ICYMI: The United States Postal Service Could Use Better Role Models to Improve

ICYMI: Taxpayers Protection Alliance Senior Fellow Ross Marchand recently wrote an opinion piece in Townhall analyzing the United States Postal Service (USPS) Inspector General’s recent report about the USPS’ plans to improve their financial standing. He also criticizes the flawed comparison between USPS and Amtrak and urges the agency to look for “better” role models.

Marchand argues that, while on the surface, Amtrak may be an appealing model for the struggling USPS, he calls the corporation’s financial outlook “bleak,” noting that expenses are still exceeding revenue despite $2 billion a year in taxpayer subsidies.

Marchand offers guidelines for postal reform, including suggesting that the USPS consolidate its network of post offices and partner with retail companies to save on fixed infrastructure costs. A pilot program with Staples was axed due to a 2016 National Labor Relations Board ruling instigated by the American Postal Workers Union. If Congress proves unable to give the USPS a “freer hand” to work with private companies, the agency “has it in their power to reduce losses by ensuring that package prices reflect delivery costs and more routinely auditing bloated middle-mile highway contracts.”

He concludes by writing, “Ultimately, no one solution will bring the USPS back into the black. But the agency and Congress can take incremental steps in the right direction and look to proper role models (i.e., not Amtrak) for inspiration.”

You can read Ross’s full piece here.

The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.

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