I wrote a few posts ago about how Amazon’s delivery service has been getting worse for some time now, and nothing changes. A package scheduled for delivery Saturday was missed despite being at the delivery facility at 2 AM, and then “promised” to be delivered Sunday, also “missed” despite and then showed again on at the delivery facility today at 1:30 AM, suggesting that it have been “mislaid,” and now Amazon “promises” delivery on Wednesday, four days late.
But surely USPS package delivery is “better,” right? Well, it used to be "better," or at least if not as “fast” as Amazon “prime,” it at least tended not only to arrive on “schedule,” but sometimes was delivered a day or two early if it showed up in the delivery location earlier than expected—although that was often a function of what the sender’s expansive delivery window was and not necessarily an indication of greater efficiency on the part of USPS.
But in the past month or so USPS’ package delivery (and mail in general) has become the subject of much anger. or example. It took 4 days for a package to be delivered "ground advantage" from Burlington--a one-hour drive to Seattle. I have this package that is listed as such:
It had an “expected” delivery of…
…and then the 15th, which it also missed. According to the tracking information, this has been taking a whole day each to move from one distribution center to another in California:
And it is still in California with now no "expected delivery" date specified. This is outrageous, but this is just one example of horrible service people everywhere have had to bear. This package arrived at a Seattle distribution center Friday morning with an “expected” delivery Saturday:
That may have been true just a month ago, but it is still sitting in the same place with an “expected” delivery of Wednesday:
Even given the President’s
Day holiday, this is still outrageously terrible service. What makes it even
worse is when you contact the daily mail people for an explanation, they are no
more “helpful” than Amazon’s so-called “customer service”: they only know what
the “system” tells them, and a package “lost” in the system will remain so until
someone on the other end picks it out of the pile along with the rest of the “lost”
packages and sends it to the next distribution center--and then they have the gonads to claim the problem was "resolved."
USPS’ tracking system is also getting less “reliable”; when Amazon ships through its own service before handing it to USPS to deliver packages for the “last” mile, which make absolutely no sense, their tracking information almost never coincides. This La Poste shipment, that was handed to USPS in New York eventually made it to Seattle where USPS proves its increasing incompetence with notifications like this:
One only needs to check the Internet to discover that people all over the country are seething in frustration over the precipitace decline of USPS delivery service, especially in rural areas. Sen. Josh Hawley (when he was not giving the power salute to January 6 insurrectionists, and then seen running for his life in the Capitol building) said to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy that he plans on killing his reforms, to which DeJoy retorted that he would then see the “killing” of the postal service.
DeJoy’s 10-year “plan” to make USPS “profitable” include raising prices, closing local distribution centers and “consolidating” the “network” to a few “mega-centers,” delaying ground deliveries until trucks are “packed,” and sending fewer packages directly to post offices (such as those Amazon "shipping partner" deliveries) to send out for immediate on-time delivery.
The Postal Regulatory Commission report is unimpressed by these “reforms.” In its recent report it claims these proposals rely on “defective modeling, overly optimistic financial and cost saving projections, and unclear time frames for rollout of the changes. In addition, the Commission finds that the proposal fails to fully consider the significant, negative impact of these changes on rural communities across the country.”
The PRC notes that there is a “disconnect between the transportation models and the processing operations, and the heavy reliance on transportation utilization in determining cost savings without including processing operations. The Commission concludes that it is unlikely that the Postal Service will create a more efficient network compared to the legacy network. The Commission finds that the projections are based on assumption and conjecture that potentially lead to uncertainty about whether the Postal Service can achieve them, or even properly track and measure the success of the initiatives to determine whether additional change or alternative measures are necessary.”
It goes on to say that DeJoy “offers little convincing evidence or testimony to reasonably support the claims that his proposed actions will turn out the way he estimates. The projected cost savings will not significantly improve the financial health of the Postal Service.” Rather, significant reductions in delivery of “Single-Piece First-Class Mail will extend to 6 or more days” will likely anger customers and “if the Postal Service is unable to mitigate impacts, or if implementation proceeds in a manner that creates further imbalances, such a result could reach the threshold of ‘undue or unreasonable.’” Half of all Zip Codes are slated to have “downgraded service.”
The PRC notes that “USPS projected the efforts would save around $4 billion annually,” but it has “failed to provide empirical evidence to support its cost savings claims and even if fully realized would reduce its annual operating costs by just 4%. Those savings are ‘not likely to significantly improve the Postal Service’s financial condition.’”
Who is “responsible” for this? DeJoy, we ought to recall, was “nominated” by Trump and approved by a Trump-appointee dominated board of governors. Naturally in oligarchic fashion, DeJoy being a Republican mega-donor he was the “right” person for the job. Former shipping companies he had a stake in, GXO and XPO, have received hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts from USPS. Of course we are told that DeJoy “divested” himself from any control of these companies, but who is he kidding?
It is suggested here that if DeJoy has his way, USPS will find itself in a “death spiral” 1 . Joe Biden’s hands were tied to remove DeJoy, since only the board of governors could vote to do so, and two of those appointed to the board by Biden apparently supported DeJoy’s plans.
But let’s not keep who is really responsible for this out of the picture: Trump. DeJoy was not competent to be Postmaster General; prior to this, this position was filled by someone within the USPS system, and being a “mega-donor,” DeJoy’s appointment was clearly a political one in which DeJoy hoped to enrich his former companies, which we may suspect when he decides to step down we will find out how much he did profit from his connections.
No comments:
Post a Comment