| Postal Pete |
This Article is From: http://www.postalpete.com/
Postal news for those interested in the mailing industry, postal employees, stamp collecting, etc...
This site is not affiliated with the U.S. Postal Service
| Postal Pete |
"...“Nutty” is the new normal in our nation’s capital and Exhibit A is how Congress — with its union-busting mentality — helped create a financial disaster with the U.S. Postal Service and refuses to enact legislation that can provide a fix...."
"...The IG reviewed 33 of 114 relocation project from fiscal 2011 through 2013 and found that 25 new site selections weren't announced until after the public comment and appeals period ended. And two of the site selections had no announcement dates...."
"...The Postal Service said this summer that it would start consolidating as many as 82 processing facilities at the beginning of 2015, on top of the 141 the agency has already shut down in recent years...."
"...“Postal management is tearing apart the infrastructure of the public postal service,” said Partridge, a retired letter carrier. Vowing further direct actions, Partridge declared that “we plan to escalate this fight to save our national treasure.”..."
"..."Buried in the bill is a section that would create cluster mail boxes for all neighborhoods, and that's just not a practical solution," said local Rep. Susan Davis...."
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"...“Eventually we will go to five-day mail delivery,” said Donahoe. He says by cutting back on one day of delivery, the Postal Service can save billions of dollars, but that’s not all. “We’re looking at changes with mailboxes,” said Donahoe, “some more flexibility in terms of what we do with centralized boxes.” Source: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Postal-Service-Changes-Coming-to-Neighborhoods-272963671.html#ixzz3BfRGp3pA Follow us: @nbcsandiego on Twitter | NBCSanDiego on Facebook ..."
"...A spokeswoman for UPS says the information includes names, card numbers and postal and email addresses from about 100,000 transactions..."
"...Geo-fence technology leverages global positioning system signals to create virtual geographic zones that ensure delivery personnel stay on schedule and on their routes...."
"...The Postal Service has released a schedule showing when the phase-two mail processing plants will be consolidated next year. The spreadsheet shows the date on which each type of mail will be relocated from a closing facility to a gaining facility...."
| 20Stamps app |
"...One employee who contacted News 13 on Monday says he saw it all happen and watched his co-workers wrestle the shooter to the ground when the gun was fired. Customers say the news is disturbing. “There’s some kind of an dynamic that’s happening within the U.S. Postal Service that leads people to that,” said Rush...."
"...Allegations of intentional delays at the Cape Girardeau mail processing facility prompted a letter from U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt on Thursday to postmaster general Patrick Donahoe. ..."
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| Don't Buy From Staples |
"...The USPS' financial filings said the adjustment to workers' compensation expense -- an exercise that is on paper rather than a reflection of actual costs -- counted as a $540 million expense. The agency's retiree commitments for the quarter totaled $1.43 billion. Without those two expenses the agency would have posted a net income of $10 million. ..."
"...Tittle is a stamp collector, though collector is too dull a word to describe her pursuit. A few years after she retired from being a high school gym teacher in 1993, she began traveling around the country attending as many “first day of issue” ceremonies as possible. Civil War stamps, Kwanzaa stamps, Joe DiMaggio stamps — she wants them all. And not just the stamps. Tittle collects the souvenir envelopes the stamps come in..."
"...A move by the USPS that will slow America’s mail service and that threatens tens of thousands of jobs requires an urgent response, said APWU President Mark Dimondstein.
On June 30, the USPS announced its intention to close and consolidate 82 mail processing facilities in 37 states throughout the country beginning in January 2015.
On Aug. 1, the USPS posted a notice in Federal Register announcing that the consolidations will eliminate overnight mail delivery..." "...While the Postmaster moves forward with his disastrous scheme to dismantle the postal network, Congress has the power to undo his plans -- but they need to hear from us!
Work is underway in the Senate to prevent USPS from going forward with its decision to close and consolidate 82 mail processing facilities nationwide. Send your senators a message today in support of Senator Tester's letter urging swift action on postal closures!..."
| The Postmaster General (USPS) |
"...A Staples announcement on July 14 indicating that the company is terminating its no-bid deal with the U.S. Postal Service and replacing it with an “approved shipper” program is a ruse. Staples and the USPS are changing the name of the program, without addressing the fundamental concerns of postal workers and postal customers. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.
The Staples announcement and a letter from the USPS dated July 7 make it clear: They intend to continue to privatize postal retail operations, replace living-wage Postal Service jobs with low-wage Staples jobs, and compromise the safety and security of the mail...."
"...36, of Birmingham, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Hopkins to five years of probation, including six months home detention, for his guilty plea to six counts of theft of U.S. Postal Service money orders and one count of theft of government property. ..."
"...The Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment Authority, also known as buyout authority, allows agencies that are downsizing or restructuring to offer employees lump-sum payments up to $25,000 as an incentive to voluntarily separate. When authorized by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), an agency may offer VSIP to employees who are in surplus positions or have skills that are no longer needed in the workforce who volunteer to separate by resignation, optional retirement, or by voluntary early retirement, if approved. By allowing employees to volunteer to leave the Government, agencies can minimize or avoid involuntary separations through the use of costly and disruptive reductions in force (RIFs). Agencies such as the Department of Defense that have been granted agency-specific VSIP authority are not required to seek OPM approval for their use of this option...."
"...measures for Priority Mail, Express Mail and Parcel Select," but that the agency did not meet any of those goals in fiscal 2013. ..."
"...The Postal Service is offering buyouts and early retirement options to more than 3,000 postmasters before it proceeds with a reduction-in-force (RIF) in early 2015...."
"...“I believe the decision to resume plant closures is a purposeful attack by the Postmaster General, who is retaliating because he could not get five-day delivery. He’s also frustrated by the union’s powerful campaign against the deal between the USPS and Staples,” Szeredy said.
Ignoring the Possibilities
The Postal Service claims the plant closures will generate $750 million in annual savings. “Yet he is ignoring a report by the USPS Office of Inspector General that says the Postal Service could generate $9 billion by offering basic financial services without any cuts to traditional postal service,” Szeredy said. “Something is wrong with this mentality.”
“The Postmaster General also neglects to mention that the USPS earned a profit from operations in fiscal year 2013 and in the first two quarters of 2014,” she added.
Donahoe claims that there have been steep declines in first-class mail, Szeredy pointed out, “yet he fails to tell the public that the USPS has already given away 60 percent of first-class mail processing to Pitney Bowes and other pre-mail sort houses.”..."
After recently announcing a two year moratorium on plant closures, the PMG has recanted that idea and has again announced a return to shuttering hundreds of much needed mail processing facilities. The PMG cited a three year decline in first class mail volume as well as exigent price increases or a lack thereof as the reasoning. In a short video to employees, the PMG OFFERED NO DETAILS on what impacts the new closures will have on employees. It appears the postal service is unsure of what it is going to do, but they are going to do it anyway. Stay tuned for an update when more details are available.
"...a budget accounting trick that would finance road projects by preventing a future bailout of the U.S. Postal Service. But the top postal official says he couldn’t be more pleased. “We not only need five-day delivery,” Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said..."
"...APWU National Business Agent Shirley Taylor challenged the re-election of Robert Sulentic to Staples’ board of directors, noting that he has an apparent conflict of interest. Sulentic is also CEO of CBRE, the giant real estate firm that holds an exclusive contract to sell post offices and other USPS facilities...."
"...House Republicans are constructing a proposal to keep thousands of road and transit projects from grinding to a halt this summer by transferring funds into the nation's nearly depleted Highway Trust Fund from the already money-losing U.S. Postal Service...."
"...May 21, 2014 - The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members passed the latest postal bill offered by Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA), which would end “door delivery” for 15 million postal customers. The vote, which passed along party lines 18-13, occurred less than 48 hours after it was introduced." title="Committee Passes Controversial Issa Bill ..."
"...FedEx Corp.’s recent decision to incorporate package size in the pricing of its ground service will result in a significant boost in shipping costs – but it could also open up competitive opportunities for the U.S. Postal Service...."
"...The American Federation of Teachers Michigan (AFT Michigan) voted at its convention on May 17 to endorse the boycott. Citing “a common battle against privatization” of public services, delegates voted unanimously to take their business elsewhere. “Members of our union want safe, secure, high-quality service when we go to the post office – not a low-wage, high turnover operation where employees have little or no training and no qualifications to handle sensitive letters and packages,” said David Hecker, president of AFT Michigan. “And nobody understands better than teachers, staff, and faculty how much we all have to lose when essential public services – like schools and post offices – are put in the hands of private companies with lower standards.”..."
"...There was a more recent postmark on the letter -- from Minneapolis 2013 – printed over the old. "We think somebody put it back into the mail stream," Rowe said. A vintage sealing material..."
"...The positive balance sheet continues the steady progress in the finances of the Postal Service, which has been operating at a profit since October 2012. A dramatic increase in online shopping has sparked an explosion in package volume and revenue, while a gradually rebounding economy has stabilized letter revenue.
“All of this good news exposes an ugly truth,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “Postal management’s zeal for cutting service and outsourcing operations in a thinly-veiled attempt at piecemeal privatization.”..."
"...Customers can sign up for a six-month trial for free, unlimited deliveries. Otherwise, there is a $4.99 per store fee. There’s no minimum purchase and Google says it will not raise item prices. Orders can be placed online or via mobile apps...."
"...assault on government control last attempted by private carriers in the mid-1840s, the Postal Service's detractors have mounted a new, more promising offensive in the present era. To their credit, they have enjoyed some success by redefining the terms of engagement, and by reconstituting the nature and mission of the US postal system from its historical role as a civil service entity to a Frankenstein-like corporate/government hybrid with most of the downsides, and few of the advantages of both...."
"...KENNESAW, Ga. -- A package handler decked out "Rambo-style," with an assault rifle and bullets strapped to his chest, opened fire on fellow employees at a FedEx facility in suburban Atlanta early Tuesday, wounding six people -- three critically -- before killing himself...."
| Exam 955 |
"...Aleman contacted his lawyer, whose office is on the route that should have received the post cards. The lawyer and his secretary said they never received the card, Aleman said. Aleman tried a second mailing to a different route March 10. It went to 647 addresses..."
"...An investigation into the northern California crash between a FedEx truck and bus that killed 10 people last week has turned up "no evidence" of a pre-collision fire, contrary to a witness report, authorities said on Sunday...."
"...Juan Valdez, 45, was busted Thursday on a slew of charges. He's accused of moving drugs through express mail wrapped in children's bedding. He used various locations, including Bronx day care centers, to stash the drugs, cops said...."
"...“We had a situation where the USPS wanted to change delivery standards for certain types of mail and delay them, and they asked us about it and it was determined that most thought it needed more study. But the Postal Service issued an announcement that they were going to go national with this program anyway,” Goldway told attendees..."
"...Also, the truck was already on fire before the deadly crash, witnesses told two California TV stations. Bonnie and Joe Duran, who were driving in a Nissan Altima in front of the bus, told KNBC-TV Los Angeles they saw flames behind the cab of the truck before it crossed the median..."
"... the Postal Service is extending what was a three-day delivery expectation to a four-day delivery expectation. This change is designed to allow a more balanced distribution of DSCF Standard Mail across delivery days...."
"...At least 10 people are dead after a FedEx truck slammed into a charter bus full of high schoolers in Northern California on Thursday afternoon. The investigation is underway as to what caused the fatal accident...."
"...At least nine people died Thursday when a bus carrying Los Angeles-area high school students for a tour of Humboldt State University was struck head-on by a FedEx truck..."
"...The civic group mailed out over 1,000 copies of the magazine but many were never delivered or destroyed. They want postal service officials to investigate...."
"...Attorney General Eric Holder told a Senate committee on Thursday that there is a “shocking” number of people who are using the U.S. Postal Service to send illegal drugs around the country...."
"...For weeks, streets near the Post Office’s East 36th Street truck facility have been clogged with delivery trucks that have no official place to park after the cash-strapped agency rented some of its garage space to another delivery agency...."
"...A March 28 agreement with the USPS [PDF] outlines the procedure for the conversion of Maintenance Craft Postal Support Employees to career, Maintenance Craft Director Steve Raymer has announced...."
| Karah Adams |
"...USPS will not offer early retirement or buyout incentives, Patrick Donahoe said at the National Postal Forum, instead relying exclusively on not filling positions after employees separate from the agency. ..."
Fact Check: How accurate are statements by the PMG and the Post Office as a whole? You decide. The article referenced above claims the USPS will be reducing employee numbers by "relying exclusively on not filling positions after employees separate from the agency." So in a fact check on this statement we find this announcement not long after the aforementioned article: Post Office Hiring in Memphis. An additional check on the USPS careers site identifies hiring in many crafts, albeit it is obvious the postal service is attempting to shift to a more non-career workforce to replace employees. Giving the PMG partial credit in his statement, the article does mention '2015', so maybe beefing up the workforce in '2014' will lend accuracy to the statement of reductions in '2015'. (LOL)
"...Former US President Jimmy Carter has said he hand-writes letters to foreign and US leaders in an effort to evade what he described as pervasive US electronic surveillance...."
The U.S. Mail is the most secure communication standard that exist. Sanctity of the mail is taken very seriously by postal employees.
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| Photo Courtesy of Etsy |
To this day, you still hear customers grumbling during 'after hours' stops to local Post Office lobbies, complaining about the absence of a stamp vending machine. Many are actually angry that when at the spur of the moment they want to make a quick run to the local Post Office after hours to mail a quick letter or birthday card only to find they now have to go to a 'convenience store' to buy a book of stamps, stand in line, fight the traffic, only to have to return to the Post Office to mail the letter because the Postal Service has not only removed the stamp machines, but have also removed the majority of the freestanding blue boxes where people could quickly mail letters. As one customer remarked, "It's like the U.S. Postal Service is purposely attempting to anger us so we become frustrated with the lack of convenience so that we are forced to turn to private retail businesses to pick up a stamp. It just seems the Postal Service should now be called the U.S. Postal Disservice! Why would a business want to turn customers away from a business model that worked so well at one time and is still needed and desired just as much today? It just doesn't make sense."
This Article is From: The Postal Newsgroup
"...The bill does not allow the Postal Service to break off from the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program as the Postal Service had suggested previously...."
"...accident Friday afternoon in southeast Houston involving a United States Postal Service truck and..."
"...The Postal Service pays Brian McCarthy Family LTD $30,916.87 annually to lease a 1,500-interior-square-foot property inside the McCarthy Flowers building, according to a spreadsheet provided by the agency. The lease agreement lasts through May 2023. ..."
"..."This proves, more than ever," said APWU President Mark Dimondstein, "that it’s a bad idea to turn public services over to a private company that can close stores at will, with no public input and no public comment. "Staples currently has a no-bid, sweetheart deal to operate postal counters — staffed by poorly trained, low-wage, high-turnover employees — at more than 80 of its stores," he said. "The U.S. Postmaster General has said he plans to expand this “pilot plan” to 1,500 U.S. Staples’ stores. And bills pending in Congress would make it easier to close and sell off U.S. Post Offices," he added. ..."
"...Their plan would require eligible retirees to use Medicare as their primary health care provider. ..."
| America Loves The Postal Service 'As Is' |
"...Because Quad ships so many pieces of direct mail and publications, over the years it has created such a tight relationship with the U.S. Postal Service that Quad in some ways effectively acts as an extension of the Post Office. Quad pre-sort magazines and catalogs, which creates efficiencies for the Post Office "mail-stream" and entitles Quad to bulk mailing discounts...."
"...(February 24, 2014) All excessing related to Area Mail Processing events has been place on an indefinite hold. The Postal Service is releasing the residual vacancies withheld for placement of employees who were potentially impacted by AMP events...."
"...A single letter stamp, currently 63 cents, would rise to $1 per stamp on March 31 (85 cents if you buy in bulk, 75 cents if you use a meter machine, and under 70 for large-volume mailers). And within five years, everyone would have to walk to a “community mailbox” to pick up their mail...."
"..."This is a very serious issue," Mikulski wrote in her letter. "Constituents report that they are waiting for prescription medications which are a week overdue." Hours later, other Maryland lawmakers, including Sen. Ben Cardin and Reps. Chris Van Hollen, C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger and John Delaney, as well as Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the District of Columbia as a delegate in Congress, signed a similar letter to Donahoe...."
"... post office in Yeadon on January 22nd and then robbed the Darby branch with a gun on the same day. Investigators were able to track Thomas down because of the mask he was wearing, one that resembled bumbling Police Inspector Clouseau from the 'Pink Panther' series. ..."
"...“CBRE conflicts of interest could lead to financial loss to the Postal Service and decrease public trust in the Postal Service’s brand,” the Postal Service Inspector General’s office said Wednesday in a “management alert” that strongly recommends that the arrangement be scrapped...."
"...In an effort make up for missed operational days last week due to the winter storm, the USPS is opening up 27 offices across the metro Atlanta area on Monday...."
"...Investigators did not cite a motive for the bombing. They said they were running tests on the explosive materials, which appear to have been planted rather than delivered by a mail or package service...."
"...Investigators looking into the mail bomb that killed a retired lawyer at his Tennessee home Monday, and his wife days later, may have found a clue amid the debris: a note officials believe was attached to the bomb...." Police find note attached to mail bomb that killed Tennessee lawyer, wife
"...On the Setzers' quiet rural street, neighbors were terrified about whether a bomb might arrive in their mailbox. Some told WZTV that officers went house-to-house Monday night to check mailboxes for devices...."
"...In one case a Maple Heights man had more than 50 pounds of marijuana mailed to an office space he rented in Beachwood and to his home. Postal inspectors also..."
| GameFly |
"...There is no word on when — or if — the committee will reconvene to finish consideration of the legislation, S. 1486. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee meeting, Jan. 29, 2014 Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee meeting, Jan. 29, 2014 “The bill would be devastating for postal workers and the people of the country..."
"...Since 2000, the Postal Service has shed 300,000 career jobs — a drop of almost 40 percent. The Postal Service eliminated 37,400 jobs in fiscal 2013 alone. And it’s not going to get any better. Over the next few years, postal jobs are going to keep disappearing — at a faster rate than in any other sector of the labor force. According to the Occupational Outlooks Handbook just put out by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, by 2022 the number of clerks, mail processing workers, and letter carriers will decline another 28 percent — 139,000 more jobs gone...."
| Keith Jardine [myspace photo] |
"...the postponement of the implementation date for the revised service standards for market-dominant mail products that were scheduled to take effect on February 1, 2014, as part of the Network Rationalization initiative. The new implementation date will be announced by the Postal Service in the Federal Register at least 90 days before it takes effect...."
In an article from the American Postal Workers Union, "The Postal Service announced in the Federal Register on Jan. 24 that it is postponing Phase 2 of its latest mail processing consolidation plan, which was slated to begin on Feb. 1. The USPS is also delaying implementation of changes to service standards that would have further slowed the mail, to the detriment of customers and postal workers."
Mail processing facility closures were contingent upon revisions to mail service standards changes. The postponement of service standard changes are a major victory for the citizens of the United States of America, employees of the Postal Service and mailers alike. It is obvious that the citizens of this country have spoken loudly and want to save the timely delivery and universal mail service to all patrons. To have purposely slowed the mail in this country would have been a disservice to everyone and would have only led to the possible destruction of the Postal Service as well as a move toward privatization which we all realize would lead to exorbitant rate increases for first-class mail. This decision may be a realization that our government is actually listening to the desires of the citizens of this great country and will preserve an institution that is vital to the infrastructure of our country. We applaud the intelligent decision to, at least, temporarily put a halt to the destruction of the United States Postal Service and the network as we know it today. The Postal Service is like the United States Military, as it was not designed to be a 'for profit' entity, but was constructed to provide an efficient and effective service to its citizens.
Is the Postal Service becoming too dependent on a management program that has been discounted by some as a proven failure? It appears they are employing 'Six Sigma' heavily[1], but history and the S&P 500 may be proof as to why the Postal Service may be investing in the wrong direction with Six Sigma. Read more on the process and you decide.
"...In fact, of 58 large companies that have announced Six Sigma programs, 91 percent have trailed the S&P 500 since, according to an analysis by Charles Holland of consulting firm Qualpro (which espouses a competing quality-improvement process). ..."
Link Appreciation Return: http://postalaffairsblog.intelisent.com/six-sigma-postal-service-touting-program-of-failure-to-managers/
"...documents released this week to the PRC indicate that the plan may have another purpose — preparing the way for ending Saturday delivery. In the Request, the Postal Service explains the rationale for the plan this way: “By changing the service standard for DSCF Standard Mail..."
"... While an individual mailer dropping off a postcard may not be affected by this proposal, most large mailers would feel the delay. The revised delivery schedule would impact about 32 percent of overall mail, or 62 percent of standard mail. The Postal Service called its plan “load leveling..."
"...The revisions would change the service standard (a) from three days to four days for Standard Mail pieces that..."
"... USPS, said employees can request access to two types of applications: packages and products that are licensed, such as Microsoft’s Visio, and Web-based applications such as USPS’ eCareer and its time and attendance system...."
"...“My understanding is the Post Office has been declining to deliver these packages and sending them back to shippers, and it seems to be getting more and more acute,” Stanford said. “I’ve heard gut-wrenching stories of people waiting on critical packages lost in limbo. How can we improve this? Right now it’s just unacceptable. It’s not servicing the residents of our community.”..."
"...the USPS’s shipping and package services grew to $12.5 billion in fiscal year 2013, representing approximately 19% of its revenues. The USPS said package volume grew by 210 million pieces (6%), and that fiscal year revenues increased $923 million...."
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| Military Vets in the U.S. Postal Service |
"...It means working to ensure that the post office continues to be a good place to work — with job security, decent wages, and good benefits — and remembering that the post office provides jobs to thousands of veterans, minorities, the disabled, and women. It means doing your postal business at your local post office, not some Village Post Office or the postal counter in Staples, and it means challenging workshare discounts, outsourcing, and all the other forms of piecemeal privatization. ..."
"...Allison says over the past few months, even more zip codes have been added to the Birmingham plant. "During the time of the post office right now we've been doing some consolidations. So we've consolidated Huntsville plant into the Birmingham plant here. ..."
Reference: http://www.animalnewyork.com/2013/watch-ups-tetris-24-hour-holiday-delivery-time-lapse/
"...pulled a knife on two women who were closing up a Washington Heights post office Tuesday, law enforcement officials say. Sable fled with about $2,000 and was arrested several hours later...."
"...If the Postal Service can't handle the higher volume, it will have long term financial implications as well since potential patrons could choose another delivery source, the report says...."
"...For the first time ever, post offices in Dallas, Forth Worth, and Arlington were open and processing mail on a Sunday...."
"...Postal Service spokesman George Flood says employees were evacuated when the fire began in a mail processing machine at the New Jersey International & Network Distribution Center..."
"...U.S. Postal Service spokesman Ernie Swanson said Ketchikan's sorting equipment gave out and it's not practical to replace it right now...."