Information on USPS Delays

From Mailers Hub News Special Issue 6 August 27, 2020 – What is the United States Postal Service? – An independent agency within the Executive Branch of the US Government, the Postal Service has several unique characteristics, including its Universal Service Obligation, monopolies over the carriage of addressed letters and access to the mailbox, and the mandates to be self-supporting and to fully prefund future retiree costs.

Despite that official independence, many aspects of the agency’s business are regulated by the Postal Regulatory Commission, and Congress frequently uses its political and legislative power to meddle in a wide range of postal issues, from establishing community ZIP codes to the closure of processing facilities and other operational matters.

The USPS has staff representatives assigned to liaison with Congressional offices in the field and in Washington but the agency is barred by law from lobbying and cannot offer support to political candidates (financially or otherwise), leaving it disadvantaged in efforts to persuade legislators or counter the messaging of the labor unions.

The Postal Service is traditionally closed-mouth about dis-closing details of its finances, operations, or other internal business beyond what’s required by law. It’s also averse to issuing statements of fact or clarification, let alone refuting media reports. As has been recently illustrated, this reticence has left it to play catch-up in explaining its actions after they’ve been taken and disclosed by others – usually the unions, who are much more adept at presenting their story lines first than is the USPS.

COVID

As the pandemic took hold, the impact began to be manifest.

• Loss of mail volume – Spreading contagion led to lockdowns, quarantines, travel restrictions, and other measures that severely depressed business activity. The volume of mail, especially Marketing Mail, fell sharply, driven by the absence of a reason to advertise to potential customers unable to visit closed businesses.
• Absenteeism – Like other segments of the population, and though considered essential workers (the USPS remained in operation), postal employees still fell ill, were quarantined, or had to tend to family members. Absenteeism quickly became a problem for the USPS, especially in areas of significant infection, with obvious results for the staffing levels required to operate equipment, distribute mail, or deliver it. Replacing absent workers with temporary help offered limited benefit given the time required to recruit, select, and train such individuals.
• Transportation – Sharply decreased air travel resulted in airlines grounding hundreds of aircraft, in turn eliminating much of the air transportation capacity used by the USPS to move First-Class Mail, Priority Mail, and similar products. Though UPS and FedEx remained valuable sources of “lift,” significant volume that once flew was forced onto slower ground transportation.
• Parcels – As retail stores and other businesses closed, customers turned to on-line shopping to have items delivered to them, quickly resulting in a surge of parcels flooding the Postal Service and other shippers. Delivery operations, aside from having to deal with absenteeism, had to adapt to moving fewer letters and flats but a growing volume of parcels.
• Revenue and cost shifts – Along with volume, revenue from letter and flat mail fell sharply, but revenue from increased parcel volume more than offset the loss. However, between staffing short-ages and the greater work content of higher parcel volume, work-hour (and overtime) usage shot up, exceeding planned levels sometimes by 10% or more.

Mailers Hub News Special Issue 6 August 27, 2020