DeJoy Continues Slowing of Rural Mail Delivery

Frequent rate increases and deplorable service are not the foundation of an efficient and affordable United States Postal Service. Yet, that is exactly what Postmaster Louis DeJoy’s game plan has been. Now, he plans to make it even worse for rural America.
 “The U.S. Postal Service has again proposed to lower public expectations for mail delivery, having already proven it cannot reliably deliver mail on time in many areas,” National Newspaper Association Chair John Galer, who represents NNA on the USPS Mailers Technical Advisory Committee, said.
Its petition to create new, slower postal standards has been submitted to the Postal Regulatory Commission.
What this means for community newspapers and other local mail is that if they are mailed more than 50 miles from a new Regional Processing and Distribution Center, there is a good chance another day will be added to the delivery time. If the petition is granted, all of us living in western Minnesota will be subjected to that delay.
“The plan is offered in the name of cost-cutting.  In reality, it is just the same old story, one of inefficiency and unreliability,” Galer said. Efforts by NNA to get the PRC to measure rural delivery standards have fallen on deaf ears because it knows how bad the results of those measurements would make them look.
“There is no question that USPS has severe financial problems,” Galer said. “It was supposed to produce more than a billion dollars in profit this year under its new Delivering for America plan. Instead, it looks like losses of close to $7 billion will be reported.
“USPS has been driving its mailers away with postage increases that have risen several times faster than inflation; at the same time, it is delivering mail slower,” Galer said. “That certainly results in less mail. Now it wants a reward for its predictions of less mail. At some point, Congress has to step in to protect rural America.”
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy claims the Postal Service can’t afford to maintain rural delivery standards cost-effectively.
“I think some portion of the mail showing up 12 hours later…is a price that had to be paid for letting this place be neglected,” DeJoy told The Washington Post. “You look around every other country, [delivery] is longer, it’s much more expensive. We’re trying to save the Postal Service — not figuratively, not to advocate for something. We’re trying to literally save the Postal Service.”
He is not saving it; he is killing it. We know it isn’t going to be a 12-hour delay. It will be much longer.
Through experience with DeJoy’s postal service, we have learned that when mail is allowed to sit in regional sorting centers, delays increase as mail stacks up. It also gets lost or ignored.
“Any effort to degrade service while raising prices is a recipe for a death spiral at the Postal Service,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a leading DeJoy critic, is quoted by the Post. “This is the second time Postmaster General DeJoy has proposed lower service standards. He might as well announce a return to delivering mail by horse and buggy.” We may be there already.
Newspapers printed and mailed on a Tuesday can show up more than a week late. We went to the Elbow Lake Post Office last Thursday, Aug. 22, to pick up the mail. Among the newspapers in our box was the Swift County Monitor-News mailed Aug. 13 – nine days earlier. The next week’s edition had already been printed and mailed. We wonder when it will arrive.
Mail in rural Minnesota likely arrived faster when it was delivered by horse. Now DeJoy wants to delay mail even more.
Newspapers are still the most essential source of news about our communities. Critical information on public hearings, candidates, community events, polling places, levy referendums, and other important stories will arrive when it is too late for the information to be useful.
DeJoy is dismantling the U.S. Postal Service while Congress watches it die. Though the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service must approve new postal delivery stands, it follows DeJoy’s lead. While the Postal Regulatory Commission also reviews DeJoy’s actions, its findings don’t carry any weight or authority.
Just three years ago, the Postal Service’s goal was to deliver first-class mail in three days or faster. DeJoy changed that to five days as he claimed to be overhauling the Postal Service for better performance.
If there are two constants with DeJoy the first is that he is going to raise rates as fast and steeply as he can, and second, he is going to make service worse with each passing year. He’s done an excellent job of both - rates are up 33% in four years for first-class mail and delivery is much slower.
DeJoy consistently overpromises and underdelivers when it comes to stabilizing the Postal Service.
For the Postal Service, delivering mail in densely populated areas is profitable. However, it says delivery in rural areas, especially sparsely populated rural areas, drives up costs and inefficiencies. Therefore, the Postal Service is now trying to dismantle its federally mandated universal service obligation to provide rural mail delivery at an affordable cost.
While package delivery has provided the postal service with growing business, it is also overwhelming its capabilities for other mail delivery. Members of Congress are feeling extreme pressure, hearing daily complaints about slow mail delivery in their states and districts.
Now Amazon, also frustrated by rural delivery times is looking for partners in rural communities for the delivery of packages. We were approached last week about providing that service.
Congress has an obligation to shore up the Postal Service and require that it perform at a higher level. It isn’t going to do it on its own.