Constable: U.S. Postal Service rides to the rescue
We make the discovery 90 minutes too late.
The Christmas celebration finally finished at the family farm in Indiana, one sister and niece begin the 12-hour drive to their home in New Jersey before the sun is up. My other sister, her husband and two sons load up their car and head out for their home, also in New Jersey, by midmorning.
All is calm. Until about lunchtime, when one of our sons discovers an odd bag in the utility room.
"This is Aunt Sally's laptop," he says.
And so it is.
Already 80 miles into a 772-mile journey when my sister gets my call on her cellphone, she can't stomach the thought of making her family drive all the way back to fetch a computer and a bunch of paperwork. The discovery of a second forgotten bag, filled with clothes and toiletry items, doesn't alter her quest to make it to her home by midnight.
"Can you send it to me?" she asks.
While UPS and FedEx have drop-off locations in towns miles away, we can't just drop off the items. We need boxes and tape. We need someone who can step up, pack everything into boxes and ship them out on this Thursday afternoon. We need the United States Postal Service.
People often gripe about the post office. The number of places that sell stamps might be dwindling. But I still find it remarkable that in our modern world, with all the confusion and frustration caused by monthly plans, roaming charges, data limits, hacking, weak signals, computer viruses, power outages, security breaches and dead batteries, a 242-year-old institution will deliver a handwritten private letter, a birthday card or a grandchild's drawing to anywhere in the United States, its territories and U.S. military and diplomatic installations worldwide for 47 cents.
Founded in 1775 with Postmaster General Benjamin Franklin at the helm, our Postal Service delivered more than 154 billion pieces of mail in fiscal year 2016. It can handle the job. Even though the tiny post office in Goodland, Ind., closes for an hour during lunchtime, the woman in charge finds a perfect-size box and carefully squeezes in the duffel bag, the laptop, the paperwork and a forgotten tumbler we discover after the last phone call.
For the bargain price of $50.64, (cheaper than the gas cost alone to deliver it myself) the package arrives at my sister's home 48 hours later. A forgotten book, stocking cap and toothbrush we discover later and mail out Friday for less than 10 bucks should arrive today.
The Postal Service has more employees and locations than all the McDonald's, Starbucks and Wal-Marts in our nation combined, according to the information provided at 4:25 p.m. on a Friday before the New Year's weekend by Sean Hargadon, the postal services' spokesman in Carol Stream.
"The Postal Service had a remarkable 2016. We delivered over 154 billion pieces of mail, and we grew revenue to $71.5 billion in FY2016 - a 3.7 percent revenue increase," reads a section of the U.S. Postal Service's 2016 report to Congress. The increase in package delivery more than offset the continuing drop in First-Class mail.
The Postal Service doesn't receive a dime of tax dollars for its operating budget, which is funded entirely through sales of postage, products and services. It would have made a profit, but, because of a 2006 law that requires the Postal Service to prefund retirement obligations, it spent $5.8 billion funding that benefit plan for future retirees and turned in a $5.6 billion net loss last year.
The Postal Service goes where others don't - in remote rural areas, in crime-ridden urban locales, even using boats and mules to deliver in some hard-to-get-to spots. UPS and FedEx pay the Postal Service to deliver some packages. But I'd love to see laws changed to help the financial situation of the Postal Service by allowing it to offer more services, such as copying, notary services, gift-wrapping and maybe even hunting and fishing licenses. It didn't become a huge part of the presidential political campaigns, but Bernie Sanders summed it up nicely: "The Postal Service is a vitally important institution for the American people. It must be saved."