A friend and I had an argument that we need help with. I thought the U.S. Postal Service was privatized 8 or 10 years back. She says I’ve lost my mind. Although she has a point, I still think I’m right about this. The USPS web site (www.usps.com) was no help. Any info out there ???
Yeah, it was privatized. It used to be run by the US Government and all employees were government workers but it was decided it would be cheaper to let a subcontractor run it. So, it was bid out. It still has to follow all previous government regulations but since it fell into private hands, it has gotten ‘weird.’
For one, mail service started getting slower.
Mailmen were never allowed to wear beards or have long hair. (They are now.)
They had to wear their caps when delivering to the public, uniforms had to be starched, had to look neat and had to wear very shiny leather shoes.
The government had been shoring up the post office, which, supposedly, had been running at a loss. As soon as it became a private enterprise, the cost of stamps went up. At the time of the change, postage was 5 cents. Now it is 33 and rising.
The post office has claimed it has been running at a loss for years and been jacking up the price of postage, but curiously enough, not too long back, they managed to come up with millions to redecorate the central office.
An interesting note is that when the postal employees were government employees, they were not allowed a union, plus postal inspectors checked them regularly through hidden passages (known to all) in most post offices. The union restricted that, stating invasion of privacy and postal thefts went up.
When they were government run, they did not have any postal nuts running around and shooting other postmen either.
Not privatized, but a separate corporation to be owned by the government. This is from the USPS website
The article goes on to say:
Well, I thought I was going to be able to help you, because I have an actual letter carrier here at hand. But when I went in the living room and asked him your question, all he said was, “Um–it’s the only national utility,” and then he went back to watching Return of the Jedi.
Yes, it’s true that when the Post Office was privatized, the price of stamps was 5 cents and now it’s 33 cents, but also bear in mind that in 1969, gas was 29 cents a gallon and now what is it?
They still have uniform and shoe requirements, which really suck bigtime (maybe I should take this to the Pit). The pants they’re required to purchase with an annual clothing allowance are made of a gonzo polyester fiber which looks great on a clothing rack, but which WEARS THROUGH, that’s as in “big rips appear because the fabric is literally too flimsy to hold itself together”. And you can’t patch it, because there’s nothing there to sew a patch TO.
Also, they aren’t allowed to wear Reebok-type walking shoes, they have to be oxford-type shoes, which really sucks for those letter carriers (about 85%) who have foot problems.
However, they have relaxed the requirements concerning tucking your shirt in and wearing belts. You can now get outside-the-pants shirts, which is a vast improvement. Also, female letter carriers now have the option of skirt OR slacks, which they didn’t used to have–it used to be “skirts only”, which sucked.
And yeah, the Post Office budget management is a joke even to the most loyal letter carriers. Actually, did you know that it’s Bulk Rate mail that mostly pays the way? The fee for a Bulk Rate cancellation keeps going up, but nobody complains because it’s deductible.
So, the Postal Service has been privatized or is a seperate “arm” of the Government. O.K., I’ll buy that. Now, what if I want to start up a postal service of my own, carrying letters etc.? (Not packages, like UPS) I can’t do it!!! Sound like it should be spelled M-O-N-O-P-O-L-Y.
You can start service delivering letters. You just can’t put them in a mailbox.
>> You can start service delivering letters. You just can’t put them in a mailbox.
I believe this is not true. Nobody is allowed to deliver non-urgent mail except the USPS and the logic behind it is that they provide a social service by delivering everywhere at the same price. Service where it is cheaper subsidize where it is more expensive. That is the logic.
In any case I am guessing in a few years it will be moot as email takes over.
Okay, I’m a mail carrier, so if you want to think my opinion is biased I’ll understand. Yes, we are a monopoly on mail. In the case of mail, this is not a bad thing. When you privatize, every individual company makes it’s own rules and prices. The fact is, it would not be cost effective to send your letter to your aunt that lives in some rural area of Montana at the same rate as it would your electric company across town. So, if and when private companies take over, you can expect to pay more for any out of the way area. Just makes sense. As far as efficiency goes, we are now at the mercy of computers. My computer mail gets more screwed up than I could ever manage on my own. One more thing … uniforms rules vary from place to place, I think, but I’ve worked in Las Vegas and now Eastern Ohio, and I always wear Nikes. (I like my knees and ankles) I also roll my sleeves up to counteract this stupid tan, and my shorts are shorter than most. (Don’t tell) As far as those that would like us to be non-union, I can only say BITE ME. I am a single parent, and it’s a struggle as it is. I can only imagine how other people do it that don’t have the power to bargain. Nuff said.
I did a debate in HS about the validity of the postal monopoly, so I am somewhat familiar with this topic (but it’s been a long, long time since then, so I may be a bit rusty with facts. But here goes…)
Firstly (pun), First Class Mail is the government’s baby – don’t try to compete or you’ll be facing charges.
Express delivery, parcels, and bulk mail (I may be using the wrong term here – what I mean is mail addressed to “occupant” and such) are fair game; witness UPS, FedEx, and local-kid-delivering-supermarket-fliers-after-school, etc.
Technically, this means if you want to FedEx that Father’s Day card, or put it inside that UPS box with the ugly tie, you do so at the risk of legal penalty. In my research I remember cases of people (I think courier operations, mostly) being charged with delivering what amounted to First Class Mail. They lost their cases.
And, as has been pointed out, you better not leave them in people’s mailboxes or you’ll be facing charges again. The boxes are legally for the exclusive use of US mail ONLY. Every couple of years you hear about some group like the Girl Scouts being charged with some postal crime because they left fliers about their bake sale in people’s mailboxes. Everybody blasts the USPS for being bullies and all, but I can assure you if/when it goes to court the Girls Scouts lose too.
There was a guy whose last name (damn I hope I remember this right) was Handi (or Handy) who was “Mr. Revoke the Postal Monopoly.” He wrote at least one book on the subject that summarizes all the arguments.
As for the cheap-delivery-subsidizing-the-expensive-delivery argument (or, as I think Handi called it, the anti-“skim the cream” argument), that is certainly one of the logical defenses of the postal monopoly, but it is not the legal defense. The postal monopoly actually takes it’s authority directly from the Constitution (I will tread lightly here… last time I invoked the Constitution in a post, I was creamed by the legal eagles). At least that’s how I remember it from my debate.
Closing Q: What the hell are the dress REQUIREMENTS of postal carriers? One carrier on my block wears no uniform garments at all, save an ID tag on her belt. She wears sneakers, jeans and any ol’ shirt she likes; she could be going to the beach for all anyone can tell, except she’s pushing a mail wagon!
“Mr. Revoke the Postal Monopoly” was John Haldi, not Handi. Sorry.
I went to Amazon and noticed that his book is out of print; but there are two others (by Peter J. Ferrara and J. Gregory Sidak) that are available.
Totally irrelevant to the OP but here are two personal anecdotes.
story #1
I get a magazine in the mail addressed to the same address but in another quadrant of town (NW instead of NE). I scribble in large letters: “Wrong address, it is addressed to NW” and I give it to my letter carrier in hand… two days later it is back in my mail box. I put a sticker to make it more obvious and put it back in the mail… two days later it shows up again. It’s happened three times already. I’m thinking of just calling the adressee and telling him he can come and get it.
Story #2
I send a letter to Madrid, Spain. A few weeks later I visit Madrid and see my friend but he tells me he never received it. He thinks I am making it up because it was some photos I had to make copies of.
About 10 weeks after I first mailed, I am already back in DC and I get the letter returned in the mail. Argh! I had made a mistake in the address. The letter has been to Spain and back (and took 10 weeks!) I could have given it to him in person. Anyway, sigh, to prove to my friend i did send it the first time, I put it in a new envelope and mail it again.
A few weeks later i am again in Madrid and he tells me he still didn’t get it… last week I returned to Washington and (you guessed it) … a few days after I was here, and about 10 weeks after I mailed it, the letter shows up in my mail box. Now comes the interesting part. It has a USPS stamp that says it is short of postage (I guess the second envelope) but there is another stamp that shows it has been all the way to Spain and back.
If it is short of postage I do not understand why they would ship it all the way rather than returning it the next day. anyway, I have decided I am not mailing it again. I am keeping it as proof and giving it to him in hand next time I see him whenever that is
I do recall there being subcontract ‘rural route’ carriers who were not part of the post office and who agreed, for a set fee, bidable, to deliver the mail in rural areas. They had to provide their own cars or trucks and substitutes. Most, from what I recall, did not wear uniforms and used to drive sitting in the middle of the front seat so they could poke mail out of the passenger side window.
I now see sneakers being worn on foot carriers, something which was never allowed.
Times have changed much because when I was a kid and my father was a mail man, the POSTMAN was as respected as the policeman. He showed up in children’s school books! I still have one of my fathers postal hats and waist coats. (They had these cool zipper jackets, uniform style, which were cut to the waist and very smart looking when worn. Government issue.) My mother recalls getting odd ‘frames’ she had to shove down the legs of his freshly laundered and starched uniform pants in order to develop a military crease in them. He used to wear a wide, black leather belt with a brass, open buckle. I still have a couple of leather straps with pressure grips on one end that were used to secure big bundles of mail together for stacking in his truck.
He had to show up for duty sharply dressed. His hair had to be cut to a certain length, he needed to be clean shaven and he had to be clean. Back then, no one ‘f**ked’ with a POSTMAN. I was a lid then, but I recall the post office picnics and how they all palled around together and when I was allowed to be with my Dad for a bit inside the Post Office, like when getting a ride home from school, everyone seemed friendly, pleasant, happy and busy.
My father died some years ago and even before that, the Post Office moved to a new building, but I still drive by the old one – used for some damn craft store now – and see the now nearly buried loading ramp and the small loading dock and remember good times. I also recall men moving around in blue uniforms, being friendly, looking sharp and joking with each other as they hauled around great canvass carts of letters and packages.
Yeah, the postal service has changed a whole lot.
Prism:
-
My dad was a lifelong PO (no “USPS” for him) man too. Believe me, no one bitches about how things have gone down hill more than he!
-
Dad was not a carrier, but I remember those pants stretching frames! They are the best. I got two when my best friend’s grandparents died and they were clearing out their house. I use them every laundry day.
WHERE CAN I GET MORE?!? (House-gadget catalogs, like Walter Drake’s, sell these flimsy, cheapo knock-offs that telescope in the middle; they are worthless. I want the good, sturdy ones like mom and grandma had.) Please help!
Uniform information … the uniform is technically the same everywhere. It’s enforcement that varies. As for the carriers in jeans and t-shirts, those are casual carriers. Casuals are part time help that the Post Office hires to fill in gaps. It would also apply to recent hires that have not completed the 90 day probation. Or as someone else mentioned, rural carriers. On rare occasions, it is your regular mailman who by the kindness of his or her heart agreed to go in on their day off and sort their route (no uniform needed if you’re staying in) and then, once there, got talked into delivering part of it.
Wow !!! Thanks for all of the info. Here’s the follow-up:
If the USPS has been privatized (as is the general consensus here),
-
What is the official name of the company ?
-
Who runs it (board of directors, etc.) ?
-
Is it a corporation that is publicly traded ?
-
If so, what is its’ ticker symbol ?
And lastly, since I couln’t find any of this on the USPS web site:
- Does anybody know where any of this may be documented ?
Thanks,
Pants stretching frames.
No, unfortunately, I don’t know where they can be obtained. My mother – now 73 – used them ages ago before the uniforms - or anything else - was wash and wear. Check with a commercial laundry or dry cleaner.
I live on a rural delivery route, about 7 miles from the local PO. Every day (except Sundays, legal holidays,and Mondays closely preceeding or following legal holidays) a friendly, concientious carrier stops by my drive, and delivers whatever anyone has seen fit to send my way. For thirtythree cents, he will deliver my missives anywhere in the country. Hell, I charge three times that for the time it takes to walk to the mailbox and back.
Does anyone have a site/formula for converting .05 in 1969 to .33 in 2000 in constant dollars? I’m betting that adjusted for inflation, 1st class mail is a great bargain.
- AFAIK, it’s the United States Postal Service
- There is a Board of Governors that runs the USPS. Nine of the 11 members of the board are presidential appointments subject to Senate confirmation. Those nine choose the Postmaster General, who then chooses the Deputy Postmaster General. Those two are on the Board of Governors as well.
- It’s a corporation owned by the US government. You can’t buy stock in it.
- See 3
- See http://www.usps.gov The Postal Service will tell you just about anything about itself.
(The Postal Rate Commission is a separate agency from the Postal Service BTW.)
In case anyone cares, as far as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is concerned, the United States Postal Service is a quasi-governmental agency.
Until October of 1999, an OSHA inspection was merely an inconvenience for the USPS. Fines were not levied. Not anymore.
About half of the states have their own OSHA, run by the state government: “State Plan”. All private businesses within these states fall under state OSHA jurisdiction. All federal government agencies fall under federal OSHA jurisdiction. In these states there are usually several state offices and only one federal one. All postal facilities fall under the jurisdiction of federal OSHA. Can you say “biggest customer?” Every time an inspection results in a citation (fined or not), USPS lawyers file an appeal. This means that the entire inspection file must be copied at least twice, sent to an OSHA lawyer in the respective Regional Office and to the OSHA Review Board in Washington, D.C. Months later the results come back and many times, citations are overturned.
I have a feeling they’ve underestimated the amount of work to be done and will open more offices in “State Plan” states.
Gee, can you tell I used to work for OSHA?
True USPS/OSHA story, from our local post office:
A while back they decided to upgrade the phone system in the old downtown Post Office. They started drilling holes through the floor to run cables through, and discovered that they were drilling through asbestos floor tiles, from way back when. OSHA had to be called in, they came in and did air tests, found out there were like 2 asbestos fibers per 40 gazillion cubic feet of air, some impossibly low amount, nowhere near the danger level. Nevertheless, OSHA filed a complaint against the USPS, involving a hefty fine, plus they immediately shut down the entire project, so guys in moon suits could come in and spend weeks ripping out ALL the floors, and it cost thousands of dollars over budget.
And after all that, the new phone system doesn’t work.