USPS is not exactly inspiring confidence these days..

[Jhengsman]

Mail delays likely as new postal boss pushes cost-cutting

Trying to use a neutral news source. This is the reason the USPS is having such a hard time. They screwed up a pedal I shipped out so badly it took over a month to go from Virginia to North Carolina. I could have walked there faster.

No that is the future as the announced focus on cost was just an announcement a couple of weeks ago. Some districts have said get ready and no more calling in postal workers on their off day at time and a half overtime. A strategy which also keeps them under the 60 hour work week.

At the moment we have half staffs due to quarantines trying to hold the lines by working 12 hour days. Including Sunday letter delivery in some districts

 

[Charlzm]

When the user's scanner hits the bar code on the piece it is supposed to announce hold it. At that point he is normally at the delivery point ready to get rid of it, or heading back to his vehicle hitting the delivered buttons and by nature is not going to spend more time and potentially keep an overloaded truck with a big piece in the way to hinder the deliver other pieces.

Now I may have seen two intercept orders in the few years we had scanners with that ability and nobody warned us that it was a ability we had the first time a scanner told me to hold it.

But why would it even be loaded on the truck in the first place? Two days in a row starting the day after the request was made? Before the C-19 pandemic, I never had a problem with a delivery intercept (and I had done a few here and there). Just noting that systems seem to be fraying a little around the edges.

Well, luckily I was home and a porch pirate didn't make off with my $800 package.

 

[Charlzm]

Check out the tracking for oud strings I ordered a month ago, hoping they show up soon!

August 7, 2020, 9:28 am
Processed Through Facility
UNITED STATES
------------------------------------------
August 3, 2020, 1:03 pm
Departed
DOHA, QATAR
------------------------------------------
August 1, 2020, 6:49 pm
Departed
CHICAGO, UNITED STATES
------------------------------------------
August 1, 2020, 9:53 am
Arrived
CHICAGO, UNITED STATES
------------------------------------------

***?!?!

 

[Jhengsman]

But why would it even be loaded on the truck in the first place? Two days in a row starting the day after the request was made? Before the C-19 pandemic, I never had a problem with a delivery intercept (and I had done a few here and there). Just noting that systems seem to be fraying a little around the edges.

Well, luckily I was home and a porch pirate didn't make off with my $800 package.

Right now some offices have no clerks so the normal institutional knowledge is gone. If a function is missed then no manifest is prepared for a route. Thus when a carrier loads no scan and alert upon loading is made and he goes old school methods and reads the printed address to load instead of hitting a barcode and being told the loading plan and order.

 

[eddododo]

The US Postal Service has been underfunded for years - a result of the government's treating it as a business which should succeed or fail on its own merits. Used to be that it was considered a SERVICE.

Now, the current Postmaster General, who has no experience in management, is running USPS further into the ground. It's not the fault of the workers.

Yep, I’ve always rather liked the USPS. Some people have their horror stories, but I’ve almost exclusively had timely, reliable; and careful service for as long as I’ve done anything

 

[jbhaugh]

2 months back, my son who lives in Arkansas, asked me to ship him his old collection of "Magic" cards. It consisted of several card boxes of "commons"
And one binder of his "rare" ones..
I boxed up the commons in a plain box and the binder in one of those " If it fits it ships " box's.
$50 to ship the big plain box and $13 for the little one (cripes!) And away they go. The receipt sez small box ETA is the following Monday, and big box the following Thursday.
The small box shows up the next Tuesday... ok..1 day off no worries.
The larger box...... finally.... 3 and a 1/2 weeks later.
2 parcels, shipped at the same time, from the same location, to the same address, 3 weeks apart... what the????????
Our tax dollars hard at work.

Actually no tax dollars are spent on the postal service. It it "self-funded". That is, in part, the problem.

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

I just can't wait to see how this thread goes...

 

[Charlzm]

Right now some offices have no clerks so the normal institutional knowledge is gone. If a function is missed then no manifest is prepared for a route. Thus when a carrier loads no scan and alert upon loading is made and he goes old school methods and reads the printed address to load instead of hitting a barcode and being told the loading plan and order.

I was under the impression that every package that comes into an office was scanned individually when it arrives to verify that it actually arrived. Isn't that when an exception would be seen?

I've worked in warehouses for several companies and this is how we verified deliveries, but I don't know how the USPS does it.

Anyway, as I said, I luckily didn't have to file a claim.

 

[EchoEcho]

I've heard lots of tales about USPS.
We slag off our Royal Mail but I'm guessing it's like StarTrek-style instant teleportation in comparison, with the additional benefit that parcels don't get abducted by aliens en route.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Bought neck on eBay.
Priority mail insured.
Received by USPS in TX 7/20
Leaves TX 7/22.

Nothing about location / next facillity just in transit, arriving late.
7/31 in SF, 8/1 arrives in Sacramento .
8/2 leaves Sac at 11:30 pm.
8/2 leaves Sac at 1145 pm
8/2 leaves sac St 145 am
8/6 in transit , arriving late.
8/7 still not here.

The above was from text alerts it had 3 exit scans.!?
Sac is 80 miles from here, normally this would be on my door the day it left sacramento.
They update @ every 48 hours and put in this boiler plate "Status"

In Transit, Arriving Late
Your package will arrive later than expected, but is still on its way. It is currently in transit to the next facility.


August 7, 2020
In Transit, Arriving Late
Your package will arrive later than expected, but is still on its way. It is currently in transit to the next facility.
August 4, 2020, 12:40 am
Departed USPS Regional Destination Facility
SACRAMENTO CA DISTRIBUTION CENTER
August 3, 2020, 11:27 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Destination Facility
SACRAMENTO CA DISTRIBUTION CENTER
August 1, 2020, 12:17 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Destination Facility
SAN FRANCISCO CA NETWORK DISTRIBUTION CENTER
July 22, 2020, 9:20 am
Departed USPS Regional Facility
AUSTIN TX DISTRIBUTION CENTER
July 22, 2020, 3:33 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Origin Facility
AUSTIN TX DISTRIBUTION CENTER
July 20, 2020, 11:02 am
USPS picked up item
LAMPASAS, TX 76550
July 20, 2020, 8:22 am
Shipping Label Created, USPS Awaiting Item
LAMPASAS, TX 76550

 

[Jhengsman]

I was under the impression that every package that comes into an office was scanned individually when it arrives to verify that it actually arrived. Isn't that when an exception would be seen?

I've worked in warehouses for several companies and this is how we verified deliveries, but I don't know how the USPS does it.

Anyway, as I said, I luckily didn't have to file a claim.

A manifest is scanned of the pack or piece of equipment carrying many pieces upon arriving to the station. At the station pieces are scanned individually to assign them to a route, assuming the bar code had not been defaced in transit.

At this point since our healthy clerks have been reassigned to the larger district plant to make up their losses we are about 5 days behind non Amazon pieces. And letter carriers work their 12 hour of day, assuming they completed an overloaded route on time, he then "throws" the parcels. Actually put them under the bar code reader which tells what route it goes to. Which accounts for the arrived in station and out for delivery being so far apart. and it is someone who flips a switch or scans something which prepares the manifest for the route that the carrier uses to load his truck when he scans the piece. If there is no route manifest then there is no scan and alert upon the truck load out.

And with that 5 day wait my station is doing better than other neighboring stations as we lost our last replacement new hire for a retiring carrier to another station even further in the hole than we are.