Reader Responses to Charles Guy's "Can Postal Service Learn"

Editor: A lot of the "cost" for mail processing is poor management. When a company gets a discount for 'carrier sort' mail, or 5 digit sort or less of a discount for 3 digit sort, this means that the bundle need not be opened but sent to the carrier, 5 digit location etc. This would eliminate processing time that is the reason for the discount. This hardly ever happens. The bundles are opened (deliberately ) and put through machines all going to one bin (because they are all bundled that way) and many times jams occur because of this flooding of one bin, zone etc. If mail were processed as it "ought to be processed" stamps might be 10 Cents. I am exaggerating about the cost of a stamp but not by much. I worked for the USPS (for 17 years) and it needs to be privatized. Bundles are opened purposely in order to maintain current levels of overtime. Operating costs are out of hand only because there is such poor mail processing management. Management attitudes will never be changed in the current Postal environment. The only real solution is privatization. DC

Editor: It is a very simple task to reduce costs of the postal service. 1. Terminate 75% of management. 2. Cut postal delivery to 3 days per week. Yours, Joe Wilson, Plano, TX

Editor: As a 26-year employee of the Service and the son of a Service retiree, I can assure you that the unions will not back down on wages and benefits. The reason is quite simple: The union hierarchy is made up, one and all, of communists--or at the very least, socialists. To these incredibly untalented people labor is the only thing of value, without it nothing is accomplished and, after all, the managers and supervisors are leeches and bloodsuckers living of the honest labor of the proletariat. If this view seems incredible, try this one: The craft workers are lazy, ignorant thieves who spend most of their work day attempting to find ways to get over on management. No good idea ever came from the craft and if it did, they stole from someone in management. Union officers spend too much time working on nuisance cases and defending the same malcontents month after month and year after year. These are the contrasting viewpoints that I have experienced over my career and I see no manner to end the “us versus them” mentality. Cordially, Don Spickler, St. Charles, MO.

Editor: The U.S. postal service is one of the most poorly managed operations in the country. The management to labor ratio is something like 1 to 5, in the private sector its closer to 1 to 10. The problem is better solved by cutting management, or give them the choice to return to the labor craft. Managements, bean counting and micromanagement practices are killing the postal service. GAW

Editor: I am old enough to remember when the post office made a 100% productivity increase by switching from twice a day delivery to once a day residential delivery. Has the time come to make another 100% productivity increase by switching to 3 day a week delivery? Proposal: deliver to half the addresses on M-W-F and the other half on Tu-Th-Saturday. Most time critical messages are currently handled by email, fax or overnight express mail. There is very little mail that, one day more or less, makes any difference. Does anyone really care whether their bills and/or junk mail comes today or tomorrow? In the western USA especially, but really all over, the USPS mandate of universal service everyday except Sunday is very expensive; e.g. some residences are at the end of 50 mile long roads. Advantages of this proposal include cutting the Postal Service cost of delivery approximately in half, reducing the number of Jeep vehicles in half, reducing gas & oil by half not to mention pollution. There is even an advantage to the customer; in this era of mail box theft, the customers need only promptly empty their street side mail box 3 days a week. On non-mail days people can be away without concern about theft. Implementation of this plan does not require $billions of capital investment. EL

Editor: Tell me! How many items or services can the American public purchase for 39 cents? Tony Zaccagnini, Lindenhurst Illinois