Is The Us Postal Service Privately Owned
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The USPS Is a Public Service, Non a Business
commentary
(The National Interest)
Usa Postal Service workers load post into delivery trucks outside a post part in Regal Oak, Michigan, August 22, 2020
Photo by Rebecca Cook/Reuters
When Postmaster Louis DeJoy was appointed by former President Donald Trump last May, he immediately instituted many unpopular initiatives intended to assist the United States Mail (USPS) become more fiscally sound. These initiatives, including cutting alphabetic character carrier hours and the removal of mailboxes and sorting machines, resulted in delays in delivery and generated political concerns about the potential impact on mail service-in ballots. The USPS experienced dramatic delays in the delivery of packages and bills that continued during the holidays and into the New Year, with businesses alerting customers that in that location would be delays in packages and billing statements.
Withal in office, DeJoy recently released a x-year reorganization programme for the USPS that includes lengthening delivery times by as much as v days for some first-grade mail, cut the hours of some mail service offices, and increasing postal rates, with austerity equally the solution to USPS's challenges. The plan represents the largest cutback in services in a generation. Critics have noted that these initiatives may negatively impact minor businesses (65 percent of National Small Business organisation Clan members utilize USPS over individual shipping companies) and those individuals who rely on the USPS for prescription drugs or for financial documents, such as bills, paychecks, and stimulus checks—as well equally the USPS workforce, which is disproportionately comprised of veterans and racial/ethnic minority employees.
Still, the USPS is a service long honey by the public. If anyone expected Trump'south sharp rhetoric or the declines in on-time commitment had a negative bear on on how people view the USPS, then they may be surprised. Every bit office of a nationally representative RAND American Life Panel (ALP) survey fielded in May 2020, more than ii thousand individuals were asked about their perceptions of the USPS and other federal institutions. The survey plant that the public had a very high level of trust in the USPS as an bureau; at the time, it ranked just below the Centers for Affliction Control and Prevention (CDC) but significantly to a higher place the Federal Emergency Management Bureau, the Fundamental Intelligence Agency, and Congress.
The aforementioned respondents were surveyed again in Oct 2020, after DeJoy's initial changes were being implemented. That survey showed trust in the USPS actually went upward, increasing significantly across the lath—across political orientation, educational attainment, income, employment status, gender, race/ethnicity, rural/urban, and age. This occurred at the same time trust in the CDC plummeted (according to the same survey) equally perceptions of the agency became increasingly politicized.
Why the counterintuitive result? It'south likely because many Americans feel a personal connectedness to the USPS; they rely on it daily for basic needs. Let'south non forget that U.S. protests last summer got many postal boxes returned and some sorting automobile removal stopped. And with the coronavirus pandemic, people and businesses likely depend even more on the USPS now: package volume increased nigh 20 percent in 2020 compared to 2019.…
The balance of this commentary is available at nationalinterest.org.
Michael Pollard is a senior sociologist and Lois Davis is a senior policy researcher at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation. Both are professors at the Pardee RAND Graduate School.
This commentary originally appeared on The National Involvement on April 5, 2021. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed inquiry and analysis.
Is The Us Postal Service Privately Owned,
Source: https://www.rand.org/blog/2021/04/the-us-post-office-is-a-public-service-not-a-business.html
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