5 ms·

The US postal service might not be what it used to be (I didn’t get a Christmas card I was sent until mid-April) but it still remains one of the most impressive

by abduhl 5y ago

The US postal service might not be what it used to be (I didn’t get a Christmas card I was sent until mid-April) but it still remains one of the most impressive logistics systems ever built, in my opinion. Letters sent to me have tracked me through multiple moves with the high point being a letter showing up in a mailbox after I’d moved twice, with one of the moves being across state lines and the other being intracity. Was it late? Yes. Did it arrive? Yes. It’s probably the only portion of the US government that I’m absolutely certain will eventually do its job.

spamalot159 5y ago
I feel like this is becoming less certain. I have had multiple packages undelivered in recent months. And many more times I have had things arrive late to the point where they were no longer needed.
matthewdgreen 5y ago
But as recently as a couple of years ago it did its job much better: both more reliably and more rapidly. The reason people are writing about it now is because the new regime of routine delays is very recent, and probably the result of some very significant changes made by politically-appointed leadership. ETA: There is a relatively short window now during which these changes can be rolled back, or people will just get used to the idea that "the reliable Post Office is another of those fantasies my parents' generation enjoyed, oh well: at least I can use UberMail for $22 a letter."
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
  Let's not mince words: Republicans conspired to fuck up the post office because its successes serve as a counter example to their narrative.
  - shiftpgdn 5y ago
    I've been shipping stuff online for 15 years. The post office has always been a huge mess. The only reason articles are getting written about it now is because A. Covid-era mail volumes have doubled or tripled. And B. You get to blame Trump.
    - MisterBastahrd 5y ago
      DeJoy was literally having them tear mail sorting machines out of their facilities, having them discarded in trash bins, and then cut hours for workers. Try again.
      - shiftpgdn 5y ago
        The Obama administration had them remove a massive amount of sorting machines too. Those are letter sorting machines. Letter volume is down to literally the lowest it had ever been. There is a reason they are getting ripped out.
        dsr_ 5y ago
        The letter sorting machines are faster and cheaper than manually sorting the same letters... and they were already paid for. You are correct that there is a reason that they are being ripped out, but it's not because letter volume is down.
        shiftpgdn 5y ago
        Letter volume is down and the machines need to be replaced with machines that can handle parcels. How are they supposed to replace them!?
        makomk 5y ago
        Manually sorting letters isn't actually the alternative here - what the US Postal Service was moving towards under DeJoy (and probably before him too) was sorting the same letters using the same kind of automatic machines, but a smaller number of them reconfigured to sort into a larger number of different piles using parts from the scrapped machines. This reduces overall capacity, but should be more efficient so long as they don't actually need the extra capacity.
    - burkaman 5y ago
      I've been reading articles about Republicans sabotaging the postal service by making it pre-fund its retiree health fund since well before Trump. In fact, the law was passed 15 years ago, just as you started shipping stuff. It's always been absurd to expect a government service to make a profit, and we've been talking about that for a long time, I don't think most people say it's Trump's fault.
  - tomcam 5y ago
    Citation?
- maxerickson 5y ago
  There has also been a pretty dramatic change in mail volume over the years. I'd rather service get subsidized than gutted, but I don't think politics are the only driver of change.
  - slickdork 5y ago
    There has been a change in volume... but it's going down. 168 billion in 2011 vs 129 billion in 2020 [1]. [1] https://facts.usps.com/table-facts/ https://facts.usps.com/table-facts/
    - makomk 5y ago
      More specifically, letter volume has been going down and parcel volume has been going up. Basically, there's been a huge shift in what the US Postal Service actually does, and their ability to cope with it has not been helped by - for example - the media creating partisan conspiracy theories about reducing the number of sorting machines that can physically only sort letters to rebalance their infrastructure being an evil right-wing conspiracy to destroy the postal service.
Cthulhu_ 5y ago
"it works" is however simply not good enough; it's a service that should NEVER decline. To quote the USPS' own motto: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." They take donkeys down canyons to serve isolated communities.
- tomcam 5y ago
  Unfortunately that’s not their motto. AFAIK they don’t have a motto. It’s just some thing someone put on a federal building. It does make an awesome motto though.

by abduhl 5y ago

spamalot159 5y ago

I feel like this is becoming less certain. I have had multiple packages undelivered in recent months. And many more times I have had things arrive late to the point where they were no longer needed.

matthewdgreen 5y ago

But as recently as a couple of years ago it did its job much better: both more reliably and more rapidly. The reason people are writing about it now is because the new regime of routine delays is very recent, and probably the result of some very significant changes made by politically-appointed leadership. ETA: There is a relatively short window now during which these changes can be rolled back, or people will just get used to the idea that "the reliable Post Office is another of those fantasies my parents' generation enjoyed, oh well: at least I can use UberMail for $22 a letter."

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
Let's not mince words: Republicans conspired to fuck up the post office because its successes serve as a counter example to their narrative.
- shiftpgdn 5y ago
  I've been shipping stuff online for 15 years. The post office has always been a huge mess. The only reason articles are getting written about it now is because A. Covid-era mail volumes have doubled or tripled. And B. You get to blame Trump.
  - MisterBastahrd 5y ago
    DeJoy was literally having them tear mail sorting machines out of their facilities, having them discarded in trash bins, and then cut hours for workers. Try again.
    - shiftpgdn 5y ago
      The Obama administration had them remove a massive amount of sorting machines too. Those are letter sorting machines. Letter volume is down to literally the lowest it had ever been. There is a reason they are getting ripped out.
      - dsr_ 5y ago
        The letter sorting machines are faster and cheaper than manually sorting the same letters... and they were already paid for. You are correct that there is a reason that they are being ripped out, but it's not because letter volume is down.
        shiftpgdn 5y ago
        Letter volume is down and the machines need to be replaced with machines that can handle parcels. How are they supposed to replace them!?
        makomk 5y ago
        Manually sorting letters isn't actually the alternative here - what the US Postal Service was moving towards under DeJoy (and probably before him too) was sorting the same letters using the same kind of automatic machines, but a smaller number of them reconfigured to sort into a larger number of different piles using parts from the scrapped machines. This reduces overall capacity, but should be more efficient so long as they don't actually need the extra capacity.
  - burkaman 5y ago
    I've been reading articles about Republicans sabotaging the postal service by making it pre-fund its retiree health fund since well before Trump. In fact, the law was passed 15 years ago, just as you started shipping stuff. It's always been absurd to expect a government service to make a profit, and we've been talking about that for a long time, I don't think most people say it's Trump's fault.
- tomcam 5y ago
  Citation?
maxerickson 5y ago
There has also been a pretty dramatic change in mail volume over the years. I'd rather service get subsidized than gutted, but I don't think politics are the only driver of change.
- slickdork 5y ago
  There has been a change in volume... but it's going down. 168 billion in 2011 vs 129 billion in 2020 [1]. [1] https://facts.usps.com/table-facts/ https://facts.usps.com/table-facts/
  - makomk 5y ago
    More specifically, letter volume has been going down and parcel volume has been going up. Basically, there's been a huge shift in what the US Postal Service actually does, and their ability to cope with it has not been helped by - for example - the media creating partisan conspiracy theories about reducing the number of sorting machines that can physically only sort letters to rebalance their infrastructure being an evil right-wing conspiracy to destroy the postal service.

Cthulhu_ 5y ago

"it works" is however simply not good enough; it's a service that should NEVER decline. To quote the USPS' own motto: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." They take donkeys down canyons to serve isolated communities.

tomcam 5y ago
Unfortunately that’s not their motto. AFAIK they don’t have a motto. It’s just some thing someone put on a federal building. It does make an awesome motto though.