The reports of USPS insolvency grow louder and more insistent. Now, the venerable old "post office" has announced plans to drastically cut back services, including making delivery slower and dropping Saturday delivery.
I don't doubt that the USPS needs to continue to make cuts, improve its efficiency, and think of ways to enhance its income from services. Nor do I agree with those who say "snail mail" is completely dead and isn't needed any more. A few random observations, though, about this latest "plan:"
It seems counterintuitive to slow down delivery. One-day delivery has become the norm within major metropolitan areas; it's unique (unless you count the hugely expensive alternatives). Many businesses have come to depend on it, as have many households for their everyday letter mail. Does it really make sense to make cuts in a part of the operation that is really a competitive advantage? I don't think so; but prices could be raised.
Speaking of raising prices, one analysis I heard (don't recall now where) suggested that increasing the rate for a first-class letter to just 62 cents would fully cover the USPS's current deficits. If that is so, why not do it? To some, 62 cents may sound like a lot; yet I have lived in much smaller, more compact countries where delivery times and distances were far less than in the U.S., and a typical letter was far more than $ 0.62. In Germany, for example, the cost of a letter was nearly a dollar - 15 years ago! Why is USPS fooling around with a 1-cent increase that we've been promised for next spring, when clearly it needs more?
The postal gurus also want to cut a delivery day out of the weekly schedule. Clearly that could save some money, but again, it seems counterintuitive to propose that Saturday be dropped. I've always suggested it should be a day in mid-week, like Wednesday. Otherwise, we have a two-day hiatus in delivery that can really snarl things up. If we add in the slowed-down delivery schedule (above), and all those Monday holidays, a first-class letter mailed on a Friday might not be delivered across town until Wednesday or even Thursday. We should at least insist that if there won't be delivery on Saturdays, there would be delivery on those Monday holidays. If we have a three-day gap, we may as well not have service at all.
Technically, the USPS can make its own decisions on these things; the Postal Regulatory Commission gets an advisory opinion, but it's non-binding. This helps explain the seemingly counterintuitive suggestions for cutbacks. Personally, I would guess we're seeing strategy, rather than purely objective business decisions, in play. Cuts are proposed for the most sensitive areas, in hopes of raising objections that will skew the decision-making progress and perhaps drive things toward a different outcome. It's a game the military has played for ages, and although the USPS doesn't get USG funding, it might nevertheless hope for some special Congressional dispensation to proceed differently, rather than cut popular services.

