The Tray Way: Winners and Losers in the USPS Legislation

The Tray Way blog has been covering the ongoing issue of the USPS for several months, and last week, a new chapter was added to the debate with the passage of Senate Bill 1789 by a 62-37 vote (not along partisan lines). The bill states that the May 15th closings would be delayed, as would the 5-day delivery model that the USPS would be hoping to implement. Blogger Jim Tierney gave a tremendous overview of the bill in his latest blog post. Here are some highlights:

• Gives the Postmaster General access to money USPS has overpaid into one of its retirement funds to provide incentives to encourage 100,000 eligible employees to retire. This would help voluntarily “right-size” the workforce to take into account the steep decline in first class mail volume in recent years.
• Reduces the amount of money that USPS has to prefund for retiree health benefits by amortizing the costs over 40 years and calculating those costs more appropriately.
• Retains overnight delivery of first class mail, but limits it in some cases to shorter geographic distances.
• Prevents the Postal Service from going to five-day delivery for the next two years and requires it to exhaust all other cost-saving measures first.
• Requires USPS to set standards for retail service across the country, consider several alternative options before closing post offices, and provide for increased opportunity for public input.
• Allows the USPS to sell non-postal products and services in appropriate cases.
• Allows the USPS to ship beer, wine, and distilled spirits.
• Creates a Chief Innovation Officer to foster innovation at USPS.
• Reforms the Federal Employees Compensation Act, the federal workers’ compensation program.
• Expands  the alternatives the USPS must consider before closing a post office and it establishes a Strategic Advisory Commission, charged with developing a new strategic blueprint for the Postal Service.

While the bill has not been signed into law yet, it appears that 3,700 Post Offices and more than 220 mail-processing sites around the country will be saved for the time being. So who will benefit and who will be hurt by this?

The Winners:

• The Public - Their lives will not change. There may be a postage increase as an effect of this legislation, but their post office will remain and jobs will seemingly not be lost.
• Business and Industry - Companies utilizing the post office and its capabilities, will not see significant changes to their service.
• Legislators - They can be seen as job savers and supporting local business in an election year.

The Losers:

• The USPS - They had developed a plan to regain control of their finances in - what they considered - a responsible and cost-feasible manner. This bill, as written, will supersede their plan and mandate the status quo, which currently stands at a daily loss of $25 million and has a debt of more than $13 billion, as well as increased restrictions on what they are allowed to do BEFORE resorting to closures.

Those that want to keep the USPS as is say it is everything from a safety issue to a matter of fair access,
and now it will be up to the House of Representatives to determine if these factors loom large enough to mandate the organization endure the ongoing debt.




The Tray PML Way is the blog for Tray, experts in the printing, mailing, logistics and promotional products. You can learn more about our capabilities by visiting our website, as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages. For information about the company and its successes, visit www.traypml.com