Empty mail trucks leaving early -- while mail sits on docks -- to fulfill Trump appointee's orders: re

[highplainsdem]

Source: Raw Story

Empty mail trucks leaving early — while mail sits on docks — to fulfill Trump appointee’s orders: report

-snip-

DeJoy highlighted measures he’s taken to reduce transportation issues, such as requiring postal trucks to leave sorting facilities by specific times each day to reduce unnecessary trips, but postal workers told the TV station his changes weren’t working as intended.

“Trucks leave empty,” said Joe Jolley, an employee with the postal workers union in Nashville. “They leave completely empty. We pay a truck to travel to Memphis, a 53-foot truck with no mail on it.”

DeJoy’s new policy won’t allow trucks to hold for even five minutes to be filled with mail, Jolley said, and some Express Mail and Priority Mail is left sitting on the dock after trucks leave by the ordered time.

“That is very important mail — cremated remains, legal documents, things that must be delivered on time, guaranteed delivery — and we are not making that guarantee,” Jolley said.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/empty-mail-trucks-leaving-early-while-mail-sits-on-docks-to-fulfill-trump-appointees-orders-report/

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Link to the WTVF-TV (Nashville) news story referred to in that Raw Story article (like the Raw Story article, published earlier this morning):

https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/postal-trucks-sometimes-travel-across-country-with-no-mail-after-usps-cuts

Trip tickets obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates show an empty truck left Nashville's sorting facility Friday at 6:01 a.m. on its way to Carol Stream, Illinois.

The ticket shows the truck left 14 minutes ahead of its scheduled 6:15 a.m, departure time, embarking on the 500-mile trip even though it had no mail.

On the same day, another truck bound for Memphis left 10 minutes early with an empty trailer, and yet another 53-foot trailer was empty when it left for Bowling Green four minutes ahead of schedule.

-snipping paragraphs including one about mail sorting machines specifically for oversized flat mail like ballots, of which Nashville had three-

Jolley said one of those machines was just taken out, leaving the post office with no back-up if either of the remaining two machines fail.

-snip-

This should be major news all over the country.

AND the focus of ads from the DNC and groups like the Lincoln Project.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. DeJoy - Trump's Efficiency Expert

DeJoy must be a lousy logistics guy. I mean input-output analysis has existed since WWII. Scheduling, optimization today has computer tools for decision making. I get the impression he's only watching overtime costs and labor inputs. The movement of the actual product - the mail - is irrelevant to his outcomes.

[MrsCoffee]

2. He isn't doing any of that.

He is intentionally sabotaging the postal service at Trump’s direction.

He gives zero fucks about costs and labor.

[highplainsdem]

9. Exactly. Trump told him to destroy the USPS.

[napi21]

3. Is anybody listening to the House Hearing on the Post Office? It just began about 10 min. ago.

First, I guess ALL Pubs are AHs! Every word out of their mouth is a lie & derogatory against the Dems with nothing on the current topic. The Postmaster is insisting he didn't do what he's accused of doing.

[highplainsdem]

11. Just looking at photos of DeJoy makes me feel ill, so I'm following other people's comments rather

than watching the hearing myself.

[JohnnyRingo]

4. In today's congressional hearing...

...rep Maloney just displayed charts that show how much performance has deteriorated since he took over. She asked why he still has a job.

Next up is Virginia Foxx (R-NC) to pat him on the back for destroying an American institution.

[moose65]

5. Is it just me, or does this sound ridiculous?

WHY would you send an empty truck on a 500-mile trip? That is absolutely ridiculous. If you had to make a rule about "being on time," wouldn't it be better for the empty truck to stay where it is and then leave the next day? I can't believe this guy is supposed to be a logistics expert!

[highplainsdem]

7. It's completely insane as a cost-cutting measure. As deliberate sabotage of the USPS, it works --

until it's exposed.

I hope to God that DeJoy is asked about this today.

[yellowdogintexas]

19. Looking forward to Rep Katie Porter's questioning

and her infamous white board

[Bengus81]

22. So....If DeJoy was running a lawn care biz he would get rid of all the riding mowers...

with mowing decks 3/4/5 feet wide and use 21" walk behind mowers and then tell everyone it's faster and more efficient.

[Qutzupalotl]

6. ...and live chicks.

I mean, formerly live chicks.

[highplainsdem]

8. Yes. DeJoy and Trump are monsters who wouldn't hesitate for a second to kill millions of

animals if it gave Trump a better chance of getting re-elected.

And given how the delay has affected prescriptions, they apparently don't care about killing people, either.

[thesquanderer]

10. I wonder why the empty trucks left up to 14 minutes ahead of schedule?

Why not have them leave on time? It makes me think someone wanted to be sure the trucks were empty.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

14. Yep...

... see my post below.

[mwooldri]

12. Did DeJoy run a logistics company?

Rule #1 - don't run without your freight.

Pay the driver detention time if needs be.

Seems that someone is lacking some common sense. Wanna save the USPS money? Simple - don't run empty trucks. No freight, no pay. It's that simple. That's what happens outside the USPS.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

13. As a former Group Leader (dock foreman) at USPS...

... if the trucks are leaving 10 to 14 minutes early, the last of the hot mail (first class, priority, Express Mail) won't even be on the dock by then. Half the trucks between distribution facilities always have whatever hot mail on hand that is going in that direction put on the tail just before the expediter clerk closes the door and seals it. And no doubt some chicks miss the truck as they were sitting with that last drag of hot mail.

And trucks would wait for the last drag of hot mail, especially if there was a sorting machinery shut down and the clerks and processors hustled to catch up. Of course that late leave is marked down, but all the mail got out.

It appears from the information above that they are now doing exactly the opposite.

[DeminPennswoods]

16. The deputy post-master general who

resigned in June said there was a disconnect in schedules between the trucks and, I believe, the mail delivery to the loading dock. That was the reason the trucks weren't leaving on their scheduled time.

[mwooldri]

15. Did DeJoy run a logistics company?

Rule #1 - don't run without your freight.

Pay the driver detention time if needs be.

Seems that someone is lacking some common sense. Wanna save the USPS money? Simple - don't run empty trucks. No freight, no pay. It's that simple. That's what happens outside the USPS.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

17. My question is this:

Why in the world are the local managers of the stations allowing this? Why?

At the very least, someone could stop the clock in the sorting center, so that when the trucks do get filled and leave, they can claim to be leaving at the appointed time.

So why are the people in the field going along with this stuff? Is there simply no one with any integrity left?

[MichMan]

18. Why aren't the trucks loaded in time, so they are ready to leave when scheduled?

[yellowdogintexas]

20. I do miss the days when the mail traveled on the passenger trains

When active passenger rail was like a spider web across the country, mail moved quickly from PO to PO. I loved going down to help my dad hang the bag on the pickup tower, watch the man on the train grab it with a huge long hook, and chase the incoming bag when it was tossed from the mail car. I could receive a letter from Louisville on the southbound run, answer the letter and send it on the northbound run.

Many small towns along these rail lines sent and received mail in this manner. It was sorted in the postal car by a crack team of postal workers. These were the elite of mail handlers.

If there is a USPS museum near you or if you run into one when you travel, take the time to take a look. Hopefully there will be at least photos and info about Mail on the Rails.

[SeattleVet]

21. Interesting 1948 documentary on the Post Office

and how it used to be efficient. Interesting stuff, including shipping and delivery of chicks and Postal Inspector cases:

[OldFriend]

23. USPS Delivers - Not USPS Makes a Profit and Not USPS Throws Election

There is no constitutional requirement for the USPS to make money - just deliver the mail and serve the communications and commerce needs of the country.

Nothing we hold in common - the military, highways, national parks, ports, NASA, etc., makes money. That is not why we created them.

When and how and why did we allow the billionaires to change the vision and conversation about the USPS - make money or go out of business.

Postage is, simply, a user fee and, likely, doesn't cover all costs. So what?

But, government policies, tax breaks and subsidies to big business are OK?

Just more two-faced billionaires solving imaginary problems - all they want to do to monetize and privatize the public cash flow for their benefit.

In the meantime, why not throw an election for DONCON45 before fully converting to the private sector.

Let's change the narrative back to the original goal of the USPS - deliver.

[FakeNoose]

24. My first-class parcel has been sitting in Indianapolis for 4 weeks

... waiting to be delivered to Pittsburgh. Before that the same parcel was in New Jersey for 4 weeks, going nowhere. Somehow it got to Indiana, and it went directly past Pittsburgh to get there. The USPS parcel handling is messed up beyond belief. Luckily I don't have any live baby chicks coming, but would it really matter if I did?

First class mail and bulk mail letters, I get those all the time. It's the parcels that are completely messed up. Chump did this to screw Jeff Bezos and Amazon. That's the ONLY reason!

[Scruffy1]

25. I always ship parcels by Priority Mail.

The handling is much different. At the NDC the packages go right to the APPS machine and are all processed overnight. It only cost a little more. I gave no idea how they screwed up first class parcels, but even before this debacle I used priority because the handling is much better than first class. it's a rough ride through the usual NDC sorting system with miles of conveyor belts.

[FakeNoose]

26. Unfortunately I had no choice in the shipper selection

If I had, it would have never gone via USPS. This is a package that came from China, and nobody can tell me when I'm going to receive it, or who's got it right now. The Postal Service claims it's in the hands of a shipping partner, which is a load of hogwash. If a shipping partner - Fedex, UPS, DHL, etc. - had this package I would have received it long ago.

Never again!