Vol 105

Postmasters Online

Volume 105

Contents:

Editorial Question: If I Had A Hammer

1) It's A PC World

2) Doing More with Less

3) Ads on Mailboxes Planned

4) EVA "Bonuses" Unfairly Scrutinized - Editor

5) The End is Near?

6) The Question

7) A Post office in Every Neighborhood

8) Off the step, to the curb

With apologies for the long delay since the last issue. A two week vacation followed by a sick computer in the shop delayed publication. Thanks for all the well wishers who filled my email box while we were away. My PC and I enjoyed them all tremendously!

~~~~

IF I HAD A HAMMER: What if the Post Office were turned over to the Employees?

One of the 'reform' ideas floating is to turn the Post office into a publicly owned company or a private, employee owned company. Either way, as shareholders we would have tremendous voices in determining and shaping the new 'company.'

So I am interested. What would we change? Would we really eliminate small offices? Would we cut delivery? Some of the delivery withdrawl on Saturday's has public officials in agnst - but without any really sustantive reasons. Operationally, it would be difficult to 'catch up' the mail and in my opinion, the savings may not be as great as some say.

As owner, operators would they allow each Postmaster essentially to set up shop? Could we really have copiers and fax machines and even a pop machine in our lobby? Could we erect signs that fit in with the community character instead of gaudy and ugly neon ones? Could we have an express lane in our lobbies -"No questions asked here - You want stamps, I got stamps. No extra services, no silly questions." Could we have specials on our products? Could we sponsor a Little League team or partner with the community in other ventures? Could we hire the kind of people who actually want to work? Could we fire those that work the system more than they work the mail? Could we promote the exceptional workers and pay them accordingly?

What do you think? If you had a hammer and nails, how would you build The Post Office: The Next Generation?

Send your comments to Rupzip@cs.com

~~~~~

See our website at www.postmastersonline.com

Send comments questions and news to rupzip@CS.COM or POB 3, Wilson WY 83014

Look for an upcoming editorial penned by this editor appearing in Federal Times about Management Association unification and a Washington Post interview about the Post Office's dark days.

~~~~~~~

Is this issue being forwarded to you by a friend? Get your own ! Send an email to rupzip@cs.com asking to subscribe.

1) It's A PC World

If you take the title of the article ("It's a PC World") and apply it to the USPS's personal computer purchase program, you will have some useful advice. One would assume that if you are a PM Online reader, you already have a basic PC. But if you were hoping to get a better one, or perhaps get one for your folks or your kids, you might want to pay attention here.

The PC World in the title I'm referring to is the computer magazine by the same title. Throughout the year, they survey readers as to their experiences with various major brands of computer makers and once a year they publish the results. The most recent survey was of 30,490 readers in the Jan '01 issue starting on page 108. You can probably get if from their website www.pcworld.com/jan2001/reliability_extras

To cut to the chase: for home PCs, only Dell was rated outstanding. IBM was good, Compaq only fair and EMachines rated poor. They rated both reliability and service. Out of 5 stars, Compaq rated 2 on the former and 3 on the latter. IBM was 4 stars on the former and 3 on the latter. Dell rated 5 stars on both categories.

I have a Dell and I wouldn't think of buying anything but a Dell for my next computer. I would certainly avoid Compaq at all costs and only reluctantly get the IBM. Think about this:

1) We're all loyal to the USPS and take pride in our positions as postmasters. We try to do a good job and we sacrifice ourselves for the good of the company. But when you are home alone in your bathroom with the door locked and no one around who might spy on your innermost thoughts, you gotta admit the Postal Circus is a second-rate outfit. Anything offered by the USPS is a second-rate deal and will probably turn around and bite you sooner or later. If it all goes well, they will take credit for it, but if you have problems, they will tell you to call Compaq. No one in your district office is going to help you if the monitor goes blank.

2) There's no guarantee that the ISP (Net Zero or CompuServe) this Postal computer deal is offering will have a local dial-up phone number for your access. They probably have local numbers for most major cities, but if you are in Podunk and you have to dial a Topeka exchange at toll rates. . . In my area, AOL service is a toll call to a city 60 miles away. Be sure to check the ISPs being offered on this deal BEFORE you buy--especially if you or the user lives in a small rural town. A free one sounds good, but a lot of free ones have come and gone. Who's going to guarantee this one will still be around in 6 months? Check out your local ones first, then buy your computer after you've found a reliable one you can afford. It wouldn't do you much good to get the $590 computer, then have the free ISP fold and you find out you have to pay $50/month to go online

3) Ask about the shipping BEFORE you buy. Sometimes it can be $20 and sometimes $110. Also, On-Site service usually means at the service provider's discretion, not yours. They will come to your house if they feel like it and not just because you are afraid to take the cover off and replace the modem yourself. If you live in Podunk, they might come and then again, they might not.

I think you can get a better deal than these two offerings. Dell sells refurbished computers with new warranties. So does IBM. Cruise around to their web sites and see what they have. On Dell's you can put together your own new system, picking out which chip your want, which monitor, which speakers, how much memory and how big a hard drive. When you figure out what you want, give them a phone call and try to chisel the price down or get some goodies thrown in free like a printer or scanner, etc. Computer sales have been poor for the past 3 quarters or so. Everyone-Dell, Compaq, IBM, Micron, Gateway is hurting. They will probably want to make a deal. I'm sure you can do better than the USPS offer. I know you won't be happy with the puny 15" monitors they are offering once you see someone's 17" or 19" monitor.

There's also a lot of computers at eBay. There's some risk involved, but if you need cheap, they've got cheap and as I said above, I think there's also a lot of risk dealing with anything the USPS is offering. Good Luck.

Al in Dumwadiddy (Podunk's Sister City)

(Wishing for broadband access)

2) Doing More with Less

We all have to learn to do more with less. Unfortunately, most of us have been doing

this for quite awhile. Fewer employees, les s workhours, more reports that will only take

a "few minutes". And still the District can't get compliment numbers, vehicle or routes correct! I just

got a report that said I have 8 routes and 11 LLVs. I have had 9 city routes and 2 rural routes with LLVs

and this has not changed in the 4 years I have been here. I sent in a resignation for a casual in early January and

received a print out on Friday that she was terminated on 3/16!

I personally think we need to trim from the top down! How many EAS 21-25 ebusiness people do we really need?

As we in the field cut and pressure our employees to work harder, it seems that positions keep increasing in

Headquarters/Areas/Districts - and these are not low paying positions either!

We need to have an immediate freeze on EAS positions.(Especially new positions!) Now they are talking about

sending BPI teams out to the field to cut supervisors, - they need to look at their own offices. How many EAS 16

retail supervisors who don't even know how to look up delivery information on the intranet do we need?!? Or EAS 16s who can't keep numbers straight or pass a report across a desk to someone else if they get it by mistake?

3) Ads on Mailboxes Planned

Billboard giant Van Wagner Communications, which has created everything from pantyhose ads to light-show billboards in Times Square, will start selling ads for the U.S. Postal Service on all mail trucks, mailboxes and

on stamps.

Companies also can rent two sides of the more than 272,000 mailboxes, or buy the covers of the 1 billion stamp books sold each year or even place ads in the spot under peel-off stamps.

The nation's 38,000 post offices will have billboards on their exteriors or in lobbies, where companies can set up product kiosks. An ad placed on one of the Postal Service's 200,000 mail trucks will cost as little at $400 per month, a steep discount from a typical bus ad in New York that costs about $600 per month, Ward said.

Van Wagner, owned by New York billboard tycoon Richard Schaps, is expected to bring in $200 million a year for the Postal Service. Van Wagner beat out four rival companies for the five-year contact to handle all the ads

for a modest flat commission. The cash-strapped agency said it needs the income that the ads are expected to produce.

Coca-Cola, Kmart and American Express, among other businesses, are now in talks to use the Postal Service's huge advertising machinery, which will become the nation's biggest network for saturating a market with outdoor

ads.

Some consumers complain that mail trucks and mailboxes are the last bastions of the American landscape that haven't been plastered with ads. But the Postal Service sees that distinction as a plus in this campaign.

(EDITOR: While I understand the desperate times we live in, I cannot agree with this move. It's a move that cheapens the Postal Service and makes us just one more agent for Madison Avenue. 200 million per year is not much money for selling our soul. But if we are going to do this, why not have carriers wear sandwich boards? Why not have window clerks sport Nike Ties? Why not have Postmasters drive cars with Beer logos. Once you open the door to the profane, then nothings remains sacred. What do you think? Send your opinion to rupzip@cs.com)

4) EVA "Bonuses" Scrutinized

From the Editor

One of the concerns that has continued to get media, congressional, and employee attention is the Postal Service's pay for performance program, which covers 84,000 employees. Congressman, the Inspection Service, and critics have questioned whetherthe Postal Service should be making payments under the program at the same time it was requesting a rate increase, considering a reduction in workforce, and projecting a net profit, which was less than the projected payout..

The Post Office has defended the program, saying it has promoted record productivity.

However, If these congressmen or critics were to ask managers who have had to live under EVA, they would find few of us enthusiastic about it. Besides it blanted unfairness, it simple drives the wrong behavior.

In 1994 the Post Office unilaterally took away our Step increases and our COLAs, perhaps as some sort of incentive to get the crafts to agree to a similiar concession. Fat chance. They replaced the COLAs with a convulted Economic Value Added (EVA) pay for performance system. Its a system that none of us understand fully. But it goes something like this: The Post office sets national and district goals: revenue, overtime, sick leave, Priority mail, and a dozen other service goals. If we make every goal, then we get 100 percent of the EVA. Most districts get about 1/3 of the payout.

So just how much do we get? I got $35 my first year. I framed the check and it still hangs in my office ( I am hoping they can't balance the books becauuse of it). Last year I got just over $500 ($393 after taxes) because the District (not me) met few goals.

98 percent of the managers out there would rather chuck this system -- it drives the wrong kind of behavior. Just give me a COLA or a chance at a step increase. The "bonus' is really part of our pay system, but catch this --- it is not added to your base pay OR your retirement. With no pay raises and no step increases and no COLAs, these "bonuses" aren't really all they are cracked up to be.

To cry foul is short sighted as well. Because if we would have been treated like other employees, we would have had regular step opportunities, COLAS and the like added to our salaries. The monies they gave out in 'bonuses' last year would have been replaced with regular salary increases - to the tune of far more than a mere 193 million that EVA cost the PO.

Criticism of the EVA program just might mean its end and a return to sane salary compensation.

5) The End is Near?

I know there is at least one hard working Postmaster out there! I would just like to say "Thanks" for the great work! I am not sure where this is going but the years are getting many and the days are getting few! If you get my drift?

6) The Question

I have a question our Mpoo is quizing us on safety issues can you answer this question?

As a Manager you witness an employee exit his /her vehicle to deliver a parcel

to the door of a customer failing to shut off the ignition to you :

Issue a lettter of warning

Give a job discussion

Place employee on emergency leave and request letter of removal

Whats the answer

Marlin

The Answer

I found the answer in the rural carriers hand book (Blue)

Page 67

It is answer number three

Marlin

7) A Post office in Every Neighborhood

Comments: Take a close look at what the post office pays out to these small office which could receive rural and hcr delivery. Take PA, it has over 1400 post offices, every other mile almost and paying a postmaster over $40,000.00 a year in a level 11,to sell stamps and service 1-100 customers. Plus add the rent utilities, replacements, and everything else. I say shut them down, cut the deficit and the customers will get delivery, maintain their address, and say loads of money. There is so much more to say and we postal employees know more than we are given credit...it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happens...a business cannot continue to pay big bucks and expect the general public to pick up the tab. How many other businesses run their operation like the USPS---NONE! Wake UP!!!!!

Email: abromovich@never-enuff.net

State: PA

(EDITOR: Postmasters have long fought for every Post office to remain open. We have even hired professionals to fight for Post Offices to stay open . The result is that rarely anymore is an office closed. I recently heard of an office that was 5 miles from a large town, but the office only had 26 boxes rented. The Postmaster retired, but not wanting a fight, the PO hired a replacement and kept the office open. What's your feeling on office closing consolidation. Are we, as thinking professionals, going to encourage SMART closings or consolidations, or should we just fight every closing the same way we would shore up the trickle on a damn. Whats your opinion? Send it to rupzip@cs.com)

8) Off the step, to the curb

Comments: why not encourage customers to push their mailboxes to curbs and improve time delivery, decrease dog bites and work injuries.I know their will be hardship cases still but it will decrease the amount of time in a day to continue with a 6 day work week and customers will be happy with "on time" mail service.

City:

State: kansas

Email: rbtoto@hotmail.com

Honorary Unsubscribe:

Zip Code Co-Inventor Dies

Robert A. Moon, a career postal employee partially credited for the zip code system, died last week at age 83 in a hospital in Leesburg, Fla. The Zoning Improvement Plan, to which zip referred, represented the need for a national code to speed the sorting of mail with the coming of mechanization. Moon first submitted his idea for coding addresses by digits in 1944, when he was a postal inspector. But according to postal spokesman Robert Anderson, Moon's contribution was just the first three digits of the code, the part that refers to general regions of the country. The final two digits, which are smaller delivery areas, were the work of others, the USPS. Moon proposed a new coding system because of his belief that planes would eventually deliver the bulk of mail. Up until that time, much of the nation's mail was carried on railway mail cars. Anderson said Moon's repeated suggestions finally bore fruit in 1962, when a committee studying proposals for streamlining mail adopted his idea.

To subscribe, unsubscribe or comment on these or any other issues, simply send an email to rupzip@cs.com