Seems we're all twisted up like a used shop rag tangled in an extension cord wound around the TIG torch ground wire just waiting to catch a spark from grinding. I was gonna say like a bad wiring job found in that low-priced project car you thought you stole for a jumbo deal. Merry Christmas and happy new year to you and yours.
Yup, USPS is a giant mess. Our rural Post Office is literally overflowing with packages. I have never seen so much mail order! Hate to guess what is like in places that are locked down.
The USPS is so far behind they can see their own headlights in the rear view mirror. Two weeks ago my wife sent a "one day delivery" package from our suburb on the west side of Kansas City to a suburb north of KC. It took nearly a week, and good ol' USPS won't do anything about refunding the extra money paid for "one day". I guess "one day delivery" means that maybe one day they'll deliver it. Hey @Ryan , thanks for doing all you do to keep this group tied together via the H.A.M.B.!! Merry Christmas!
My postmaster is a good pal of mine. He's handled all of my stuff since 2005. He's also a hot rod guy and mans a swap meet booth at the Round Up every year. In any case, I asked him what was the real reason for the all the issues. He told me after the government gutted their automation in early October and then reversed course a few weeks later, they were left with very little time to get everything set up properly. So sorting machines were put back online, but no time was available for things like cable management, calibration, etc... So after the election, they do the best they can getting that stuff done. But while they are doing that, packages are piling and delays are mounting. They get everything back up to snuff and now they are looking at record levels of volume due to people doing the right thing and acting responsibly during a pandemic. I feel for the guy man... He's smart as shit, runs a tight ship, and does wonders with the tools he is given, but man... He told me once that the public views the USPS in the wrong way. He says it's a public service and not a business and that when people are critical of the USPS for not being profitable, they are failing to understand why the USPS was developed and why it exists. For example, you don't complain when a public highway isn't profitable because roads are a service extended to the public. Same for schools. You look to break even of course, but at the end of the day you are there to serve the public's needs - rain or shine. I had never thought of it that way and thought it was interesting. At the end of the day, if I'm sending something irreplaceable I would never count on the US government under any circumstance. Instead, I'd count on capitalism and send it with UPS or FedEx. However, you can't really run a small merch shop like mine with UPS or FedEx because it's so expensive. My shipping charges would double easy... USPS saves me. Point being... If you don't work with USPS all that much, it's hard to understand how important they are.
We all need to step back, be thankful we made it and bring in '21 with hope for better and proceed. No doubt 2020 was something else but it'll get better.
Ohh... and random... but I know where one of these is: It was delivered to Austin, TX (I think in 1958), but "fell off the back of the truck." It is sitting in a barn covered in this weird cosmoline like crap and has 7 miles on the odometer. I've been trying to buy it for Tardel for years - he wants to make a hot dog truck out of one - but the owner won't budge.
^^^^That is a cool piece^^^ Would make a great hot-dog truck. Any idea who manufactured those for the USPS?
Ryan, I’m glad to see your comments on the USPS and your local guy especially. Our local postmaster and his crew do a great job for our small rural area. They are always helpful finding the cheapest way to safely ship my stuff to other H.A.M.B.ers, often offering me free packing materials. I look forward to seeing them and they are always interested in what old part I’m shipping and where. Nice folks doing a great job IMHO. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Thanks, Ryan. And, you're right about the Post Office. I feel for those folks. So, thanks to them, and to you. Merry Christmas.
I'm not sure actually... It has a driver's seat that swings out of the way so that you can drive the thing either sitting or standing... It does have lots of studebaker parts in the interior, so I'm thinking they had something to do with it... I haven't seen the motor, so have no idea what it has in it... My post office is pretty rural as well... but most of the employees live in Austin. They screw up every now and then, but they are always willing to make it right...
Our rural postmaster, town of 300, does a good job. However our rural carrier which is a contract carrier, is worthless. Pretty sure she is skimming and selling the stolen loot online. Over the last few years I have had hundreds of dollars of stuff go missing. Clothes and meds mainly.
Funny you mention that they are interested in what old part. One of our counter clerks is a lady near retirement age. Every time I get her , she is more interested and chatty about what old part , antique or vintage toy I am shipping then anyone else. Beyond the helpful job they do , her interest and personal stories make those visits extra special.
If that is the case, it's easy to prove... Just sign up here: https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action
When I bought my last house I received a letter addressed to me with just my name and the town on it, no street address. As I had barely moved in I was quite shocked the carrier knew where to deliver it. The post office is not perfect but they do a tough job pretty well and the political shenigans they have been put through these last few years are just wrong on many levels.
The big problem with the post office is that they have eliminated a lot of the smaller regional distribution centers. That is where the sorting equipment got pulled out. Simply meaning that you mail spends a lot more time being shuffled around and riding in a truck. Here If I mail something to Prosser Wa that is 35 miles away. It used to go from my post office, to Yakima, then to Pasco and out to Prosser. Now it goes from here, to Yakima, to Spokane, then to Pasco and out to Prosser. Close to 500 miles to get 35. The simple fact that mail is spending a lot more time and days traveling on trucks to distribution centers is costing days getting something delivered.
Same thing here, rural community, some contract carriers can't get the mail in the right box. Haven't had much theft but all the neighbors have a "day after" delivery service as we carry each others mail to where ever it was supposed to go.
In eastern Canada here. I drop ship a lot of my car parts and eBay stuff from the US to the USPS post office just over the border in New York state (''free shipping in the continental US"). I got caught out with stuff to be picked up there when the border closed on March 20th or thereabouts. No problem, I thought to myself, how long can they keep the border closed? ....until June when I realized the postmistress there was only obligated to hold my (or anybody else's) stuff there for 30 days then it could be disposed of. So when I called her she said "Canadian PO box holder's stuff is piled in the back room, it'll be here whenever you get here, no problem". Here we are 10 months later and she is still holding that stuff there for me and others who still cannot get over the border to pick up. Wonderful people at USPS!
Our regional hub is in Birmingham AL, everything we get has to go through there to get here. Mail something to an address in the same county, it still has to go to that hub and back. Never really understood their system, lots of unnecessary movements. Heard the head of the Birmingham hub on the radio news the other day, he said they were still working on delivering November mail! He said they had been slammed with packages, a lot more than normal, and had a lot of people either out sick or out because they were supposedly exposed and had to quarantine. I’ve got some stuff saved on eBay I was planning on buying, but I’m waiting for them to catch back up. I dig that little mail truck! I live on a rural route, so we’ve never had anything like that.
I'll add a little to that Twin Coach, that would be the Fageol Brothers from Oakland Ca, that were building city buses out here, they sold out the Fageol name to someone else,who built tractors and trucks till 1939 when T.A. Peterman bought them out and started Peterbilt motors, and moved back to Kent Ohio and continued to build under the Twin Coach name, they also built the little bread box Helms Coaches for Helms bakerys untill DIVCO bought into that around 1935.
I moved from the city to a rural area 26 years ago. Briefly after moving, I was pushing a rolling chassis and cab from one side of my two car garage to the other. Now, I live up on a hill. My rural postman saw me struggling to push this by myself and drove up my drive to help. That ain't gonna happen in the city! So, just a few days ago, I just happen to have a weekday off and was working in my shop. I now have a different mail carrier. Obviously from all the car parts he delivers to me he knew I built cars. He came up the hill because he had a slow leak from a nail in a tire and knew I worked on cars. We patched it quickly and he rolled on. I have a lot of respect for my carriers.
I'm very happy with my mail carrier. She has a name-Sandy. Delivers TRJ to my door, gets the mail in the box. Occasional mis-delivery is to be expected and tolerated-those folks have a tough job. Whatever problems the PO is having, and they are legion, it's not due to my local Post Office folks.
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