Usps Dumps Aa Domestic Mail

[WingNaPrayer]

The rumor is - and it's a good one since it came from USPS, that beginning this weekend they are pulling all US Mail from American Airlines planes due to poor and continually deteriorating service, not performing up to contract standards and agreements. So far this is domestic mail only and AA claims it will cost 500 plus jobs and upwards of 100 million dollars in revenue overall or roughly 6 to 7% of AA's revenue for fiscal 2005. Decisions on AA carrying any further mail internationally will be made in the coming weeks.

 

[twaokc]

Wing, where did you hear this rumor????????????????????

 

[lonesomeday]

As of febuary 12, 2005 no domestic mail will be tendered to AA. Rumor has it that AA dumped the post office. During 2004 AA generated 30 million in revenue and was fined 15 million for poor performance. Between scanner leases and man power to move the mail management says there lucky to break even. Arpey and Garton to meet with USPS reps monday in D.C.

 

[local 12 proud]

The rumor is - and it's a good one since it came from USPS, that beginning this weekend they are pulling all US Mail from American Airlines planes due to poor and continually deteriorating service, not performing up to contract standards and agreements. So far this is domestic mail only and AA claims it will cost 500 plus jobs and upwards of 100 million dollars in revenue overall or roughly 6 to 7% of AA's revenue for fiscal 2005. Decisions on AA carrying any further mail internationally will be made in the coming weeks.

[post="247358"][/post]​

Imagine that! poor and continually deteriorating service... perhaps they can serve up some free pizza and tv's like they are doing over at USAIR, im sure that will boost employee morale and production here in tulsa we are being told we have 18 months to save 500 million dollars OR ELSE. when you continually tell employees they need to DO MORE with LESS or risk losing your jobs you begin to become numb. i look for AA to join the ranks of UNITED and USAIR in the not to distant future.............THEY JUST DONT GET IT!

 

[Corinth2103]

This may just be rumor as was stated above, but even this article from the Chicago Tribune in Oct. 2003 makes mention that maybe carrying US mail isn't as lucrative anymore post 9/11 as one would think.



"U.S. airmail revenues overall, including for passenger airlines and cargo carriers such as UPS, have slid from nearly $2 billion in 2000 to $658 million in 2002, according to the Air Transport Association.

That's a tiny fraction of the $93.6 billion that airlines made in passenger revenue in 2000 and the $73.3 billion they garnered from passengers in 2002.

Mail revenues have dropped largely because mail volume overall has fallen, but federal security measures also have encouraged the postal service to use other forms of transportation, such as trucks.

Passenger airlines have been hit the hardest.

Because of terrorist activity in 2001, including anthrax attacks by mail, federal rules now prevent certain types of mail from flying on passenger jets.

As a result, airlines' share of the domestic airmail market has dropped from about 50 percent to about 40 percent. The balance is delivered by nonpassenger carriers, mainly FedEx.

Many airlines have taken measures to prove to the postal service that they deserve a larger chunk of the business.

United Airlines and Delta Air Lines formed a partnership that, based on its rate bid, received more than 55 percent of the business the postal service reallocated in June.

"We want to hold on to what we have," said United spokesman Jeff Green. He said the partnership has invested in technological, security and training measures to prove its service is up to snuff.

American Airlines, which has roughly 14 percent of the business, wants more. The airline has made the investments required by the postal service to track the mail it carries so that it can always be accounted for and so that the postal service can measure how quickly it reaches its destination.

"We're optimistic because we think we've offered them some real enhancements," said American spokesman Carlo Bertolini.

American, like Northwest and other airlines, has had to downsize employment in its airmail area as a result of carrying less mail since 2001, he said. He declined to give figures for job losses."


Tim

 

[mga707]

As someone with a bit of insider perspective here, I'll just say that the powers-that-be at "Elephant Plaza" (L'enfant Plaza, Wash DC--USPS HQ) would love nothing more than to dump ALL scheduled passenger airlines as mail carriers. Basically, the service received from most of them simply sucks. The long-term goal has got to be to continue to expand FedEx's role as the main carrier of all domestic Express Mail and a good chunk of the long-distance domestic Priority/First class, and to truck everything else.
The FedEx/USPS relationship that fortuitously began in 2000 (before you-know-what...) has been a huge success for both parties. EXFC scores (that's External First Class measurement--the percentage of Express/Priority/FC that arrives within it's alloted one/two/three day 'window', as measured by an independent outside auditor) has done nothing but climb since the 'marriage' between the USPS and FedEx began.
Surprisingly, you can truck mail halfway across the country just as fast as it can be flown via scheduled passenger carriers, and at a substantially lower cost.

 

[DFWCC]

I believe here at DFW AA is loosing 1st class mail on Mon Thru Thu only. On weekends AA will carry all 1st class. AA will carry non-priority mail 7 days a week.
This action may be necessary due to
1) Planes are so loaded, with room little or not enough room for mail and therefore refused at the gate.
2) Lack of manpower on gates. High loads-- extra bags-- longer time to make tail to tail delivery= less time to load for on time departure. The CCs are under pressure not to take delays. As was the case the other day when a gate CC refused 8 bags on a S-80 because he didn't want a delay to open the Fwd door to load them. Oh well some more unhappy psgrs for lack of 20sec.

 

[Boomer]

Can confirm said rumor, accompanied by RIFF info, hit base on the PM shift; Thursday, EDT. Total RIFF package said to include Cargo Mgt.

So much for pointers on the current CBA.

When we fail to manage, we manage to fail.

TWU: "We'll Get'em Next Time."

 

[FWAAA]

The rumor is - and it's a good one since it came from USPS, that beginning this weekend they are pulling all US Mail from American Airlines planes due to poor and continually deteriorating service, not performing up to contract standards and agreements. So far this is domestic mail only and AA claims it will cost 500 plus jobs and upwards of 100 million dollars in revenue overall or roughly 6 to 7% of AA's revenue for fiscal 2005. Decisions on AA carrying any further mail internationally will be made in the coming weeks.

[post="247358"][/post]​

You need a new calculator, Wing.

Assuming the $100 million is the correct number, the lost revenue equals only .54% of AMR's 2004 revenue, just over half of one percent. Certainly not 6% or 7% as you said. AMR's 2004 revenue totaled $18,645,000,000.

Yawn.

Arpey and Beer said that LRTC will bring in an extra $150 million annually.

If AA is awarded the PVG authorities, that route alone could easily equal $85 million of annual revenue.

The loss of mail is too bad, but it isn't the disaster you paint it to be. It certainly isn't the disaster you wish it were.

Next doom and gloom rumor, please.

 

[WingNaPrayer]

Actually I won't need to bother with a calculator. Below is a copy of the email sent from someone named Dave Brooks, and was just forwarded to me by an AA buddy in DFW - I highly doubt it's made up. I highlighted the area you would be interested in for your figures.

***************

As you may well know, we are in the midst of a serious dispute with the USPS over AA's service levels. Following written notice in January from the USPS that our service levels were below what our contract calls for, we submitted an action plan we believed would have made meaningful improvements to our service.

Unfortunately, as we were implementing these measures, our service quality to the USPS throughout January deteriorated further for a variety of factors, some within our control, others not. This past Monday, without any prior notice, we discovered that our routings for domestic mail from the USPS had been withdrawn. Should this action by the USPS not be amended, we will not be tendered any domestic mail, beginning this weekend.

We have filed an immediate complaint with the USPS, claiming that this reaction on their part is unwarranted and unreasonable. While our contract has not been canceled, the prospect of not carrying any mail puts us in an unsustainable situation with respect to the considerable resources we have devoted to carrying domestic mail.

To put our relationship with the USPS in context, we currently do about $100 million in revenue with the USPS, half is domestic and half international. While USPS is aggressively trying to implement some commercially unappealing changes to the rules that regulate international mail, this particular issue affects only domestic mail, about 6.4% of our 2005 planned revenue.

We have reviewed this matter in great detail with senior leadership, the Customer Services organization, and the leadership of the TWU. Everyone at AA who shares responsibility for servicing the USPS understands the gravity of the matter and has vowed their full support to try to restore the mail back to our aircraft.

I will be heading to Washington next week to meet with USPS officials, and will propose a variety of alternative service approaches with the goal of restoring as much domestic mail back to our network as possible.

You are no doubt getting questions from your employees, and we should expect the level of anxiety to increase as our mail volumes start to taper off. I cannot stress how important it is to be completely candid with your workforce and to be visible, especially among employees who work directly with the mail. Obviously questions about jobs and so forth will be the most pressing, but all we can really do at this point is respond with sincere concern and candor. Please make every effort to avoid any prevailing belief that we as managers "know something" but are not sharing information for whatever reason.

Finally, nothing could further jeopardize our chances to restore mail service than lack of attention to service, or any sort of emotion in our relationships with local USPS personnel. This decision by the USPS was strictly a headquarters initiative in Washington that USPS field personnel must abide by whether they support it or not.

Thank you for your patience as we make our way through this challenge.
Dave Brooks
B&T Debbie Edwards

****************************

If the email is wrong, tell me and I'll gladly send it back on toast!

 

[desertfox]

[someone named Dave Brooks




Pres. of AA cargo

 

[LGA Fleet Service]

Can't say I'm suprised the USPS yanked the mail contract from AA, the "service" was bloody awful.

I can't tell you how many times we'd refuse mail that was *on the gates* because the crew chief couldnt be bothered or was late for his card game and just wanted to lock it up and get out of there. :blink:


I can't tell you how many times I'd see thousands of pounds of mail tossed onto double dollies because the clerks offloading a flight couldnt be bothered to go find a few bag carts and it was their last flight of the night and they had to get to the hangar to punch out.


Oh well, now those senior guys who have been hiding in the PO for years have to come back to the real world and do some work for a change.

 

[WingNaPrayer]

Well if he is President of Cargo, then perhaps the percentage of revenue he mentions was for AA cargo and not for the airline overall. Easily, a carrier that rakes in billions wouldn't count 100 million as 6.4% of their overall revenue, so FWAA your statement now makes much more sense.

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

Can't say I'm suprised the USPS yanked the mail contract from AA, the "service" was bloody awful.

I can't tell you how many times we'd refuse mail that was *on the gates* because the crew chief couldnt be bothered or was late for his card game and just wanted to lock it up and get out of there. :blink:
I can't tell you how many times I'd see thousands of pounds of mail tossed onto double dollies because the clerks offloading a flight couldnt be bothered to go find a few bag carts and it was their last flight of the night and they had to get to the hangar to punch out.
Oh well, now those senior guys who have been hiding in the PO for years have to come back to the real world and do some work for a change.

[post="247564"][/post]​

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

LGA,

Your right.
Now they will bid the bag room, with weekends off, on days, probably 05:00/13:30,be out of weather at ALL times, set up their "area"(coffee, newspaper etc), within arms reach of the RED STOP BUTTON, which they can use if the bagroom is shorthanded, JUST LIKE I DID for my last 3 years.

I could NEVER understand why guys who could hold the bag room, bid the line ??


NH/BB's
RETIRED/THANK GOD !!

 

[LGA Fleet Service]

Because the postal operation here has no supervision Bears.

The CSM's dont go down there, they are afraid of men who have more time with the company then most of them have been alive.

There is one 'real' crew chief spot down there, the rest of the time its a D1 with 25 years reigning supreme.


I have no doubt those dinosaurs will camp some good spots with their time....lord knows after 25-30 years you wouldnt retire or anything.... :blink: