The U.S. Postal Service plays two roles in America: an agency that keeps rural areas linked to the rest of the nation, and one that loses a lot of money.
Now, with the red ink showing no sign of stopping, the postal service is hoping to ramp up a cost-cutting program that is already eliciting yelps of pain around the country. Beginning in March, the agency will start the process of closing as many as 2,000 post offices, on top of the 491 it said it would close starting at the end of last year. In addition, it is reviewing another 16,000—half of the nation’s existing post offices—that are operating at a deficit, and lobbying Congress to allow it to change the law so it can close the most unprofitable among them. The law currently allows the postal service to close post offices only for maintenance problems, lease expirations or other reasons that don’t include profitability.
The news is crushing in many remote communities where the post office is often the heart of the town and the closest link to the rest of the country. Shuttering them, critics say, also puts an enormous burden on people, particularly on the elderly, who find it difficult to travel out of town.
The postal service argues that its network of some 32,000 brick-and-mortar post offices, many built in the horse-and-buggy days, is outmoded in an era when people are more mobile, often pay bills online and text or email rather than put pen to paper. It also wants post offices to be profitable to help it overcome record $8.5 billion in losses in fiscal year 2010.
A disproportionate number of the thousands of post offices under review are in rural or smaller suburban areas, though the postal service declined to provide any estimate on how many beyond those slated to begin closure in March might ultimately close or which ones are being targeted. “We want to make the smartest decisions possible with the smallest impact on communities,” Dean Granholm, vice president for delivery and post office operations, said in an interview. He said the agency is identifying locations that are operating at a deficit and looking “for the opportunity to start the process of closing.”
In addition to reducing employees—it has cut staffing by a third since 1999— the postal service has sought for years to deal with financial woes by raising rates or cutting services, such as a proposal to drop Saturday delivery. It has also talked in the past about closing a much smaller number of post offices. But while closures have been “on the table” in the past, this push is the agency’s most serious yet, Mr. Granholm said, and is drawing widespread interest from a cost-cutting Congress. Still, shutting down post offices is often politically unpopular: elected officials in several communities have already written the Postal Regulatory Commission protesting planned closures.
Eighty-three specific post offices were approved for closing during the three months ending Nov. 15, more closings than in any quarter in the agency’s history, according to the postal service. In addition, 408 post offices where service has been suspended for various reasons won’t reopen amid the fiscal crisis, Mr. Granholm said.
Some of those suspensions are being contested by the Postal Regulatory Commission, independent from the postal service and reporting to Congress, which is investigating whether the postal service has been illegally using reasons such as lease expirations to close small, underused branches. The agency has denied wrongdoing.
While paring down is a common survival tactic for organizations these days, efforts by the postal service to do so routinely raise alarms because many citizens see post offices as an essential public service. Postal service dates to the founding fathers, with Benjamin Franklin serving as the first U.S. postmaster general and the Constitution explicitly authorizing Congress to establish post offices. Critics in Washington argue the postal service should reduce what they say is too much spending on employee benefits before resorting to closures.
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7 Responses
Pre-civil war, mail was delivered to the post office and you had to pick it up yourself. It was because of concern for the modesty of women whose husbands were in the army that home delivery was instituted. At one time deliver was twice daily, often seven days a week.
The largest customer of the post office is Netflix. Should tax dollars be subsidizing them? For really important documents, one pays a premium for express, priority, tracking, etc. – which more nearly competes with FedEx and UPS (which in the case of FedEx is a partner with the postal service).
As most first class mail is being replaced by email, do we need to subsidize junk mail?
Should the postal service be seen as being in the same class as many other discontinued services (calvary in the army, regulation of ice vendors, etc.)?????
Why don’t they do what is done in Canada–have postal counters in drug stores. the drug stores get more business, while doing postal work customers buy meds, and everything else you buy in drug stores. I’m sure Walgreen, Kinney and whoever would be interested. increases traffic in the stores, longer hours…
If the post office wasn’t such a pain in the neck to deal with, maybe people would utilize its services more. Any business that doesn’t have checks and balances, will go under. The lack of common courtesy, customer service, and the daily verbal abuse that goes on in the post office, makes me ponder as to why their still around. My business Post office branch, the 11218 Kensington branch is run by an incompetent fellow who continues to “manage” that branch despite hundreds of complaints filed against him. There are several blogs dedicated to the mismanagement at the Kensington Post Office. I have personally witnessed the manager cursing at people because they didn’t know the proper form for their particular need.
After witnessing the abuse, I didn’t sit by and wait for someone to do something, I wrote a letter to the postmaster general and to Congressman Weiner. It’s been 4 months with out a reply from either.
Government efficiency at its best.
#3- what services would people use?
At least in modern times, it takes at least one day for a letter to get delivered. So why use “snail mail” for a letter, when email is faster and cheaper (btw, did you send a paper letter to Congreeman Weiner – try email next time).
Newspapers are easier to read online, plus if you want delivery in the morning the post office doesn’t help.
The Post Office is okay for packages and documents where you need proof of delivery (such as a court summons), and it does an excellent job of sending out taxpayer subsidized junk mail.
For those who still use typewriters and have ink bottles on their desk, the post office if vital. For everyone else, it’s a quaint relic and a drain on the public treasury.
The P.O. knows how to deliver chickens. I more than once ordered newly hatched birds from a huge Midwest hatchery to my NY metro home, and they assured me the P.O. had procedures in place and knew what to do. They did, and this was 24 hatch to delivery. I doubt Fedex of UPS would match it.
every body critese the post office, just remember if it would be privatise a letter will cost $16 by Fedx or UPS.
the mail man works very hard in any weather the mail gets delivered.just think for a simcha how much will cost you to mail by other alternative.in any other place in the world you pay for the distant that the mail goes, in US you pay the same if you mailing in NY or LA. they do not charge for fuel as UPS or Fedx. so don’t complained the mail is deleiverd to all parts of the world. and if the post office asked for raise of 2 cent every body jumping all over.others companies increse the price without asking the governmaent if it ok(gasgoes up for 30 cent every other week no body complained.the post office is a private entity and do not a subsedise by it. you getting your money worth.
#6- just think how much an invitition to a simcha would cost if it was done they way thinks were done in the good old days – hand written on parchment
Email cost very little. A text only system (such as Pine) requires minimium investment. It is faster and cheaper. And unlike the Post Office, which is a government agency even if it has a separate board, it doesn’t require taxpayer subsidies. Better to scrap an obsolete service that can be done better and cheaper, than to close down services that people actually need.