How Much Will the Post Office Put Up With? • Hacker News Board

Re: How Much Will the Post Office Put Up With?

#51

Post by indiejade » Sat, Aug 08, 2009, 2:14 PM UTC

solutionyogi wrote: post #39

sachinag wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USPS operates under an insane number of constraints that private competitors don't. They have to serve every single residental address in America, no matter how remote (UPS, and especially FedEx, laugh at this); they have to have outposts in bumblefuck nowhere; they have to offer six days of service even though volumes don't support it; fixed rate pricing for First Class letters even from/to the most remote desti…

In my original comment, I was not arguing about the reasons why USPS doesn't make money. The author suggested that USPS is cheap and that is incorrect because USPS 'feels' cheap only because government takes care of the losses. BTW, correction for my previous post, USPS lost 7 billion dollars in 2008. Link: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/gao-postal-service-in-fi... Coming back to your argument about the constrai…

The other day I was in post office and there was a guy who was 2 years short of the retirement and he was making 50,000$/year. Guess what he did? He sold stamps behind the counter. You can hire people to do his job for 7 to 8 dollars per hour but because of Union/labor laws, he makes 50,000$. How is that for efficiency?

Were you aware of how long this particular employee had been working for the USPS? Yeah, it's a little old-fashioned, but there is something to rewarding long-time and hard-working employees. (Japan companies get the retirement concept oodles better than the US). Maybe he'd long ago paid his dues as a carrier, and was simply happy to be working the last couple of years before his actual retirement.

Re: How Much Will the Post Office Put Up With?

#52

Post by HeyLaughingBoy » Sun, Aug 09, 2009, 2:15 AM UTC

billswift wrote: post #9

diN0bot wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

interesting: "Wrapped brick. Wrapped in brown paper; posted in street corner box with same amount of postage as was strapped to unwrapped brick. Extreme weight for size made package seem suspicious. Notice of attempted delivery received, 16 days. Upon pickup at station, our mailing specialist received a plastic bag containing broken and pulverized remnants of brick. Inside was a small piece of paper with a number cod…

The obvious moral is that if you're going to send anything heavy through the mail, send it in a larger than necessary box. Machine tool parts and so forth of steel are actually significantly denser than bricks.

It may have something to do with where the mailpiece originated. I get machine tools through the mail without any problem -- just got a 25lb vise two weeks ago, but it was sent from a clearly commercial address with the words "machine shop" in the title.

Re: How Much Will the Post Office Put Up With?

#53

Post by akd » Mon, Aug 10, 2009, 5:38 AM UTC

codyrobbins wrote: post #34

nostrademons wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard that someone once addressed a letter to: HILL JOHN MASS And it got there. See if you can figure out the intended recipient - it took me a good half hour. Spoilers at http://www.randomhouse.com/features/billbryson/bb_title/disp...

I once mailed a postcard from Honolulu addressed only to Michaelangelo McKasty Albany, New York and it never arrived. I find it highly unlikely there is more than one Michaelangelo McKasty in Albany. I assume the USPS clerks in Albany are somewhat more disenchanted with their jobs than the ones in Andover, and just threw the postcard away.

Or, they didn't appreciate you screwing with them when they're already agreeing to deliver your letter for just 44 cents and 3 lines of address.