Gordon Forgey - Another Pony Express?

The United States Postal Service is facing billions of dollars in losses, and it has to make changes.

Its solution: raise prices and cut service.

With the internet and package delivery services already stealing business from the once proud organization, these changes can only guarantee a continued slide. Over the last ten years, its volume has reportedly dropped 29 percent. It is expected to be halved from this in the next ten years.

To catch up with the decline and to be ready for what is to come, USPS will cut out nearly half of its processing centers. It will also eliminate about 28,000 jobs. With Congressional approval, it will cut Saturday service.

Next-day delivery service will become just a memory. Cutbacks also will include closure of many of its small post offices. The Washtucna post office is out of service. Malden’s is on the chopping block. So is the Steptoe office. Many other small post offices are bound to meet unceremonious ends.

As big a problem as its infrastructure is, USPS labor problems are staggering.

Wages at the post office are high. According to a USPS website, carriers can make as much as $70,000 a year plus benefits. Generous management wages have caught the attention of critics. Bonuses are widespread despite losses in the billions.

On top of all this, the postal service is unable to pay retirees out of its earnings, and the future liability for upcoming retirements is enormous.

A lot of Americans do not care about the plight of the postal service. They have found other ways of communicating and other means of conducting business. Still, the service is vital for the country.

The USPS missed the boat by not taking command of the electronic messaging possibilities of the Internet and by not creating a stronger position in package delivery.

The organization has put itself in a downward spiral, and it will take some creative, non-political thinking to escape it. Cutting service and raising prices are not a long-term survival strategy.

The nation needs a national mail service that is fast, affordable, efficient, and secure. Failing in this, the post office will go the same route as the Pony Express and Western Union.

That is not good for the country.

Gordon Forgey

Publisher