Post Office Woes Deserve to be Properly Addressed

When the U.S. Postal Services isn't being taken for granted, it's usually being referred to in a derisive manner. "Going postal" has become a generally accepted synonym for those who commit workplace massacres (or even to jokingly reference anyone percolating with rage), despite the percentage of postal workers who have ever done harm to co-workers being truly infinitesimal. Very rare instances of sacks of mail being found under viaducts have also devastated the USPS' PR for years, while periodic postage increases and long lines at the post office are routinely the stuff of punchlines or water-cooler derision.

But if you actually think about what things cost today, the fact that you can put a letter in a mailbox in Key West on Monday and reasonably expect it to reach Fairbanks by Friday, if not sooner, all for a whopping 44¢, is pretty astounding. Just consider the manpower, automation and gasoline involved in getting it there.

Yet in an age where even fax machines have become antiquated, everything from short messages to high-res photos to multi-page PDFs can be emailed in moments (if not transmitted even faster via texting, instant messaging, web posting, etc.), long-distance calling costs practically nothing, the art of letter writing seems as archaic as rotary phones and everyone you owe prompts you to accept paperless billing, it can't be shocking to hear that the U.S. Postal Service is drowning in money woes.

As detailed in a Chicago Tribune article on Wednesday and summarized in the accompanying chart below, the postal service has been losing billions for the past several years (including $3.8 billion in 2009), is facing a $238 billion loss over the last decade and handles about 30 billion less pieces of mail annually than it did a decade ago.

It does surprise me, as the third chart illustrates, that the USPS still handles much more mail than it during the 1980s, when fax machines, email and other instant distribution technologies didn't exist. And with 177 billion pieces of mail cris-crossing the country just last year, it's not like the post office will become completely obsolete anytime soon.

But it clearly is suffering, and thus is again considering raising postage rates--although 44¢ will remain the cost through 2010--and as the Tribune article conveys, is contemplating the elimination of Saturday mail delivery. While the article doesn't directly address staffing cuts, past, present or future, I can't imagine layoffs aren't in the offing if mail usage continues to decline, despite the likelihood that the infrastructure can't change all that much. After all, less mail isn't going to shorten mail routes, but fewer carriers would lengthen them and thus increase the burden on each one. But then, less business often means more work for those who survive staffing cuts.

Clearly, there aren't easy solutions to a problem essentially created by progress, and I can't readily offer any except to suggest that Hallmark invent more holidays and that parents introduce their kids to the beauty of physical magazines (and subscription savings).

And yes, you haven't been not seeing things; as the Tribune graphic shows, there really are half as many mailboxes around as there used to be.

But perhaps next time you're jesting about "going postal" or whining about waiting in line the week before Christmas, you'll give some thought to how important mail service remains, in general how good it's been and, amidst an ever-evolving world, how it can best remain viable.