Mike Morgan, the creator of the comic strip Postage Due, thought we'd get a kick out of his Ballad of Sarah Palin. It's at:

http://www.postalmag.com/images/balladofsarahpalin.jpg

Recently, a spokesperson for the USPS came to our post office to talk about Customer Connect. Customer Connect is a USPS program that encourages postal carriers to identify businesses on their routes that could benefit by using USPS products. There was only one question after the presentation: "When do we get our grievance pay?"

You see, for the last year or two we've had a management team from hell that took every opportunity to harass and intimidate postal employees. They did it with malice, and also with their stupidity. This resulted in numerous grievances for blatant management violations of the contract, which of course the carriers won almost every time. I don't know the count, but there have been dozens and dozens of grievances, if not hundreds - counting all the grievances about violations of the OTDL list. This alone has cost the USPS many thousands of dollars just at my post office.

Getting back to Customer Connect. Do you think carriers will want to help management after being treated this way? Heck no. I say this because even though management may think they are getting ahead by harassing and intimidating carriers, in the end they lose a thousand different ways. Hopefully, one day, management will realize they may lose a little by treating employees with respect, but will gain much more in the end.

As for our management team, our station manager is no longer with us and is working as a delivery supervisor now (in effect a demotion). And her minion has been reassigned as well. Hopefully the new manager and a new supervisor will show a little more respect. If so, they may get a little respect and cooperation in return.

Ever wonder how many miles a letter carrier walks each day?

Albuquerque The Magazine recently celebrated National Postal Worker Day by printing how far some Duke City, NM letter carriers walk on their routes during one day, reports the Postal Service's Southwest Area Update newsletter.

Three carriers were armed with pedometers, and here are the results:

Amy Munoz
Letter Carrier, Five Points Station
28,067 steps, or 5.5 miles

Phillip Carabajal
Letter Carrier, airport Mail Facility
13,780 steps, or 6.5 miles

Jerry King
Letter Carrier, Steve Schiff Station
18,697 or close to 9 miles

This morning our supervisor announced with "great sadness" that today would be our last day to deliver the weekly Dallas Morning News circulars. (For those not in the Dallas area, the DMN circulars are like ADVOS, but bigger and bulkier. They go out to every address that does not get home delivery of the Dallas Morning News, Dallas' only daily newspaper. As such, many routes have almost 100% full coverage ever Wednesday. See this blog for more information.) The supervisor tried to sound really sad when making the announcement. She noted that this was just another example about how the Internet is killing mail volume and that this was a major loss of revenue.

Were the carriers sad, you ask?

It's not that carriers want to see the USPS lose revenue, but most of the carriers were very pleased with the announcement for the following reasons.

1. The biggest reason is that carriers had to fight tooth and nail with management each week to get approved overtime to deliver the bulky, full-coverage mailings. Management would insist the circulars didn't take any extra time at all to deliver. In reality, it would take up to two extra hours per route to deliver the circulars. On straight park and loop residential routes, it could take as little as 15 minutes extra. But on apartment routes and routes in the ghetto that were designed for normally low volume, it could take from 30 minutes to 2 hours to deliver. Management wouldn't usually approve this full coverage time, and if they did it was after much arguing back and forth. As a result, when informed of the loss of the weekly circulars, the carriers stated: "Hey, management didn't count it anyway since it was a third bundle, so if it's not counted it's not a loss." Now, carriers are glad they'll have one less headache a week with the supervisors.

2. Some carriers bluntly stated that it was junk and the customers didn't want it anyway.

3. One carrier said the move would save a lot of trees.

4. Some carriers said this was an opportunity for management to cut overtime hours.

I write these reasons to make a couple of points. With volume falling, everyone at the USPS needs to be on the same page to craft solutions to falling volumes. As it is now, there is much hostility between craft and management that prevents different groups from having common goals and common concerns.

Another point is that in my experience there was about one person on my entire route of more than 600 stops that actually liked the DMN mailing. For many others, the circular incited hostility, many customers called the circulars junk. At the apartments, most went in the trash immediately after people checked their boxes. I say this because the USPS needs to transform and become more relevant. It won't be relevant if all people get are credit card solicitations and circulars that only piss people off. I don't see the loss of the DMN as a negative, but a chance to make the mail more relevant. I believe there is great opportunity for the USPS to facilitate important transactions through the mail, including fulfilling orders and other dealings from the Interent. The USPS has a complete nationwide infrastructure with a monopoly that gives it many advantages over the UPS, FedEx and others. If we can't take advantage of that, by offering competitive pricing and fast service for delivering important documents and bills, Internet orders, prescriptions, NetFlix, etc. then we don't deserve to survive. But to survive, we need to become nimble, not burdened by bulk mailings that get in the way of delivering relevant materials.

Here's a few thoughts about how the USPS can become more nimble and survive in the Internet Age:

1. 5-day, Monday-Friday mail delivery.
2. All-electric delivery vehicle fleet.
3. Once all-electric, convert remaining walking routes to mounted. It's the 21st century and walking door-to-door just won't cut it.
4. Consolidate sorting to only two bundles - DPS and FSS. USPS mandates that all mailings, including ValPaks and ADVOs, be machinable by either DPS or FSS.
5. With burdensome "junk" mailings out of the way, the USPS can maintain standard delivery times. (No working after dark two-days-a-week to deliver burdensome full-coverage third bundle circulars.) With standard delivery times, the USPS can win back business mailings, including Internet order fulfillment and documents now transported by UPS and FedEx. The USPS needs package and document delivery since paper costs will one day go the way of gasoline (world population expands while tree populations decline each year).

Received the following press release today. Tom

For Immediate Release                

HENLEY-PUTNAM UNIVERSITY SPONSORS TELECONFERENCE ON “WHY ‘BAD GUYS’ LIKE THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE” ON AUGUST 28
 
David Nee, Retired Postal Inspector to Speak

San Jose, California, August 21, 2008 - On Thursday, August 28 at 10 A.M. (PT), Henley Putnam University will be sponsoring a teleconference on “Why ‘Bad Guys’ Like The U.S. Postal Service,” given by David Nee, retired Postal Inspector.  Call now to reserve your space 408-453-9900 ext. 9949.

The teleconference will include topics such as:

    * The oldest law enforcement agency in the United States: the United States Postal Service
    * Some history behind the USPS and its law enforcement role
    * The role of the US Postal Service's Office of Inspector General
    * How the USPS is the largest US intelligence gathering agency you never heard of
    * What kinds of investigations the USPS conducts, and how they assist other law enforcement agencies

There will be a brief Question & Answer session following the seminar.

About the Presenter

David Nee spent nearly 30 years in the Postal Inspection Service investigating workers compensation fraud, internal financial crimes, mail bombs, and security.  Prior to his career as a Postal Inspector, David was a military policeman and a claims adjuster for Hartford Insurance Company.  While living in Indiana, he spent more than 16 years coordinating the security of the Indiana Postal Service (750 facilities, 15,000 employees), which included physical, mail, and personnel security, security risk assessments, crime prevention, emergency preparedness, and design security for all new postal facilities in Indiana.   David also was a supervisor on Inspection Service's special event security task forces that protected the 1987 Pan American Games, Universal Postal Union Congress, 1996 Atlanta Olympics, 2001 Police & Fire Games at Indianapolis, McVeigh's execution, and many Indy 500 races.  He also conducted a major tabletop exercise for the Inspection Service's 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic task force.  He holds a B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin - Platteville.
  
While with the US Postal Inspection Service, David was a certified instructor in the following areas: Crisis Management Planning, Executive Protection, Firearms, Physical Security, Workers Compensation Fraud, Special Event Security, Internal Crimes for Military Postal Service, Tabletop Exercises, Security Control Officer Program, and Bomb Threat Management Program.

Currently, David is a security instructor for LSI Security Institute, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, and Ryan Wesley Associates.  The courses he teaches are Crisis Management Planning, Bomb Threat Management, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), Security Design, Violence in Workplace, Risk Assessment, Identity Theft, and Executive Protection.
 

ABOUT HENLEY-PUTNAM UNIVERSITY

Founded in August 2001, Henley-Putnam University is a leading educational institution in the field of Strategic Security.  Offering nationally accredited online Bachelor and Master of Science Degrees in Intelligence Management, Terrorism/Counterterrorism Studies, and Protection Management, Henley-Putnam prepares law enforcement, military, intelligence community, and private industry professionals with the network, skills, and insights to advance in their careers and protect the future. Henley-Putnam University, which is committed to building a student and alumni network that will serve its community, is an accredited member of DETC (www.detc.org) and offers more than 100 courses taught by hands-on faculty members from renowned institutions such as the CIA and FBI.  For more information on Henley-Putnam University, call 888-852-8746 or visit us online at www.henley-putnam.edu.