The United States Post Office is considering a new cost cutting measure...they plan to eliminate 1-2 day service, so that people will have to wait 3-5 days for their mail. I am not quite sure how this makes sense, does this mean that they will sort mail slower? Or are they scaling back on delivery?
Currently, the mail gets delivered six times a week, Monday through Saturday. This means that the mail truck makes a delivery everyday. If I put a letter in the mailbox on Monday to send to someone uptown, they would usually get it by Tuesday, maybe Wednesday at the latest. The theorhetical work flow is that mail is picked up from the mail box, brought to the post office, sorted and then put in them mail truck for delivery. How would it work if "next-day" delivery was eliminated? Would that mean that pick up from mail boxes would not occur on a daily basis? Or would that mean mail would be sorted slower than usual? Or would the mail truck skip a building or two every day? How is money saved?
Cutting back on services or innovation will not save anyone any money. Cutting back on this type of service will only prove a disincentive to use the services. This is almost like flushing the toilet every third time instead of every time. (If you worked in my office place, every third time would be nice for the men's bathroom, since it doesn't look like anyone flushes at all...nor does anyone else seem to wash their hands, let alone use soap, but I digress.) Flushing the toilet on every third use would save water, energy and be good for the environment (nature and such, not the bathroom environment). But water conservation via the reduction of flushing only annoys people.
In order to save water (and also for hygiene) someone invented automatic flushers. I do not know exactly how auto-flushers work, some tell me it is the change in water pressure evidenced by the deposit of wastes into the "receptacle". Others tell me it's the change in the light pattern presented to that little red "laser" sensor. Still others say it is a combination of both. Regardless, I like it and it works. The toilets are flushed in a timely fashion and everyone is happy...except for the guy who dropped his phone into the bowl, but then again, auto-flush or not, he would still lose his phone.
Auto-flushing is where innovation and technology have come in to save the day. Although I doubt that people would stop using the bathroom because they would have to flush manually, this type of automation has improved the experience of bathroom usage. How would this apply to the post office?
The post office would have to innovate to make it relevant. How will it do that? Let us consider the post office alternatives, Federal Express and United Parcel Service. These two companies acutally come and pick up your parcels and letters. And if you need it to be somewhere in the next day, all you have to do is to pay a little extra and the delivery is practically guarantted. The post office does have some services where mail is picked up. In our office, mail is only picked up when other mail is delivered, which is once a day at about noon time. Allah help the person who does not have their letter ready when the poastman comes by. FedEx will pick up when you are ready. It is true that FedEx and UPS charge a bit more than the United States Post Office, but they are giving us a service. Instead of cutting back service, the post office can actually provide more service and make it more competitive with companies liked FedEx and UPS.
FedEx and UPS are a bit more entrepreneurial as well, I think they pay by the number packages delivered and picked up. The USPS also has more resources than the two private companies, it even has it's own police force. There are so manything that they can do besides cutting service where it does not seem lke it will save any money, rather, it will just be viewed as an inconvienence for everyone. Even if service remains the same, it is a bad public relations move, because everyone will think they are even slower, when they may be operating well within their time frame. They should focus on improving their service, not necessarily delivery time, but flexibility, unlike the other private delivery services who only deliver when the recipient is not home and then force the consumer to trek all the way to the warehouse during work hours to pick up the package.
The MTA...that is another organization that has wasted alot of goodwill from it's riders. That discussion will have to wait until another time.
Currently, the mail gets delivered six times a week, Monday through Saturday. This means that the mail truck makes a delivery everyday. If I put a letter in the mailbox on Monday to send to someone uptown, they would usually get it by Tuesday, maybe Wednesday at the latest. The theorhetical work flow is that mail is picked up from the mail box, brought to the post office, sorted and then put in them mail truck for delivery. How would it work if "next-day" delivery was eliminated? Would that mean that pick up from mail boxes would not occur on a daily basis? Or would that mean mail would be sorted slower than usual? Or would the mail truck skip a building or two every day? How is money saved?
Cutting back on services or innovation will not save anyone any money. Cutting back on this type of service will only prove a disincentive to use the services. This is almost like flushing the toilet every third time instead of every time. (If you worked in my office place, every third time would be nice for the men's bathroom, since it doesn't look like anyone flushes at all...nor does anyone else seem to wash their hands, let alone use soap, but I digress.) Flushing the toilet on every third use would save water, energy and be good for the environment (nature and such, not the bathroom environment). But water conservation via the reduction of flushing only annoys people.
In order to save water (and also for hygiene) someone invented automatic flushers. I do not know exactly how auto-flushers work, some tell me it is the change in water pressure evidenced by the deposit of wastes into the "receptacle". Others tell me it's the change in the light pattern presented to that little red "laser" sensor. Still others say it is a combination of both. Regardless, I like it and it works. The toilets are flushed in a timely fashion and everyone is happy...except for the guy who dropped his phone into the bowl, but then again, auto-flush or not, he would still lose his phone.
Auto-flushing is where innovation and technology have come in to save the day. Although I doubt that people would stop using the bathroom because they would have to flush manually, this type of automation has improved the experience of bathroom usage. How would this apply to the post office?
The post office would have to innovate to make it relevant. How will it do that? Let us consider the post office alternatives, Federal Express and United Parcel Service. These two companies acutally come and pick up your parcels and letters. And if you need it to be somewhere in the next day, all you have to do is to pay a little extra and the delivery is practically guarantted. The post office does have some services where mail is picked up. In our office, mail is only picked up when other mail is delivered, which is once a day at about noon time. Allah help the person who does not have their letter ready when the poastman comes by. FedEx will pick up when you are ready. It is true that FedEx and UPS charge a bit more than the United States Post Office, but they are giving us a service. Instead of cutting back service, the post office can actually provide more service and make it more competitive with companies liked FedEx and UPS.
FedEx and UPS are a bit more entrepreneurial as well, I think they pay by the number packages delivered and picked up. The USPS also has more resources than the two private companies, it even has it's own police force. There are so manything that they can do besides cutting service where it does not seem lke it will save any money, rather, it will just be viewed as an inconvienence for everyone. Even if service remains the same, it is a bad public relations move, because everyone will think they are even slower, when they may be operating well within their time frame. They should focus on improving their service, not necessarily delivery time, but flexibility, unlike the other private delivery services who only deliver when the recipient is not home and then force the consumer to trek all the way to the warehouse during work hours to pick up the package.
The MTA...that is another organization that has wasted alot of goodwill from it's riders. That discussion will have to wait until another time.
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