Ultimately, the solution is five-days-a-week delivery.

You don’t need to visit a post office to see what ails the system:

1. Unsafe working conditions: “More than 5,300 USP employees were attacked by dogs during mail deliveries last year,” as reported by CNN.
2. Mail carriers face an increasing threat of robbery and violence, as reported by the Associated Press.
3. Staffing shortages in the Twin Cities: “1 out of 6 carrier positions is unfilled,” as reported by the Star Tribune.
4. With significant overtime requirements, the job has become unworkable for single parents, as articulated by a spokeswoman at a regional post office in Kentucky.
5. The climb to the highest pay grade takes too long — 13 years, as verbalized by a Minneapolis postal carrier.
6. An aging delivery fleet. Delivery trucks that went into service between 1987 and 1994 are still being utilized decades later, according to the Associated Press.