Bill would require USPS to track rural mail delivery performance

postal 4 Comments

From Postcom

The Senate Committee on Appropriations has approved a proposal offered by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) to do the following:

“The Committee directs the Postal Regulatory Commission and Postal Service to work together to expand the methodology to report mail delivery performance to specifically include mail delivery from rural towns to other rural towns; from rural towns to urban areas; and from urban areas to rural towns. The Committee requests this methodology within 60 days of enactment of the Act, with a subsequent report on the data gathered using this methodology to be provided to the Committee no later than March 1, 2016.”

Source: Association for Postal Commerce

  • Larry Beauchamp

    Rural carriers are fairly well tracked as it is. Not sure what else they do could be tracked. Every mile they drive is scrutinized, everything they do in office is timed with a stop watch for crying out loud. Current data must not support an agenda.

  • postalnews

    They’re not talking about rural carriers- the issue is mail service in rural areas. The concern is that plant closings and service cutbacks could impact rural areas disproportionately. The last mile delivery method, rural vs. city vs. PO box doesn’t really matter.

  • TeflonPalin

    The headline made me think they might start looking at rural carriers performance. I should have known better.

  • MJM

    Overnight delivery still exists in major metros.

    It doesn’t exist outside of major metros.

    Three days from one side of the street to the other.

    Rural communities still depend on the mail. Metros do not depend on the mail. (generalized)

    It should be the opposite, but that would invalidate closing a couple hundred smaller processing facilities.

    This is the privatization agenda that potter and donahoe started around 2002 when network rationalization was a super secret concept that needed something to happen around 2006 to bring it to fruition.

    Postmaster General Brennen has made it obvious that she isn’t one of “them”. She has already made key senior leadership changes that were way overdue and the culture is very slowly shifting.

    With intelligent mail, fulfilling this Act is achievable within 60 days if the resources are allocated.

    My hope is that it’s all data evaluation and, if the data shows significant service declines in rural areas, the information is immediately provided to Congress and they decide what universal service means.

    Take off the pre-funding requirement, give the PO back its overpayments, expand/upgrade the network and keep the one government agency that touches everyone every day intact, because electricity goes out, solar flares happen and when the crap hits the fan, who can touch every address in the US in 24 hours with any message that needs to be communicated?

    The Postal Service – nobody and nothing else…