We have seen the logjam at global ports and the delay it has created in access to goods, but if you have noticed it is taking longer to get that letter or package in your rural mailbox there is a reason.
The Postmaster General instituted longer service times this month, as part of a decade-long effort to cut costs at the agency. In some cases, delivery for a standard mail delivery jumped from one to three days to five days.
The cost of a stamp jumped three cents as well, to 58 cents.
Congressman Ron Kind, a Democrat from Wisconsin, is asking USPS to reconsider.
“There’s better ways of being able to find some cost saving than shutting down service in harder to reach areas, including rural America. And so, we’re hoping they’ll revisit that decision before anything is finalized,” Representative Kind states.
It is just one of the concerns that the congressman addressed in a letter he sent the Postal Service.
He says that part of the problem is the least profitable routes are passed down from commercial shipping companies: “I have some sympathy for them, though. They have to take every package. They have to take every letter. They have to deliver it where it’s postmarked. Whereas, UPS, FedEx, they get to pick and choose; they get to pick the cream of the crop, the most profitable routes, and then guess what, they contract the least profitable routes to the U.S. Postal Service, who has to take it then.”
And that, says Congressman Kind, keeps the Postal Service from competing with shipping giants. For now, there is no way around it.
“But, it’s something that’s mandated by our government because all American citizens should have access to efficient postal delivery in their lives, including the hard-to-reach rural areas... that last mile problem that FedEx and UPS decides to contract with the USPS to deliver, and so, we haven’t figured out the solution to that, other than the USPS increasing some stamp rates,” he adds.
The congressman says that figuring out that last mile will be the key to helping increase revenue for the historical cash-strapped agency.
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