Pushing the Envelope wants to ask you for your thoughts on how the U.S. Postal Service, as it faces its financial crisis, might improve operations and reduce costs while continuing to deliver mail.
Carriers are sometimes required to complete tasks and processes that leave them scratching their heads and asking, “why are we doing this?” Examples previously cited by some carriers include waiting in line for accountable items (mail that requires a signature) and having their productivity “rewarded” with more work. Another significant issue of concern to carriers is having single pieces of First Class Mail® driven out to them while on their route. There are some that believe this happens to influence First Class performance delivery scores. This action will often require a carrier to change or retrace their line of travel.
Loading ...What are some of the operations, tasks, and processes that do not make sense in delivery operations and that you believe management can eliminate? And why don’t they make sense? What ideas do you have to improve these operations, tasks, and processes and reduce cost? Improve service?
We invite you to share your answers in the comment section below.
This topic is hosted by the OIG’s Delivery Directorate.
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The going back for 1 piece of mail is silly. Also having to get express signed for. We waste time getting signatures and then having the clerks handle them if the customer isn’t home. All should be wavered. I think it’s also strange that we are supposed to be so much more efficient but our start times keep getting pushed back later and later forcing us to routinely deliver in the dark which is terribly inefficient
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I’ve worked out of two seperate offices. It seems like postage due items are out of hand at my current site. We get 3 or 4 of them every week on each route. The problem is, many of these have 17-cents or 33-cents postage due. By the time they pay us to fill out a slip, knock on the door, tell the customer they have 17-cents due, they grab the change and give it to us, the postal service has already lost money by paying us more than 17-cents to waste a minute or more on this whole process. If there are really that many items with home shipping postage being shorted, I think the sending offices should be catching this. If not, it doesn’t make sense that we’ve wasting time on a nearly daily basis collecting such small amounts of money… at a loss.
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Why am i coming in at 8:00? With all this technology i should be in at 6:00am and on the street early. What happened to every business by noon? When we cased all our mail i was off the street by 3:00. We need new leadership from the top down, sick of the doom and gloom! We are not going anywhere so lets make this the best delivery service possible! NEW LEADERS NOW!!!!
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Absolutely there are inefficiencies. Waiting in line for accountable items. Waiting at the end of the day for someone to come clear those accountables, because some MPOO decided there are too many clerks and now there’s no one in the evening left to clear. Sending carriers out for hours a week to deliver some advertisement that was mis-sorted in the morning. Requiring carriers to retrace for mis-sequenced dps that is found on the route. And yes, it is to make EXFC scores look better. Every supervisor, postmaster, MPOO, and District Manager I’ve talked to says so.
My favorite–the plant taking bundled presort flats (or letters!)and throwing them into the FSM (not FSS)just to make the “numbers” look good. Now a tub of flats that the carrier could have put up in 5 minutes takes 15 minutes because the previously neat and orderly flats are now tossed every which way in random order in a tub.
Offices where carriers are not allowed to pull the DPS off the racks and have waiting time because there are no clerks to transfer the DPS from the cage to the rack. (Our plant stages the DPS in cages as they pull it off the machine, so when it arrives at the office, it’s ready for carriers to pull. Saves many hours at our office every week.)
Carriers having to stand around and wait because the clerks aren’t done scanning and throwing parcels.
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Evaluated routes might be a good idea. It would allow carriers to decide the best way to prepare and deliver their routes. It would also allow for far less micro-management, and in turn, management positions.
Short of evaluated routes, I would allow carriers to decide how to handle 3rd bundles, DPS mail, etc.
No more “grand ideas”. Things like AMSOP, golden hour, etc. have only cost money, with constant audits by people not getting the mail moved.
The postal service has become so numbers oriented, that we can’t see the forest for the trees. Management spends all day doing reports. DOIS is considered gospel. Carriers know how to do the job. I feel, less management intrusion would actually lead to higher productivity.
A bonus system for carriers would help productivity. Currently, carriers feel they will be “punished” for doing a good job, by getting a larger route. We need to change that dynamic.
Finally, crossing crafts should be allowed. I know the unions would have to agree, which isn’t likely. It doesn’t make any business sense to have one craft on stand-by time, while one cannot keep up with their tasks.
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the introduction of fss is a disaster. i’m working more overtime now due to this system than ever before. whats going to happen when the mail volume increases just a little bit? and more carriers retire? overtime will not be able to keep up. before we were able to control the flow of flats and adjust our day. now everything goes and that takes whatever time it requires to deliver it. another mgmgt blunder.
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One of the things that fustrates me is the fact that a mailer will drop ship a mailing that is in walk sequence, then the PO will send that same mailing to the plant to be sorted and then return this mailing to the local office in tubs as fletters (a pile of letter sized mail) out of sequence.
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I think the throwback case is a huge waste and should be streamlined into fewer seperations… perhaps just Refused/Unclaimed and Undeliverable As Addressed? UTF, Deceased, No Such Number, Unclaimed, etc etc Does the sender really need to know anything beyond that? We spend countless (sometimes confusing) minutes sorting undeliverables into the “best guess” slots.
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I was a casual mail handler
Current masters in public administration student
These are some of the things USPS could improve on:
- Have tracking numbers listed in a specific area like the same side as the shipping address and not on the creases where it becomes impossible to scan and have to manually type in the numbers or letters.
-Computerized sorting of both packages and letters. It would make sense to keep up with the competitor. This will also prevent damage items, boxes, and faster service to customer. Which will lead to more business. If you ask customers why they use the UPS or FedEx they would say its faster and more reliable even if it costs more. Mail handlers throwing packages into BMCs will damage what ever fragile and label a customer will write on the box.
- There are lazy people in the USPS that come in and do the very least and don’t have to worry because they are a career employee. USPS needs to be able to fire people who aren’t working hard. There are tons of well qualified individuals who need work.
-The postal system needs to been modernized to keep up with the competition.
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Finally!! Someone is listening. 1-2 pcs of missorted mail are sometimes delivered at a tremendous cost simply to improve EXFC (measurement) scores. “Hub” offices travel hundreds of miles to carry these few pcs to the correct office, “hub” employees take the mail to the carriers who have already passed these delivery points, then the carriers must retrace their routes, placing mail in boxes that customers think are empty–all the while making everyones mail delivery later and more expensive. This all must be done before 5pm, the magic EXFC hr. If it isn’t done by then, no one cares, carriers can stay out until well after dark while those concerned with scores are safe at home with their families. Aside from the safety factors, the cost of one letter, many with errors caused by mailers, can be hundreds of dollars each. It is a practice that is not only required but monitored on a daily basis by reports and audits and needs to stop immediately.
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Thanks to all who have posted comments; we look forward to additional comments that we can move forward.
Keep them coming!
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I had a letter brought out to me for a house # & name unknown on my rte. That was a waste of wages & fuel for the 18 miles it took to bring it to me. Meanwhile, delivery conformation packages were left to sit another day. I’ve had people ask me why a package shows “arrived at delivery unit” & has not been delivered after 2 days.
We have competition in the parcel post & express mail part of our service. I don’t see management consentrating on them. As more people order things on line, we should have been more prepared then we were this past Christmas.
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I speak with my mailman quite often and he tells me the route given to him does not make geographic sense (he passes homes serviced by another employee to get to one side of is route to another). Not sure if this is an isolated situation, but it would be worth looking over current routes to ensure there is no overlap.
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In our office, we do not have enough clerks to get the mail to us in a timely manner in the morning and we wait for everything. Packages scanned arrived may not go out for days. This just should not happen!!! We have compitetion and we can beat it if we the USPS is smart. But there are too many people who do not care and are not nice to each other and the customers. We need to be like Publix and ask “what can I do for you?” I have been a rural carrier for 26 years and I love my job and my customers love me. It would be great if all employees could say the same.
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Please count my affirmative vote for ending Saturday mail delivery. I greatly appreciate the USPS and am disheartened over the current financial crisis. I am perfectly willing to forego my saturday mail in the interest of strengthening the current financial condition of the USPS.
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Msp scanning is out of control. 12 scans not related to a package etc should end. any data already collected should be enough .its been years now. As a sub I waste a lot of time going back and scanning an msp i missed because i was Bumped off my route and put on one im not familiar with.
Allow usps to mandate curbside in neighborhoods without sidewalks. It would cut down on street times and injuries . I have too many neighborrhods in my office that should be curbside but arent. Houses are far away from eachother and the terrain to get house to house is treacherous. ALSO ,walking routes would benefit from a No stairs mandate. some neighborhoods really cannot have a curbside delivery but If the mailboxes were at ground level and / or at ends of driveway near sidewalks it would cut down on time and injury.
In my office reg cage ,hotcase,etc are scattered throughout office. centrally locate these things so we have less “walking around” as management uses this as a tool of discipline.
In my office we recieved 2 other offices for some reason now there are extra carriers and our mail handler cannot keep up, use some of the people that have been displaced . open up a position when there has been such an increase.
have a more accurate way of counting volume . I have in the last 2 years gone from no mail to a full truck almost on a daily basis. ALSO 1st class outgoing buckets have been FULL upon return from my Residential Routes! People are coming back to us! The mail has increased! any numbers being seen are a lie! something is being hidden!
there used to be mail for businesses in buildings with numerous suites brought to you in the morning to case up in order. Now thats done on the street. none is in order and public sees you fumbling around with mail in the truck. it takes mere minutes to do it in the office.
3rd bundle system is out of control. the 3rd bundle usually advos and/or any other BUNDLE of fliers are bulky/messy and awkward for delivering up/down stairs etc. should be regulated in ways like maximum thickness and maybe requiring them to also be individually wrapped in plastic as we spend way too much time picking up things falling out, keeping them from flying away etc..
why is mail not in a one bundle anyway? why havent they just instead of buying new machines to sort mail in delivery order why didnt they adjust the current dps machines to accomodate the flats?!
One bundle system would be ultimate time saving /less injury ,distractions period!
Driving routes would also benefit from one bundle system. Too many steps . dps,flats,flyers,and you are required to take more than the 3rd bundle if your supervisor says so. Too many distractions . we have a huge responsibility to the public. we travel on the side of some roads that are dangerous to begin with. In this day and age with people txting and talking while driving we have to be more careful not to get hit ourselves ! its frustrating !
In my office we have 2 supervisors in the morning AND a seemingly made up Branch Manager position. Delivery sup in morn has ultimate responsibility to get us situated and routes pivoted etc.. clerk sup is making sure mail gets on trucks ,packages,flats etc sorted and to carriers . The Branch Manager does nothing but go around and create dissention by harassing Carriers ,clerks ,and bosses. this has to end. there is no time for this get out of our way and let us do our JOB. it gets worse when the postmaster comes and creates more problems for everyone when now the bosses are required to count every letter that is sorted by the clerks themselves because he believes his predecessor was lying about the mail in this office. if you want a count the clerk can do it ! we need our immediate boss to handle any issue that may come up! they have no time for us now ! frustrating!
there has also been a mid morning management position made up?! WHY? how many Bosses is needed . All this is creating is confusion and dissention where there is no need. The things they come up with leaves ME wondering if they were setting up the scenario the night before for a lil fun! Esp if there is a certain someone they dont particularly like! why? Must be too much time on their hands. As A Mother i kept my kids busy to keep them out of mischief ..seems to me too many supervisors who have been in one office too long , creates boredom. Maybe limiting # and rotating Supervisors in a district every year or 2 would help this?!
NO MORE T Es they are treated like dogs hence are miserable and public hate them. they do not have the luxery of doing a good job. their livlihood is threatened everyday if they do not just get it done reguardless of anything! The public is in danger many ways because of this. Missing meds, accidents,id theft because they just leave their mail wherever. Mentally these people are broken its a really sad situation. I worry about some of them .
Im sure i missed some stuff but its all i can think of at the moment
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Hello: To All
Does anybody know why we are being told to have the customer put the address label on the back of an international flat rate padded envelope instead of the front side where it indicates label is suppose to go. We were told today that this is now the standard procedure in Burke County NC. Why has this changed? Any info would be helpful.
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I can understand why so many people are getting fed up with the Post Office. Within the last year, we have gone from getting our mail at 10:00am, then it went to 2:00 pm, now for the last 2 months, it’s been coming between 5:00pm to 6:00pm. It makes a person crazy as to why such time differences. Any sales papers we get 2 days after the sales have started. Iam beginning to think the carriers are either shopping, eating, or napping instead of doing their jobs at the right times. Can you explain why this is all happening?
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Dear Deland Florida. Your carrier can only deliver what comes to their post office each day. The late sales flyers and uneven or late delivery times are beyond our control. Some days the plants swamp us and the next day almost nothing comes in. This might be caused by the new rounds of plant closing and attempts to improve “efficiency”. Your carrier is as bummed out as you are.
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At a meeting to discuss the financial situation the USPS is facing and the potential closing of our small post office, the subject of how the mail is processed came up. One man said that if he mails his brother (who lives a block away) a birthday card, the card is sent with all other mail into Kansas City – some 70+ miles away one way – where it is processed by an expensive piece of sorting equipment – then trucked the 70+ miles back to where it originated, then given to the carrier for delivery. The entire process has taken up to 5 days, and at a much higher cost. The USPS representative at the meeting relied that it is more cost efficient. Not one person believes that it can be cost efficient given the cost of fuel, handling the piece of mail multiple times; but do believe that this is the answer given to justify the money spent on an expensive piece of equipment or process. Handling and shipping all mail (especially local mail) to be process with that mail which is going across the state, country, or world cannot be cost effective.
Not to take away from the younger generation, but it appears that there is a lack of common sense present within the USPS. We need people who apply reason and a common sense approach to the logistics in processing and delivering the mail. How about the USPS hiring people of retirement age to apply their years of knowledge in logistics, budgets, and service instead of having them become greeters at Wal-Mart? The USPS could offer health care, and a reduced retirement (something that would supplement Social Security) for 10 years of service. When President Reagan was facing a potential war, my father (retired military) received a letter asking if my father would come back to work with the military if needed. Reagan knew the value of the knowledge seniors possess.
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