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From: piner@pur-phy.UUCP (Piner)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: more postal flaming
Message-ID: <1643@pur-phy.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 21-Feb-85 04:50:01 EST
Article-I.D.: pur-phy.1643
Posted: Thu Feb 21 04:50:01 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 26-Feb-85 04:03:42 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Purdue Univ. Physics Dept., IN
Lines: 89


  And now for another postal flame. I had to go to the post office today.
It is always a mess there. Today I needed to buy a few two cents stamps,
so that I could use up my 20 cent stamps. The way they acted, you would
think my money was contaminated with smallpox. I walked into the office,
and got into line. When I got to the head of the line, I told the clerk
that I would like some two cent stamps, and she says, "I'm out, I have
to order some." She then starts filling out forms. Of course, I thought
she meant she would have to get some more from somewhere else in the
office. I should have known better. After she writes for awhile,
she looks up and sees me still standing there, and says, "I can't help you,
I'm out of stamps."
  I gave her my very best "What the HELL are you talking about?" stare,
which I have perfected after many years of teaching, and it then dawns
on her to ask the other clerks if they have any two cent stamps. One of
them does, so I get to go to the end of another line. It took about eight
minutes to get my few little stamps. I would like to point out, that
this is not a rush season, and it is not the first day since the rate
hike, so they should not be crowded. But they are always crowded. There
is always a line, and it is always hard to find a place to park. In short,
service sucks.
  The reason the service sucks, is BAD management. The postal service has
spent millions of dollars on "one of a kind" sorting equipment for the
big central offices, but is still using over the counter service methods
that date back to Ben Franklin's day. The big machines they have tried
to build to sort mail have more bugs that a street light in July.
This has been a very expensive effort, and I expect it is, for the
same reason Mark Twain lost his fortune supporting an inventor
who was trying to build a machine to set type. "One of a kind" mechanical
systems will break you if you let them. Machines have to be built
from components that are mass produced, and they have to have a
well defined function. Sorting mail is a tricky business. With modern
robots with good pattern recognition software, you have a chance of
building a cost effective machine. But the way the post office has been
going at it, has been all wrong.
  Meanwhile, they are wasting vast numbers of man hours in over the
counter service. When you mail a large letter, they weight it on a
balance, not a scale. They move the little weight back and forth,
back and forth. Then walk over to a chart and look for a price.
If you have several pieces, they add up the total on a piece
of paper with a pencil. They should have a computerized scale. Drop the
piece on the scale, type in the zip code, and out pops the postage.
Given that such a machine could be built for well under a thousand dollars,
it could pay for itself very quickly. But nooooooo, that would be too
simple.
  But wait, there's more! At the apartment complex where I live, they
have taken out all the mailboxs. These have been replaced by one
central mail box for the whole complex. This is a reduced service.
These boxes are outdoors, and they are not lighted, which makes
getting your mail a lot of fun in the winter when it is dark after work.
Mine is so low, I have to squat to see in it. It is only knee high,
I swear to God, I'm not making this up.
  So why has the price gone up?! Why did they pick on an apartment complex?
If they are trying to save labor, why not put up boxes for the single
family homes in town. They are far more dispersed than an apartment
complex. Or is this a case of government giving better service to
people with money, than to us working poor? If they really want to
save labor, why deliver the mail at all!? By the way, I did a quick
calculation. It takes me three minutes to go get my mail from the new
box. I live closer to the boxes than most of the folks in my complex,
but let's use three minutes as an average. There are 240+ boxes for the
complex. If everyone goes to get their mail, that is 12 man hours
spent to pick up mail. It took the post man about 4 hours to deliver
the mail under the old system. Let's assume he can deliver the
mail in zero time now. That is a net loss of 8 man hours per day to
the nation. Multiply that times the number of days in the year and
the number of apartment complexes in the nation, and the result
is a massive loss of man hours! Before you say, that's not the
concern of the post office, stop and think. It is the US post office.
It the nation isn't the concern of the US government, then who the
hell is supposed to care. All of this, so they could RAISE the price!
  Back in the sixties, the price to mail a letter was six cents.
Since then, the cost of living has gone up 3 times. So, if the post
office had made no improvements in efficiency, one would expect the
cost of postage to be eighteen cents. But service has declined and
the cost is twenty two cents. Making the post office independent
was supposed to fix it. It hasn't. It's time for Congress to act.
Fire the people running the post office and strip them of their
pensions! Hire someone who knows what they are doing and get the
system working right. Maybe the head of a fast food chain could
clean things up. In the mean time, I plan to protest. From now
on, I am going to put every stamp on my letters upside down.
It is still legal, but it looks bad. It is a small protest to
be sure, but I am only a small person. I will continue with
upside down stamps until the system has been fixed. So there.
I have a lot more to flame about, but I think this is enough
for now. Now I feel a little better.
					Rich Piner
					Purdue Physics Dept.