24 Jul US Postal Service May End Home Mail Delivery: Privatize?

The Post Office said today that they are contemplating replacing home delivery of your mail with “cluster boxes” in each neighborhood where you go get your mail. This after they changed their mind about ending Saturday mail delivery after an outcry. That would have saved $1.5 billion, but apparently ending home delivery will save around $4.5 billion annually.

The USPS has been losing money for a long time, over $40 billion in losses the last five years. Some say this is because of some weird accounting they have to use regarding their pension liabilities, that they’d look fine if they accounted for their pension the same as everyone else. Who knows. Others claim they spend too much money advertising priority mail which doesn’t make that much money. Some have talked about privatizing mail delivery (it’s sort of technically private now but not really). Let them charge different prices for things in different places and compete for the right to deliver with others.

Britain is doing this, taking the Royal Mail public next year. Every worker will get a bunch of shares, which hopefully incentivizes them to help make it profitable. Not that we do everything the UK does, but this seems like a smart idea as email continues to reduce the volume of good old mail.