US Postal Service

[MrSplitshot]

In more recent years, it has suffered annual losses of $2 billion to $5 billion even after factoring out the health payments; by 2016, the mail agency expects to lose $21.3 billion a year, of which $5.8 billion will be caused by that payment."

While the prefunded health care is undoubtedly a huge chunk, USPS still lost $2-5 Billion in recent years, not including it. Projecting to be loosing $15 Billion a year by 2016 not counting the health care payment.

It's obviously a loosing proposition. If it were a private business it would have long ago been scrapped with those kind of losses, or bought for pennies on the dollar by someone who knew how to turn it around and make it profitable. It's only alive because it's the government.

That's not at all a reflection of the postal workers that work hard everyday. That's a reflection of piss-poor management and leadership and innovation. Huge surprise from our government, I know.

Now, compare that to UPS. My company holds tire contracts with UPS in several states and we have even hired a couple of their employees to help us get better in our processes. They analyze every minute detail with service and productivity in mind...no excuses. Their culture is one of precision and innovation. For example, they did time studies recently that determined their package car drivers burn 5-10 minutes a day cranking the ignition on and off in their trucks. So, they invest in keyless ignition that will be going into the trucks so that they automatically start and stop as the driver enters and exits the cab...because they know that 5-10 minutes of time saved per day across thousands of drivers equates to more packages handled, with better efficiency, and ultimately more profit.

When one of their trucks blows a tire in one of the states where we handle their tires, we have 1 hour to be on scene...regardless of where it is in our geography. WE PAY THEM for every minute we go over. That means we have tire banks across the geography that we can get to fast, wherever our service truck guys happen to be. It's very lucrative for us, but it also means that UPS doesn't take any crap and top priority is get the package to the customer fast, no excuses...because those kinds of things keep them ahead of the competition.

They have also saved 10,000,000 gallons of fuel since 2004 by eliminating as many left turns as possible in their routing.

Do you think the culture of the USPS is pushed through the organization like that from the top down?