpak]

15. They did - but they were the minority party at that time

yup

[Freddie Stubbs]

16. No, they did not

It passed the House by a voice vote. Controversial is not passed by a voice vote, as it only take one person to ask for a recorded vote.

It passed the Senate by Unanimous Consent, which means that one single Democratic Senator opposed it.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HR06407:@@@R

[Occulus]

18. As to your question, it was a poison pill.

That had to be agreed to or our contract would have been voided and the unions dismantled.

That was how it was explained to us as employees. It was that, or lose everything important.

[former9thward]

20. Henry Waxman and Danny Davis were the co-sponsors of the bill.

Democrats did not oppose it at all. They sponsored it.

[Snake Alchemist]

22. So the USPS was not losing money until 2006? nt

[jpak]

25. Fuck the GOP, Tea Party and the Koch bothers

yup

[Snake Alchemist]

26. Well that sure answers it. nt

[Occulus]

27. to answer your question yes but

The health benefit mandate made the situation much much worse.