USPS Tracking Question

[Jim Koepke]

Informed Delivery from the USPS is one of my favorite services of the USPS. UPS also has a package tracking service.

It often saves me a walk out to the mailbox before the mail is delivered. Of course this only happens when a tracked package is on the day's route.

Looking for today one package is on schedule to arrive today. This got me wondering about something ordered a few days earlier. Imagine my surprise seeing the travel history of my package:

443490

Hopefully this doesn't end up in a black hole somewhere.

jtk

[mike stenson]

I have a package being shipped to me from a store locally (it was a pre-order item, and they just shipped it instead of holding it there for me, normally not an issue).. that went to LA, then to DC, then to North Carolina, Denver, now it's in Phoenix.

I think they want our packages to have the holidays we don't.

[Jim Koepke]

I think they want our packages to have the holidays we don't.

LOL!

If only we had ordered cameras and a window seat…

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

It seems they cannot make up their mind:

443498

Maybe it was put on a fast jet and parachuted into my local P.O.

jtk

[mike stenson]

Nice! Mine's been sitting in Phoenix for a few days now. It seems now that things normally go from Phoenix to LA. I wonder where my package will go next!

The only down side to all of this is, my package.. can warp.

[Wes Billups]

This is funny and scary as I sold a table saw arbor this summer to someone in Virginia. The package spent a week in Puerto Rico just like yours. They eventually got it right and it went to the appropriate address.

Makes me wonder how many packages go to Puerto Rico.

[Kev Williams]

All depends on what planes are going/leaving where and when. Seems that thru PR was the fastest way, but they were hedging their bets with the 'might be late' caveat...

[mike stenson]

All depends on what planes are going/leaving where and when. Seems that thru PR was the fastest way, but they were hedging their bets with the 'might be late' caveat...


This becoming a pretty regular issue is all new behavior within the last 5 months. I ship quite a bit.


Things like this used to happen to me, about once a year. It's been about 3 times in the last two months now. Then again, things going from Tucson to Phoenix, then to LA, then to Tucson.. that's consistent and new (and just wasteful).

[Jim Becker]

Looks like it got inadvertently put on a plane...

[mike stenson]

No wonder usps is loosing money.

That's the thing though, they're not.

[Brian Elfert]

That's the thing though, they're not.

Huh, they lost $8.8 billion in 2019. The USPS has not paid the $5 billion to the retiree healthcare fund since 2012 so losses can't be blamed on the prefunding requirement.

[Jim Koepke]

Well, one package did arrive today but not the one that took a side trip to Puerto Rico.

One thing folks do not realize is the U.S. Post Office was never set up to be a source of revenue. It was set up to be a service of the U.S. Government.

Some with their own agendas have pushed the idea it should be a profit making endeavor. Our founding fathers felt the ability to communicate throughout our nation was important enough to use tax dollars to subsidize its operations.

UPS, FedEx and other carriers do have to make a profit to stay in business. That is why their rates are higher.

The founders of our nation did not foresee the creation of electronic communications eating into the use of the USPS system of delivery.

jtk

[Jim Becker]

Huh, they lost $8.8 billion in 2019. The USPS has not paid the $5 billion to the retiree healthcare fund since 2012 so losses can't be blamed on the prefunding requirement.
They have made a $2.9B profit on operations since 2012. The unfunded stuff, unfortunately, gets amortized which makes them show as a loss. In business accounting, not paying an obligation still affects profitability on paper. Your figure for 2019 is also incorrect.

https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2019/1114-usps-reports-fiscal-year-2019-results.htm

[Bruce Wrenn]

Got a package today that tracking shows it hasn't hit the PO from original seller on Amazon yet. AMAZING, I got it, and it hasn't even been shipped yet. Our rural postal carrier brought it to the house, rather than leaving it beside mail box as FedEx had done with another package earlier today. About a month ago, UPS left a package leaning against a tree near the road, on day on which rain was predicted. Just happen to find it just before rain set in for the day. I can't say enough good things about our carrier, but the letter sorters are a different story. In past month, wife has had two CC statement returned to sender. Maybe it's because we are new here. Oct 31st, we will have been here 40 years.

[Brian Elfert]

They have made a $2.9B profit on operations since 2012. The unfunded stuff, unfortunately, gets amortized which makes them show as a loss. In business accounting, not paying an obligation still affects profitability on paper. Your figure for 2019 is also incorrect.

https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2019/1114-usps-reports-fiscal-year-2019-results.htm

The article you cited has a sentence as follows: "The net loss for the year was $8.8 billion, an increase in net loss of $4.9 billion compared to 2018."

[Jim Koepke]

My curiosity is wondering where the next scan might be:

443569

Hope it is somewhere in the continental United States and not Hawaii.

jtk

[Ronald Blue]

Huh, they lost $8.8 billion in 2019. The USPS has not paid the $5 billion to the retiree healthcare fund since 2012 so losses can't be blamed on the prefunding requirement.

This article seems to refute your claim. Not interested in arguing. You can choose your news sources just as I can. Yes they lost money in 2019 and the healthcare was funded according to this gentleman. If they allowed them to go to pay as you go they very well might be profitable or at least close to it. Seems like a reputable non-agenda driven source.

news.nd.edu/news/postal-service-losing-money-because-of-congressional-mandate-not-low-prices-expert-says/

[Kev Williams]

I've been self-employed for 45 years. Know what my business's net profit average has been? Actually, there IS no 'average', as my profit has ALWAYS been exactly ZERO. Same with my losses, none, ever.

The reason: Money comes in from the fruits of my labor, money goes out to pay for expenses, the leftover is mine. As a BUSINESS, there's no profit, no loss, ever.

This is how the Post Office SHOULD work. Any 'profit' should simply used as a basis for adjusting pricing and employee wages...

Yeah, too simple. ;)

[Brian Elfert]

This article seems to refute your claim. Not interested in arguing. You can choose your news sources just as I can. Yes they lost money in 2019 and the healthcare was funded according to this gentleman. If they allowed them to go to pay as you go they very well might be profitable or at least close to it. Seems like a reputable non-agenda driven source.

news.nd.edu/news/postal-service-losing-money-because-of-congressional-mandate-not-low-prices-expert-says/

I get my facts from the source, the USPS itself, unless you believe the USPS is lying. See https://about.usps.com/what/financials/annual-reports/fy2019.pdf Page three of the annual report shows an $8.8 billion loss. Even if they paid the required payment to the retiree healthcare fund they still had a loss.

[Ronald Blue]

I get my facts from the source, the USPS itself, unless you believe the USPS is lying. See https://about.usps.com/what/financials/annual-reports/fy2019.pdf Page three of the annual report shows an $8.8 billion loss. Even if they paid the required payment to the retiree healthcare fund they still had a loss.

I'm not seeing anything that disputes what was stated by my source. I never said they didn't lose money. If you reread my original post I stated that. I'm pointing out part or most of the reason is because of what they are forced to do each year.

[Jim Becker]

Ron, I agree with you that the "why" behind the financial results is important.

[Jim Koepke]

This is how the Post Office SHOULD work. Any 'profit' should simply used as a basis for adjusting pricing and employee wages...

There are more accountants on the federal payroll scrutinizing the USPS than are looking over your shoulder.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

Maybe my package was placed on a direct flight from Puerto Rico to Portland, Oregon in a Piper Cub?

443652

Hopefully it will show up today.

jtk

[Mel Fulks]

Speaking of tracking , all the wanted posters are gone !

[Jim Koepke]

Speaking of tracking , all the wanted posters are gone !

That may have taken place when the Postal Service was separated from being subsidiary of the government. As a department of the government they could be compelled to post official government documents. As a quasi government service that may no longer be the case.

A quick search shot that down:


The next time you walk into a post office, take a look around. One of the things you probably won't see are the faces of the FBI's Most Wanted Fugitives. Over the past decade, America's most notorious mug shots have been fading away from post office walls.

"It's really a move of economy," Nancy Pope, a historian at the Smithsonian Institution's National Postal Museum, tells host Scott Simon.

"The Postal Service is in need of money, and they're looking at post offices a little bit differently than they used to," she says. "They're looking at them less as the community center and more as a place for merchandise and marketing."

Some post offices already sell greeting cards in addition to stamps, but more merchandise is planned. "Anything they can pretty much get OK'd by Congress and the Postal Regulatory Commission," Pope says, "because they really do need the extra money."

So the space formerly used to post "America's Most Wanted" is now used to hawk Priority Mail.

jtk

[Howard Garner]

Only six days?
I got a credit card statement that said I was late with the last months payment
Got that statement the following week
Howard Garner

[Jim Koepke]

The package was in today's mail.

It didn't look like it drank all the liquor in Puerto Rico. Maybe that was Costa Rica. Well, it ain't nobody's business but my own…

jtk

[Brian Elfert]

Only six days?
I got a credit card statement that said I was late with the last months payment
Got that statement the following week


I dealt with credit card statements by long ago signing up for electronic statements. The only paper mail I get from them is the stupid promo checks which have dried up since the pandemic started.

[lowell holmes]

We did not see a postman yesterday. I will go to the post office and ask for our mail if they do not show up today.
It is what it is and there is nothing we can do about it.

[Bruce Wrenn]

We did not see a postman yesterday. I will go to the post office and ask for our mail if they do not show up today.
It is what it is and there is nothing we can do about it.


I know, I wrote to postmaster at distribution center concerning my missing packages. ABSOLUTELY NO RESPONSE!

[lowell holmes]

I went to the post office and requested my mail and the lady smiled and in five or ten minutes came out with a weeks mail.

I don't know what the problem is but they do not destroy mail and will give it to you if you ask for it.

[Jim Koepke]

I went to the post office and requested my mail and the lady smiled and in five or ten minutes came out with a weeks mail.

I don't know what the problem is but they do not destroy mail and will give it to you if you ask for it.

Did you ask her why it was no longer coming to your home address?

jtk

[Bruce Wrenn]

Don't feel too special. Wife recently had two , actually three CC statements returned, as addressee unknown. CC companies didn't even bother to call and verify that we are still here. This Saturday, we will have lived here 40 years, so we ain't exactly newbies.