UPS vs USPS - No Contest

We all know about the United States Postal Service and how ineffective their service can be, even in the middle of summer when everyone's on vacation and the world is quiet. The USPS service for the Big Town of Savage seems to be very poor indeed.

I don't know the route that mail takes to get to Savage, but I think most of it comes in through a distribution center over in Prince George's County near the Washington Beltway. Given the delivery dates of my weekly magazine (Aviation Week and Space Technology) that's due at the post office on Monday and on the best weeks arrives on Thursday or Friday and often times is several weeks late, lower class mail seems to be handled in a batch process mode.

A whole batch of items that aren't high class postage get shoved aside to be processed on a 'time available' basis. Batch processing in this mode often works well, however it is definitely dependent on the quality of your employees and their willingness to perform work duties and not sit around with their finger up their nose or shooting the breeze with co-workers. We all know workers with those traits, don't we. Batch processing does NOT work for USPS mail coming to the BToS post office.

I ordered a small 32" TV with free shipping from an online company Tuesday morning around 8:30. Thing was shipped via UPS and I had the tracking number that same evening. The TV was delivered at 1:30 in the afternoon the next day, Wednesday.

Imagine that, free delivery of a TV, not a letter, 30 hours after I ordered it on the internet. It's no wonder the US Post Office is going out of business, no one wants to do IMPORTANT business with them...responsible shippers go with private, for profit, companies...companies that perform as advertised. If the USPS can't perform the most basic tasks in a timely fashion, how can one expect them to take care of important items efficiently.

Just a short Sunday morning thot from here in the BToS,
JD

PS - Post Office workers at the Savage Post Office seem to perform their duties admirably. As far as I am aware I have no complaints with their service. I don't like paying the Post Office Box rent each year, but that's another story.