A robust effort is underway to put the U.S. Postal Service on better financial footing — and to update it to fit a country that sends far fewer letters than it once did. Bipartisan legislation passed earlier this spring took billions of dollars in retirement liabilities off its balance sheet, and Postmaster Louis DeJoy is replacing tens of thousands of aging delivery trucks, increasing revenue with higher postal rates and taking pressure off the system by slowing some delivery times.
READ FULL ARTICLE AT » The Washington Post
Amazon and Walmart dominate retail partly because of their swift delivery of orders. If plans to slow U.S. mail service are reversed, small retailers and ‘makers’ would have a better shot.
It’s true that the Postal Service was on an unsustainable course. But the current plans — especially the slowing of service for many first-class packages, and the increase in fees — fail to take into consideration the role the Postal Service plays in helping small- and medium-size companies compete with the likes of Amazon and Walmart.