The US Postal Service last week finally entered the 21st century.
Facing a record loss of $14.1 billion this year — and owing billions to the federal government for retiree health benefits — the USPS imposed $3 billion in service cuts in an effort to stave off bankruptcy.
As part of the plan, it will close about half of its 500 mail-processing centers around the country — 13 in New York. Some 3,700 post offices will be shuttered — including 34 in New York City.
All told, some 100,000 postal employees nationwide will lose their jobs.
Mail will take longer to arrive, and elimination of Saturday delivery is also on the table — subject to congressional approval.
Not surprisingly, the postal-workers union is up in arms — though, ironically, the organization is expressing its outrage via . . . e-mail!
That says just about all that needs saying about the post office’s problems: The venerable organization has collided with the electronic age, and the results aren’t pretty.
E-mail — an essentially free method of communicating almost instantly across unlimited distances — has been a way of life for years now. (And text-messaging has even further eroded the USPS’ utility.)
In such a wired world, the idea that a quasi-governmental agency is needed to deliver a “letter” in — wow — one or two days (!!) is quaint, but sadly unsustainable. Meanwhile, FedEx and UPS have developed models that deliver correspondence and packages of all sizes in a more efficient manner than the USPS.
Let’s face it: The Postal Service has hung on so long in its present form only because of its quasi-governmental status and the ability of its unions to influence Congress.
But the clock is ticking.
The USPS’ deficits are rising, its debts are compounding and its future is behind it.
Time for radical reorganization.