Cutting post office expenses
Tuesday, April 23, 2024 at 08:57AM
…the Postal Service posted a $6.5 billion loss in the 2023 fiscal year, and it’s on track to lose more than $8 billion in fiscal 2024…Nearly 20% of the nation’s first-class mail was delivered late in late March… “USPS got billions in aid, and now says it needs more”, Star Tribune April 17, 2024 Each morning I receive an email from the post office showing me the mail I can expect to receive that day. It is 99% junk mail - paper advertisements for everything from house siding to cremation services. Although I am of the “Boomer” generation, I conduct almost all my financial business - bills, bank statements, credit card balances and payments, and tax filings online. What magazines and newspapers I read, I view online with the exception of the dismal little weekly local paper delivered on Friday that takes five minutes to read and another one minute to recycle. When asked, I automatically choose to receive all communications from organizations I interact with electronically. I do receive (and send) the rare “thank you” card which I enjoy. But the little online automated greetings are just fine with me too. The USPS could go away tomorrow and I can’t say that I would miss it very much. I grew up with a mailbox at the end of the lane on a farm. The daily mail was exciting. The Des Moines Register came everyday, placed in that mailbox by a mailman we knew by name. Whom we gifted on Christmas. Greeting cards and handwritten letters appeared often. We were proud that my great-uncle Bob, a WWI vet, worked in the town’s post office. The mail, the party line telephone, AM radio, and over the air television were my childhood and young adult media. But sometimes sentimentality needs to be set aside. With the exception of package delivery driven by online ordering, the services of the USPS are irrelevant to many of us - even cranky old Boomers. It seems package delivery could be handled by FedEx, UPS, or Amazon just as well or better. Yeah, I know there are people who don’t do email, don’t do online banking, don’t have smartphones or computers or internet access. (I think both of them live in Montana.) So for a while, anyway, the postal service needs to continue. But why not start scaling it back now. I could certainly live with getting my mail every other day or even just once a week. Stop Saturday delivery, for sure. Wouldn’t that cut down on the number of delivery persons needed, trucks to buy and maintain and fuel? Increase the number of automated mailing stations and increase their capacity for larger packages. Don’t we have better things on which to spend our tax dollars? I suspect Ben Franklin would roll over in his grave if read this but, Ben, times have changed. (But I still appreciate bifocal lenses in my glasses.)
Reader Comments (3)
I agree wholeheartedly. Mail once or twice per week and no Saturdays would be fine by me. I realize I don’t speak for everyone.
I could get on board with no Saturday delivery. I hate to admit this, but one of the highlights of my day is getting the mail! Haha! Growing up, we had the same mailman for over 30 years and knew him as well. This was back when the mailmen walked their routes, and the mailboxes were right outside your house. Mail carriers in our town drive the trucks now, and the mailboxes are at the end of the driveway.
Joy,
I took recognize I don't speak for everyone - perhaps even a minority.
Doug
Mandy,
May you get many nice things in the mail that don't require you to spend money!
Doug