Higher costs, less service not the answer to Postal Service woes

When a business is struggling, cutting service and raising prices are rarely the recipe for turning things around. Yet that seems to be the plan for the U.S. Postal Service. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is promoting plans to eliminate first-class mail, and to raise the costs of postage. No longer would the USPS promise two-day delivery, even for those willing to pay extra. As it turns out, the Postal Service has been promising two-day mail for those willing to pay extra, but they haven’t delivered. In 2020, only 38% of two-day mail was delivered on time. Instead of promising to deliver the mail faster, DeJoy’s plan seems to be to no longer make such promises. It is hard to see how that would be good for business, especially one already bleeding red ink. It seems a better plan would be to deliver the mail faster, to compete head-to-head with Fed Ex and UPS. More people are doing their shopping online, leading to the delivery of more packages. The Postal Service has the infrastructure, the trucks and the manpower to become more of a player in the delivery business. DeJoy’s plan is to stop shipping first-class mail via airplane. But if they have the planes, why not use them?  The Postal Service is already on the verge of collapse. Slowing mail even further and increasing fees seems like an idea that would push the agency over the edge.