Five Steps to Save America's Incredible Shrinking Post Office

By David Morris

November 4, 2013  |  In July 2011 the United States Postal Service (USPS) management announced it would rapidly close 3600 local post offices and eventually as many as 15,000.  And shutter half the nation’s mail processing centers.

 

A frenzy of grassroots activity erupted as citizens in hundreds of towns mobilized to save a treasured institution that plays a key and sometimes a defining role in their communities.  Only when Congress appeared ready to impose a six month moratorium on closures and consolidations that December did USPS management agree to a voluntarily moratorium of the same length.

That moratorium ended in May 2012.  Rather than proceed with closings, management embraced a devilishly clever new strategy.  Instead of closing 3600 it would slash the hours of 13,000 post offices.   That could be accomplished very quickly because reduction in hours, unlike outright closures, requires little if any justification while appeals are very limited.