I generally trust USPS making on-time deliveries more than I do
Amazon’s in-house logistics service, but when there is a screw-up, it tends to
be a really “big” one. At least with Amazon, if a delivery is “lost” between A
and B, they provide “options” meant to avoid alienating customers. But with
USPS, if an item gets “lost” in the shuffle, you have no “options,” and USPS is
usually loathe to spend any time “correcting” the problem. For example, I
purchased an overpriced item from an Ebay seller who shipped the package “first
class” from New York on the 17th, with delivery scheduled for the 22nd.
By that day, the tracking stated that it hadn’t even left the New York hub.
I filed a “where’s my package” search, and quickly received an
insulting and offensive email reply from a local “carrier technician” named
Rachael Mathwig, who claimed that the issue was “resolved” and the case was
closed, and added that “it isn’t unusual” for first class packages to take 2-3
weeks to be delivered. Yeah, just pile-on more bullshit to make me even more
upset. Today there was still no updated tracking, still just a notation dated
on the 21st that the package would be delivered “late.” I decided to
call customer service to either get them to admit it was “lost” or to actually
do something to find out what happened to it. The CS person admitted that it
was “surprising” that the case had been “resolved” without providing any information
that would justify calling it “resolved,” and she promised to “escalate” the
investigation to a New York district manager. Word to the wise: call—don’t email—your
concerns about the service if you don’t want them ignored.
Problems like this may soon no longer be just the occasional
mishap. Remember Louis DeJoy, the present Postmaster General who was the first
in that position in decades who had no qualifications or experience in the
position? His only “qualification” for the position in the eyes of the man who
put him in the position, Donald Trump, was that he was a major Republican
donor—you know, like the former U.S. ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland. Of
course, DeJoy also was “concerned” about what he could get out of the job
personally for himself, which was converting some USPS services into the
private sector, which at least one company he had an interest in could benefit.
Some of us may recall that there were concerns about DeJoy’s actions
that displayed “reckless incompetence” that was likely “intentional.” There was
the cutting of hours, the destruction of sorting machines, and allowing mail
trucks to leave empty. Because of that, a high percentage of priority and first
class mail packages were seeing delivery delays. It was charged that DeJoy was
deliberately trying to sabotage the delivery system in order to delay and
prevent the timely delivery and counting of mail-in ballots, which would be
assumed to favor Democrats in the 2020 election.
DeJoy denied that his actions were designed to effect the election
in Trump’s favor, although one suspects that this was indeed Trump’s
expectation of him. After expressions of outrage in the media and by Democratic
politicians, DeJoy announced that he was delaying the implementation of his
“reforms”—except that the removal of sorting machines already in the process
would not be put back together and returned to service, even brand new
machines. Some post office workers even reported that they were told to stop
recalibrating new machines to begin operation by supervisors who claimed that
they had received instruction to continue the demolition process.
Nevertheless, despite isolate reports of boxes of ballots left
unattended before election day, it appears that whatever efforts were made to
“alter” the election by DeJoy went for naught, and rather surprisingly DeJoy
himself wasn’t a target for enabling “fraud” by Trump or any of his election
witch hunters. This probably explains why DeJoy still has a job, although
reports are that Joe Biden hopes to fill three vacancies on the USPS board,
which would give Democratic appointees a 5-4 majority to decide the fate of
DeJoy and his current “reform” proposals, which certainly gives one cause for
alarm.
According to a report by NPR, DeJoy is “calling for longer
delivery times for some first-class mail, shorter hours for some post offices
and more expensive postal rates—all part of a 10-year reorganization plan.”
DeJoy’s “plan” would cut hours at an undisclosed number of post offices, and
close an undisclosed number of other offices. Executive vice president Kristen
Seaver defended the actions, claiming that only the “fringes” of the network
were affected, and that the changes would essentially “only” reduce on-time
delivery for first class mail by one-third, which is frankly already a “big”
number to start with, and could actually go even higher if postal employees are
under no pressure to make “on-time” deliveries.
First class mail traveling from one coast to another “might” take
at least five days no matter what the extra cost of the shipping; “might” in
this case is just a euphemism for “probably will.” This included delays in the
delivery of prescription drugs, financial documents and bills, which of course
are a hair above being mere “annoyances.” The previous “promise” of USPS was to
deliver 96 percent of first class mail in 2-3 days; if DeJoy has his way, that
“promise” will become “yeah, right.”
DeJoy claims this is a “very positive” vision for the future. Yes,
USPS continues to hemorrhage money, but the mandate by a Republican-controlled Congress
to force the service to “prepay” health costs for future retirees didn’t help
(DeJoy claims that USPS owes $80 billion in unfunded liabilities). This
requirement was seen by many at the time as just another funding headache
imposed by Republicans as a way to force USPS into a “private” company model, outsource
some services, and to raise prices to allow private carriers to be more
“competitive.”
Not everything that DeJoy is proposing will negatively affect
service. His proposal to persuade lawmakers to ditch the pre-funding
requirement in favor of forcing retirees to accept Medicare is long overdue.
$40 billion in capital improvements to “modernize” delivery is being proposed, including
deploying “next generation” carrier vehicles and creating a GPS tracking system
for consumers, like the one Amazon provides (and hopefully a more “accurate”
system). There is also a proposal to make it easier for customers to schedule
the time and place of deliveries. Of
course prices will have to rise to meet the goal of putting USPS in the “black”
eventually.
To be honest, DeJoy talks like a “businessman” who justifiably
believes that the Post Office needs to be “streamlined” to run more
“efficiently. But this doesn’t jibe with the massive reduction in sorting
machines—especially brand new machines—that are meant to make processing mail
more efficient. Not only that, but by reducing both sorting machines and the
people to operate them and the hours they work doesn’t precisely sound like the
right way to “improve” efficiency—especially for service in rural areas.
Whether or not DeJoy keeps his job long enough to implement his
proposals remains to be seen. Last month, LA
Times business reporter Michael Hiltzik wondered why he was still around,
since even the Republic majority on the USPS board had “ample” reasons to fire
him. DeJoy admitted to implementing changes without properly examining their
impact on service. In 2019, 92 percent of first-class mail delivery was
“on-time” during the Christmas season; in 2020, it was down to 64 percent. Yes,
you might expect delivery services to be a little slower during holidays—but
not a lot slower. The problem with
DeJoy’s current proposals is that they don’t promise to improve service, but to
make it slower and more expensive, with just “cosmetic” improvements and
cost-cutting to justify it.
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