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Is The Postal Service Going Out Of Business?
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The U.S. Postal Service has been a staple of American culture ever since Benjamin Franklin was appointed the nation’s first Postmaster General in the year 1775. Throughout the centuries, the USPS has delivered countless packages and helped U.S. citizens to keep shipping goods and letters to your location and countless others across the country. However, despite its incredible history and its great reputation for delivering packages efficiently, many people are now wondering if the United States Postal Service is going out of business.
Why are people wondering if the USPS is going out of business?
The main reason why people think that the United States Postal Service is going out of business is because it has been losing billions of dollars every single year since 2007. In November 2017 alone, the USPS lost $2.7 billion. The Postal Service’s losses have been covered extensively on major news networks.
President Trump has also tweeted about the USPS, saying, “I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the Election. Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!”
Obviously, as a U.S. president and major international business figure, Trump’s tweets get a tremendous amount of attention. This tweet received over 122 thousand likes and was discussed by over 80 thousand people. So, there is certainly a lot of attention being drawn to the USPS’s losses.
The Amazon USPS Issue
As Trump pointed out with his tweet, Amazon ships an incredibly large amount of packages through the USPS, and they get lower rates due to their large volume. However, there is an enormous amount of debate as to whether or not the USPS’s deal with Amazon is beneficial for the post office. Not all of these rates and agreements are public, so it is difficult for the average person to know if Amazon is good or bad for the Postal Service.
However, the Postal Service definitely is losing money. But according to Fortune, the main reason why the Postal Service is losing so much money is because people simply do not send as much mail anymore. Nowadays, most people would much rather send an email which can reach the recipient in a matter of seconds then send a letter through the US Postal Service which would take a matter of days to reach the recipient. Email is also free which is another nice incentive to send letters digitally.
A lot of junk mail is also sent through email nowadays. Just like individuals sending letters to one another businesses sending junk mail it’s cheaper and faster via email and it is via the U.S. Postal Service. So, it would seem that advances in technology are the primary reason why the United States Postal Service is seeing revenue decreases.
The Future of the US Postal Service
As of right now, the US Postal Service is still alive and well. It is facing tough competition, however, from private companies such as UPS and FedEx. It is also seeing significantly declining revenue due to the reasons mentioned above. However, this does not mean that the US Postal Service is going to go out of business anytime soon.
What is more likely going to happen to the Postal Service is that it will adapt to the changing times just like private companies will have to adapt to them. So, in the near future the US Postal Service may continue to cut jobs and focus on streamlining and prioritizing its e-commerce package delivery section as e-commerce is set to grow substantially over the next few years.
It is possible that President Trump will also try to make some changes that work in the Postal Service’s favor. But do not expect it to go out of business anytime soon.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]