Some things about the USPS

[matt819]

12. I like the Post Office

Small business person here.

I ship by UPS and the US Postal Service. More on UPS below. Regarding the Postal Service:

-- I process my shipments online and get a discount for doing so. That's nice.

-- I then drop it off at the Post Office, where I know and like the post office people. They are pleasant, friendly, and generally have a pretty good idea of what's going on around town, as in, hey, what's going in at that old gas station, or, what were all the police cars in town all about. Contributes to a sense of community - at least for me. And they are kind enough not to close the door on me when I show up at closing time, because that's just one of my endearing characteristics.

-- If a large package arrives and cannot be delivered by the letter carrier, in addition to the usual notice the letter carrier leaves in the mailbox, the post office person calls to give me a heads up. That's nice, too.

-- I have a high degree of confidence that anything I ship via Priority Mail will get there in 2-3 days, in many cases (not all) for less money, and more quickly, than UPS. My customers and I like that.

-- I realize that others may have different PO experiences. Mine is in a small town and is staffed by one person. There's almost never a situation where she's fulfilling the caricature of the do-nothing postal employee. And I'm pretty sure that postal service people in small towns play the same role in their towns as ours does here. And while "sense of community" probably isn't in the Postal Service's charter, it is an important factor in rural life.

Here's what I don't like: I don't like that I have to sign up for a non-Post Office service in order to purchase postage without having the amount of postage show on the shipping label. I don't doubt that the Post Office gets licensing fees from Indicia and Stamps.com, but if the Post Office provided this service directly, I would use the Postal Service more regularly. Small business owners know what I'm talking about.

Just a few words about UPS, though this probably applies to FedEx and others in various similar ways:
For those shipments where it's more cost effective or just easier to ship by UPS, here's what I have to accept:
-- I pay $10/week for Smart Pickup, which basically automatically schedules a pick up for any shipping label I process before 5:30 pm. Excellent idea, but it costs me $500/year. Think about the alternative. I schedule daily pickup - at no additional cost - but I may not have anything to collect, so the driver goes out of his way, and I say nothing, and he leaves. Or I have to call him to tell him to give me a pass. This is a pain all around. So I'm paying $500 a year in part for my convenience but just as much for theres.
-- Most of my shipments have added fees: fuel surcharge, rural delivery surcharge, at the like.
-- Then there's my favorite adjustment. Every bill contains an adjustment because the UPS system scans the box and concludes that it is larger than the size I put on my label - never smaller. This happens because of pancaking or lack of precision, and it costs me an additional 1%-2% every week. Multiply that out over millions of shipments, and UPS has quite a racket going.
-- Cross-country ground shipments take a week, where the Post Office takes 2-3 days.
-- On the positive side, I've had issues with fewer than 5 shipments in more than 10 years. Not bad, when you think about it.