Reasons to Keep the United States Post Office Alive

For Americans, the United States Post Office (USPS) is as iconic as the Cadillac, and equally synonymous with being of “top quality”. For others, it is seen as an outdated, inefficient relic of a bygone era. I happen to be of the former opinion.

It was announced earlier this month that the United States Post Office would be doing away with Saturday delivery, citing this decision as a cost-cutting measure. Respectfully, I disagree. For decades it seems that some companies have timed their mail (particularly billing statements) to arrive on Saturday. For many of these same companies, Saturday customer service isn’t available, reducing the total number of complaint calls—or calls requesting clarification—for Monday.

Some time ago I went with a family member to our local FedEx store to mail a notebook computer to China. The cost? $275. We went two blocks away (to the city’s post office) to mail the computer for $75. It arrived 3-6 weeks later, safe and sound. The irony of mailing a computer to China from the United States is not lost on me, but isn’t my point today. One of the strongest criticisms of the USPS is the Congressional expectation that it run without making a profit (and thank goodness for that).

From 2004-2009, the USPS was voted “most trusted” out of 74 different government agencies. Moreover, the score improved for the USPS every year, meaning the more than 7,000 people polled for the survey increasingly trusted it, finally arriving at an 87 percent approval rating: most private organizations would fall over themselves to achieve a rating where nearly 9/10 of customers trusted them.

US Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has also called for the following austerity measures. In fairness, he is trying to close a $20 billion deficit and comply with the mandate that the USPS have neither no debt, nor no profit to report.   

•  Require postal workers to sponsor their own health care plan. 

• Programs like Tricare operate on a privatized basis to provide healthcare for military personnel and their dependents (under qualifying conditions).
• Unlike the government-led Veteran’s Affairs (VA) organization, Tricare’s falsifications have resulted in at least $100 million lost. Privatization of programs like Tricare can also lead to ugliness like this. Our veterans deserve much, much better. 
• Reform the USPS business model to remove restrictions that prevent the Postal Service from responding to the demands of the marketplace, and to enable it to compete much more effectively in a dynamic business environment.” This nebulous quote is meaningless until defined, but it comes directly from the press release I’ve linked to above. Eliminate the industry-leading retirement plan currently enjoyed by postal workers for future employees (starting in 2015). The current system would be replaced with a personal contribution plan. While I haven’t seen any documentation on this, my concern is that it would be as ill-advised as former President George W. Bush’s plans to privatize Social Security.

o   The above article also speaks to the disappointing Return On Investment (ROI) that has come from privatizing other government programs in the past, which is a phenomenon that could also hurt USPS employees.

My concern is that all of these well-intentioned plans will do the following instead:

• Kill off the largest worker’s union in the United States (the Post Office), which nearly all of the 495,000 USPS employees belong to. 
• Eventually eliminate the not-for-profit model of the USPS.
• Today Saturday delivery is being cut back. This is going to mean even heavier delivery days on Monday. What happens if another day is removed? Will this make for an even tougher job for nearly half a million workers that are no longer full-time employees.
• Privatize another government institution. 

Here’s what I’d do instead:  

• “Junk mail” producers receive amazingly good rates to distribute their materials. It has been argued that this service actually is helping to keep the USPS afloat. Junk mail probably isn’t going to go away completely (despite its relatively-low penetration rate) and we have the lowest bulk mail rates in the world—modest hikes would help offset costs.
• Sell a “Forever” stamp for a two-ounce envelope—the printing costs would be lower to both the USPS and consumers that need this denomination, versus having to use multiple stamps. 
• Increase the price of the “Forever” stamp to 50 cents—I’m not in favor of this, but the increase is needed. 
• Invest in newer, fuel-efficient technologies, especially renewable resources like hydrogen and solar power, selling off pre-existing equipment and decommissioning it (similar to how police cars are turned into taxi cabs). This would also allow the government to further lead the charge to becoming foreign-oil-free.   

Unless reversed, Saturday delivery will end 2013-08-01, meaning the last day of Saturday pick-up/drop off will be 2013-07-27. What happens next will be very interesting, and will also set the precedent for future changes in other government agencies going forward.