Blog: “Neither Rain, Nor Snow..."– But Money?

Facing $15 billion in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy, the US Postal Service has about maxed out their credit card.  In the age of email, Facebook and Twitter, not to mention FedEx and United Parcel Post, the US Post Office announced last week that it lost $5.1 billion in the last year.

The postal service can’t keep limping along year after year. . . Changes are coming and you better plan on an extra few days for delivery of those birthday cards.  Struggling to stay afloat, the USPS is finalizing their budget cuts.  Higher rates are obviously part of the plan – as of January 22, a first-class stamp will cost 45 cents and I wouldn’t be surprised if that increase quickly grows to 50 cents or more.

Another part of the post office plan includes closing half of the country’s mail processing centers. It’s expected that 250 of the 500 processing centers may close as early as March and we have just learned that our own Southeastern Post Office is on the list. The consolidation of the mail processing centers is in addition to the planned closing of 3,700 local post offices – didn’t St. Davids Post Office recently have its last day.  The closing of post offices and processing centers means major job losses. It is expected that as many as 100,000 post office workers may lose their jobs due to the various closures.

We should prepare ourselves for a slowdown in our first-class mail service.  According to the news, the USPS is pushing ahead with cuts to first-class mail that by next spring will slow delivery and will eliminate any chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember the last time I mailed something and it was received the next day.

Is the solution for Congress to bail out the Post Office.  But if Congress were to intervene, what form of bailout?  What about privatization of the Post Office?

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