8 ms·

A rural post office was told to prioritize Amazon packages. Chaos ensued

helsinkiandrew 3y ago
https://archive.ph/L5XSB https://archive.ph/L5XSB
- kdklol 3y ago
  Thank you.
wiml 3y ago
The article is frustratingly vague. Who told them to prioritize Amazon packages? Who is not hiring enough people to keep up with their volume?
- busterarm 3y ago
  USPS is operated by a 11-person Board of Governors — the Postmaster General, his deputy, and nine governors appointed by the President and approved by the Senate for seven-year terms. Some of these slots are frequently empty. The Board appoints the Postmaster General, who acts as the CEO. A separate Postal Regulatory Commission with five members appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate oversees the USPS, including the rates it charges.
- hef19898 3y ago
  From experience, not with the USPS but still, the customer tells the carrier to prioritize. Customer as in the company buying services from the carrier, here Amazon, and notbthe customer of Amazon. And it is up to, in this example, Amazon and USPS to make sure staffing and capacities are adequat. If you are among the top three customers of a company, you hold a lot of sway regarding prioritization. And during holiday season, stuff like that happens all the time.
busterarm 3y ago
I don't live in a particularly rural area -- pretty much on the edge of suburban/rural and in 10 years will be firmly suburban. I see my local postal carriers working delivering mail most days between 9 and 11 pm. That's right. PM.
- ivandenysov 3y ago
  Stupid question: Is it “9 pm to 11 pm” or “9 am to 11 pm”?
  - MongoTheMad 3y ago
    I think he means the end time is between 9pm and 11pm. The start of the shift is not mentioned.
CogitoCogito 3y ago
> The Postal Service considers the contract proprietary and has declined to disclose its terms. Am I the only person that finds it crazy that this isn't public information? Edit: > The Postal Reorganization Act (at 39 USC 410(c)(2)) exempts the USPS from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) disclosure of "information of a commercial nature, including trade secrets, whether or not obtained from a person outside the Postal Service, which under good business practice would not be publicly disclosed". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Reorganization_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Reorganization_Act It seems to me prudent to remove that exemption.
- orwin 3y ago
  Yes. I think natural monopolies should be exploited by government (or government adjacent), rather than by regulated companies, but that comes with the expectation of full disclosure/transparency so bad practice can be voted out. I'd rather have a publicly traded company own a natural monopoly (with some regulation) than an opaque government agency.
  - dathinab 3y ago
    agreed but then the government also has the power to make any opaque government agency fully transparent and for cases like USPS the only reason they might want to not do so seems to me to be corruption and/or hidden subventions.
rtpg 3y ago
Really surprised at how rural postmen are using their own cars. This must be a huge issue! Imagine having to probably double or triple your driving time because you don't drive a delivery truck! Though OTOH I don't know how well such delivery trucks would handle less maintained roads. (Aside: I've always wanted a way to just signal to delivery companies that I'm fine picking things up, just tell me when they arrive at the sorting center. I live close to them, so it's easier for me of course)
- ljf 3y ago
  Similarly - I'd be happy to get all my parcels just once a week - most of the things I order aren't urgent and I'm likely to not be around to receive the parcel anyway.
  - rtpg 3y ago
    There is a tension between regularity of delivery and logistics. If you have things happening once a week, then you're asking yourself "which day of the week". It can't really be all the same day of the week (now you're looking at delivering 7x more packages that one day), but even if you distribute it all on a fixed day per address then people will still have times that they want things. In a magical world post offices would have some sort of mechanism like just texting people that a package might arrive on a certain date, and maybe you can hit a button to request earlier delivery. Unfortunately the existence of that button requires restraint from the general population to be of any utility (and charging for the button press is a bit gnarly). Perhaps in rural populations, people would be more reasonable though (especially if downstream of this system you actually had deliveries happen _when they are predicted to_)
    - hyperman1 3y ago
      It can be done better than today. If I order 3 packages on bol.com,I tend to see 3 delivery vans on the same day,sometimes literally parked behind each other. Or they spread out to 3 consequent days. Or the neighbour gets a delivery van half an hour later. They're mostly from the same company (bpost) I'd like to tell them: Pick a day next week, and deliver everything together at the same time. Make it a bit more expensive to let the customer choose, and market forces will balance things out.
quink 3y ago
Side note on WP's subscription popup there, "A99c every 4 weeks for the first year" is never how you should write that. "A$0.99 [...]" is the way to go. https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punctuation-and-conventions/numbers-and-measurements/currency https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punctuation-and-conve...
thefz 3y ago
Just another failure of capitalism, and a prime example of how the profit of few should not surpass the interest of many.
- Ancapistani 3y ago
  > government monopoly on a service exists, specified in the federal constitution > "This is obviously a problem with capitalism"
benj111 3y ago
>the post office has banned scheduled sick days for the rest of the year This sounds like an oxymoron. Is this a union thing, or does one have to know when they will be ill is the US/working for the post office?
- MongoTheMad 3y ago
  It means they cannot schedule time off of work to care for an illness, surgery, etc. It would prompt most to search for other lines of work but, in rural counties, not much else is available.
  - shiroiuma 3y ago
    >It would prompt most to search for other lines of work but, in rural counties, not much else is available. Living in a rural area is a lifestyle choice and a luxury, and this is simply one of the costs of rural living. There's a reason people lived in larger and larger settlements (villages->towns->cities) starting from the very dawn of civilization, and probably before.
Mashimo 3y ago
> local governments assured him $400,000 in *checks* > carriers drive miles of lonely routes in their *personal* vehicles > Routes meant to take eight or nine hours are stretching to 10 or 12. > post office has banned scheduled sick days That country is so foreign and bizarre to me. They work 12 hours shifts in their personal car. And what are "scheduled sick days"? Looking it up those are paid sick days? Are there non-scheduled sick days?
- lnxg33k1 3y ago
  Id just like to know if the people who buy things on that ecommerce can look themselves in a mirror, if they can detach themselves from the pain caused to workers and other people just by clearing their conscience because it should be someone else to regulate or get better contract, sometimes I wish that the hell of dante is true and there is a group made for the ignavi for real where they can suffer the same pain that is suffered for their ignorance
  - hef19898 3y ago
    I hate to brake it to you, but those same conditions exist everywhere in every supply chain. Or how do you think products end up in store shelfs?
    - lnxg33k1 3y ago
      I hate to break it to you, but there is no doctor’s order that say you must buy anything, it is perfectly fine to exist without consuming, and there are few ethical companies that at least try, or a middle ground between ethics and suppressing unions, etc
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - offices 3y ago
        >it is perfectly fine to exist without consuming So did you borrow someone else's device to post this?
coding123 3y ago
Lol, anyone that knows a little about this industry knows that 80pct of parcels come from Amazon - so you can't not prioritize that. The rest is either chewy or some random hotness du jour like starlink terminals.

https://archive.ph/L5XSB https://archive.ph/L5XSB

kdklol 3y ago
Thank you.

wiml 3y ago

The article is frustratingly vague. Who told them to prioritize Amazon packages? Who is not hiring enough people to keep up with their volume?

busterarm 3y ago
USPS is operated by a 11-person Board of Governors — the Postmaster General, his deputy, and nine governors appointed by the President and approved by the Senate for seven-year terms. Some of these slots are frequently empty. The Board appoints the Postmaster General, who acts as the CEO. A separate Postal Regulatory Commission with five members appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate oversees the USPS, including the rates it charges.
hef19898 3y ago
From experience, not with the USPS but still, the customer tells the carrier to prioritize. Customer as in the company buying services from the carrier, here Amazon, and notbthe customer of Amazon. And it is up to, in this example, Amazon and USPS to make sure staffing and capacities are adequat. If you are among the top three customers of a company, you hold a lot of sway regarding prioritization. And during holiday season, stuff like that happens all the time.

busterarm 3y ago

I don't live in a particularly rural area -- pretty much on the edge of suburban/rural and in 10 years will be firmly suburban. I see my local postal carriers working delivering mail most days between 9 and 11 pm. That's right. PM.

ivandenysov 3y ago
Stupid question: Is it “9 pm to 11 pm” or “9 am to 11 pm”?
- MongoTheMad 3y ago
  I think he means the end time is between 9pm and 11pm. The start of the shift is not mentioned.

CogitoCogito 3y ago

> The Postal Service considers the contract proprietary and has declined to disclose its terms. Am I the only person that finds it crazy that this isn't public information? Edit: > The Postal Reorganization Act (at 39 USC 410(c)(2)) exempts the USPS from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) disclosure of "information of a commercial nature, including trade secrets, whether or not obtained from a person outside the Postal Service, which under good business practice would not be publicly disclosed". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Reorganization_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Reorganization_Act It seems to me prudent to remove that exemption.

orwin 3y ago
Yes. I think natural monopolies should be exploited by government (or government adjacent), rather than by regulated companies, but that comes with the expectation of full disclosure/transparency so bad practice can be voted out. I'd rather have a publicly traded company own a natural monopoly (with some regulation) than an opaque government agency.
- dathinab 3y ago
  agreed but then the government also has the power to make any opaque government agency fully transparent and for cases like USPS the only reason they might want to not do so seems to me to be corruption and/or hidden subventions.

rtpg 3y ago

Really surprised at how rural postmen are using their own cars. This must be a huge issue! Imagine having to probably double or triple your driving time because you don't drive a delivery truck! Though OTOH I don't know how well such delivery trucks would handle less maintained roads. (Aside: I've always wanted a way to just signal to delivery companies that I'm fine picking things up, just tell me when they arrive at the sorting center. I live close to them, so it's easier for me of course)

ljf 3y ago
Similarly - I'd be happy to get all my parcels just once a week - most of the things I order aren't urgent and I'm likely to not be around to receive the parcel anyway.
- rtpg 3y ago
  There is a tension between regularity of delivery and logistics. If you have things happening once a week, then you're asking yourself "which day of the week". It can't really be all the same day of the week (now you're looking at delivering 7x more packages that one day), but even if you distribute it all on a fixed day per address then people will still have times that they want things. In a magical world post offices would have some sort of mechanism like just texting people that a package might arrive on a certain date, and maybe you can hit a button to request earlier delivery. Unfortunately the existence of that button requires restraint from the general population to be of any utility (and charging for the button press is a bit gnarly). Perhaps in rural populations, people would be more reasonable though (especially if downstream of this system you actually had deliveries happen _when they are predicted to_)
  - hyperman1 3y ago
    It can be done better than today. If I order 3 packages on bol.com,I tend to see 3 delivery vans on the same day,sometimes literally parked behind each other. Or they spread out to 3 consequent days. Or the neighbour gets a delivery van half an hour later. They're mostly from the same company (bpost) I'd like to tell them: Pick a day next week, and deliver everything together at the same time. Make it a bit more expensive to let the customer choose, and market forces will balance things out.

quink 3y ago

Side note on WP's subscription popup there, "A99c every 4 weeks for the first year" is never how you should write that. "A$0.99 [...]" is the way to go. https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punctuation-and-conventions/numbers-and-measurements/currency https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punctuation-and-conve...

thefz 3y ago

Just another failure of capitalism, and a prime example of how the profit of few should not surpass the interest of many.

Ancapistani 3y ago
> government monopoly on a service exists, specified in the federal constitution > "This is obviously a problem with capitalism"

benj111 3y ago

>the post office has banned scheduled sick days for the rest of the year This sounds like an oxymoron. Is this a union thing, or does one have to know when they will be ill is the US/working for the post office?

MongoTheMad 3y ago
It means they cannot schedule time off of work to care for an illness, surgery, etc. It would prompt most to search for other lines of work but, in rural counties, not much else is available.
- shiroiuma 3y ago
  >It would prompt most to search for other lines of work but, in rural counties, not much else is available. Living in a rural area is a lifestyle choice and a luxury, and this is simply one of the costs of rural living. There's a reason people lived in larger and larger settlements (villages->towns->cities) starting from the very dawn of civilization, and probably before.

Mashimo 3y ago

> local governments assured him $400,000 in *checks* > carriers drive miles of lonely routes in their *personal* vehicles > Routes meant to take eight or nine hours are stretching to 10 or 12. > post office has banned scheduled sick days That country is so foreign and bizarre to me. They work 12 hours shifts in their personal car. And what are "scheduled sick days"? Looking it up those are paid sick days? Are there non-scheduled sick days?

lnxg33k1 3y ago
Id just like to know if the people who buy things on that ecommerce can look themselves in a mirror, if they can detach themselves from the pain caused to workers and other people just by clearing their conscience because it should be someone else to regulate or get better contract, sometimes I wish that the hell of dante is true and there is a group made for the ignavi for real where they can suffer the same pain that is suffered for their ignorance
- hef19898 3y ago
  I hate to brake it to you, but those same conditions exist everywhere in every supply chain. Or how do you think products end up in store shelfs?
  - lnxg33k1 3y ago
    I hate to break it to you, but there is no doctor’s order that say you must buy anything, it is perfectly fine to exist without consuming, and there are few ethical companies that at least try, or a middle ground between ethics and suppressing unions, etc
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - offices 3y ago
      >it is perfectly fine to exist without consuming So did you borrow someone else's device to post this?

coding123 3y ago

Lol, anyone that knows a little about this industry knows that 80pct of parcels come from Amazon - so you can't not prioritize that. The rest is either chewy or some random hotness du jour like starlink terminals.