USPS would go under without packages. Letters and media have declined in volume over the years do to electronic mail and the availability of media online.
USPS got into the small package business to save itself with the invention of Priority Mail Flat Rate items. The consolidation of package type into Ground Advantage pricing is their second push to gain more of the market share.
For those in rural areas, USPS is probably more important than UPS or FedEx when it comes to package shipping and delivery.
Those rural areas are the GREATEST NEED and the biggest challenge.
USPS is already using contract drivers on many rural routes and they are still money losers.
Either the rural routes need the rest of the country to make money on packages to subsidize them or they need an outright government subsidy or they need to be told the are going to have to take a scrooging.
The DeJoy strategy was an attempt to implement the first option. It has not worked yet, and is likely to be abandoned.
I do not see the administration choosing the second option, but hope springs eternal.
The clue here, methinks, is likely to be found in the details: the USPS, as currently configured, is not the same as the USPO (aka the “Postal Service” for the first 195 years after its establishment).
Our friend Lake is correct about the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 making a sea-change, and creating the “government corporation” overseen by a Board of Governors which currently obtains - and I’m fairly certain that he’s making just such a distinction when pointing out who was Postmaster General when President Johnson II’s (LBJ) ‘second administration’ began supporting the unionized government employees’ wildcat strike which ultimately led to that bill which President Nixon into law*.
*
It may also be noteworthy that the same Postmaster General was undoubtedly instrumental in the 1967 decision to rescind the long-extant RPO (“Railway Post Office”) functionalities - which was by and large undertaken under the same sorts of political pressure to stop the bleeding of money as every P.G. since then (and some, before) has been obliged to face.
Yes, that certainly true; I remember those days well, because before his appointment I was already paying attention to current events as reported in various media outlets.
Still, leave us not lightly overlook these considerations:
the possibility that an overly-strict adherence to this or timeline of events AS PRESENTED - by whatever authority one places faith in to get the details correct - could leave out a complete explanation of crucial decisions having been made (obviously effectual, or not) that might not be easily discerned by a more-casual observer.
the simple (and quite-demonstrable, time and again) fact that what is considered a priority by this or that Congress - and/or this or that Presidential Administration - often percolates through the Halls Of Power at a rate slower than brewing molasses.
I would venture to suggest that few and far between are the historians, no matter their bent, who would look askance at the notion that one of LBJ’s most-effective electoral strategists played the most-significant role in effecting the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970.
It would have gotten smaller. The number of days it delivered would’ve changed. Yes, someday once “everyone” is capable of electronic mail it would go away just like the pony express.
Instead it has gotten bigger and more bloated and is losing more money (yes it is having to fund retirement in advance)
A government program shouldn’t be “competing” with the private sector. It should only be doing things that is a need of the people that the private sector doesn’t do.
Delivering things to rural areas isn’t a need.
People living in rural areas have chosen to do so just like those that choose to live in massive cities. If they have to travel into town to get medicine, food, etc that is the choice they’ve made.
Let us not forget that it would be far far bigger and better for the community/nation if it were not handcuffed by one of the two political parties and prevented from offering community services such as check cashing, UPS/FedEx drop off delivery, selling of other non postal items which would make them A profitable, and B a BETTER community service point. Let us all not forget the USPS has nearly completed its pension prepayments so what to do with the pre funding money, as it most certainly will not be coming back to the public in the form of lower postage and the employees are not going to see it working for whatever entity(s) take over.
Can’t drown something people use in the bathtub without angering those same people. It’s the typical playbook for corporate/political greed, pass laws/policies that make an entity ridiculously ineffective/incompetent so you can justify privatization for your donors.
Profits over people, is the one thing you can always bank on in America.
Some politicians are so obviously greedy it makes me sick. Prevent an entity from being competitive so you can privitize it by showing how uncompetitive it is so you can profit off the price increases that inevitably happen after.
When you live in a rural area, traveling into town to get medicine and food is normal. However … in many of the smaller towns, not everything is available to buy as the stores will stock only the staples.
We had lived and worked in Los Angeles, lived in rural Wyoming, and lived and worked in rural Texas. In Los Angeles, we didn’t really need the internet as we could drive 70 miles in any direction and not leave “being in town”. We could find anything we wanted. This doesn’t happen in Wyoming or West Texas.
We are going to let it go at that as anything further will push this in a direction that it doesn’t need to go.
Traveling into town to go to the post office requires the existence of the post office. Many post offices in small towns are single employee post offices, often open for limited hours. When you travel into town for food or medicine, the purveyors of those goods are more likely to be available for more and more convenient hours.
The pandemic lockdowns killed many of the Post Offices which existed on contract in other retailers.
The Post Office is certainly a victim of Murphy’s Law. Yes buts abound.
Like this one in Calais Corners Vermont. We have family that live nearby on Calais Pond. They have to go into Burlington when it is closed. The General store is right net door, they run a tab, that the family pays once a month. "Put it on the “Sxxxxx” tab and you walk out with what you need for the weekend.
7:30 to 2:30 weekdays, closed for lunch 11:30 to 12:30 and open Saturday 8 to 10:30
Yes they did, many of our products are focused on small retailers and event venues. Nearly killed us, we took on debt, not a good choice. However, we kept every member of our team, a good choice. I added a life insurance policy to pay that, off since my days of traveling around the sun could end at any time.
This thread is a great example of how politics and eCommerce are intertwined. I will not continue as I would cross the line of SAS TOS.
I will however provide a link to The Men of Calais Corners. It was a fundraiser to pay for repairing the dam. The Men of Maple Corner 2003 - nude calendar Viewer Discretion is advised!
One of my favorite “post office’s” and I say that in quotes for a reason is the one at Stags’ Leap vineyards, where the speakeasy was located below the post office floor. A perfect reason to head over to the old winery in the 1920’s. Now that’s what I call a community service right there.
Even the contract PO at Pease in Portsmouth closed permanently during the lockdowns.
When our PO was still downtown, the Pease PO was usually my dropoff place. No lines. Now that the main PO is south of town, I do not drop off 99% of my packages. For the 1% remaining, we drop off in Kittery or Hampton depending on where we have other stops.
Traveling to our post office is 3 blocks. It doesn’t matter whether the counter is open or not. The mail and small packages go into our box and the bigger packages go into a larger box. If we were on the rural route, everything would be delivered to either our mail box on the drive way or to the door if it was a larger package.
To go to town to get groceries and medicines is a 30 mile drive (our town only has a Dollar General to shop). The big town (30 mile drive one) is 250,000 in population but still doesn’t have everything we need and/or is priced higher. As far as the store hours being more convenient, not really so. The Walmart might be open until midnight but 80% to 90% of the regular stores are still 8 to 5 or 9 to 6. Our post office is open 8 to 3 but the boxes are available 24 hours a day.
Our one person post office still functioned during COVID. We would note that our post office is not contracted out and is in it’s own building (rented building but not inside another business or attached to another business).
Best ANG base in the world IMO. Worked there for 8 months. Got to go to Newick’s for my birthday on the way home from Iraq in 2005. Best birthday dinner ever.
You want to melt your brain for a while, land in NH after staying in a tent in the desert for 6 months. The colors will make you think you dropped acid (allegedly).
Once you go from a “We deliver everywhere” to “We deliver to ………..”
You better hope your town of XXX thousands are part of the WE and not labeled rural.
In other words Joe, define Rural.
FYI google AI defines it as 20% of America, or 70 million American (what is your preferred data say? More/less?
Or do we have a new definition by the next appointee that suffices a Kings mood ?
Or Is it distance or population, or is it simply snail mail delivered at a loss?
If a loss, is it any loss, 1%, 5%, 10%, what is the cut off? Or is it the last 3 years loss, or 5?.
Are other services (GA/PA) from that area to be considered if a loss? (aka loss leader).
Does Mayberry today not quailfy, and 2 years do. Meaning Areas pop in and out of Rural Jail. That well business great confidence for using the service.
“Hey Sam, why did this come back, we sent the same order last year”
In 1913, the Post Office Department introduced Parcel Post – affordable parcel delivery available to all Americans that opened up a new world of mail order merchandise to many, especially in rural areas.
LATE EDIT:
UPS
Jim Casey found a company called American messenger service in Seattle in 1907. He and his partner bought out a similar company in Oakland in 1919 and changed the name to united parcel service to reflect the change in the company
FEDEX
FedEx began as Federal Express when the company was incorporated in 1971. Frederick W.Smith started with a revolutionary idea to create an airline to solve the logistics challenges businesses faced. Operations began in 1973 with the pickup and delivery of the first overnight packages.
The company began as Roadway Package System (RPS), founded in 1985 by transportation company Roadway Services Inc., later renamed Caliber System. FedEx bought Caliber in 1998 to complement its existing FedEx Express business and rebranded Caliber’s RPS package delivery service FedEx Ground in 2000.
So the reality is USPS got into the package delivery first … before UPS and FedEx.
I think that Joebcrafts’ distinction between ‘things’ and ‘letters’ is an important one.
To maintain a civil society, the founding fathers realized that government needs a physical address for every citizen, corporation, company, or other entity that participates in any form of commerce or politics. And it needs a way of delvering formal comunications to those entties.
To not have such addresses and method of delivery would mean that courts, law enforcement agencies, and other goverment agencies cannot reliably transact business with anyone. Subpeonas become meaningless. DMV notices are worthless.
In general, no government agency has a reliable track record of its interactions with law-abiding citizens, nor of its attemps to impede lawbreakers.
( These communications cannot be contracted out to private companies, because the company could become a participant in its own case. Imagine trying to prove that UPS received notice of a lawsuit when it is charged with delivery of such notices. )
A post office thus became a legitimate function of government, even in the days when Jefferson and company were striving to keep it small.
Packages, OTOH, are not necessary for the proper functioning of government.
