My Comments on the United States Postal Service.

November 26, 2023

The USPS is run by the Executive Branch of the US government and is considered to be an independent agency. It has 655,000 employees, including about 160,000 part-timers and contractors. The average pay per employee is $66,000. Unfortunately, the USPS is heavily unionized. A Board of Governors provides oversight to the Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy. Again unfortunately, the Board is heavily Democratic, and union influenced.

The USPS is in the service industry, moving letters and packages from place to place. Overall, it is not a sophisticated operation.

The USPS fiscal year ended in September and reported a $6.5 billion operating loss. Net income for the year was $56 billion including billions from the Postal Service Reform Act, a government bail-out. The $6.5 billion loss comes after 4 postage rate hikes in the last 2 years. Rate hikes actually hurt mail volume, especially for business marketing mailers. Duh.

PM DeJoy has a 10-year plan which began 2021. The goal is to make the USPS net positive. Bull! There is no such thing as a 10-year plan in any industry or business. Too many factors change. Things have gotten worse. A drop in overall revenues and a hike in operating costs resulted in the $6.5 billion loss. Of course, higher fuel costs for delivery vehicles (thanks Joe) were a huge factor, along with the decline in business mailings.

There is no future for “hard” mail. The world is going paperless. So, DeJoy needs to do the following:

• Significantly reduce employee headcount, and control pay, and benefits increases. Postal carriers make more money than teachers with 10 years’ experience. If mail volume declines, so should employee headcount.
• Stop the Saturday delivery for private residences. Huge savings.
• Close/consolidate the smaller PO’s and provide mobile POs. The USPS footprint must be scrutinized. Do towns with 300 people need a post office?
• De-layer the management structure to 4 layers. Easily done. There are 50+ employees currently in the USPS making in excess of $200,000 a year.
• Democrats and unions will vehemently oppose all of the above. A group of Democratic leaders claim that the above changes will hurt mail-in balloting. And they play the “race card.” Taxpayers are funding the $6.5 billion loss. Changes have to be made.