How Amazon Could Save the U.S. Postal Service

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Honestly, I'm not sure anyone can save the USPS but, if anyone can do it, it would be a company like Amazon.

The postal service still has miles to go before becoming Amazon’s courier of choice. The pilot program is limited to delivering a maximum of 200 packages per day to customers of 1-800-Flowers.com’s sister brands, which sell popcorn, cookies, chocolate and gift baskets. Friess says the USPS is planning to add more retailers soon. If the test is successful, which he says the agency believes it will be, Metro Post will roll out to other large markets across the country.
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Netflix should also look to partner with them and put Netflix Disc boxes (like Redboxes) in the Post Offices open on Saturdays ... I am sure they could work out some reasonable form of compensation ... and that would compensate for the loss of the Saturday mailing day for discs ;)
 
But why would anyone choose USPS? They are slow, they treat your packages like crap, and they drop them pretty much anywhere on your property with no regard for weather.
 
Tiburon1186 said:
But why would anyone choose USPS? They are slow, they treat your packages like crap, and they drop them pretty much anywhere on your property with no regard for weather.
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And the others dont??? UPS always just puts by boxes in front of my door. Last time my video card was out in the rain all day. It could have been placed in the corner under the porch. Lucky the soggy cardboard box kept the water out till I got home. I still like UPS but they all do this kinda crap. Atleast with USPS if the box is small enough it will be put in your mailbox.
 
1/2 bent said:
And the others dont??? UPS always just puts by boxes in front of my door. Last time my video card was out in the rain all day. It could have been placed in the corner under the porch. Lucky the soggy cardboard box kept the water out till I got home. I still like UPS but they all do this kinda crap. Atleast with USPS if the box is small enough it will be put in your mailbox.
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You have a point. It really may be a driver by driver scenario. Back at my old house the UPS driver was awesome! He'd always treat my stuff well. All the drivers be it fedex, usps or ups here in the suburbs always drop the stuff on my porch. They don't even ring the door bell. Seriously they must hire all ninjas here. I never hear or see them and I go out for a smoke and magic! a box is there.
 
I hear the doorbell and about .000025 seconds later a UPS/FedEx truck taking off lol.
 
I don't think anyone can save the post office.

If they can't survive with customers like NetFlix under their belt, not to mention the literal tons of crap-mail they deliver me every year, what can save them?

It's not that they don't have work/business. It's that they don't know how to do it efficiently.

Converting their fleet to run on CNG, for one, sure wouldn't hurt. This has been a success for every city and/or business that has done it as far as I know.
 
TechLarry said:
I don't think anyone can save the post office.

If they can't survive with customers like NetFlix under their belt, not to mention the literal tons of crap-mail they deliver me every year, what can save them?

It's not that they don't have work/business. It's that they don't know how to do it efficiently.

Converting their fleet to run on CNG, for one, sure wouldn't hurt. This has been a success for every city and/or business that has done it as far as I know.
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Congress is the single biggest reason they are having trouble. If you eliminate what they have done they could survive.
 
1/2 bent said:
And the others dont??? UPS always just puts by boxes in front of my door. Last time my video card was out in the rain all day. It could have been placed in the corner under the porch.
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Thts still really really weird that companies will do that. Pretty much anywhere else in the world no company will just leave a package on the doorstep. If it's not there they leave a note for you to pick it up from their local depot, or try and deliver it the next day.

I know just doing that is the laziest and cheapest thing to do. But it's not really a remotely sensible way of doing something. Oh but it's the cheapest...
 
DeathPrincess said:
Thts still really really weird that companies will do that. Pretty much anywhere else in the world no company will just leave a package on the doorstep. If it's not there they leave a note for you to pick it up from their local depot, or try and deliver it the next day.

I know just doing that is the laziest and cheapest thing to do. But it's not really a remotely sensible way of doing something. Oh but it's the cheapest...
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Well, I haven't seen the breakdown of worldwide package delivery but the USA consumption is huge ... they are delivering more packages in a day than some countries have population ... warehouse and shelf space is expensive ... understandable that they prefer to deliver the package if possible ... consumers probably haven't helped any when they complained when they had to wait an extra day or go to the post office/UPS Fedex Offices to get packages that couldn't be left ;)
 
LeninGHOLA said:
USPS does a pretty damn good job in my area.
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Not in mine, also seems like our landlords/management doesn't seem to care to maintain our mailboxes anymore so most of the apartments mail boxes are broken and don't lock. I can see the USPS going away in the next few years and they will not be missed here.
 
Amazon ships a lot of my stuff USPS. I like it when they do as it comes next day no matter what and much sooner then UPS or FEDEX. Always in good shape too, UPS tends to throw them off the truck if they are large or heavy.
 
BoogerBomb said:
Congress is the single biggest reason they are having trouble. If you eliminate what they have done they could survive.
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If we eliminate the federally-enforced monopolies and tax exemptions enjoyed solely by the USPS there is no way in hell they would exist.
 
I've actually had great results with USPS Priority shipping. As far as saving the USPS goes, that won't happen until they no longer have to listen to Congress. They have a stupid system right now that forces them to go by what Congress says, but they don't actually get any Federal funding.
 
Damn I hope they don't replace ontrac/fedex/ups with usps... They all do such a great job lately getting the box in good shape right to my door, the usps feels like it's always a day behind and is absolutely atrociously slow if it's not in a priority mail box.
 
kbrickley said:
Well, I haven't seen the breakdown of worldwide package delivery but the USA consumption is huge ... they are delivering more packages in a day than some countries have population ... warehouse and shelf space is expensive ... understandable that they prefer to deliver the package if possible ... consumers probably haven't helped any when they complained when they had to wait an extra day or go to the post office/UPS Fedex Offices to get packages that couldn't be left ;)
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But even if they have more people to deliver to overall than some countries, they will also have a similarily scaled post force. If every country in the world had 100 delivery people then things would be different! Especially as most countries in the world have greate population density. In Tokyo or London the population density is much higher and land is much much more expensive. Yet it is managed. :D
 
I can't stand USPS because their package tracking is the worst I have ever seen. Packages that get to me in 3 days where the tracking number does not even show up as valid on their site till AFTER I have it.

Why does this matter? Because our delivery guy can not seem to remember that our leasing office will sign for packages. They either forget every time or refuse to take it there if I'm not home. Which if its something bigger than my mail box it means I am out a hour or so of pay (they close when I get off work) because I have to run to the post office to get it. If I am lucky and its late in the week I can wait till the weekend.

This is the one reason I really avoid Amazon like the plague because you can't pick your shipping method. Well I could pick next day for everything to always get UPS or whatever but that just costs to damned much. Its even worse when Amazon picks some shady 'no name' currier to deliver it.
 
I don't have any issues with ups, I have them send stuff to my parents house all the time. They have a standing agreement to send all the packages they receive to our lab. Where they stay nice and dry. part of it, is that the stuff we ship is time sensitive. They are normally good and getting it to us. Only once has it been delayed, and that was only a single day.
 
Of course if we had politicians with serious balls (or ovaries as the case may be) this could be the perfect tipping point for the paperless society ... shut down residential mail delivery completely ... you can purchase a mail box at various mailbox stores or live without mail that isn't a package ... no more checks (all financial transactions are through wire only) ... magazines/newspapers all digital ... bills get them and pay them online ... what could go wrong :D
 
kbrickley said:
Of course if we had politicians with serious balls (or ovaries as the case may be) this could be the perfect tipping point for the paperless society ... shut down residential mail delivery completely ... you can purchase a mail box at various mailbox stores or live without mail that isn't a package ... no more checks (all financial transactions are through wire only) ... magazines/newspapers all digital ... bills get them and pay them online ... what could go wrong :D
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"Paperless" is a word that gets thrown around like "synergy".
 
Isn't the USPS the only Government "job" that is basically self sufficient and makes money rather than most Government divisions that cost money?
 
Skillz said:
Isn't the USPS the only Government "job" that is basically self sufficient and makes money rather than most Government divisions that cost money?
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They are supposed to break even. No profits, no losses, just even.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
"Paperless" is a word that gets thrown around like "synergy".
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Well "Paperless" is a powerful "Paradigm" that presents an "Opportunity" to "Leverage" "Transformational " "Synergy" that can "Empower" the "Globalization" of Technology ... cough cough cough ... I got too many buzz words caught in my throat :p
 
TechLarry said:
This. And the UPS trucks all have this very distinctive sound to them :)
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The pavlovian response to the truck engine here at the household is probably even unhealthy, I always tell the g/f "Santa's here"
 
DeathPrincess said:
Thts still really really weird that companies will do that. Pretty much anywhere else in the world no company will just leave a package on the doorstep. If it's not there they leave a note for you to pick it up from their local depot, or try and deliver it the next day.

I know just doing that is the laziest and cheapest thing to do. But it's not really a remotely sensible way of doing something. Oh but it's the cheapest...
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Well I mean they only deliver during working hours... when most people are not home to receive the package. If they didn't leave it... then what's the point of home delivery? I'd be driving to the damn office to pick it up every day!
 
RangerXML said:
Not in mine, also seems like our landlords/management doesn't seem to care to maintain our mailboxes anymore so most of the apartments mail boxes are broken and don't lock. I can see the USPS going away in the next few years and they will not be missed here.
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So you because you live in a complex with shitty mailboxes this is the postal services fault? :rolleyes:

Contact the building inspector and have him take a look at look at the condition of the mailboxes let him handle the manager.
 
Tiburon1186 said:
Well I mean they only deliver during working hours... when most people are not home to receive the package. If they didn't leave it... then what's the point of home delivery? I'd be driving to the damn office to pick it up every day!
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Leaving $300 items on the street probably isn't the best idea.

You work Saturday? Oh wait they decided not to deliver then...:D
 
Zangmonkey said:
If we eliminate the federally-enforced monopolies and tax exemptions enjoyed solely by the USPS there is no way in hell they would exist.
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If congress allowed them to raise prices to a fair level they would be fine.

If congress did not force them to bank 75 years worth of retirement benefits (something no other company or government does). They would be fine.

If congress allowed the USPS to monetize their brand, they would be fine.

There is no monopoly or tax exemption, just a congress that shits all over the USPS so they can break the unions.
 
Old Man said:
USPS delivers 30% of FedEx mail.
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For rural areas USPS is the final destination deliverer for packages.
bpizzle1 said:
They are supposed to break even. No profits, no losses, just even.
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They are also completely limited, takes money mostly in form of tax breaks else everything else is pretty much paid for by stamps which they don't control the price to and due to them being drafted by congress really limited in their ability to expand their role.
sfsuphysics said:
Ummmm... not quite.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/u...ce-reports-a-nearly-16-billion-loss.html?_r=0
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Silly that's due congress requiring them to pay for future employees retirement funds ahead of time, they have to prefund for employees retirement that have yet to be retired. They are the only government controlled business that has to do that. USPS only came into finical troubles in 2006 when congressed pass that rule, nearly all of their operational loss comes from that.
 
doho7744 said:
If congress allowed them to raise prices to a fair level they would be fine.

If congress did not force them to bank 75 years worth of retirement benefits (something no other company or government does). They would be fine.

If congress allowed the USPS to monetize their brand, they would be fine.

There is no monopoly or tax exemption, just a congress that shits all over the USPS so they can break the unions.
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This.

Both of my parents work for the USPS.

Congress is 95% of their problem.
 
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