USPS - Barefoot won't have Saturdays off afterall :(

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http://www.boston.com/dailynews/191/nation/Post_office_votes_to_continue_:.shtml

Post office votes to continue Saturday deliveries after five-day delivery idea brings outcry

By Kimberly Hefling, Associated Press, 7/10/2001 17:12

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) The Postal Service has decided to keep on delivering mail on Saturdays, just as it has done since the Civil War.

The postal Board of Governors, meeting in Evansville, decided Tuesday that the money saved by going to a five-day delivery schedule would not be worth the public outcry.

The idea had drawn heavy criticism from Congress and the mailing industry, even though the Postal Service is facing losses that could approach $2 billion this fiscal year.

Members of the public welcomed the decision.

''A lot of deadlines have to be met, and mail is still one of the foremost ways of communicating,'' lawyer Sonny Reisz said Tuesday outside the post office. ''We still haven't become a paperless society.''

Robert F. Rider, chairman of the postal Board of Governors, declined to say how much would have been saved by canceling Saturday service.

He said the reaction to the idea was not unexpected. But he added: ''When you're looking at a loss this year like we're looking at, you're not being responsible if you don't look at all the alternatives.''

Neal Denton of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, a group representing charities and other fund-raising organizations, said he does not believe the Postal Service ever intended to roll back to five-day delivery.

''What they intended to do they succeeded in doing, and that is to capture the attention of the American public and Congress to win some flexibility in postal reform,'' Denton said.

The Postal Service has been seeking changes in the law under which it operates, saying more flexibility is needed to change prices to compete and introduce new services.

Robert E. McLean, director of the Virginia-based Mailers Council, a coalition of mailing businesses, said reducing the number of postal workers, consolidating facilities and improving technology would be a more effective way to save money.

Rider said that to ease losses caused by the shrinking economy and sharp increases in the price of gasoline, the Postal Service has halted most construction and made other cuts.

On the Net:

Postal Service: http://www.usps.com

Mailers Council: http://www.mailers.org

National Postal Museum: http://www.si.edu/postal

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2001

Answers

At least we know he'll be staying out of trouble. (On second thought, he'll probably find a way!)

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2001

It never would have affected me as far as having Saturday off. I don't deliver mail, I sort it.

Neal Denton of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, a group representing charities and other fund-raising organizations, said he does not believe the Postal Service ever intended to roll back to five-day delivery. "What they intended to do they succeeded in doing, and that is to capture the attention of the American public and Congress..."

Neal Denton is probably right on about it. As to the need of more flexibility, the Postal stores selling t-shirts, mugs, etc. have been a huge loss. And yet they continue...

They're just mad because of the unions. Note that they claim a reduction in postal workers is needed. So why are they hiring new ones? Yeah, they have flyers up on our doors at work. A while ago it was for casuals. They don't get any job security, and can be worked to death, so to speak, and then dumped. Now they want specific positions filled, I think they were in maintenance and the motor fleet areas. And yet there is supposed to be a hiring freeze.

The stores operating losses were in an earlier article that was posted here around April, maybe earlier. It was about how the Postal Service claimed a large loss in revenue just days after Bush was installed in office. And no mention of it prior to that.

I guess I could go looking for it...

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2001


Here it is:

the other thread

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2001


Bizarre. NOONE loses money selling t-shirts. JUST the postal service. hmmmmm.

Your comment about not working on Saturdays, just sorting the mail has me thinking deviously of Newman and his closet of undelivered mail.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2001


LOL

I have a closet of mail, but it was all delivered to me. One of these days I should go thru it. Most of it is old bills, and some junk mail. I just put it in boxes and hid it in the closet cuz I was busy at the time. That was years ago, before I started working at the PO.

Just haven't found the time to waste on it as yet...

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2001



So I was right, Barefoot, you *are* a mail stripper. Glad I didn't shoot myself in the foot on that one! Course the lap still smarts.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2001

Barefoot, whoever sorts my mail is not only dyslectic but also spatially impaired (right street number, but a particuar street across town, so probably the slot above or below where he was supposed to aim). Any suggestions?

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2001

That used to happen to me in Norfolk and I would write "mistakenly delivered to _____" and put it out to be redelivered.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2001

Git, any time I've tried that, it just falls into the bushes.

Part of me thinks it's retaliation for not putting a mailbox alongside the road. (Noone on my street has agreed to do that either.) I can sympathize, but at this particular time I can't afford to. Mother assumes it's her paranoid perogative to check the mail before I get home. Checking a roadside mailbox would be either life-threatening or bone-threatening for her.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2001


Brooks, from what you've written before, it sounds as if your mother is in need of an absorbing hobby. Have you tried getting her interested in researching your family genealogy or growing some sort of fussy houseplant (African violets are good) or learning how to surf the net? If she has something to look forward to, she might be a little less inclined to get into trouble.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2001


The mail carrier chucks it into the bushes? Wow! Talk about some hostility issues!

Back to Norfolk: at Christmas I placed a plant each side of the front door, one of which was right under the mailbox but flat against the house wall. The next day I found that plant on its side with dirt spilled on the porch. I righted it and cleaned up the mess. The next day, same thing. So I watched the following day and saw the mail carrier very deliberately kick it over! When confronted he said he had the right to kick anything impeding his delivery of the mail. O-kay! So I reported the SOB to the Postmaster of the local branch. She sighed, said she had so many complaints against the guy she couldn't see straight and he was retiring in two months and would I mind just putting up with it until then? I appreciated the candor and sympathized with her and put up with badly delivered mail for another two months.

Maybe this carrier is close to retirement too, knows it's too late to be fired, and is loosing his various hostilities on his customers. Maybe if you're nice to the carrier, he/she won't go postal. . .

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2001


Thanks for the suggestions, Meemur. Her mind is mostly gone, so she's beyond those types of activities, but for the moment a local adult day care program is working quite well for her. Structured activities and just the right level of socialization. Your idea about the fussy African violet type plant was quite amusing given her determination to drown the only houseplant she's tending to at the moment.

Git, the mailman doesn't throw it into the bushes. Anything I leave sticking out of the mailbox on the side of the house falls down into the bushes, like he never saw it sticking out. Anything important, or controversial, I try to arrange to be sent to my work address instead.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2001


Glad to hear that she's in adult daycare. There's a growing industry worth investing in.

I'm feeling fortunate that I had the foresight to get a P O box at the local office while they were still available. I'm sure that a lot happens behind the scenes that I'm unaware of, but at least I don't have to deal with digging my mail out of the bushes or cleaning up kicked over houseplants. I'll bet you were annoyed, OG!

I decided to get a P O when the neighborhood kids found out that the hose could reach around to my mail slot in the front door. That has since been blocked up since I really need a hose on that side of the house for the flower beds and can't afford a sprinkler system.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2001


the hose in the mail slot reminds me of when my mom mentioned she would never have one of those, for that very reason. LOL

As to mis-delivered mail, if you want to make an issue out of it, bring it to the station and fill out a complaint form, make a list on another sheet of paper [the form is small] of the addresses that are going to you in error and submit it. the clerk who sorts the mail for yours and those other addresses will be notified, possibly even watched first. If it is in error, they will send to training again. if on purpose then they get written up. The clerk does not get the complaint form, unless you mail it...

Kicking over plants as Git mentioned should not be tolerated, no matter what! if there is anything impeding the carrier from getting to the box, then the carrier will not deliver any mail. Only a notice telling you to move or correct whatever the problem is. Git should have gone above that postmasters head. They could have put the carrier on inside duty or something for two months.

Gotta go to work. Laters!

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2001


Thanks, Barefoot. Does it help to include a piece of walnut fudge with the complaint form??

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2001


It was only a small poinsettia, probly a 6" pot. And as for the postmaster, well, I kinda felt sorry for her. Probly meant filling out more forms, and who knows what mischief he would get up to in retaliation--there had been a cluster of "going postals" in the news. Had it been more than two months, I would have gone further.

I thought at the time that the misdelivered mail (which was for a hosue only one street over) came about because he just forgot to deliver it and left it at my box, hoping I would, so that he wouldn't have to retrace his steps.

I must add the two carriers we've had here in Durham have been exceptional.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2001


if you were handing it to me, walnut fudge would be great. Since it will undoubtedly be someone else, I would forego the fudge. lest you want to wait while they check it for poisons...

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2001

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