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Privatization of the Postal Service

By Alan McCoy

    Many people think that it's time to end the mail monopoly,  the United States Postal Service's government-sanctioned (but not government subsidized) monopoly on first class mail.  They think that the postal Service should be "deregulated" and "commercialized".  Certainly these are popular words in these days when 'Deregulation' is a popular watchword for many politicians.

    Have you ever considered what "deregulation" and "commercialization" will mean to the individual customers of the United States Postal Service?  What would happen?

    Under the current system, only the person mailing a letter is charged, while the person receiving the letter is not charged for delivery.  Unless you as a customer choose to hold a post office box, your daily mail delivery is free.  This is true whether the customer lives around the corner from the post office, or in the most remote of rural homes. 

    Under a commercial system, it is very likely that the public will pay a subscription price for daily mail delivery. The price would vary according to how often the customer wished to have their mail delivered, and their proximity to the processing facility.  

    Under the current system, a mail piece travels from one USPS facility to the next, traveling from place to place, received and processed with minimal fuss.  Each facility and transporter is under the scrutiny of  both internal regulation and the Post Office's internal policing agency, the Postal Inspection Service.

    Under a commercial system, with the USPS broken up into literally hundreds of small postal companies, the process becomes a nightmare.  Suppose for a moment that Company 'Y' hasn't paid Company 'X' on time, wouldn't they be likely to refuse to carry the mail sent by Company 'Y'? (That couldn't happen....there are laws!...right?....Not if the Postal Service is deregulated.)  What about Company 'Z', their driver parks his truck at a truck stop in the middle of 'no-where' and 'quits'.  Without a system in place that tracks each truck, it's projected travel time, it's departure and arrival, it would be very easy for such a truck and it's load to be lost.  

    The argument has been made that with the advent of E-Mail, Online billing, the Telephone, and bill payment centers, the Postal Service is obsolete.  While the Information Revolution has created many ways to communicate and it is now easier to communicate than at any time in history.   At present, none of these methods is secure.  Email can be hacked, telephones can be tapped, and electronic systems can be compromised. While it is recognized that USPS can have problems as well, they have been delivering an enormous volume of mail pieces (currently millions of mail pieces each day, every day) for centuries, should the American public be willing to place their trust in a 'Fly-by-Night' company, simply because some politician knows someone who believes they can make money attempting the job?  

    As a career postal employee, I am constantly impressed by the frustration I hear in the voices of my co-workers when they find even one letter that was mis-sent to Wichita Falls, instead of it's true destination.   I truly believe that that kind of dedication would be impossible to achieve in a privately owned mail delivery firm. 

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