Dimondstein Statement on Lower Service Standards This Week

Wed, 01/07/2015 - 2:43pm

01/05/2015 - Where is it? Why hasn’t it arrived?  Beginning this week, these questions will be asked by millions of Americans who will wonder why their prescription drugs, their church bulletin, their paycheck, and other important correspondence haven’t been delivered. The lowering of service standards by the United States Postal Service, effective today, will cause unnecessary hardships for the public and small businesses. It also will severely damage the world’s most efficient and affordable delivery network by driving away mail volume and revenue.

Postal customers may unfairly blame their letter carrier or their local post office, but the culpability rests with Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. The elimination of overnight delivery of first-class mail and the delay of mail throughout the country is part of the same flawed strategy that’s behind efforts to end Saturday and door-to-door deliveries, close post offices, cut back hours, and make other reductions in mail service.

The travesty is that the cuts are absolutely unnecessary – because postal operations are profitable. The Postal Service recently announced its most profitable quarter in seven years. In fiscal years 2014 and 2013, the USPS enjoyed an operating profit of $1.4 billion and more than $600 million, respectively.

As of last month, 51 senators and 178 House members had called for a one-year moratorium on the reduction in service and the closure of the mail processing centers to allow Congress time to enact postal legislation that would improve, not degrade, postal service. The Postmaster General and USPS Board of Governors should honor their request. They should stop delaying America’s mail.