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Ink Spots
The U.S. Postal Service announced last week a proposal to essentially create a two-tier mail collection and distribution system, based on the distance from a Regional Processing and Delivery Center – you know, that wonder of organization in Richmond that caused our mail to be weeks late for about six months starting last fall.
The plan could provide faster service to mail customers living and working close to the central mail processing facilities, but could delay mail to more rural outlying areas, like Rockbridge County, by a day. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy says that first class mail would still be delivered to all areas within the present five-day standard nationwide.
DeJoy claims this plan could save the Postal Service $30 billion over the next decade by making more efficient use of its transportation resources. DeJoy has said, “At the end of the day, I think some portion of the mail showing up 12 hours later, I think it’s a price that had to be paid for letting this place be neglected.”
But this doesn’t make sense when there is one mail delivery a day. Our mail is going to be a day later.
Businesses and residents in rural areas and small towns depend on mail probably more than those in more urban areas. Fewer of us have broadband connections allowing fast internet access. Payment systems for businesses may rely more on wireless connections than on a broadband/ WiFi connection, which can be slower, less reliable and more costly. Many small businesses still rely on the mail to send invoices and receive payments.
There’s no denying that the Postal Service’s business model is broken. DeJoy can be credited with trying a lot of new things to get the ailing Postal Service on a sound financial footing. The question is, though, are these changes actually killing the patient? Exorbitant rate increases are pushing mail out of the system. Slow and erratic service is also an incentive to explore alternatives to the mail.
From a public policy standpoint, is allowing USPS to, in effect, discriminate against rural areas acceptable? While we love our slower pace of life, cleaner air and natural beauty, we have to endure less access to broadband service, food deserts, living in medically underserved areas, among other disadvantages. Getting mail service lite shouldn’t be piled on top.
This plan is not supposed to be put in place until after the election and the holiday mailing season, so not before early 2025.
If, as the postmaster general claims, this change would negatively affect less than 5 percent of the mail going to rural areas, and could actually result in the savings projected, this plan isn’t the worst coming out of postal headquarters. But the Postal Service’s track record of actually attaining the goals and standards it sets for itself is not good. I just don’t think this change will do anything but make mail service in the Rockbridge area worse.
We need reliable, affordable mail service to keep the wheels of commerce moving and citizens informed, especially in rural areas. I realize that we have to be willing to accept changes in the hopes that they will be in service of this goal. However, I worry that this bifurcation of mail service into urban versus rural could be just the first of more changes, relegating those of us living in the country to second class mail customers.
