7/25/2013
Yesterday it was announced that
the House of Representatives panel working on Postal reform passed a proposal
to eliminate curbside delivery by 2022. This includes deliveries to mailboxes
at the end of driveways, and cluster box delivery would replace letter carriers
slipping mail into front-door boxes. Estimated savings from this is 4.5
Billion annually. This panel is headed
by Rep. Darrell Issa,
R-Calif., chairman of the House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the measure is now
heading for a full vote on House floor.
While giving the Post latitude to
make more independent business decisions would be welcome, a new mandate to
upset the public from Congress is not what is needed. Its incredible
that Congressman Issa continues to dodge the major challenges facing the USPS,
created by Congress, that is making them leak red ink. It is very confusing but like most government
conspiracies it is important to follow
the money.
In 2002, the USPS Inspector
General found that the Post had overpaid 80 Billion to the US Treasury for
federal government pensions. A lot of former military found second careers
at the USPS, these prior years of service count toward their federal pension
and the Post was shouldering 100% of those costs.
No one argues that the Post over
paid, but Congress did not want to take an 80 Billion dollar budget deficit hit
for making it right so they made a deal as part of the Postal Accountability
and Enhancement Act (PAEA) of 2006. The
Post would be relieved from making future pension payments for the credits
earned while in the Military and to make up for the cash shortfall they would
be required to prefund 75 years’ worth of future health care costs in just 10
years of payments. No other agency or company in the world has such a mandated
burden.
Before the economic downturn in
late 2007, the Post was doing well and in exchange for some new autonomy for
their completive product line (Shipping Services), a streamlined method to
adjust rates for their Market Dominant products (Mailing Services) and future
pension relief they reluctantly agreed.
Many industry veterans believed the bill that Congress jammed down their
throats was short sighted and unfair to the Post and recognized that this was a disguised tax on the American public!
Any wonder why we don’t trust
politicians? They created this problem
and they have the obligation to fix it fairly without any more accounting
tricks and hidden taxes. The Post has
been backed into a corner, and I for one applaud them in their successful
efforts. They have dramatically reduced their
workforce thru automation and logistical efficiency gains while their on-time
delivery performance improves every quarter.
Why does Congress and the press
continually dump on the Post? If they were a private company, they would rank
among the 50 largest in the world. They
are the largest deliverer of mail and parcels in the world, with more retail
locations than Starbucks, McDonalds and Walmart combined. The Post is one of the world’s most
environmentally conscious entities, they are the #1 “most trusted Government
agency” and the #3 “most trusted American organization”. It is estimated that the overall Industry
that supports them employs well over 6 Million people.
The good news is that the Parcel
delivery side of their business is thriving and driving records profits. With
151 million daily deliveries, they handle 40% of the world’s volume at the
lowest per unit cost and deliver to the largest geographical area than any
other Post. So they are incredibly
efficient, trusted, environmentally conscious and secure. Why do they
continually get stymied by our Government and trashed by the major news media?
They got the public to
overwhelmingly approve their plan to eliminate Saturday delivery for Letter
mail, you would think Congress would stay out of their way, but no, they put an
end to that 2 billion annual savings plan.
It boggles my mind.
So what does Issa want to do now
to fix the post, force cluster boxes? I
wonder who else is going to profit from this?
Get real ISSA and make meaningful Postal Reform a reality.
Gordon S. Glazer, CMDSM, CMDSS, MDP, MDC
Gordon is the President
of Mail Consulting Services for Shipware, LLC. He specializes in reducing
shipping and mailing costs through modal optimization and other strategies. He welcomes
your comments and can be reached at Gordon@shipware.com or 858.879.2020 x 108
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