Why the Post Office is going bankrupt

[leisuresuitlarry]

I mailed a package yesterday, something I sold online to a fellow out in Export, PA. Export is maybe 40 miles give or take East of Monroeville (Pittsburgh outskirts). Anyhow, the fellow requested that I ship ASAP as he is going on vacation and really wanted the items before he left. So, rather than lolly-gag and take my time with it I processed the shipping label and packed the box and had it ready to go early yesterday morning. I checked the Post Office web site to see what time Reach Road opened because my local branch in the Borough of SW opens at 9. Reach Rd. opens at 7AM so I went out of my way and drove the additional 8 or 10 miles round trip to take this package to Reach Road. I figured if I waited and took it to SW it would sit in SW all day until maybe 4PM when they take all the outgoing mail over to Reach Road. I figured I'll get it to our main hub directly so it will have a better chance of hitting the road to its destination sooner. So I tracked it several times yesterday and nothing was in the system yet, not even when they scanned it at the counter. Finally today I see the tracking info is updated and it was scanned shortly after 7 yesterday, then again this morning at a sorting facility in New Jersey.

New Jersey? So my 3 pound box left Reach Road sometime yesterday and went clear to Jersey to be sorted and placed on another truck to bring it all the way back to PA, past its starting point and almost to the other side of the State? That makes so much sense.

And mine is just one of those pieces of mail they handled yesterday.

[Ritty77]

I remember a 60 Minutes piece some years ago detailing the FedX operation. As I recall, EVERY package was routed through Memphis, regardless of destination. The USPS may have a similar method.

I have mixed feelings about the Post Office, and it must be interesting to run a business that loses money every year.

[mikekerstetter]

I recently sent a 'certified' letter to Harrisburg. It was mailed Friday and scanned in Harrisburg on Saturday Morning at around 4:40 am. Good time. From there, there was no information on it. Wednesday I called the post office to find out what happened to it and was given a number in Harrisburg. The guy from customer service was nice, but admitted that it seemed to have disappeared. He said I would have to wait two weeks to be able to mail another letter certified, which was several days after the deadline that the letter had to be there. So I was going to have to fork out another $5+. Miraculously I got an email about two hours later that said my letter had been delivered on Wednesday at 10 something AM. I'm still waiting on the return receipt.

On the NJ thing. I've seen plenty of mail sent from the area with a Harrisburg postmark on them. I don't know exactly how that works. IE, my dentist office in Milton sent me a bill and it was postmarked in Harrisburg and then sent back to Watsontown.

[leisuresuitlarry]

There has got to be a method to their madness, but you would think that over 200 some odd years they'd come up with a way to be efficient in delivering mail in this country. (not the current post office as we know it for all that time I know...)