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Delivering America's mail: Angie Craig to the rescue?
Ultimately, the solution is five-days-a-week delivery.
By Peter R. Bartling
August 27, 2023 at 11:00PM
•••
The Star Tribune headline read "Mail woes? Craig wants to know" (July 15). The article itself went on to discuss Second District U.S. Rep. Angie Craig's constituent complaints with respect to mail delivery problems, then closed with a quote that sounded more like a threat than a statement of concern: "This won't be the last two post offices that I visit, and frankly I expect cooperation when we want to visit."
You don't need to visit a post office to see what ails the system:
- Unsafe working conditions: "More than 5,300 USP employees were attacked by dogs during mail deliveries last year," as reported by CNN.
- Mail carriers face an increasing threat of robbery and violence, as reported by the Associated Press.
- Staffing shortages in the Twin Cities: "1 out of 6 carrier positions is unfilled," as reported by the Star Tribune.
- With significant overtime requirements, the job has become unworkable for single parents, as articulated by a spokeswoman at a regional post office in Kentucky.
- The climb to the highest pay grade takes too long — 13 years, as verbalized by a Minneapolis postal carrier.
- An aging delivery fleet. Delivery trucks that went into service between 1987 and 1994 are still being utilized decades later, according to the Associated Press.
The volume of mail has actually decreased 40% over the last 15 years. In the first quarter of 2023, mail accounted for 91% of delivery volume but only 51% of revenue. Packages, on the other hand, made up 6% of volume but generated 39% of revenue. Financial losses occurred in 15 of the last 16 years, primarily because of the requirement that the Postal Service must prepay retiree health benefits.
Is this an enterprise that you would seek out as a career option? Probably not, unless systematic changes could take place in performance expectations and operational changes. What would some of these alternatives look like? Some have been approved, while others have yet to come to fruition:
- Financial losses should be reduced in the future with a federal law that went into effect on April 6, 2022, that eliminated the requirement that Postal Service workers have their health care benefits prepaid for the next 75 years. (Accomplished).
- Higher rates. (Ongoing — but also counterproductive.)
- Reduced service delivery days. (Not yet considered in a significant way).
- A shift to electric vehicles. (In progress.)
- Postal carrier support for mandatory overtime elimination, with better personal protection thru appropriate safety measures and criminal prosecutions. (Some progress.)
The ultimate key to the kingdom here is a five-day mail delivery week, not six. Recipients who want mail delivered on Saturday can pay an elevated service fee. If Angie Craig really wants to immediately improve Minnesota's postal delivery service, she can strongly advocate for a five-day delivery service week — and, remember, too, that when the mail absolutely, positively has to get there and time is of the essence, email and other social-media vehicles are always available.
Sometimes there are no easy answers, only difficult choices. The gains outweigh the losses of an adequately staffed, cost-effective and still-service-oriented Postal Service.
An interim step for you, Congresswoman Craig, should be that you (or a member of your staff) attend a meeting of the Consumer Advisory Council (CAC) of the Twin Cities, where the problems of the metropolitan postal system are discussed and recommendations are made for their resolution. We would welcome your presence.
Peter R. Bartling lives in Plymouth.
about the writer
Peter R. Bartling
It’s good for people who’ve made mistakes, but also for the state’s economy.
