Keep Sunday Operations?
We’ve all heard the bad news. Mail volume in fiscal year (FY) 2008 totaled 202.7 billion pieces, a decline of 9.5 billion pieces or 4.5 percent compared to the previous fiscal year. Mail volume has declined even further this year. At the end of the last quarter, mail volume was down more than 12 percent from the same period last year. Most recently, the Postal Service lost $2.4 billion in the third quarter of FY 2009 and projected a net loss of more than $7 billion for FY 2009.
As a panelist during the August 6 Senate subcommittee hearings on the Postal Service, Postmaster General Jack Potter once again focused on the need for 5-day delivery, greater flexibility, and the elimination of some network infrastructure. During the same hearings, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended urgent action to streamline the mail processing and retail networks as the Postal Service no longer has sufficient revenues to cover the cost of maintaining its large network of processing and retail facilities.
End Sunday Operations?
The reality of the current situation is that in many areas the Postal Service has an excess of equipment, staff, and facilities to process a declining volume of mail. Given the harsh economic conditions faced by the Postal Service today, looking at opportunities to cut costs by streamlining inefficient operations or eliminating unnecessary ones makes good business sense.
One area for consideration is the elimination of Sunday mail processing operations. In many Processing and Distribution Centers around the nation, mail processing activities are run on Saturday night and into Sunday just as they are the rest of the week.
With mail volume declining, should the Postal Service reduce mail processing operation to 6 days a week, rather than the traditional 7 days, and allow employees to have Sunday off?
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I got just one word for ya…NO.
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Yes, the Postal Service should eliminate Sunday Mail Processing Operations.
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Listening to all the comments about how there is way too management. Which is so true. And the fact that all the middle management avoided this RIF. Goes to show that the Postal Service has it’s own “Ponzi” scheme going on. It’s with the number of management. They get the idea to just “shuffle” them around and nobody will catch on to the waste of money going on because they haven’t caught up to it yet. It’s time to put a stop to it before all of us craft employees end up like the folks “taken” by Madoff. We will be the ones to suffer.
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Maybe if the employees were higher quality stock the organization could rely on more initiative and fewer managers/baby sitters.
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Because of excessing and route adjustments our office can’t handle the fall volume. Ads to be delivered by 9-11-09, gaylords dated so you know which Monday the tag is for and 2 full cages of 3rd class letters just sitting for 2 weeks. Shame on us! We need to add a Sunday crew. 9/23/2009
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Yes, Sunday, all day, 24/7, the USPS Mail Processing Operaton should be eliminated. I couldn’t agree more for the ability to attend church services free of exhaustion and strengthening of family time. Please, why the continued need for 24 hour operations all around the country? Could this not also be streamlined to only a few plants [lessening the need to keep so many plants open 24/7]–BUYOUT! Big Savings Here…Certainly, more efficiency, streamlining of operations and elimination of repetition of jobs will cut 24/7 operations which has made the USPS too big, in some cases–expenses hard to control, and has the service out of step with the 21st century. I beg to differ…old 24/7 USPS operations can be streamlined to 21st century standards; thereby, saving tons of money. Just because something has been done for x amount of time the same way with the same results does not mean that it has to always be done the same way. If the clog is broken…what is so wrong if we fix it? Why not Saturday, also…Anybody!
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I have been following everyones comments and have not seen anyone address the use of part-time help in smaller po’s(aka. RCA’s,TRC’s) doing clerial work(am distribution, box mail,everything but working the window. As a rca in this office, I am not going to begruge any sub time in this economy. But, when you have subs who are recieving in excess of 30 hrs a wk or more, one has to wonder why a dist clerk or window clerk has not been assigned?
With the abudance of labor resources that are avalible to the USPS, I have to question the motives and practices of these pm’s.
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the plant that I work in has more mail than we can handle so if we didnt process mail on saturday night we would have a to work at least 12 hours on sunday night to get the mail out monday morning. We already lack the manpower to get the mail out on time anyway.
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Hey you guys are missing the baot if you cut anything make it SATURDAY. Sunday processing customers get mail the next day…..
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Somebody FINALLY is making sense. There is not enough mail on Sundays to justify working. The post office could save ALOT of money by cutting Sunday premiums this way. I say GO FOR IT. The sooner the better/split off days or not!
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Funny you should ask about Sunday. All the presentations I have seen for 5 day delivery show a removal of Saturday and most of Sunday operations. The USPS is not proposing a 6 day week but a 5 day week and that is unacceptable to the customers
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What customers is it unacceptable to. I’m a customer and I say it’s perfectly fine. I’m not willing to pay more so reduce my service. I only need mail delivery 3 days a week.
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I’m not totally prepared to furnish a comprehensive
comment on this issue. Moreover, it’s not simply a
matter of “cutting” a day based on the 24 hr clock
strategic operations model.
After I complete an analysis of an interesting economic report I’m reading, I can better respond.
But, first it is necessary to examine a compelling problem associated with the current employment structure, and associated collective bargaining mechanisims in place.
Then, consider the current employment numbers as
identified in the September newsletter, from which I
have derived the following hypothetical yet reasonable
scenario;
On any given day, The USPS employs (est) 767,000 people, of which potentially 225,000 are off sick, plus an additional 100,000 on either “light duty”, “disability”, or workers “comp”.
Now, fill in the daily operations blanks with the remaining compliment of employees whom don’t actively handle mail, or operations thereof……
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Not until they start laying off management…which they and YOU will never do…..YOU (the OIG) lays in bed with management!!!! You are ALWAYS attacking craft, not management!!!
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A noted point in my last comment, by this evening,
the Senate Finance Committee will presumably be
wrapping up their extensive review of the Medicare portion of their “current” House driven “NATIONAL HEALTH CARE PLAN”.
The number’s for consideration equal roughly
42% of the overall compliment. Which severely
complicates the Medicaid component of the bill.
See: 1017 pp of…. well, you know.. right?
H.R. 3200 July 2009
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Simply put, I say stop processing mail on sundays in plants where it is beneficial. Some plants require the mail processing time I’m sure.
There deffinitly is too many supervisors and managers. In the last package to reduce management there really seems to have been no cuts. I think I do see a managers job becoming a supervisory level job. Some of the in plant support at supervisor level pay are migrating to other unneeded positions. I have seen so much make work EAS positions since I have worked at the PO. I have to say the Post offices so called diversity plan is destroying the bussiness. It is obvious to me that the supervisors are not capable of managing operations of the importance that they do. This is what we get from our diversification and the the token white guy diversity program. Fill positions based on back ground and expertise. Not race and sex or sexual orientation. Thanks America…
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i agree with u closed 100 fsm on the sunday day
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Apparently no one commenting here is an automation clerk. Eliminating saturday or sunday processing will not make the mail go away. Eliminating saturday delivery will make every monday a three day nightmare for carriers instead of just holidays. Weekend processing is done with much smaller crews. Since sunday to monday DPS is the heaviest volume of the week, saturday to sunday is all first pass, with a final first pass and the large second pass done sunday to monday. It would be impossible to process all of that mail on one night, especially since most machines run two separate DPS programs.
As for tour 3, the same applies. Delaying the mail by one day does not make the volume any smaller. Again you will have too much mail to run on a single tour before tour 1 shows up and wants their machines and their mail. Our tour 3 standard volume is identical on weekends or weekdays. The only difference is that now our saturday outgoing has been shifted to a larger facility. And on many occasions our tour 3 sunday first class scf volume is larger on sunday than on any other day.
These ideas are the creation of management that gets bonuses for eliminating jobs, not for efficiently processing and distributing the mail. The collapse of the USPS began when it started being run “as a business” rather than as a Service.
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Stop Saturday delivery stop processing on Sunday. Get rid of all the vice presidents to PMG except one. Why does the USPS need so many vice presidents? Lats it I checked the United States had one vice president.
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Stopping processing on Sunday would result in service deterioration that would be suicidal. Less mail would come back. Trends to electronic payment and delivery would increase. Slower delivery of internet purchases would affect revenue.
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Volumes are NOT going to pick up.
End Sunday processing YES
Furthermore I would recommend that we downscale to 5 day delivery for all mail AND 3 day per week delivery for residential mail leaving commercial mail to 5 days per week.
There is absolutely NOTHING most residence’s need 6 day per week mail delivery. I personally could live with mail delivery 3 days per week. I pay all my bills online and really only get mail order purchases and junk mail. I could wait 1 extra day for those to arrive.
The cost savings of reducing residential mail delivery to 3 days per week and commercial delivery to 4 or 5 days per week should allow the USPS to reduce staff expenses and overall operational expenses significantly.
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Yes. Please spare all mail from the Flats Shuffler Shredder (FSS) at least one day a week. I’ll deliver the beautifully walk sequenced output of ‘self-serving printers’ on Sunday off the clock. Stay tuned for video highlights.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sID1lRTnXDY
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