The United States Postal Service is one of the few government agencies that is specifically mandated by the Constitution. Article one, "To establish post offices and post roads". Established in 1792, Benjamin Franklin was the first postmaster general. But, like other government agencies, the postal service suffers from management problems.
They recently went before a congressional committee to ask for more money and the ability to close some post offices, and to delete Saturday from home delivery. They cited "lower mail volume than anticipated" as the problem. It seems strange, since they have had 15 years to adjust to the effect of email on their business plan. It was pretty clear that a graph could be plotted and a dismal outlook projected. But they continued to hire and add new equipment to modernize despite lower demand. Lets see, increase capital investment, hire more people, and watch the money go down the drain! The USPS is second in the number of employee's only to Walmart. And, they have all federal benefits.
A good indicator of performance happened a couple of years ago. They were getting a lot of complaints about the wait times at post offices. Their solution was simple; remove the clocks so that the customers would focus on the service and not the wait time. The trend is not going to change because the service is constitutionally mandated and congress can not do much of anything as it is. Imagine the gridlock if privatization ideas were suggested? Snails are not just slow,they have no sense of direction...
They recently went before a congressional committee to ask for more money and the ability to close some post offices, and to delete Saturday from home delivery. They cited "lower mail volume than anticipated" as the problem. It seems strange, since they have had 15 years to adjust to the effect of email on their business plan. It was pretty clear that a graph could be plotted and a dismal outlook projected. But they continued to hire and add new equipment to modernize despite lower demand. Lets see, increase capital investment, hire more people, and watch the money go down the drain! The USPS is second in the number of employee's only to Walmart. And, they have all federal benefits.
A good indicator of performance happened a couple of years ago. They were getting a lot of complaints about the wait times at post offices. Their solution was simple; remove the clocks so that the customers would focus on the service and not the wait time. The trend is not going to change because the service is constitutionally mandated and congress can not do much of anything as it is. Imagine the gridlock if privatization ideas were suggested? Snails are not just slow,they have no sense of direction...
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