The Postal Service is the only carrier with a legal obligation to provide all the various aspects of universal service. The disruption at the USPS started about a year ago when DeJoy decided first class mail would not be moved by air to the western part of the nation from the east or vice versa. This in itself was a designed in slowdown of delivery meant to cut costs. Except it did not. If you have been reading along and picked up on Steve...
Read More »Rally to restore public comments at meetings of USPS Board of Governors
Apparently, US PMG Louis DeJoy is taking a lot of heat about the continuing failure of the post office in reaching his detailed goals. Having not evolved from the Post Office, Louis is having a tough time implementing processes and procedures that may have worked to some extent in the public sector. Except the USPO is a completely different beast tasked with goals without regard for profitability. In other words, you still have to serve the areas...
Read More »Some USPS History and the Latest
Some history While debating the original Post Office Act, Alexander Hamilton and others argued the post should support itself and make money for the rest of the government. Others, including George Washington and James Madison, didn’t seem to care whether it turned a profit. Jonathan Trumbull, the speaker of the House of Representatives in 1792, observed that having the post subsidize the circulation of periodicals would be “among the surest means...
Read More »Louis DeJoy Closing the Topeka Post Office, the First to be Closed
I was asked by commenter Fred if I would give an update on the US Postal Service. It had been a month so it makes sense to do so. With the centralization of mail pickup by carriers it was said post offices would close as the sorting and bundling would be elsewhere. The Topeka Post Office is the first post office to close as its mail carriers will be picking up mail at the new Sorting & Delivery Center. It will be interesting to see how this...
Read More »The bank crisis is the latest argument to expand Postal Service banking
An April 20th commentary pulled off of Steve Hutkins’ “Save the Post Office Blog.” Prof. Hutkins tracks what is going on with the USPS, what PG Louis DeJoy is up to, and the transition of the USPS to what DeJoy believes is a profit center and supposedly better than the present. Except the plan is not better. PG Louis Dejoy should be replaced which can only be done by the Board of Commissioners. The last time I checked, Biden could replace two...
Read More »The Post Office Can Bring People-Centered Public Banking to Every ZIP Code
The private banking industry either can’t or won’t do what needs to be done to stop preying on vulnerable people. The Post Office Can Bring People-Centered Public Banking to Every ZIP Code, Inequality.org, Anni Norman, Aditi Sen, May 2023. The need for a public banking option is urgent. Nearly 10 million households, a disproportionate number of whom are people of color, are unbanked in the United States. Unbanked or underbanked households...
Read More »EVs and S&DCs: USPS says you can’t have one without the other
EVs and S&DCs: USPS says you can’t have one without the other, Save the Post Office, Steve Hutkins The Postal Service is using the very popular plan to buy electric vehicles (EVs) to justify its very unpopular plan to relocate carriers to Sorting & Delivery Centers (S&DCs). In press releases, news articles, and presentations to business mailers, the two plans are being yoked together, as if you can’t have one without the other....
Read More »Public charging stations at Canada’s Post offices. Why can’t it happen here?
Steve Hutkins discussing EVs and the charging stations. This was one of the arguments leading up to the US Post Offices having EV postal delivery vehicles. If Canada can do it, why not the US. It is a bit more as the Canadian Postal workers unio are talking about the public using their charging stations, high spped internet, low fee financial services, and becoming community hubs. If done in Canada, why not the US? Canada’s postal workers want to...
Read More »New USPS Plan, rather than reducing transportations costs, it will drive them up by requiring more routes
The USPS Eagle spins S&DCs to postal employees, Save the Post Office, Steve Hutkins The cover story of the new issue of the Postal Service’s Eagle Magazine is “Re-Thinking Local Delivery.” It’s all about the big, new, modern Sorting and Delivery Centers that will replace carrier operations at your local post office. The article has a graphic showing a delivery vehicle out on a route making stops at the ten benefits of the new network:...
Read More »What’s fair is fair: The PRC issues a final order on the “appropriate share” issue
What’s fair is fair: The PRC issues a final order on the “appropriate share” issue, Save the Post Office, Steve Hutkins Another one of the posts by Steve Hutkins about the USPS. The effort by commercial interests to get the USPS to increase pricing has been going on for years. At the bottom, I have attached a post by Mark Jamison (“When Titans Collide: UPS petitions the PRC to change USPS costing methodologies”) detailing the efforts of UPS to get...
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