[altcognito]

The article makes a claim that it is no better in Canada and proceeds to remark about financial conditions. The mail is being delivered just fine, just not profitably.

I've not had issues with the USPS, but I don't doubt that it is getting worse. Private delivery (Amazon and the like) has been pretty much flawless. Order from McMaster, and it almost invariably arrives within two days (continental US)

I just don't experience what the author is getting at.

[wombatpm]

The USPS is in year 4 of a 10 year overhaul of its infrastructure. New facilities with new equipment optimized for the current mail mix. Magazines and catalogs used to be huge. Now they are a fraction of their volume. First class letter volume is crashing as everyone goes paperless.

Where there use to be separate facilities for processing first class, bulk mail, and packages; the new facilities deal with everything. And where the old system of 50 NDC (National Distribution Centers) are being consolidated to ~30 RPDC (Regional Processing and Distribution Centers) leading to a whole new strategy of how mail moves East to West and West to East. And mail sorting for delivery used to happen by mail carriers at local Post Offices, is now happening at LSDC (Local Sorting and Delivery Centers) set up service all mail carriers in a 50 - 70 mile radius.

And all of these changes are happening while still having to deliver mail (It never stops Jerry. It just keeps coming and coming)

So if you’re in the Midwest like Chicago, stuff coming from the Midwest or Eastcoast has been getting stuck in Indianapolis-taking 10 to 15 days. Stuff coming from West Coast gets here in 5.

There are 42,000 active zip codes and 640,000 employees. Making changes to that organization is hard and takes time.

What’s really cool is the work going on with Amazon, Walmart, Target and others for them to deliver packages directly to LSDC for same day delivery. Once you get away from the cities, no one can compare with the USPS for last mile delivery.

TLDR USPS is changing. Things may get worse before they get better.

[kotaKat]

Even simple "changes" (like cutting a single truck) cause massive mayhem in their wake.

The simple "elimination" of nightly mail pickup from rural post offices has resulted in multi-day backlogs just getting anything out of your local Post Office. If I walk into any of my local POs in the county this morning to ship a Priority Mail Express letter overnight, they will not guarantee that it will be received tomorrow. The envelope will sit for nearly 24 hours locally for tomorrow morning's mail truck before it is brought back to a processing center tomorrow night to be introduced into the mailstream and finally processed outbound.

Basically anything being shipped cross-country is going to be snared in Rural Delay Hell and it absolutely sucks. Combine this with the recent postmarking changes and we're in for an absolute fun treat when it comes for mail-in-voting time.

[wombatpm]

Yes. The only reason bug shippings are getting same day is because they are bypassing most of the postal network and dropping it off in time for the days final sortation for delivery.

[IAmBroom]

> Things may get worse before they get better.

I like to say, things ALWAYS get worse before they get better!

Halfway through a remodel your kitchen is now torn up and nonfunctional.

Halfway through a surgery you have an open gut wound AND a tumor.

Halfway through combing your hair you look like you had a stroke halfway through combing your hair.

[pkaye]

Where can you read more about this?

[wombatpm]

Announcements and documentation can be found at pe.usps.gov and postalpro.usps.com

User guides on PostalPro are probably the best place to start. The Domestic Mail Manual is highly recommended if you have trouble sleeping.

This stuff gets discussed with industry via MTAC (Mailer’s Technical Advisory Committee) and the various special topic User Groups.

[ChilledTonic]

How many packages a year do you order, do you think? Just curious.

[altcognito]

Sorry this was late -- a decent amount, probably 2-3 a week minimum.