GAO Report finds Rural Postal Service Remains Essential
From time to time, Mark Jamison or myself would feature articles from the Save the Post Office blog as authored by Steve Hutkins, a literature professor who teaches “place studies” at the Gallatin School of New York University. Mark Jamison a retired Postmaster for a small town in North Carolina would often write there also. This particular post was featured in October of 2016. Where FedeEx, UPS, DHL or other services do not go, the US Postman still does play an important role in rural communities.
West Plains Daily Quill: A top watchdog study completed at the request of U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, found that the Postal Service remains essential to rural communities, regardless of whether those communities have access to rural broadband services.
Senator Clair McCaskill had this to say:
“This study shows what we already know to be true—that the Postal Service remains essential to Missouri’s rural communities, regardless of their access to other technologies,” said McCaskill, a former Missouri State Auditor and senior member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Postal Service.
“There’s simply no substitute for the vital service our post offices provide— even as we continue to make important advances in rural broadband—and we’ve got to preserve and improve that service for the folks who rely on it most.”
Senator Heidi Heitkamp added to McCaskill’s comments:
“For North Dakotans in rural communities—whether they have access to high-speed internet or not —reliable mail service is a key ingredient to a successful business and staying connected,” said Heitkamp. “But too often, that high-quality service is not delivered—and that’s exactly what Senator McCaskill and I are working to improve. Today, we received the results of a Government Accountability Office study we requested which affirmed what folks in rural states have long known—that communities and businesses in rural areas depend on mail service regardless of their internet connection. By providing more clarity, we can make sure dependable mail service is prioritized in the rural communities where it is needed the most.”
The Government Accountability Office report examined the relationship between broadband access and use of the Postal Service in rural and urban communities. The report found that rural households without broadband access continue to rely on the Postal Service for more transaction and correspondence mail—and value this service for a variety of reasons, including fewer retail alternatives and a high level of trust in USPS services. The study also found that when rural households get broadband access, they do not reduce their use of the Postal Service. Read more. The GAO report Information on How Broadband Affects Postal Use and the Communications Options for Rural Residents is attached.
That’s the problem with trying to rely on Fedex, UPS, and the like; they won’t go where they don’t make money. The post office is a service, not a business.
People think the west, mid west as the rural areas. A few weeks ago while on vacation to see Santana at Bethels Wood (home of the original Woodstock) we visited Sam’s Point preserve in Cragsmoor, top of a low mountain where people used to go in the summer to harvest blue berries and huckleberries.
Population, 450. I was surprised to see there was a small post office right at the center of town. Yet, it was not far from a major town, Ellenville.
It is a service. And what I don’t get, for those who preach constitutional originality and honoring the founders, why are the so bent on getting rid of Ben Franklin’s baby? What do they have against Ben?
“Population, 450. I was surprised to see there was a small post office right at the center of town”
I see this all the time too. Besides occupying prime real estate, let’s just say said Post Office costs $200K per year in salary and facilities and that each of the residents spends $50/year on postage ($22,500). That’s a net loss of about $180K or 95%. Multiply this by thousands of little towns across the country.
And the kicker: “Yet, it was not far from a major town, Ellenville.”
The whole point of the Post Office was to provide a service enabling communications everywhere in the nation. It’s like the Army. In theory, the Army could just concentrate on defending high value areas and leave the rest of the country to fend for itself, but there are good strategic and tactical arguments for having the Army defend the entire nation, just as the Post Office provides shipping everywhere.
I live in a town of 20,000, and out here we have UPS and Fedex as well as the Post Office, but Amazon and dozens of other places I shop at online use the Post Office for last mile delivery. Their Priority Mail is a great deal for smaller shippers who can generally offer the same two day service as Amazon. Amazon, of course, works this best, using Post Office shipping when it is optimal, but otherwise sending their own trucks to various Post Office nodes for optimal delivery.
The Post Office, unlike UPS and Fedex, actually delivers on Sunday. It’s been called Special Delivery since forever, and Amazon uses it cleverly. I remember when a new Harry Potter book was released on a Sunday. The original shipment was sent via UPS. I watched the tracking dubiously. Then, on Sunday, the doorbell rang, and there was our postman with the book. I’ve seen this happen with other deliveries, but usually taking advantage of Post Office Saturday service. Out here, UPS and Fedex do not deliver on weekends.Hey, it’s the private sector.