With 650,000 employees, most of whom cannot even be laid off, much less fired, the United States Postal Service (USPS), the federal government's quasi-private, semi-government stepchild, is the largest federal bureaucracy in the land, eclipsing even the 611,000 civilian employees of the Department of Defense, and one of its most expensive and inefficient.
Begun in 1639, when the General Court of Massachusetts designated a tavern as the official drop-off location for overseas mail, the delivery of mail in the Colonies did not become organized until October 1774, when William Goddard, Philadelphia printer and publisher of the Pennsylvania Chronicle, frustrated with the inability of the British-run Royal Post to deliver his paper in a timely fashion, presented his plan for a Constitutional Post to the Continental Congress. The Continental Congress, however, took no action until after the Colonials won the battle of Lexington and Concord, in April of 1775. Goddard's plan was promoted heavily by Benjamin Franklin, until, on July 26, 1775, the Continental Congress appointed Franklin the first Postmaster General, almost a year before the Declaration of Independence was written, and the United States Post Office (USPO) was born.
From its birth in the late eighteenth century, through the nineteenth and well into the twentieth century, the USPO led a storied, if somewhat checkered, existence. In its heyday it adopted the motto, first uttered by Herodotus in ancient Greece: "Neither snow, nor rain, not heat, nor gloom of night shall stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." Renowned worldwide during that period as among the world's most secure and efficient postal services, the USPO began to falter badly at the midpoint of the nineteenth century, despite its monopoly status, established by the Postal Act of 1792.
Complaints of poor, slow service mounted, and the Post Office monopoly began to be challenged by the likes of Henry Wells, founder of Wells-Fargo, and the fabled Pony Express. The USPO's reputation had declined by 1853 to the point where the Los Angeles Star editorialized:
Can someone tell us what has become of the U.S. mail for this section of the world? Some four weeks has passed since it arrived here. The mail rider comes and goes regularly enough, but the mail bags do not. One time he says the mail is landed in San Diego; another time there was so much of it the donkey could not bring it, and he sent it to San Pedro on the steamer--which carried it to San Francisco. Thus, it goes wandering up and down the ocean.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - El Bicho
Great article due to its balance of history, analysis, and solution. Hope it gets implemented.
2 - Ruvy
I'm sending this article off to my father-in-law, a former letter carrier. I'm curious to see what he has to say. Notice I didn't pay air-mail or postage to send this message to you. Unless Aksimet deems it as spam, it will arrive in your box in just seconds
3 - Joanne Huspek
I worked there for 12 years and there's the governmental corruption aspect to consider as part of the "cost of doing business." I couldn't stand it. In addition, the Postal Service's handling of EEO complaints (I had a couple myself) is sadly lacking. However, when you consider the Postal Service also has it's own police force separate from state and local jurisdictions (the Inspection Service), it's no wonder all these complaints are swept under the rug.
As for the unions, they've always been in bed with management trading one grievance for another.
If they go away, I won't miss it. Right now it sometimes takes days to get a letter across the state. We once mailed paychecks to Kalamazoo and the employees received them two weeks later without explanation of where the letters were for two weeks. (Sunning in St. Tropez maybe?) I could have walked them there faster.
4 - Andy Marsh
It seems to me that there was a time when unions had their place in our country, I'm not sure that's the case any more...
Nice article Clavos, great history lesson too. Thanks!
5 - Jeanne Browne
I've long been a "supporter" of the USPS, because I don't cotton to the idea of online bill-paying and depend on the delivery of magazines, as well as certain clothing catalogs to make comfortable, orderly choices about how to keep clothes on my back (their websites generally suck). And I've always felt that hikes in First Class postage notwithstanding, the USPS was a good and practical and necessary deal for all Americans, especially those of us who are not entirely proficient in and/or comfortable with living/functioning in the cyberworld. However, your excellent description of US Postal history, as well as your sensible proposed solutions, give me much food for thought. I still believe the public needs and deserves a low-cost way to distribute hard-copy communications, from bills to greeting cards, to love letters, etc. But you've convinced me that the USPS as currently structured, operated and funded needs both radical improvement and legal competition.
6 - Deborah King
As an employee, I must point out that the USPS does not recieve any funding from the government (NO TAX DOLLARS). We work hard for our money and have a huge responsibility to our customers, many of whom rely totally on our delivery system.
7 - Clavos
Not so, Deborah. In the article, I linked to the USPS' own financial statement for 2007, which clearly indicates payments from the goverment each of the three preceding years in the amount of $3 billion each. There are also several links which clearly spell out that the USPS has been receiving massive amounts of goverent funding for years.
8 - Mark
...sounds like a bunch. I wonder what that breaks down to per item delivered.
9 - Clavos
Don't know Mark, but it wasn't enough, they're going to lose $7B this FY.
10 - Clavos
Correction to comment #7:
Year linked is 2005, not 2007.
11 - STM
Mate, if it wasn't for the US postal service working in close co-operation with Australia Post, who knows where your titfer would be now??
12 - Greg Barbrick
BS
BS! Give it over to private services and you open the door for evil Bush-ites to crank the prices with no competition. Why did we go through $5 dollar a gallon gas? Was there some actual reason for this profit taking? Zero.
Sorry, say what you will about Obama. Listen to the Repubs say we are headed into socialism. Bush's vision ripped this country apart. Don't even start with something we all trust.
What's next? The public library system should go?
13 - STM
Clav, I was able to track said titfer by computer on its journey across the Pacific and then once it got to LA, across the US to Miami.
At any given time, I could log on and see where it was (or I suspect, where it last was on various legs of its journey as there was no GPS tracker involved).
I was worried that because Australia Post was involved, it might go the circuitous route via New Zealand, Perth, the Maldives, Johannesburg, Singapore, Buenos Aires, and Port of Spain, but no ... they did it properly.
14 - Glenn Contrarian
Clavos - another victim of "if the government does it, it must be done wrong"
FYI for all, for the VOLUME of mail that is processed, the USPS is by far the MOST EFFICIENT mail service on the planet. No other post service - public or private - comes close.
Why do no private companies come close? Easy. UPS and FedEx know better than to try to compete with the USPS because they can't come close to offering the same level of VOLUME-based service for the same price. Give a private company the ball, and I promise you'll see first-class stamps go to $1.00 each in no time.
Secondly - and MORE importantly - USPS personnel are paid well. YES, there are those in the USPS who are corrupt, just as within any other human organization, but when the rank and file (and not just the CEO's) are paid well, AND a sense of patriotic duty is encouraged ("neither rain nor snow..."), one finds a LOT less corruption.
But if the rank and file are paid significantly less, you WILL see a lot more corruption...as time spent in any third-world country will prove.
Clavos, you and the other conservatives are victims of the Big Lie, that government is somehow inherently bad and wrong and corrupt. You assume that the lack of a 'profit motive' somehow takes away the motivation to do a job well and efficiently. YES, we have to hold our government accountable...but to turn over the function of an agency that is SO central to American business...that would be foolish.
Last point - American government agencies have the TRADITION of being non-partisan (excepting the Bush administration's effort to politicize the DOJ, GAO, and others). If you privatize the USPS, you open the doors to partisanship of what is the most important logistical process to great majority of American small businesses.
Clavos, government's DUTY is not only to protect the people, but to also enable the safety, surety, and ease of commerce...and such is best done by a NONpartisan agency. Privatization allows partisanship...and no one in their right mind would want something so central to American life as the Post Office to become involved in partisan politics, and partisan business.
15 - Clavos
FYI for all, for the VOLUME of mail that is processed, the USPS is by far the MOST EFFICIENT mail service on the planet.
A volume which is plummeting in response to the distinct deterioration of service over the past couple of decades. I think that among others, the British and Aussies would dispute your claim as to the efficiency of the USPS vis-a-vis their own services. And they would be right. An organization which receives billions of dollars a year in subsidies and still manages to lose $7 billion in one fiscal year year is anything but efficient, as I demonstrated in the article.
Secondly - and MORE importantly - USPS personnel are paid well.
They are not paid well, they are overpaid -- as much as 25-30 percent above market rates in their respective job classifications. Again, proved in the article: FedEx and UPS both do a better job than the USPS, spending only fifty cents of each dollar of revenue on labor costs, contrasted with USPS' eighty cents of each dollar of revenue.
Clavos, you and the other conservatives are victims of the Big Lie, that government is somehow inherently bad and wrong and corrupt.
It's not a "Big Lie" when it's happening on a daily basis. In addition to the USPS, a shining example of how poorly the government handles our money is Medicare; another is DoD. One has only to look at what we pay for items purchased by the government to see this. You're the victim of the Big Lie, Glenn -- the lie that the government is benevolent and looks out for us.
You assume that the lack of a 'profit motive' somehow takes away the motivation to do a job well and efficiently.
No. I know that government work rules (especially in the USPS, I worked there, remember?) do NOT hold government employees accountable and engender a myriad of bad attitudes and work habits. The stranglehold the government unions have on various departments is a crime -- a crime against the taxpayers, which is exactly why I wrote the article and will continue, with every resource I can muster, to fight for the downsizing of this, the largest and most wasteful of all the government's wasteful entities.
but to turn over the function of an agency that is SO central to American business...
No longer. The private carriers are now handling the bulk of business parcel delivery; email and faxes handle an ever-growing portion of letter mail, online billing and bill-paying are taken a further toll on the bulk of First Class, and FedEx gets the overnight, especially since the USPS service is not guaranteed overnight, yet costs the same. "When it absolutely, positively has to be there"...it goes FedEx.
If you privatize the USPS, you open the doors to partisanship of what is the most important logistical process to great majority of American small businesses.
What a canard! What's "partisan" about FedEx? Microsoft? Ford? And so on -- ad infinitum.
16 - Cindy
government is somehow inherently bad and wrong and corrupt
Well, it is. The only justification that is possible for people who delude themselves into believing they actually support liberty and individual freedom, is some phony social contract everyone is supposed to have agreed to (without their actual consent!)--a phony social contract based on a shallow, antiquated (therefore uninformed), and misguided speculation about human nature.
The BIG lie is that somehow the other side of this coin--free market Capitalism--is the real solution or is any different.
Most people are content to pace their cell, arguing back and forth about which one of these two choices are best--that is what they are taught to do. But a few manage to get free of that cultural straitjacket. And when you are free of that and looking at the argument from outside the argument--it's like standing outside the loony bin and looking in.
17 - PresterJohn
Pure ideo crap .... postal service is one of the most efficient 'n cost effective of our gov't .... and no, I don't work for it or any member of my family.
18 - Clavos
"postal service is one of the most efficient 'n cost effective of our gov't"
As evidenced by the billions of dollars in losses despite the billions in subsidies, both of which are throughly documented in the article?
19 - Glenn Contrarian
Clavos -
You know what taxes are? They're the cost of living and doing business in the country charging the taxes.
Tell you what - how about taking away ALL of the tax breaks that FedEx and UPS get nationwide, and THEN see how much more 'efficient' they really are...because tax breaks are in reality simply another form of government subsidy.
Also, FedEx and UPS did wonderfully for so many years with small packages, BUT if you'll actually do some UNBIASED research, you'll find there's really two sides to the story. Here's a discussion between businesspeople about whether USPS or UPS is better...and the conclusions are fairly obvious. Better yet, here's what Consumer Reports said in their comparison of the overnight shipping services of FedEx, UPS, and the USPS:
"The Postal Service was the least expensive by far for local and long-distance deliveries. For letter-size envelopes, such as the ones it gave us for sending the books, it charges a flat rate of $16.50. (Flat rates for slower delivery are lower.) The other shippers base prices on weight and distance traveled. UPS charged $62.87 to send our book next-day to Oregon and $29.55 to Manhattan. FedEx charged $54.57 and $27.48, respectively.
...Asked how the Postal Service, an independent part of the U.S. government’s executive branch, can deliver overnight shipping for less, a spokeswoman, Yvonne Yoerger, said: "We have an infrastructure in place and letter carriers everywhere. We’re simply adding package delivery to a network that already exists."
I used to work at the Post Office too, Clavos. If you had a bad experience where you worked, it's more likely because of the local management than because of some kind of systemic problem...or perhaps you yourself had a problem, because you're not working there anymore. That's not an insinuation, but one possibility among many that has led to your opinion.
But in any case, in 2008 the USPS moved 203 BILLION pieces of mail...so answer me this one question, Clavos: why hasn't FedEx and UPS moved into the first-class mail business? There's NO law preventing them from doing so (with the exception of delivering to military bases)...so why haven't they done it, if they can do it better/cheaper/more profitably than the Post Office?
I'll tell you why - they're not dumb, and they know the business better than you.
They knew they could make money on package delivery, so that's why they moved into that part of the postal business...but they KNOW they don't have a prayer of competing with the USPS when it comes to first-class and advertising (junk) mail.
You want to trust the market so much...so why don't you trust their decisions to not fight a battle they know they'd lose? They KNOW they cannot process first-class mail half as cheaply as the USPS.
They DO know the business better than you.
And is 'government inefficiency' the only reason why the USPS is losing money? Not at all - two bigger reasons are (1) the current recession which has bit deeply into ALL aspects of the shipping and mailing industry, and (2) the continuing growth of e-mail. It's well known that what really keeps the USPS afloat is junk mail...and when the volume of junk mail goes way down (didja notice how you get FAR fewer credit offers in the mail now?), the USPS loses billions.
That's a direct result of the economic meltdown, Clavos - and not at all due to your claim of 'government inefficiency'.
And one more thing: you claim the USPS workers are overpaid, so how about comparing the salaries of their managerial and executive branches from the district level and above? Who truly is getting paid FAR more?
You know better than to answer that question, because you KNOW that in the private sector, the executives NORMALLY get paid thirty, forty or more times more than the base workers, yet when it comes to the government, even the most powerful guy on the planet - the POTUS - doesn't get paid more than fifteen or twenty times the pay of the lowest level worker.
Even in the military, the Joint Chiefs of Staff get paid less than ten times the rawest recruit.
Clavos, it's said that no one works in the government to get rich - and that's a true saying. If 'getting rich' is your goal, then by all means go into the private sector. But if 'getting rich' is NOT that important to you, but having a steady job that pays the bills IS important to you, then working for the Post Office isn't bad at all.
You see, Clavos, 'getting rich' might be important to you, and the 'profit motive' might be important to you, but it's NOT that important to many people - myself included. Doing my job well and taking care of the people was ALWAYS more important to me than the 'profit motive'.
I'll never be rich - but having lots of money was never that important to me. That's probably why I understand most government workers better than you - because I know there's things that are more important than money.
20 - Clavos
why hasn't FedEx and UPS moved into the first-class mail business? There's NO law preventing them from doing so...
Not quite, Glenn:
18 USC Sec. 1694:
"Sec. 1694. Carriage of matter out of mail over post routes
Whoever, having charge or control of any conveyance operating by
land, air, or water, which regularly performs trips at stated periods on
any post route, or from one place to another between which the mail is
regularly carried, carries, otherwise than in the mail, any letters or
packets, except such as relate to some part of the cargo of such
conveyance, or to the current business of the carrier, or to some
article carried at the same time by the same conveyance, shall, except
as otherwise provided by law, be fined under this title."
And 39 CFR Sec. 601:
"Sec. 601. Letters carried out of the mail
(a) A letter may be carried out of the mails when--
(1) it is enclosed in an envelope;
(2) the amount of postage which would have been charged on the
letter if it had been sent by mail is paid by stamps, or postage
meter stamps, on the envelope;
(3) the envelope is properly addressed;
(4) the envelope is so sealed that the letter cannot be taken
from it without defacing the envelope;
(5) any stamps on the envelope are canceled in ink by the
sender; and
(6) the date of the letter, of its transmission or receipt by
the carrier is endorsed on the envelope in ink.
(b) The Postal Service may suspend the operation of any part of this
section upon any mail route where the public interest requires the
suspension.
(Pub. L. 91-375, Aug. 12, 1970, 84 Stat. 727; Pub. L. 109-435, title V,
Sec. 503(a), Dec. 20, 2006, 120 Stat. 3234.)"
Sec. 601 was published in 1970, when the old Post Office was reorganized into the USPS, but the USPS soon found out that Sec. 601 did not adequately protect their monopoly on First Class, which had been in effect since 1790, so they asked for, and received an amendment, the latest version of which, published in 2006 (as noted above) decrees:
" Pub. L. 109-435, title V, Sec. 503, Dec. 20, 2006, 120 Stat.
3234, provided that, effective on the date the regulations
promulgated under section 3633 of this title, as amended, take
effect, this section is amended by striking subsection (b) and
inserting the following:
``(b) A letter may also be carried out of the mails when--
``(1) the amount paid for the private carriage of the letter is
at least the amount equal to 6 times the rate then currently charged
for the 1st ounce of a single-piece first class letter;
``(2) the letter weighs at least 121/2 ounces; or
``(3) such carriage is within the scope of services described by
regulations of the United States Postal Service (including, in
particular, sections 310.1 and 320.2-320.8 of title 39 of the Code
of Federal Regulations, as in effect on July 1, 2005) that purport
to permit private carriage by suspension of the operation of this
section (as then in effect).
``(c) Any regulations necessary to carry out this section shall be
promulgated by the Postal Regulatory Commission.''
Effective Date of 2006 Amendment
Pub. L. 109-435, title V, Sec. 503(b), Dec. 20, 2006, 120 Stat.
3235, provided that: ``This section [amending this section] shall take
effect on the date as of which the regulations promulgated under section
3633 of title 39, United States Code (as amended by section 202) take
effect.''
Which, of course, by imposing a noncompetitive rate and weight restriction on the private carriers (highlighted in bold above), ensured the continuation of the Postal Service's 220 year monopoly on First Class mail.
The rest of your rant either ignores documented facts from impartial sources presented in the article (...and when the volume of junk mail goes way down...). Documented in the article. The reason? Standard mail, as it's denoted by the USPS, is not First Class, and increasingly IS being carried by the private carriers, the real reason for the decrease, not the recession, because the decrease in this and all mail previously carried exclusively by the Service has been going on for many years before the present slowdown.
The rest of your rant imputes words and thoughts never expressed in the article You see, Clavos, 'getting rich' might be important to you, and the 'profit motive' might be important to you, but it's NOT that important to many people - myself included.), and/or are irrelevant (If you had a bad experience where you worked, it's more likely because of the local management than because of some kind of systemic problem) or insulting (or perhaps you yourself had a problem, because you're not working there anymore.), and thus not worth responding to.
Read the article, with comprehension, Glenn before you rant and make a fool of yourself.
21 - C. C. D.
If you think that UPS and FedEx can do a better job delivering the mail then you'd better be ready to pay much, much higher prices. For several years now UPS and FedEx (and DHL before they bit the dust)
have been paying the post office to deliver many packages EVERY day to the "last mile". They drop off the packages at the post office and the PO takes it to the delivery point. They can PAY the post office to finish carrying it to it's destination cheaper than they can deliver it themselves. Do you really think they would pay the competition to deliver packages if they could do the job themselves and still make a profit?
22 - Joel
Postal SERVICE!! It is a service to the American people, by law the Postal Service is not supposed to be a money making enterprise. UPS and FEDEX could never furnish door to door delivery as the USPS. They would only deliver what was profitable for them. Goodbye delivery to the projects, and rural areas, and when you want to send that Birthday card to your niece Muffy, with the 50.00 check in it, you are going to pay 1.50 cents and I bet it arrives empty. I sat in my 110 degree truck last week delivering Social Security checks, Birthday cards and packages, insurance bills ect. I read articles like yours telling me how my job is inefficient and that i am overpaid. I would like for you to come ride with me one day and see what I do, just one day! I would love to make comparable wages to the UPS and FEDEX people. A carrier 25 years in service,UPS and FEDEX,makes 9000.00 more dollars than me per year. In the late 80s and mid 90s the government routinely took money from the USPS for government use and never paid us back, can you find that anywhere? Finally I noticed in one of your links that you can apply for Postal jobs, do they pay you to advertize on your anti Postal column?
23 - Clavos
by law the Postal Service is not supposed to be a money making enterprise.
Absolutely untrue. The whole reason for the reorganization in 1971 was the amount of money it was losing; it was hoped that, as a semi-private enterprise, it would do better. It didn't, it did much worse -- to the point now that it's a significant drag on the economy as a whole, with ever worse SERVICE.
UPS and FEDEX could never furnish door to door delivery as the USPS.
And the Post master General has already proposed that the USPS stop doing so, and in fact, in newer suburban subdivisions they stopped doing so years ago, they only deliver to centrally located "cluster" mailboxes. Residents must walk or drive to get their maiil.
I would like for you to come ride with me one day and see what I do...
I already have -- I'm a former letter carrier.
I would love to make comparable wages to the UPS and FEDEX people.
You make more -- 25-30 percent more in equal job wirth equal seniority.
A carrier 25 years in service,UPS and FEDEX,makes 9000.00 more dollars than me per year.
Not true. See the link in the article.
READ the article.
24 - Joel
No residents do not walk or drive, the boxes are always configured within walking distance of their homes unless the area is on a contract route, you should know this if you were a city letter carrier
25 - Clavos
For several years now UPS and FedEx (and DHL before they bit the dust)
have been paying the post office to deliver many packages EVERY day to the "last mile"."
Actually, it's the other way around.
See this USPS Press Release about the deal.
Some excerpts:
The U.S. Postal Service and FedEx Express have formed a business alliance based on air transportation and retail business agreements. Under this alliance, the Postal Service will buy space on FedEx airplanes to transport Express Mail, Priority Mail and First-Class Mail and FedEx will locate overnight service collection boxes at post offices nationwide.
***
The Postal Service will pay FedEx approximately $6.3 billion over seven years for shared access to the FedEx national air transportation network. With more than 650 aircraft, FedEx is one of the largest airlines in the world. This agreement will provide one integrated national air transportation network for the Postal Service. The transportation agreement will begin in August 2001.
***
The retail agreement gives FedEx the opportunity to place FedEx self-service collection boxes on postal property. This non-exclusive business concept will be open to any company that offers overnight package service with a national reach.