The Post Office Conumdrum

For all of the kerfuffel, the United States Postal Service is truly having financial difficulty. There is a lot of fixing that needs to be done. But there is also a lot of havoc that could be wreaked for the upcoming election. Regardless of whether you support Trump or Biden, I'm sure you will agree that there will be mail-in voting (including normal absentee) and that the Postal Service should make the prompt delivery of voting materials a high priority.

Over recent years the volume of mail that the Postal Service handles has declined. People don't use the Postal Service to communicate or to pay bills. Businesses don't mail invoices or statements. Much of the former Postal Service mail is now sent and delivered electronically. Much former "bulk mail" advertising is now also delivered electronically.

Regardless of mail volume, Congress expects that Postal Service to be able to deliver mail the "last mile" to every address in the United States six days a week. This "last mile" service is a term that is used frequently and is an inheritent major component of what the Postal Service does. "Last Mile" service is the actual delivery of letters and packages from the last sorting facility to consumers. In recent years as metropolitan areas have grown, the number of actual "last mile" routes have grown significantly (as the amount of mail has declined. The Postal Service is charged with providing daily service to more addresses while receiving less revenue.

More so than the Postal Service (and even UPS and FEDEX) Amazon is a very efficient provider of logistics services. It has built a huge fleet or airplanes and long-haul trucks to move merchandise from distribution centers to consumers. Their weakness has always been the "last mile". . In many large cities they are doing this well, but mostly they rely on contracted services, often with the Postal Service, to deliver the goods.

Where I live in Bremerton, Amazon is building a 100,000 sq ft distribution center in order to provide "last mile" service. They have and are doing the same thing in many other communities especially where empty "big-box" retail locations are available forAmazon to scoop-up. Amazon has every intention of providing is own "last mile" service... because it can provide this service for less than Postal Service charges.

Soon to be Ex-President Trump hates Amazon and wants the Postal Service to increase their contracted rates to provide the "last mile" service. Contrary to what Trump believes this contract is a "good deal" for the Postal Service. There are no added fixed costs and very little additional marginal cost to provide this service. It is one of the few things that the Postal Service does where marginal revenue exceeds marginal cost.

For the long term, however, this business is going to go away. The business is going away even if Amazon's contracted rates are raised. Perhaps it would benefit the Postal Service to increase rates for Amazon. As long as you are going to lose the business, you might as well charge more for it now.

The Postal Service has been implementing two cost-saving measures that have become big issues since they are happening before the election. Removing mail-sorting machines and some of the blue mail-collection boxes from service. The Postmaster General is now saying that they will halt these removals until after the election, and that ballots will be delivered on-time with a high priority.

The removal of mail-sorting machines should have no effect on the election. These machines are being removed because the maintenance costs exceed the cost/benefit of leaving them in service. Flat-package (letters) mail volume is decreasing.. There is less need for sorting machines (period).

There removal of the blue mail-collection boxes also will have no effect on the election. OK, It may mean people will have to drive a little further to return their ballot... but I can't image it will deter anyone from voting. Once again, flat-package (letters) mail volume is decreasing.. Fewer boxes to collect from each day mean less labor costs to the Postal Service.

An additional factor that should be brought up is that mail-in ballots are, by a wide margin, the easiest to sort and the easiest to deliver of all mail that is handled. The envelopes are of uniform shape, size, and color; they are addressed properly; and in any particular county they are all delivered to the same address. The Postal Service should be able to handle these without breaking a sweat.

The Postal Service has some major long-term problems -- decreasing revenue and increasing costs. These need to be addressed. However, ballot delivery (in general) will not be an issue.