The U.S. Postal Service expects to lose $7 billion this year. That makes the USPS dependent on Congress, which is never a healthy dependency. Email and digital technology are forcing first class mail into the dead letter bin of history, slicing deeply into a key revenue source for the Postal Service.
It’s more painful than the worst paper cut.
So it’s no surprise that the federal agency continues to raise rates, though even at last month’s increase to 73 cents, a stamp is still pretty affordable — it’s lower than most developed countries. You can’t even buy half a candy bar or half a bag of chips for the price of sending a birthday or get well card across the country.
And though the Postal Service needs to think of itself as a business and watch costs, the agency — and Congress — also needs to remember it is a public service.
Thinking of it that way, the latest proposal from the U.S. Postmaster General is particularly upsetting. Management is looking at slowing down the pickup of mail in rural areas to save money.
The plan eliminates the evening pickup of mail at post offices for transport to processing centers. Instead, the mail will sit and wait until the next morning. The Postal Service has been trying out the plan since last fall in limited areas and is considering going nationwide.
News reports say as many as 10,000 post offices nationwide could lose their evening pickups. That’s about one third of the offices across the country.
The Postal Service filed its plans last week. Any change would have to go through the agency’s governing board and then review by the Postal Regulatory Commission. In a dose of political wisdom, the Postal Service said it would not make any changes until after the November election, so as not to jeopardize mail-in voting.
“At the end of the day, I think some portion of the mail showing up 12 hours later, I think it’s a price that had to be paid for letting this place be neglected,” Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told The Washington Post. “We’re trying to literally save the Postal Service.”
The government would be saving money at the expense of rural areas.
Even if the change would not affect mail leaving Wrangell — that’s governed by the Postal Service contract with an air carrier for delivery into and out of town — it could affect the timeliness of letters and packages coming to Wrangell from rural areas outside Alaska.
Earlier this month, the borough was ready to open bids for construction of a new floating dock at Meyers Chuck — but there were no bids to open. Part of the reason was that some bids were delayed in the mail and arrived at City Hall past the deadline. Certainly, the out-of-town contractors should have put their envelopes in the mail earlier.
As for the Postal Service and Congress, they should chuck aside anything that would add further to delays.
- Wrangell Sentinel
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