Luckily, I have not had to deal with major delays in the USPS since 80% of the things I purchase originates in my state or in the adjacent ones.
My postman and I sometimes shoot the breeze when he comes to my house. In the land of COVID, it’s nice to see another person so we will talk about everything any anything. He is a fantastic guy who has been delivering my family's mail since I can remember. From what I understand from my inside source these are the big problems for the USPS: mismanagement, Amazon using their own in-house delivery, COVID, and lack of profit-making mail.
Mismanagement can cost millions to large organizations; this sadly is nothing new with the post office...
I in my rural area, the local post office would normally get 8-12 pallets a week from Amazon during the Christmas season as there was a contract signed that the USPS would be the primary delivery service for Amazon products. Bezos started an in-house delivery service starting in late 2018-early 2019. To prevent further business losses after Bezos started Amazon deliveries, the USPS are charging Amazon below-market rates on packages. If the USPS makes Amazon pay market rates, they are fearful Bezos might go fully in-house and they will lose even more money.
The only exception to this "new" Amazon shipping doctrine was this past Christmas Season. USPS was handling most of Amazon's deliveries in the weeks prior to Christmas since all but one of Amazon's distribution centers were shut down due to COVID. I was very surprised to see my postman delivering me my mail on a Sunday. He said that it was all hands-on deck and even the senior union members, like himself, were called in for the two weeks before Christmas.
COVID caused the operation and transportation costs of the USPS to increase $2.3B and $630M respectively. This was due to "surge in package volume as a result of the pandemic, along with increased overtime hours and paid sick leave stemming from the national health crisis" and " increased package volumes and the limited availability of commercial air transportation due to the pandemic, which necessitated shifts to higher-cost modes of transportation. Furthermore, the pandemic significantly increased the Postal Service’s expenses for supplies and services, such as personal protective equipment (PPE), to ensure the safety of its employees and customers." These quotes are from the 2020 Fiscal Year report . My postman has told me that COVID has hampered deliveries and sorting in the USPS as they are following all guidelines on social distancing and "flattening the curve." They need more people to work and deal with the increases of e-shopping but there is COVID guidelines to also follow. Catch-22
The USPS makes money on mail that does not have weight. Letters, priority mail, and small parcels are where they make profit. Oversized and/or heavy items like our trains is where the USPS barely makes money or sometimes just breaks even. With the advent of emails, the number of traditional letters has decreased, especially in the younger generations. I am one of the only people in my friend group (20s) that mails people cards for Holidays, Birthdays, etc. The rest send texts, emails, or direct messages.
Obviously, some areas have it worse than others for myriad of reasons: external events (i.e the train derailment mentioned in the original post), number of workers at a USPS building following COVID guidelines, population density, etc.
Now the $64 question is, does the federal government do one of the following?
- Privatize the USPS and "que sera sera."
- Keep the USPS a quasi-government entity and bail them out.
- Make the USPS a regulatory body for the feds and contract mail delivery to a company
- Make the USPS a completely government run organization and find the money to supplement funding
- Invoke OMB A-76 on the USPS (another "que sera sera" scenario if private industry wins out). For those who aren't familiar with OMB A-76, the simplified version is: Who will give the American taxpayer the most quality and bang for your buck? Private industry or Government? The one who has the best bid on the contract wins.
As shown in the USPS 2020 Fiscal Year Report... "package volumes will remain higher given what looks to be a potential permanent shift in consumer behavior, we do not expect our package revenue growth over the medium-to-long term to make up for our losses in mail service revenue caused by COVID-19." Long story short: The USPS is caught between a rock and a hard place.
Bryce
