The United States Postal Service is broke. If you were a member of the U.S. Congress, what would your proposal be to do with it?
This one-liner from Dennis Miller, used in his 2003 Raw Feed comedy special, is rather apropos:
“Ironically, in a highly driven society, the only ones not interested in pushing the envelope are postal employees.”
The only possible one liner when reading this headline?
“We’re licked.”
1st person to come on here and extol the virtues of FedEx or UPS is an idiot. PERIOD!
Bear, I’ve always had very good service with both FedEx and UPS. What’s your issue with them? Just curious.
UPS, at least for packages shipped from the US is horrible. I once bought a $179 electronic device on eBay and was charged $20 by the seller for shipping. So far so good.
UPS arrives, and the guy informs me I owe $30 and change more for “brokerage” and “other fees.” (no t including GST and PST, these were arbitrary fees tacked on by UPS.) So basically $50 goddamned dollars to ship a small package from the US. Never. Again.
I’ve never had this issue with FedEx, but the thing that sucks about couriers in general is that they come by when normal people are at work, then one has to go to the “depot” (which is always way across town in the middle of nowhere) to pick up the package. When one does not drive it is a real P.I.T.A. let me tell you.
The majority of things I order now get shipped USPS/Canada Post and then it’s just a five-minute walk to the local privately-owned postal outlet to pick up the parcel.
the bear; Careful who you call an idiot. FedEx,Purolator and others would not exist if it werent for the terrible service from the US postal service.Purolator made OIL FILTERS befor going into the mail and parcel delivery business.
I drag race an 8 sec car. Naturally, I go through a lot of parts. I buy all my parts in the U.S.
I use Fed Ex and UPS exclusively. UPS for big stuff and Fed Ex for the smaller stuff. Both of them are fast and reliable. Fed Ex is especially fast (less than 72 hrs, in most cases).
I ordered a small part from the U.S. two weeks ago and had it shipped USPS. I’m still waiting.
The postal service is inexpensive and reliable but it is verrry slow.
Paul; If ordering from the US ALWAYS get items delivered thru the postal service.They seem to be immune from brokerage fees and other charges as well as being faster and delivered to your local postal station.
Yes, well Paul…you see if UPS and Fed-Ex were allowed on a level playing field with Canada Post, they would overpower Canada Post within a year in terms of both cost and service. It’s a matter of scale and regulation.
In the example you have given regarding the five-minute walk to the “local privately-owned postal outlet”, if not for regulation, they too could handle UPS and Fed-Ex shipments…..why not? (well, except for regulation).
I too have had the situation you mention with UPS….but on the other side of the coin, a couple of months ago I ordered a new lamp for my TV on eBay from a supplier in San Diego. I bought in on eBay on a Monday morning about 10:00 a.m. local time. It was shipped by Fed-Ex and I received it the NEXT day at about 2:00 pm. A little over 24 hours. NO additional fees of any kind.
And it would now appear with the problems at USPS, the postal costs are going to be going up…big time.
The US Postal Service began it’s fateful downward spiril more than 20 years ago. For reasons that are obvious the political climate won’t allow change.
They don’t need 6 day delivery, when every second day will do.
They need to close 10’s of 1000’s of small town post offices. Urban growth has taken over these areas.
They need to franchise thousands of inner city facilities,
They need to reduce their product lines,
Finally they need to come up with a business model that fits todays realities.
Will they? I doubt it, better to borrow more from China to pay the bills.
The USPS needs to make Moist von Lipwig their new postmaster.
A small clarification. Canada Post assumed management of Purolator many years ago.
For those who didn’t know.
As much as it pains me to say, FedEx is an even worse example of how to run a business than USPS, WHICH IT USES to move packages between its local sites. The result is that a cross-country shipment via FedEx gets handed off by its sender, taken to the local office, mail to Tennessee, where it’s then sorted out and mailed to whatever distribution center is nearest the recipient, whence it is then driven past the customer’s house where the “delivering” driver leaves it in the truck while he silently sneaks up to the recipient’s door and leaves a “sorry we missed you, here’s where to pick up your package while you have to be at work*” note (yes, I’ve caught them doing this WHILST I WAS STANDING AT THE DOOR). The whole process — which takes one day, maybe two, with USPS First-Class — ends up taking upwards of nine with FedEx, and at twice or thrice the cost (and even IF USPS were operating to stay in business, it still wouldn’t be any better for FedEx, because they’d STILL be building that price into THEIR service).
* This would be a HUGE problem if anyone in America actually had a place to go to work.
IMHO, there’s not much wrong with the Canadian post office and the US post office that couldn’t be fixed by ending the union and firing half or more of upper management.
Gets all the clowns out of the road.
UPS once charged me $50 in “brokerage fees” for an item that cost $30! I would rather use the postal service than a courier.
Robert L says “UPS once charged me $50 in “brokerage fees” for an item that cost $30! I would rather use the postal service than a courier.”
Yes, well when you are dealing with false economics, I can see why. But the problem is that the model used by USPS is not sustainable and so the entire cost of their service has never been passed on to you. It will be now.
As for UPS or other couriers, once regulations are altered to remove the monopolistic practices of the postal systems, the market will quickly take over. And has been shown in Europe which is privatizing its postal services, the amount of postal staff drops, costs drop and efficiency rises as competition begins.
Robert W – if you ever happen to leave the confines of urbania, you’ll learn the answer very quickly.
I get 2-3 parcels by UPS per week.
Never a hitch.
I once had to pay brokerage fees too, but because I have such a good relationship with my UPS delivery guy he explained the fees were largely duty charges.
I almost had a delivery from Purolator once.
The bastard delivered my 2 new Dell hard drives to an address 2 blocks away(not even the same house number) and left the hard drives in a garden hose box.
Since I live in a very honest bedroom community outside of Calgary the home owner hand delivered them to me.(my address was on the outside of the box)
When I phoned UPS and complained they checked into it and said the driver claimed he delivered it to my home.
When I said I had the neighbourhood guy who delivered it to me as a witness(I didn’t even know this neighbour and still don’t), they just kept claiming their delivery guy was right.
Purolator sucks.
Oz – I’m glad you don’t have a problem with them. They don’t even deliver bother out here in the hinterland. A real PITA if you have a shipper that’s bound & determined that UPS or FedEx is the ONLY way to ship and return things. At least FedEx hands it over to the post office after scratching their heads for about 3 days. – yeah that’s right CANADA POST delivers my FedEx. So why does FedEx even bother.
“Gone Postal” is going to take on a whole new meaning…
Sorry, Norm, you’re wrong on the Constitution.
Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution says “The Congress shall have Power to … establish Post Offices and Post Roads” (among several other enumerated powers).
Note the wording. Congress has the *power* (ie the authority, the permission) to establish a post office. Just as it has the authority to coin money or raise a Navy.
But it does not have a Constitutional *obligation* to do any of these things.
Remember, everything resides with the States except those few powers (in that Article) which the federal government is *allowed* to perform. But there is no requirement (other than in the practical sense) for the feds to perform any of those duties.
(Just consider, that article says the feds can establish post offices and post roads. When was the last time the federal government established a “post road” (a road built specifically to facilitate mail delivery)? Early nineteenth century sometime. That requirement has been negated by progress – and so should the rest of the clause.)
For all of those people who have paid brokerage fees, you don’t have to. But, you have to have a Canadian Border Services (CBS) office nearby to pay the duty and taxes. The brokerage that UPS does, is that it collects the duty and taxes and pays them for you, and charges you the fee to do that. Here is what you do (if you live in a place where you can pay CBS yourself). Refuse the parcel and tell the driver that you will pay the duty yourself. You will then need to go down to the UPS depot and get a form (or two), as well as your original invoice, and take those to the CBS office to pay the duty and taxes. Once paid, UPS will release the package to you. Now, if you live in the sticks, pay the brokerage fees, as the drive to the CBS office will probably cost you more.
It would be a bloody day ,if the whole Post office in the US went postal. It would scare even the Jihadis.
“Unions have only one friend, one goal, Your pay check”
Dwayne, honestly if I were close to a CBS and a UPS office that would mean I’m within driving distance of the border. If I were in driving distance of the border, I’d have whatever I’m buying shipped to a “mailboxes r us” or whatever you want to call it and carry the thing over the line myself. However, being 5 or 6 hours north of the border pretty much precludes that plan on small ticket items.
Damn Yankees,6 day a week delivery,not necessary.
Actually a three day a week delivery would be more efficient.I could handle working it,3 12 hour days for a 36 hour paycheck.
Most businesses,esp.the larger ones would be against it. They have cheques delivered and it is important to get that cash in the bank ASAP.
It’s interesting that there are few comments here along the lines of vileness that were prevalent during the Canadian postal strike.
This seems appropriate.
It was not long ago that the British postal service had twice daily delivery. (possibly still do).
How is it possible that anyone could think that worth the cost?
“How is it possible that anyone could think that worth the cost?”
Victorian England had a postal delivery that was almost as good as email. The Empire was what it was in no small part due to that service. You could write someone a note in the morning inviting them for tea, and reasonably expect a response back in time to make the appointment.
Twice-a-day delivery these days is silly, because email.
I worked for a precious metals depository in the US earlier this year. Unless the customer specifically requested overnight delivery via UPS/FedEx, EVERYTHING went USPS Priority. I’m not talking about a $25 Franklin Mint special here; I’m talking about US Mint 1 oz .999 Gold Eagles, worth about $1500 each at the time, about $1800 each now. I would package ten of those in a tube, fill the box with bubble wrap, label (with tracking number and bar code), and ship it out. $7.
We would send up to 100 packages out this way every day. In three months, I never heard of us losing a single package.
I don’t think that the company would have entrusted packages worth up to $300,000 at the time (Mint-sealed box of 200 Gold Eagles, needed a larger box, so I think that was $17) to the USPS if they had any doubt about its efficacy.
I would add we didn’t exactly proclaim the contents of the box on the cover; we used initials to identify us, and didn’t ensure the packages beyond the standard fee ($5, IIRC, and that only covered the first $500; our carrier covered the rest). But my point stands: I doubt we would have used the USPS at all if we had any fear that the product wouldn’t arrive reliably and promptly.
Ironically, we were under strict orders NOT to ship anything via FedEx on Fridays. Apparently, the weekend shift was staffed by part-timers, and we experienced abnormally high losses for shipments over that period.
I get parcels all the time and it all boils down to bureaucracy. companies like Amazon, Tiger Direct and Newegg for example have a “Canadian” outlet which effectively gets rid of customs, brokerage and the like. The items still ship from Bug Tussle N.C but the hassle is gone. The government boys and girls over at customs and revenue can go gaga over collecting fees and duties. Once owed a couple of bucks for an item that didn’t fit in their interpretation of the Duties and Excise Act. Their processing fee was way more than the duty owed or the value of the item. Kind of like declaring a shopping trip at the border. All it was was a tourist map of Dildo, Newfoundland, honest.
Get a lot of equipment from the US at work and our broker runs most of the interference for us. Every once in a while though, a part has to go back for service, warrantied or otherwise and that just brings out the red tape.
I suspect we’re missing the point here. One of the largest problems facing the USPS is the fact that:
a) the contract has a NO LAYOFF clause
b) the outrageous pension benefits that post office has allowed itself to give the union.
I’ve never been one to hold back from criticizing a government entity, but I’m rather pleased with the USPS. I get my mail, my mail gets where it’s going pretty fast. They do good work on my money orders, my passport, and their shipping is fast and cheap.
Like someone else here said, all it will take to fix the USPS is to cut wages and benefits, reduce delivery to four days a week, fire overpaid and ineffective management, and impose cost cutting measures.
I read that when an postmaster got a new assignment, the USPS actually bought his house from him at a substantial loss.
Unreal!
Privatization might work. It couldn’t hurt.
I’ve actually been happy with USPS as it seems to get packages to me as fast as I can get them via courier. When I lived in Vancouver, couriers were damn fast but I had everything sent to my office. Now that I live in the sticks, the only way I can get courier packages overnight is if I ask for the most expensive delivery option. My last UPS shipment from Calgary, which I figured would go by road, ended up in Richmond BC and then slowly made its way to me to arrive 5 days after I ordered it. UPS’s way of letting me know that if I just paid $10 more for shipping they would send it overnight. So, another case of the UPS truck probably driving through the community I live in, transferring the shipment in Richmond and driving it back to the interior of BC.
I’ve never paid the brokerage fees that Fedex has attempted to impose on me. When I order electronics from the US I’m given a shipping cost to Canada. I refuse to pay anything above that cost and Fedex continued to ship items to my Vancouver office despite my refusing to pay brokerage fees.
My experience in ordering books from Amazon.com is that USPS is as fast as a courier and a lot cheaper. I’ve had the experience of courier’s refusing to pick up urgent shipments from my office as they don’t deliver to certain addresses. Also, when I first moved out of Vancouver I was dismayed to find that I couldn’t courier documents from my clinic to local addresses as the courier companies didn’t do local deliveries; downtown Vancouver had numerous bicycle couriers that would get stuff from my office to other Vancouver locations in a couple of hours at most.
Recently imported a transmission from the US for my vintage Packard. Upon arrival it was held in bond pending completion of import documents and payment of GST.
When I presented the paperwork for clearance the trolls at CBS/CRA disputed it and threatened to re-assess the value or suffer forfeiture. I asked to speak with the supervisor and eventually things got cleared up.