There is fear that you’ve been appointed Postmaster General (congratulations, by the way) to downsize and privatize the post office. I’m here to plead for the post office. It is a great institution and –yes, yes, yes –incredibly efficient.
How can I say that when for generations it’s been the butt of jokes, a standard applause line when denounced by politicians as an example of government run amok?
Simple: personal experience.
For 33 years, I published professional newsletters in Washington. The champion in my stable was The Energy Daily. Its success — and it was very successful in the 33 years from its founding until I sold it — depended on the absolute reliability of first-class letter service from the post office.
Every evening we mailed the paper in a No. 10 envelope at a post office in the Washington area. Every morning, I received one in my mailbox in The Plains, Va., 50 miles southwest of District. It was extraordinary. So, too, was its delivery across the country.
Not only did we deliver subscribers their copies by first-class mail, but we also did all the promotion the same way. Over the years we mailed hundreds of thousands of first-class sales letters, and it paid off.
Even now, in the internet age, mail is more trusted and taken more seriously. The head of a large cancer charity told me they still rely on mail solicitations for most of their fundraising: They raise $15 million a year through it.
Years ago, the president of a large, Mid-Atlantic electric utility told me, “The post office is one of the most efficient organizations in the country. Every month we mail more than a million bills, and they all get delivered.” So, I asked, why it is cited as an example of why the government can’t do anything right? He answered, “Have you heard about the alligators in the New York sewers?”
President Trump — to whom you, Mr. DeJoy, have made financial campaign contributions of over $2 million (a mail carrier earns just over $45,00 a year) — wants to see the post office punished; presumably because it has a contract to deliver for Amazon whose CEO Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the country, owns The Washington Post, which isn’t kind to Trump.
Now, I’ll agree, that the post office must stop losing so much money. Those first-class letters are few, shredding revenues. The package business is the future.
But the problem is, as much as anything, micromanagement from Congress.
When I lived in The Plains, there were a dozen nearby post offices: rural ones, close together, serving few people. Democratic and Republican congressmen get overly attached to their local post offices and fight their closure, even when it is clear there should be consolidation. Likewise, Saturday delivery; for reasons long forgotten, six-day-a-week delivery has become sacred. A private company would stop that on day one.
Besides, you can understand the attachment to your local post office: It is part of the community. You get and send your mail there, maybe buy some stamps, and catch up on the gossip — postmasters know everything.
People don’t hang out at the FedEx office. Remember that. You damage the post office and you take away something from American life.
Also, what corporation would support rural delivery? The rural electric cooperatives were created as a part of FDR’s New Deal because there was no other way the farms would be electrified. Even in this day and age, there is little broadband availability in rural America because it doesn’t pay to lay the cable. What will happen to the mail?
Here is a true story about the post office in The Plains. A stray village dog, one well-fed and well-known as Downtown Brown, became attached to the post office. He decided he owned it and barred people he didn’t like from entering. Downtown Brown had to be rusticated to a farm so that the people of The Plains — population 238 — could once again use the post office.
It wasn’t decided then that the post office should be closed because the dog was affecting the mail. If you privatize the post office now, that is what you’ll be doing.
Do be careful. You are stepping in to take control of something very American, since 1775. It has social value as well as being an innovator, from stagecoaches to airplanes to automated sorting.
The post office helped make America great. Save the post office. About Downtown Brown: I’m told he lived a long and happy life and never went postal again.
Cordially,
Mail Customer
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I really enjoyed your article about the possible disbanding of the USPS. As a 34 year Postal veteran I’ve seen a lot of changes. You are spot on with your money saving suggestions and spot on concerning the USPS being vital to the American way of life. There are also other money saving opportunities by reducing the many “park and walk” routes by installing neighborhood cluster boxes or simply insisting that customers provide a mail box at the street. So many homes where I live have park and walk routes due to neighborhood associations lobbying local government to resist implementing cluster boxes or streetside mail boxes, insisting on maintaing door to door delivery. Another revenue killer for the USPS is the fluxuation of fuel prices and the lack of ability for the USPS to incorporate fuel surcharges as UPS and FedEx do. This is only the tip of the iceberg as to how to save revenue as you are well aware.
Again, I really enjoyed your article!
Do not undermine the USPS. You will be held accountable. The USPS is part of the constitution and has been grossly unfairly treated. Stop it now.
It does not surprise me that legions have come out in opposition to the appointment of Mr. DeJoy as our newest PostMaster. But those same people are either in denial or blissfully ignorant of the facts. Those would be the facts that the U.S Postal Service IS NOT efficient as some have claimed. By what are you measuring this by? Just because you receive a letter in a day? Look at the fact that the USPS has been bleeding cash for DECADES. MASSIVE amounts of cash!! Business as usual can no longer be an option. FedEx and UPS are kicking the Post Offices rear end every single day at the very game that they created because of the simple fact that they operate under the efficiency that the USPS lacks. As an example, I tracked a package that was shipped to me via Priority Mail. I live in a suburb of Detroit. The package was shipped from Grand Rapids, Michigan. A mere 3 hour drive down I-94. The package was sent to Indianapolis, IN, then on to somewhere west of Chicago, IL, then on to Lansing, MI, then Pontiac, MI, then 6 days later, finally to my home. HOW is that efficient???? You can say whatever you want about certain routing programs, etc. There is no way in the world, that the USPS made any money on that package, by sending it on a nearly 1000 mile trip, when it was only 3 hours away from its origin. That is nothing short of STUPIDITY!! And I am in the direct mail business and I see this EVERY SINGLE DAY in dealing with the USPS. I could go on and on, but the point is, the USPS is the poster child for Government inefficiencies and incompetence. They do have some excellent and talented people. Unfortunately, they are FAR outnumbered by the typical government type employees who act as though you are bothering or inconveniencing them by being in their presence. Bottom line is this; The USPS needs to be totally gutted and re-invented. It needs to emerge as a lien, PROFITABLE organization. Yes, we need the Post Office. I would never suggest to be rid of it. But it does need to be able to support itself AND it is possible to do so. But the entitlement government employee mentality must go. That is a cancer that runs deep within the institution and prevents the badly needed efficiency from taking hold. Mr. DeJoy, if this gets to your desk, I hope that you are up to this challenge. Do not let the “nay-Sayers” defeat you. Your challenge is monumental. Best of luck to you.
This is by the people for the people. Do not mess with the post office and voting for this election. There are millions of people watching and waiting to make sure the right thing is done. If the wrong path is taken the road to justice is clear.
If all postal workers were completely honest, they would say “it is a joke”. God bless Louis Dejoy! As a postal worker, I know that there has to be serious change in order for the USPS to survive and I welcome the changes. Also, and most importantly; we cannot have national mail in ballots… Every postal employee knows this! I urge ALL postal workers to be HONEST & SPEAK UP!!!
Do not keep trying to disassemble the post office. We seniors rely on it for our bills, medicines and keeping in touch with our friends. Many people in nursing homes rely on getting cards and letters from family and loved ones. Why in heavens name would you do your terrible act of ruining a system that is running properly!!! I voted for President Trump last time, I certainly will not do that again, especially when he put you in charge of a service that you have no idea how to run. This service is part of our constitution and you have no right to undermine it. I got a notification today from one of my utilities that they have not received my payment as yet. I have never been late. If my payment is not received in time and I am billed a late charge I will be coming after you to pay me back!! My medical insurance only allows me to get my meds by mail. You will be responsible if my meds are not received in a timely manner and I get sick. Stop your foolishness. You are a disgrace at your job.
Mr De Joy any action that slows mail delivery is directly harmful to each and every American, rich and poor, urban and rural, black, white, young, old, democrat or republican.
History will judge you harshly, but more importantly you are becoming the villain in the story of Trump’s desperate attempt to sacrifice a great American Service in order to ensure his re-election .
Trump does not give his appointees the same loyalty he demands from them. You will bear the burden and the hatred of Americans who don’t get their checks, prescriptions and bills on time. And you will end up the same place as the others who began with as financial heads of the RNC and so many others tasked with doing the presidents dirty work, firmly and permanently under the bus.
to Mr. Louis DeJoy,
it doesn’t seem prudent to remove mailboxes and reduce postal staff during a pandemic when so many of us Americans rely upon dependability of mail carriers delivering our prescription drugs, necessary information, greeting cards from loved ones(yes some of us are still enjoying this sort of communication) and of course this year, election year when many must rely on mail in ballots because we simply cannot risk an unmasked symptomatic person infecting us at the polls, yet we have a constitutional right and obligation to cast our ballot. Mail carriers who have driven through rain, sleet, and snow to see that we get our mail do not deserve to be put out of a job now in this pandemic. These steps to please someone, not the American people,is simply WRONG! PLEASE CARE FOR US..WE MATTER! OUR VOTE IS A PIECE OF OUR VOICE..IT DESERVES TO BE HEARD AND COUNTED!
Dear Mr DeJoy,
Anyone who has ever worked in public service, or private for that matter, knows that a conflict of interest is not a good thing. What are you doing to avoid conflict of interest with you own businesses?
If you cannot avoid this blatant conflict with violates the trust of the American people in a service that is so essential that is it and independent executive office, please resign
Please stop delaying the USPS mail. It is against the law!
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1703