Bureaucracy killing the post office

Why is The U.S. Postal Service losing money and requesting a taxpayer-funded bailout?

The USPS is losing money because its decisions affecting customers are driven by a bureaucratic mindset rather than sound business practices. Case in point: The Barrington Post Office has what on the surface may seem like a sound policy of holding its customers’ mail for a maximum of 60 days. Seems sensible, but the devil is in the details.

Say for example, a retired couple leaves the country every winter for sunnier climes, places a 60-day hold, gives a family member written authority to pick up the mail after 60 days and pre-authorizes another 60-day mail hold card to cover the rest of their stay in the aforementioned sunnier clime. One would think this should conform to their policy and not cause any additional outlay of resources: mail is being hand-picked up directly from the post office and new mail is being placed on hold for another 60 days.

But instead of this reasonable scenario to a not-uncommon-problem among the lucky “Snowbird” folks, the Barrington postmaster has decreed that this solution is “bending the intent of the policy” and disallows the authorized family member spending their time and gas to pick up the Snowbird’s mail (we’re talking letters, magazines, etc.), and instead, the USPS will spend their time and resources (or more, accurately, the taxpayer’s money) to forward the mail to the helpful family member in an adjoining town for the duration of the absence.

Does this make any sense at all? Now as a small-business owner, if I made this type of who-cares-how-much-it-costs decision, rather than a decision based on a cost analysis, I would be out of business in no time with no hope of Big Brother bailing my business out.

In a world of $16 trillion deficits, accountability does matter.

Joni Martin

Hawthorn Woods