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The plight of postal service everywhere

Yes, it’s another entry on the postal system.  I like the postal system, okay?

I read this article.  It makes me really sad.  And I’m afraid the article may describe the sentiment of a lot of people in the US and so I’m afraid of what it might mean for the future of the USPS.

Canada Post employees recently went on strike to protest a dramatic wage cut.  In response, management locked them out and so Canada hasn’t had a functional mail system for about three weeks.  And now people are saying that maybe they don’t need the postal system anyway because there’s email.  Well, I don’t know the ins and outs of Canada Post.  I don’t know the details of the strike or the subsequent lockout.  I do know that a lot of my Canadian friends frequently complain about its reliability and delivery times.  Even in the midst of complaining though, they don’t want to do away with the postal system.  They just want the USPS to take over.  Apparently the USPS is the envy of the postal world?  I probably could believe that.

Anyway, according to the article, the sentiment among the vast majority of Canadians is that they no longer need a postal system and by going on strike, the postal workers have sealed their fate and showed everyone that they can live without the postal system.  People the reporter interviewed all seemed to believe that if they really needed to get something done, they could just go online to do it.

“I do all my communication through the Internet so I don’t miss the mail,” says Eddy Banakar, a manager of a high-tech company. “But the postal job is an uncomplicated job, and at the same time they get good salaries. So I don’t think people have much sympathy for them.”

So this is a quote that really irks me.  I agree that the postal job is “uncomplicated” in that you probably don’t need a Ph.D. to fulfill the job requirements, but that sounds really dismissive to me.  Just because the job is uncomplicated doesn’t mean that it isn’t important or that it’s easy.  Working as a “sanitation engineer” probably isn’t a very complicated job either, but it’s a really important job to society (thank you, employees of Waste Management) and it’s hard work.  The quote makes the guy sound like you have to be a manager of a high-tech company to be paid a good salary.  He probably doesn’t have to do a lot of manual labor.  So people with white collar jobs are the only ones who are allowed to have good salaries?  Hard, physical labor doesn’t count for anything, even when it’s vital to a functional society?  (Maybe the guy didn’t mean that.  Maybe the reporter took the quote out of context or spun it.  But still, it irks me.)

Also, postal workers have high stress jobs.  Can you do what they do?  I’ve mentioned before that the USPS does some pretty amazing stuff and so has my friend.  I assume that Canada Post has to do some similarly amazing stuff.  Maybe not as well, judging by the complaints, but Canada has a LOT of rural areas.  And how about the Yukon or Northwest Territories?  That’s like delivering things in Alaska.  That doesn’t sound easy to me.  And people in the rural areas of Canada deserve to get their mail too.  The postal workers are important and they deserved to be paid accordingly.

Important or not, maybe they are being overpaid.  I don’t know.  Corporations everywhere are strapped for cash right now and it’s true that people are utilizing their postal system in different ways now so that first class mail can no longer be counted to bring in the bulk of revenue.  Changes are probably necessary and the changes will probably hurt, but it doesn’t mean a whole postal service should be scrapped.

So…I’m campaigning again to save the postal system.  The USPS in particular, and other postal services will be a bonus.  Might I recommend swap-bot to you again?  Or if crafting is not your thing or is too stressful, how about postcrossing?  All you have to do is write a postcard, not even a full letter.  I think letters are ok though.  I’ve only sent one postcard thus far so I’m by no means an expert.  Or maybe you like to read and are out of interesting books to read?  Maybe you have too many books and would like to share them with people who would like to read them?  How about bookcrossing?  See?  Lots of excuses to go support your postal system right now.  You should definitely go do it.

Three cheers for the USPS!

Actually, the title to this blog doesn’t make that much sense when you consider that the article just makes me sad.  Although, the USPS probably should still get three cheers.

So, here’s another post about the USPS, although this time I’m actually writing it and not just reposting from another blog.  It seems that the USPS is ever closer to insolvency.  I don’t know exactly what that would mean for the future of mail delivery, but it definitely can’t be good.  I have a friend whose father works for the USPS.  He’s told me that he believes our postal system will fold in five years.  That’s terrible!

Whose fault is it though?  Well, partly theirs, from reading the article.  It seems that they never really had a long range plan to remain a viable business.  They rely pretty heaviliy on first class mail to pay the bills and that’s never changed.  But it’s partly ours.  We just don’t sent letters and such like we used to but we still demand the same services at the same prices as before.  It doesn’t work like that though.  The USPS is an amazing institution.  They deliver by mule or snowmobile when it’s required.  The system works so remarkably well and is really reliable when you consider the sheer volume of mail that they have to handle each day.  First class mail gets delivered within days in the States.  And yes, I’ve experienced the anguish of having things lost in the mail, but it’s been a rare experience.  Maybe just twice in my lifetime of sending and receiving mail.  The last time, the package I mailed eventually found its way back to me too, so in the end, it did reach its intended recipient…albeit several months late.  And the price for all this service is really cheap.  Forty-four cents to send a letter by snowmobile to Alaska?  And if I address it wrong, it gets sent back to me with no extra cost?  So cheap!

I think we need to go out and support our postal system some more.  We should sent letters to friends, especially when they’re down.  We should send letters to friends who are in different states, just because.  We should send letters to friends in different countries, even.  I’ve done care packages to friends who were homesick in other countries.  Why not?  Our postal system is really great.  And if nothing else, join swap-bot.  You help support our postal system and you get surprises in the mail.  Who doesn’t like surprises in the mail?  Yay for surprises in the mail!  But more, yay for our postal system that works so remarkably well but is facing insolvency so you should go write 324892343 letters and mail them right now (you need to say that in one breath)!