Is the proverbial pony of Pony Express fame finally dead, taken out and trucked off to the glue factory? It’s a question that seems to trot ever closer to being answered with each postal rate hike by the U.S. Postal Service and every tale of an institution going further into the red.
It’s sad, because by law the Postal Service is an independent institution of the government, free from money and influence. Yet since 2005 it has twice defaulted on payments totaling $11 billion and run dry a $15 billion loan from the Treasury.
Is there any hope for the Postal Service’s survival in its current machination? The organization says it is getting leaner, meaner and more efficient, ending charges for some services, but all the while fees to send packages and parcels are rising.
On Sunday, the latest rate hike became official, with a First Class stamp going up a penny to 46 cents. Letters and packages to more far-flung locales went up significantly more.
One cent is nothing on the stamp many of us use to pay a bill, send a letter, send a postcard. Where the Postal Service will begin to see further pain and public revolt, we believe, is how the costs are rising for small businesses in this country, which sent out packages and mailers in bulk, both domestically and internationally. They will start to turn away, and whether those small businesses turn away to private firms like FedEx or DHL remains to be seen.
The very thing that started this downward slide of the Postal Service might be the thing that puts it to rest once and for all — the Internet. The inability for the USPS to be self-sufficient began once years of electronic correspondence and paperless billing, ecommerce and the ability to bypass traditional package transfer began in earnest.
That is only going to get worse, as social media and viral marketing, the use of mobile phones and email campaigns, Tweets and texts, all of these forms of message and content delivery will increase and the country and its citizens increase their reliance of digital goods and services.
Imperial County might not see the net effect for some time, as we are an area with limited digital penetration, relatively speaking. Our communities, especially our smaller ones like Heber and Seeley, need our post offices.
But as the digital culture we all live by becomes more intractable for the way we conduct our lives, regardless of age, income or status, then the post office as we know it will be no more.
We could argue the USPS is pricing itself in obscurity, but maybe it’s time to change, refocus, become a different animal doing different things — become meaningful again.
How does that happen? Is it too late? Is this a lot of pull from a penny-a-stamp raise? The only sure thing in that series of questions is that they haven’t answered, but someone better answer them quickly or the pony gets it.
THE ISSUE:
Latest postal rate hike took effect Sunday.
WE SAY:
If USPS doesn’t change, it will go away.
WHAT DO YOU SAY?
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