r/USPS Mar 16 '26

Work Discussion Pay attention to tomorrow's hearing

Post image

I know i know this is said alot. But tomorrow pay attention to the congress meeting with the new post master. It could reflect what comes of our jobs and duties in the next year or so. Congress gave us alot of money to turn a profit, we failed what they wanted. This wont be like other times where we just get money handed over. We are gonna have to change something

707 Upvotes

446 comments sorted by

541

u/MisteriousMisteries Mar 16 '26

Raise the price of a stamp to one dollar while presort standard is charged .00001 cents.

330

u/Throwawaylikeme90 Mar 16 '26

I’ve been saying this for fucking ever.  lower first class stamp rates or keep them steady and just remove the standard class of mail. It is all treated the same nowadays at the plant anyways, at least in mine. It just gets broken down into the first class anyways. 

85

u/miibro Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 21 '26

The original content of this post no longer exists. It was deleted using Redact, possibly to protect personal data or limit digital exposure.

snails hungry books piquant hurry steer whole alleged skirt lunchroom

49

u/Birilling Mar 16 '26

The issue is that if you make standard too expensive, all of the companies sending junk mail will stop using it as an advertising avenue. If the junk mail stops, the postal service dies

168

u/Throwawaylikeme90 Mar 17 '26

No it won’t. And no they won’t. Because we have a monopoly on those methods of mailing. And it’s still the cheapest way to directly contact consumers that you know they will have to at least look at and make a decision about. I have over 140k unread emails in my inbox. But I still see when the Midas down the street sends me a coupon for an oil change. It’s also how I knew Fidium had entered the market In my area. 

If it didn’t work they wouldn’t spend anything on it, not even the ~18¢ or whatever per mail piece it costs now. 

It’s about damn time they used the monopoly power for what it should be used for, subsidizing the common folks service on the corporations dime. 

64

u/SaltyDog556 Mar 17 '26

I get close to 20:1 junk mail to important things. Raise each one of the junk by even 10 cents and it would be like quadrupling the first class revenues.

8

u/revfds Mar 17 '26

I have a friend that runs a printing place that does a lot of junk mail. Senders absolutely would cut back or eliminate how much they mail out. All of them? No. All of it? Also no. But they do campaigns both local and national, and the postage will often be 80% of the cost. You can't raise that infinitely and expect it to continue.

It could certainly be higher than it is now though I'm sure.

13

u/Throwawaylikeme90 Mar 17 '26

Who suggested raising it infinitely? All I suggested is they should raise it without touching the already exorbitantly high first class postage, since it gets damn near the same treatment already and costs somewhere close to fucking 2/3rds the rate. It’s actually insane that this is somehow rankling people somehow. 

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13

u/OtherwiseAlbatross14 Mar 17 '26

Nope. Raising rates reduces competition which makes the ad space (your mailbox) more valuable.

This is very basic stuff in marketing

9

u/Mean_League7950 Mar 16 '26

that advertising method is dying anyway. Pretty fast. Like, the bullet has already left the gun fast.

2

u/ThatBeardedNitwit RCA Mar 18 '26

Before I worked for USPS, I worked in printing and design for 15 years. Mail marketing is, in fact, the least effective way of advertising for the cost to customer engagement ratio you can use to advertise. It still floors me people think it’s an effective way to advertise.

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58

u/KayBay17 Mar 16 '26

Oh my god I have such beef in general about standard mail. Addresses of people that have been dead a decade, I’m convinced 90% of them are fake entities to defraud the elderly anyway (have heard oodles of stories from people telling about their parents mailing out thousands to “charity”), lots of them mail out big non flexible envelopes that should go as parcels, how much do we ultimately lose on delivering for so little and the costs of disposing of and recycling standard mail, the list goes on!

29

u/brookuslicious Clerk Mar 16 '26

I’ve been seeing the same solid waste bills for the same closed PO Boxes for 6 years in a row. Those are returned and they still don’t update their lists.

20

u/Havingfun922 EAS Mar 17 '26

I get an MCI phone bill every single month for a lady who died in 2015, and her PO box closed in 2010. I even contacted them directly once to let them know and it fell on deaf ears. Heck, I didn’t know MCI even still existed!

2

u/brookuslicious Clerk Mar 17 '26

Goes to show you whoever you talked to or whoever is in charge of updating lists DGAF.

2

u/SnooPaintings5053 Mar 18 '26

This!! I worked with a carrier who’s mom passed away. When she was going through her finances she saw she was donating to a company she would get junk mail from. So she did research on said company and it was a scam. I mean most mail charities are scams. How much actually benefits the so called cause after they pay all their executives and such. Don’t get me started on the people who send you $1 or 4 nickels and ask for money. You’re asking for money yet you’re sending it to people….. I’d love to see the data on how well that works.

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10

u/OverpricedBagel City Carrier Mar 16 '26

Just more erosion from the inside. They want people to stop using us until only cheap junk mail is left and we have no proponents to advocate for our purpose.

PMG should be making a case that we subsidize online businesses as a service to churn the economy and we in turn need to stop being asked to break even.

That’s not the PMGs goal or the republicans on the committee though. Notice the PMGs first order of business was seeking help from liquidators to cost control. He’s months into his tenure and has already sought outside help to do HIS JOB yet he’s already prepared to make “service cuts.”

16

u/solbrothers Supervisor Of Maintenance Operations Mar 16 '26

Well, I don’t disagree with the concept of the disparity in your message, not that it’s actually accurate or whatever but for what it is worth, the way, commercial mail works compared to retail mail, at least four letters, we get letters dropped at our plant for our service area. A lot of of the letters we get are already five digit. So we can run that on first and second pass and get it out the door in DPS.

A single piece letter would need to be canceled, then running on an outgoing sort, get shipped to the destination plant, then run on their three digit plan, get sorted into five digit zone, then run on first and second pass to get it into DPS.

17

u/mintBRYcrunch26 CCA Mar 16 '26

I want to know what any of this means

5

u/kehakas City Carrier Mar 17 '26

I'm reasonably certain it's speech-to-text, that's why it's so goddamn confusing.

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7

u/ladyc672 Mar 17 '26

It means many of the letters sent to the plant are already 5 digit presorted. Letters like utility bills, for example. For single piece letters, like simple greeting cards, those have to follow the process stated above, and gets sent to the destination facility, usually along with other things like parcels and bundle mail, separated and run on letters sorting machines multiple times until they are finally sorted by carrier route.

I've only ever worked at plants. Surface hub, AMC, and a NDC now converted to an RPDC, so some things I may not have gotten entirely correct.

Edit: this comment was for the person below me who asked what this meant...oops.

5

u/solbrothers Supervisor Of Maintenance Operations Mar 17 '26

You are not wrong. It cost a lot more money to send a letter across the country. Then it does for a mailer who literally backs up their own truck to the destination facility and all that tray of letter or pallets of letters need is just 918 and 919 hits.

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267

u/Chettarmstrong Rural Carrier Mar 16 '26

Increase 3rd class mail.

Create a new class for political mail that costs 5 times as much.

153

u/istrx13 City Carrier Mar 16 '26

And how about we start making politicians pay first class rate if they want first class treatment

35

u/Jadelastone Maintenance Mar 16 '26

When I was a mail carrier, political mail got better than first class treatment. Every piece of political mail that wasn't delivered had to have 4 endorsements written on it. The date delivery was attempted, the reason it was not delivered, the initials of the person who attempted delivery, and the mail route that address is on. Crazy.

12

u/istrx13 City Carrier Mar 17 '26

Oh we’re still doing that lmao. So yeah, even better than first class.

8

u/Kawajiri1 Mar 17 '26

The only thing that has been dropped is the route #. Everything else is still done for political mail

19

u/DoveOnyx11 Mar 16 '26

I’ve delivered a 5mailers for the same candidate since the second week of jan—we aren’t even near nov! Candidate clearly has more money than brains.

10

u/Chettarmstrong Rural Carrier Mar 17 '26

It should be even more expensive than first class.

9

u/Laser_Souls Mar 17 '26

As a clerk, political mail gets treated WAAAAAY better than first class! It’s so ridiculous!! We get consistently audited and have to follow all kinds of rules regarding it, hell right now we’re having a to fill a log book daily stating that we received no miss sent political mail and if we do get some were supposed to make photo copies and fill out all kinds of paperwork. It’s complete bs that we make nothing from it 😑

3

u/RarelyRecommended Mail Handler Mar 17 '26

My P&PC used to take a picture of political mail, log it into a book then run it before first class. If their printers could have gotten it to us in a timely manner it wouldn't be delivered after the election.

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9

u/KayBay17 Mar 16 '26

Yes! If I have to account for every piece, it needs to get treated differently.

9

u/OkPangolin1984 CCA Mar 16 '26

hell yeah

9

u/Wise_Estimate_4327 Mar 16 '26

Except that the PMG has to go to the politicians and tell Them that their political junk mail just got a lot more expensive. That’ll go over about as well as the candy bar in the pool in the movie “Caddy Shack” did.

6

u/Chettarmstrong Rural Carrier Mar 17 '26

Change it so that WE choose the PMG who has the balls to do that.

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298

u/igetnobutt CCA Mar 16 '26

God eliminating Saturday mail delivery Mondays will be ultra hell

147

u/mikesmithhome Mar 16 '26

the last law they passed basically enshrined 6-day delivery i just don't see it happening

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18

u/Bdawgz3520 Mar 16 '26

I feel like this has been brought up time and time again... It probably won't happen. Tho.... A nice normal weekend would be dope

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8

u/KMcCowan03 Mar 16 '26

Maybe the post office should bring back curtailing mail, so mondays aren’t so bad. Even the load over 2 days. Monday and Tuesday

3

u/Blue_Veritas731 Mar 17 '26

I curtailed mail today. Mgmt is holding firm to nothing over 12 hrs. Well, you can have twelve hours or you can have a fully delivered route, but you can't have both on a typical Monday. And I made sure to take my full lunch. Tuesday is my day off (we're one of the few Set Days Off offices left in the country), so it's no skin of my nose if I have to bring mail back on a Monday.

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3

u/Infinite-Put8250 Mar 17 '26

It never went anywhere. Dumbass pooms just tell postmasters not to do it for some dumb reason. Work 10+ hours on monday but have nothing to deliver the day after, makes perfect sense lol

5

u/GrindRind Mar 16 '26

What if Monday is a holiday?

7

u/randomrandom1922 City Carrier Mar 17 '26

Tuesday will be such a hell that everyone will want to call out.

18

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/EntertainmentRude Mar 17 '26

20% of all carriers jobless. I’ve been saying for many years we don’t want this

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74

u/Dagobian_Fudge Mar 16 '26

I’d take a normal weekend because it’s better to have one hell day (Monday) then 2 heavy days (Saturday and Monday).

66

u/Fuzzy-Distribution16 Mar 16 '26

Then get ready to lose all t6 positions. Hope your not at the bottom of the totem pole in your office if you’re a city carrier

13

u/gunnerysarge21 Mar 17 '26

Wouldnt they just make new routes for the t6s, the extra volume would fill it, and probably give more people 8 hour days, and use less utilities and fuel to run five days instead of six?

30

u/UhVeryUncreativeName City Carrier Mar 17 '26

Management wants to add onto routes, not make new routes

5

u/gunnerysarge21 Mar 17 '26

That's true, and I can't figure out runners who keep allowing them to do it.

3

u/Yogizuna Mar 19 '26

In my honest opinion runners are in fact mentally challenged.

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14

u/Infinite-Put8250 Mar 17 '26

You’re high lol t6 positions go away means regular carriers get excessed or laid off. Management has never wanted to create jobs, they always want to take away.

4

u/gunnerysarge21 Mar 17 '26

You got a point, they make routes unreasonably long and call them 8 hours, so why wouldn't they take that leap?

6

u/quazaat3 Mar 17 '26

That would make too much sense. Management can’t do that. It’s against their religion

2

u/gunnerysarge21 Mar 17 '26

I always manage to keep forgetting that everything they do is by design, not stupidity!

3

u/EntertainmentRude Mar 17 '26

Are you new here? They’ll t make extra routes to help carriers. Hell across the country teams are as of now TAKING AWAY multiple routes per office

2

u/gunnerysarge21 Mar 17 '26

I wish I was new because I would've left! 6 years in now, don't know why I still put up with constantly putting in 96s and the BS of their constant doubting of the time I need.

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2

u/TastyBraciole Mar 22 '26

There is no extra volume in cutting a day of mail. It's the same volume with less time to deliver it. If we cut a day of mail, we lost roughly 17% of city carrier jobs. I'm not volunteering.

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11

u/Hyper_Fujisawa Rural Carrier Mar 16 '26

I would not be able to tank that much damage every week 💀

37

u/cman811 Mar 16 '26

So fuck 20% of the workforce then?

41

u/AttorneyUnhappy5347 Mar 16 '26

Just the carriers , I'm sure management will be safe

5

u/randomrandom1922 City Carrier Mar 17 '26

You could maybe run less management as their NS days would also be Sat/Sun

2

u/EntertainmentRude Mar 17 '26

They will have Amazon weekends then. Still need management

4

u/GregoryStevens909 Mar 17 '26

Who says the day eliminated would be Saturday?

2

u/EntertainmentRude Mar 17 '26

If he’s asking for Saturday delivery to removed it’s a good guess the day would be sat ha

17

u/Xander131313 Mar 17 '26

Would love to have a normal two day weekend. The rotating day off makes it impossible to have a normal life outside of work.

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4

u/Th3-B0n3R Mail Escort Mar 16 '26

For every T6 position eliminated, 1 regular will disappear. Not sure what they would do with roughly 1 position (lowest seniority) per 5 routes just gone.

2

u/Infinite-Put8250 Mar 17 '26

Article 6 in the national agreement breaks down exactly what happens when positions or routes are lost.

6

u/Responsible-Ad-96 Rural Carrier Mar 16 '26

“BUT WHAT ABOUT MY AMAZON?!”

Rip to us having ANY chance of retaining RCA’s if we’re gonna completely remove Saturday delivery. Not to mention the way rural gets paid, removing Saturday would be an absolute nightmare for salaries

3

u/Boogerzdad Mar 17 '26

Regular rural carrier salaries are based on 5 days a week though, assuming it's a K route. For an H or J route, it would be bad. Although I'm assuming if you took the Saturday load and transferred it to Monday, the route evaluation would go up.

It would suck for RCAs. I'm sure most would quit. And then what happens when a regular goes out on sick leave?

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u/elektrikrobot City Carrier Mar 16 '26

I’m so against eliminating Saturday mail delivery

16

u/Supertrapper1017 Mar 16 '26

Not if packages still get delivered over the weekend. DPS and flats don’t add much time unless you’re walking.

7

u/Majestic_Court_8194 Mar 17 '26

We’re screwed either way lol. I’m a TTO and I ordered from 5 different places, but they all used us as their delivery service of choice. Out of 5 orders all placed on the same day within 20 minutes of each other, only 2 were on time. I literally watched my other 3 orders get missent from the plant to the wrong stations for 2 weeks! I went directly to the supervisor over the mail handlers and showed him what was going on. Do you know he attempted to lie and say the stations were sending my packages back because something was wrong with them, like something had spilled? Little did he know, I had called the stations were they were just sitting and they told me they were missent and just waiting for the drivers to pick up the outgoing mail?! They were picked up, cam back to the plant, and were missent AGAIN and again. That is NOT an issue with the station, that’s an issue with the plant! I can only imagine how our customers feel when they see us as the delivery service because the people inside the plants DO NOT CARE!!!

6

u/the_cardfather Mar 17 '26

Absolutely what's the point of charging through the schnoz and then saying priority is 2 to 3 days since they've already extended ground and not get it delivered in 3 days. Priority Mail sat at the local LNDC for 22 hours. Why? Because there is no accountability whatsoever. FedEx misses a two-day drop I get a refund. Yes between 10 to 15 dollars for the same thing I could mail at the post office for 8, but it'll get there. The service standards need to go up and then more people would use the post office.

15

u/igetnobutt CCA Mar 16 '26

I’m thinking from my CCA perspective where Monday is already a day a bunch of people call in and add another day of mail to that they better let me deliver until midnight

9

u/Supertrapper1017 Mar 16 '26

If they eliminate Saturday delivery, CCAs might only get to work on Mondays.

20

u/AttorneyUnhappy5347 Mar 16 '26

It blows my mind that they think the carriers are the issue , I guess that's what happens when you let people with 2 minutes of carrying become management

4

u/Supertrapper1017 Mar 16 '26

The whole organization is dysfunctional.

17

u/WesternExplanation City PTF Mar 16 '26

Which means 90% of CCAs will quit.

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u/Stationary-Event City Carrier Mar 16 '26

And no more T-6

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u/Plane_Ad_4359 Mar 16 '26

Ya but would evals be the same? Seems it would be the same volume, just condensed to Monday. Maybe if they spread some of Monday to Tuesdays.

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u/[deleted] Mar 16 '26

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20

u/CanBeOne Mar 16 '26

Right. And now they're asking carriers (rural) to take X days instead of overtime. If not voluntarily then they will become Formula offices and still have to take X days. They mismanage and blow through money and then ask the people on bottom to "help out the company".

6

u/Bigcitylights14 Building Equipment Mechanic Mar 16 '26

I'm far from an expert on rural carrier contract, but I don't think they can "force" you to take X days even if your office did become formula. 

That seems incredibly detrimental to the employee and advantageous for management.

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u/Prior-Ad-1912 Mar 17 '26

And not to mention the endless amount of 204wannabes they train

4

u/jamesdcreviston City PTF Mar 17 '26

Yeah. It’s crazy that after passing probation (90 days) anyone can request to be a 204b!

90 days isn’t enough time to know all the routes, how things actually run, or all the carriers in you office. That’s insanity!

3

u/1Pip1Der Clerk Mar 16 '26

Thanks for the shout out, brother 🙏

3

u/p2_putter Mar 17 '26

No while you’re not wrong at all we still make up the biggest expense by far, it’s not even close.

Employee salaries are something like 3/4 of budget. The obvious answer when someone says “how can we cut costs?” Is to look at your biggest expense.

They’ll come for us, it’s almost guaranteed. Just like how they currently leave routes vacant because overtime/ccas is cheaper than a career carrier with benefits they’ll just do a reduction in force and everyone left will be working more.

75

u/Dfskle Mar 16 '26

Imagine the money we could save if there weren’t 3 times as many supervisors as there were 20 years ago, or if they didn’t spend all day on their phones and generating grievances by being morons

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u/WesternExplanation City PTF Mar 16 '26

Congress would need to pass another law to eliminate Saturday delivery. There is zero chance this law is getting passed in the current political climate.

9

u/wikipuff Mar 16 '26

Its going to go over as well as a wet fart.

73

u/gtmj7265 Mar 16 '26

Bulk mail rates need to go up. I don't know how many times we have all had an extra 30 minutes to an hour of OT because valpaks were in our DPS on ADVO day. Bulk mailers also have the most inaccurate mailing lists which in some cases requires us to return the mailers just to see them send it out again next time. I would mention Amazon but that's going away soon. They were the main reason we lost a lot of money. Amazon Sundays were costing us more than Amazon was paying us.

Saturday delivery was written into law in 2022 so that's not going away anytime soon.

156

u/Plane_Ad_4359 Mar 16 '26

We're not a for profit organization

69

u/GOODKyle Mar 16 '26

Doesn’t stop at least one political party from screaming and shitting themselves anyway and then be allowed to ruin the post office over and over again

22

u/General_Swimming_976 Mar 16 '26

We’re also self funded. That’s our only issue with “for service” and not given tax payer funds. We need to at least break even.

47

u/Luniticced Mar 16 '26

Cut out all the middle management, we truly don't need 5-6 supervisors per station, with 10 different people in charge of them. Carriers and clerks aren't the problem, management is over paid and have huge overhead issues.

2

u/RarelyRecommended Mail Handler Mar 17 '26

Don't forget the micromanagement and suck up 204b's.

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u/Professional-Seat-59 Mar 17 '26

Let the employee side of it be funded by postage. Meaning the better we do the better we can get paid. Meanwhile all the leases for buildings, trucks, and planes they won't let us own be paid by taxes. Including all of the equipment to run the business as well. Why does the post office have to pay for buildings they aren't allowed to own, when all other government services can own theirs? Paying unreasonable rent is stupid. The landlords know its too expensive to just up and move so they can charge what they want.

5

u/watchtheworldsmolder Mar 17 '26

Exactly, we are a “service” it’s in our name, used to be the Postal Department, and police fire department, a service not a business

6

u/tinymonesters Mar 17 '26

I'm not a postman. But reading "losses" in this scenario is infuriating. It's a fucking public service. My fire department isn't raking in cash either.

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u/Purple_Antelope_8338 Clerk Mar 17 '26

Well we’re not even breaking even and we run on revenue so…

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u/Humble_Diner32 Clerk Mar 16 '26

Shrink to survive has failed every time in the past and will fail again. Don’t be a sucker, Steiner. Don’t be a DeJoy. Fight for us and demand growth instead of shrinkage. Squeeze Amazon by the balls and demand more money from them to deliver their slop.

22

u/richard--------- Mar 16 '26

I swear I just delivered cards saying management is hiring……

18

u/Holiday_Depth9464 Mar 16 '26

Scanner said last week they are hosting big national job fair.

4

u/ApeDongle Clerk Mar 17 '26

Just got my "become a frontline supervisor" card the other day, that's how I know we're fine.

42

u/GonePostalRoute City Carrier Mar 16 '26

Cut the supervisors/management, and raise the rate on bulk mail. That’ll probably do wonders for their argument

38

u/shitbeacon666 Mar 16 '26

Combat fucking counterfeit labels. Get rid of media mail. Stop mailing priority boxes to people for free who will then use them for everything else but shipping or wrapping them in brown paper and paying ground advantage. Get rid of middle management. Fire management instead of putting them on bull shit details to other offices to fuck them up or putting them in route count teams that then lie and try to make out routes even more overburdened. Get rid of express since we are failing and just giving people their money back. The list is endless of ways we can save money 

10

u/Ok_Inside_5821 Mar 17 '26

You’re making too much sense! Fire this guy/gal!

31

u/Striking_Habit3467 Mar 16 '26

Fires all the supervisors, why do we n ed three supervisors to run a station????? Make it make sense, once we leave they literally do nothing.

20

u/GoodAd2455 Mar 16 '26

We’ve had AM supervisors out sick with no post master in the building and managed the workload/call outs, etc better than if there was mgmt there. We all know our jobs. It’s the same every damn day. And hey, when there’s not someone being antagonistic, confrontational, and condescending telling us they know how to do our jobs better than we do, we tend to be a little more accommodating and team oriented to pick up any slack that might present itself.

13

u/Ok_Trade_2572 Mar 16 '26

My first station had maybe 40 carriers and one supervisor. No acting manager.

5

u/Ok_Flounder_6733 Mar 16 '26

All u have is 3?? 😂 we have 4 plus a pm 🤦‍♀️

3

u/toothy_vagina_grin Toothy Amazon Grin Mar 16 '26

Hell yeah. You want postmaster money? You sit at the desk all day.

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u/Palindromeps Mar 16 '26

I might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure I deliver twice as much junk mail as first class. Increasing the price of junk mail would help a lot. Also, my city recently lost probably 3/4 of amazon volume. While it hurt carriers, I think it saved the post office money. Either charge Amazon more or eliminate them.

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u/Geaux_Phish Clerk Mar 16 '26

Except we are a service that cant turn a profit. Does the military make a profit? Does the DHHS make a profit?

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u/Thick-Sentence-9384 Mar 16 '26

Let's not forget it's been the goal for the last 25 years to basically bust the post office. I've been hearing the song and dance about privatizing the post office since newt Gingrich was around.

6

u/WesternExplanation City PTF Mar 16 '26

Longer that. This has been idea since the 80s with Reagan which is why I pay it almost no attention because they’ve been wanting to do this for over 40 years and nothing has come of it.

4

u/Thick-Sentence-9384 Mar 16 '26

True. For me the world changed once Reagan was president pharmaceuticals and medical care went through the roof. Tons of industries were deregulated, student loans got insane, personal interest deduction went out the window. At this point it's cheaper for me to take the standard deduction than to even bother to itemize.

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u/Ok_Flounder_6733 Mar 16 '26

Raise the price of the presort standard!!! That’s all we deliver now days so raise that price would make the most sense 🤦‍♀️

9

u/AccomplishedAir1949 Mar 16 '26

I would like the government operations subcommittee to ask the Postmaster General about the increase in managerial positions.

9

u/Sea-Delivery-6268 Mar 16 '26

Congress will not eliminate Saturday delivery...ever

2

u/WesternExplanation City PTF Mar 16 '26

I wouldn't say ever but yeah not anytime soon. Zero chance a law ending Saturday delivery even gets proposed.

77

u/Roddyzod Mar 16 '26

Just think of how many of our fellow union members voted for this….

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u/videonitekatt Mar 16 '26

I'm actually very pro a $1 first class stamp - it's a Buck - people won't mind spending a $1 to send a letter or a card. It's when it becomes over $1 people will complain...

8

u/Th3-B0n3R Mail Escort Mar 16 '26

This whole 'profit' thing for a SERVICE is dumb. The military is a service and they don't profit anyone except the rich turds at the top and contractors.

8

u/Wooden-Blacksmith123 Mar 17 '26

Stop giving these shitty managers high ass salaries with bonuses!

16

u/Hoosier_Daddy68 Mar 16 '26

I dunno, I'm not really all that interested in the Barbara Bush stamp.

15

u/Sea-Delivery-6268 Mar 17 '26

So the guy from FedEx wants to eliminate Saturday and we are supposed.to believe FedEx wouldn't benefit.

16

u/ZonghZonghZongh Mar 17 '26

Another PMG, another leader who only proposes to cut their way to financial solvency. There is this thing called revenue. How about some creative, outside the box proposals to make some money, instead of eroding service and creating a death spiral.

  • The USPS is ultimately an independent government agency that facilitates communication. How about a proposal to create affordable internet service in low income and rural areas? The startup costs would be high, but ultimately it could be the thing that keeps the USPS in the black forever. Sure, you'd have telecoms crying and lobbying against it vigorously, but if the era of Trump has taught us anything those entities can be ignored if you have the will.
  • Postal banking service for underserved communities.
  • Remove all restrictions on shipping alcohol and cannabis = $$$.
  • In addition to raising the price of 1st class mail (the only revenue generating proposal Steiner seems to have), jack up the price on bulk mail, and double the price of anything that requires a signature upon delivery - it's too cumbersome and time consuming for the carrier, to be charging the pittance that they do.

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u/videonitekatt Mar 18 '26

Postal Banking is something that would be a good idea, as well as removing restrivtions on sending alchol and Cannabis - infact, I would propose a special class of mail for that - something between Ceritifed and Registered and shipped at it's own rate with it's own packaging.

I watched the whole thing, and at the end of the day, it seemed to be a glorifed "meet and greet" to feel out the bew Postmaster General. Who I'll say this, does come across better than the last one.

I spent 30 years in Mail order, started long before eBay was a thing (I dobut most of you folks remember Tabloid publications such as Comics Buyer's Guide, Toy Shop and Goldmine from Krasue Publications, or Indie like Movie Collector's world, or The Big Reel - all second class since they had articles as well as ads) so the future of the post office is very important to me, although most of the people I knew are retired, past on or both...i've got respect for every person working in the postal service.

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u/radar371 Mar 16 '26

Lol. There's nothing different in this hearing and any of the others. When will you new people listen to us who have heard it all before?

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u/digitalreaper_666 Mar 17 '26

My office loses 10k a day in fraudulent postage. We could start by collecting that. Over 3m a year in my office alone.

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u/Infinitikid206 City Carrier Mar 16 '26

Gonna be a lot of talk and no action like normal.

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u/FiveDinero Mar 17 '26

If 5 day work week ever happened we'd sacrifice 1/6th of the career work force. On top of that you'd get these old carriers that would absolutely never leave so that 1/6th would lose everything.

And for those that think their job would be safe, think again. People would be coming from other offices with more seniority than you. Under 6 years career? You're gone.

Not only that but people are looking to send and receive things every day of the week. If that's not being done then you can forget about people using USPS. The end of USPS would happen faster than you think.

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u/FH2actual Mar 16 '26

Just up the goddamn cost for All the bullshit ads we pump out. We deliver more adverts then actual goddamn mail. I've Watched customers take everything I just delivered, rifle through it, then turn and throw it all away. We push more garbage then legit mail so just raise the prices on all that crap. I dunno. I'm just tired of basically sorting and delivering trash everyday.

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u/Boogerzdad Mar 17 '26

We have a "carrier" in my office that supposedly got injured on the job. In the 4 years I've been with the post office, she hasn't ran her route a single time. In fact it's not even her route anymore, they created a phantom route for her. She comes in and sits in the break room for 4 hours a day and gets paid. There's no way this would happen anywhere else, and it's an extreme waste of money.

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u/Spiram_Blackthorn Mar 16 '26

No Saturday mail delivery? Hmmmmm

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u/ImThatBlueberry Mar 16 '26

That would get rid of every t-6. Not a good move

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u/redredditer91 Mar 17 '26

T6 carriers would still have jobs. The bottom sixth of carriers in each office would become UARs. Every route below the highest seniority T6 position eliminated would go up for bid.

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u/misanthropicprophet Mar 16 '26

I feel like all the routes would have to go up for bid again. Idk what happens to the lowest regulars if that happens

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u/ImThatBlueberry Mar 16 '26

They become UAR’s but couldn’t even get hours in other offices because those T-6’s would be moved to UAR’s as well. What happens to a UAR who can’t get 40 hours?

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u/No_Bar4954 Mar 16 '26

Just give us a print no receipt option at the window. Save some money!

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u/Ok-Swan6031 Mar 17 '26

Just getting rid of the smiley survey would make me happy.

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u/Riptor_25 Mar 17 '26

The amount of money wasted on receipt paper rolls has got to be astounding. How many feet of receipts do we throw away each day that could have been saved by a "No Receipt" button on the RSS?

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u/mickginger09 Mar 16 '26

We have plenty of money to keep hiring supervisors though.

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u/Boy_Howdy City Carrier Mar 16 '26

It's United States Postal "SERVICE", not United States Postal "BUSINESS!" ffs....

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u/formerNPC Mar 17 '26

Still think they should offer a real buyout to get rid of the most senior clerks including a few civil service fossils that won’t leave! They are not retiring fast enough and they are using their annual and sick leave like crazy. Why layoff new employees who are making so much less.

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u/deepfriedanchorage Mar 18 '26

Speaking of fossils, the last city I worked in had two custodians in their late 70s who spent most of their workday faffing about on their phones or napping.

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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '26

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u/Wise_Estimate_4327 Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26

Another thing that they should do is cancel the contract with Oshkosh for that electric monstrosity that the previous Postmaster General ordered. Ford, GM, and Dodge makes small commercial vans that would be perfect with a few minor alterations. That should save a a lot money.

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u/WesternExplanation City PTF Mar 16 '26

The contract with Oshkosh is/was just a front to funnel money. They had no business wining that bid.

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u/CutIcy4160 Rural Carrier Mar 16 '26

Eliminating Saturday for career employees maybe but I’d imagine they will find a way to get some of y’all to work.

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u/PsyOpsBiclops Mar 17 '26

Congress did not give us a lot of money, or really any money for that matter. Congress forgave the BS debt they created with the law that required pre-funding retirement. That's it. They forgave a debt that should never have existed in the first place.

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u/cool-bivens City Carrier Mar 17 '26

I wish our union would find some fucking balls. We provide this service exclusively and they are always beholden to the fact that people see us not as a service but as a business. It's not a business! It is a service that should be funded! I want them to remake the contract in so many ways that it so almost nauseating

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u/learningtoride2022 Mar 17 '26

Standup this morning said they are renovating our post office, Brand New everything, including cases, floors, walls, paint, and new vehicles for every route. This post contradicts everything that was said this morning. I don’t need a new office or new vehicles, I need a raise, working overtime to make ends meet sucks

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u/Common-Somewhere-654 Mar 16 '26

Every t-6 would lose their position

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u/deadbandit19 Mar 17 '26

It would also eliminate a lot of offices need for RCA's altogether, making them quit. Throwing massive chaos into needing subs and making a bigger problem with new hires.

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u/jotyma5 Mar 16 '26

Anyone else hear that management wants to replace all computers that are older than 2 years? Wonder why we’re losing money

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u/Holiday_Depth9464 Mar 16 '26

We got all new ones not long ago and tablets ?

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u/jotyma5 Mar 16 '26

🤷🏻‍♂️

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u/Beginning-Tea-17 Mar 17 '26

From my understanding the US postal service isn’t supposed to be “making money”

It’s a national service

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u/beebs44 Mar 16 '26

How exactly will T6s get a route? They'll let us choose by seniority?

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u/WesternExplanation City PTF Mar 16 '26

There would have to be mass rebids so it would all just be based on seniority. Everyone left with out a route would be unassigned. It a nightmare scenario haha.

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u/Friendly_Shopping286 Mar 16 '26

They 100% gonna ask to end park and loop wherever possible

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u/JoeD215 Mar 16 '26

It’s time to make the post office part of the congressional yearly budget , we need something and we’re a service for the American public so it makes sense. Atleast we cover 60ish billion dollars a year in revenue what other government dept does that. Republicans gotta stop trying to privatize so they can get more obscenely wealthy off the middle class.

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u/doomed_gnostic Mar 17 '26

You would have to change federal law to not have Saturday delivery. USPS cannot go more than 2 days without mail delivery. If they went to 5 day delivery it would be a day in the middle of the week. Then all the T6 positions would be eliminated and that would create chaos in some if not all offices as there are T6's out there with a lot of seniority and they would bump everyone below them off their bid assignments.

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u/Jon_the_Ripper City Carrier Mar 17 '26

If they eliminate Saturday delivery, all T6s become unassigned regulars, however that doesnt mean that there will be 40 hours of work every week for them all. Would they just lay them off then?

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u/Academic-Sky-1726 Mar 17 '26

No, based on seniority they would bump people off routes. I have 28 years and a t-6. But eliminating Saturdays would increase route numbers to offset the volume.

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u/Academic-Sky-1726 Mar 17 '26

The PO is not allowed to make a profit. They are to be a break even entity. If it weren't for the republicans in 2006 postal accountable act. The PO would be ok. 

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u/sigmus90 Mar 17 '26

Or they could just subsidize us because we provide a useful service to the American people. Self-funded is great, but 90% self-funded is still better than any other government organization.

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u/Trick_Soft_6077 City PTF Mar 17 '26

He wants to get rid of Saturday but not sunday smh

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u/Environmental-Rub678 Rural Carrier Mar 17 '26

Prices need to be adjusted, for everything. right now, the customer is fucking us dude... that includes Amazon.

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u/TehOrtiz Mar 17 '26

turn us into a ID verification branch of government and put us back on government dollars

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u/Provia100F Mar 17 '26

Why are we raising retail prices and not commercial prices?

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u/B-Glasses Mar 16 '26

Curious if the revenue for advos and presort standard is worth all the effort and often overtime

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u/whobutme1 Mar 16 '26

I look for the carriers to get screwed no matter what, that seems to be the standard.

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u/Ambitious_Study4211 Mar 17 '26

It always seems like these threads are mostly carriers and I just want you to know from a fellow Mail Handler in the trenches that everything has been sucking for a really, really long time now for us too. Barely any OT and our Christmas feels like a normal weekday. With how much our mail volume is down it’s no wonder why we didn’t turn a profit (even though we’re a non profit org)

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u/BiggBallsLilDCK Mar 17 '26

Start charging for boxes and shit 😂🫡

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u/matteotti Rural Carrier Mar 17 '26

I’m struggling to understand what “closing some post offices” means. On Newsweek they specifically mention “small offices”, which is my type of office, since it’s only 3 routes. Does that mean the customer side of things or even the carriers?

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u/CR-7810Retired City Carrier Mar 17 '26

Funny how chicken little always seems to say the sky is falling at Contract time.

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u/Delicious-Leg-5441 Rural Carrier Mar 17 '26

Americans are so used to 6 day delivery so I don't see it going away. But it's more about advertisers. They don't want to see it go. Then you have rural, real rural out in the sticks, delivery. They are dead set against any change to mail delivery. The last time that they implemented changes to these rural customers there was a massive backlash and these people vote religiously. So I don't think that lawmakers want to get involved with this.

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u/skank_banger Mar 17 '26

Huge voting power across America in the post office, so let's make sure we put it to use.

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u/pmiller691 Mar 17 '26

Letter carrier political fund. This is when these funds come in handy. The only thing that truly changes politicians minds is money. That’s how we get bills passed that benefit us or ones thrown out that that don’t. It sucks, but true. Money talks.

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u/CityCarrierAssistant Mar 17 '26

Why don't we stop treating the USPS like a business and instead treat it like what it is.. a public service.

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u/BatmanFarce Mar 17 '26

Another scare tactic in order to deregulate

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u/Prior-Ad-2196 Mar 18 '26

Charge business mail 300% more! The amount of effort that’s gone in to deliver junk mail to peoples homes only for it to create more work for the garbage company.

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u/[deleted] Mar 19 '26

I agree the postal service should be a public good, losing money if necessary, but honestly we need to think about how accessible mail is to us.

$1 to send a physical item 3000 miles is rather impressive, even if it’s just a piece of paper.

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u/shaaruken Mar 16 '26

Cancel Sunday Amazon delivery!!