A GUEST POST BY CONGRESSMAN GERALD E. CONNOLLY

The Washington Post recently published an article about the travel expenses of Postal Regulatory Chairman Ruth Goldway.  The author of the article seems to have missed that the reason for Ms. Goldway’s travel is to pursue positive business model reforms for the Postal Service.  These innovative reforms are connected directly to her travel and her exchange of ideas with postal systems in other countries. 

Here in America, the Postal Service earns three times less money from innovative non-postal products and services than its European postal system counterparts.  Partially because Ms. Goldway has learned from best practices overseas, she has been an articulate advocate for innovation that would allow the Postal Service to earn more revenue rather than focus myopically on downsizing. 

For example, Ms. Goldway has explained how far-reaching reforms to the Postal Service vehicle fleet could reduce maintenance and fuel costs while generating revenue through creative vehicle-to-grid contracts with utilities.  This is the kind of fresh thinking we need to reinvigorate a moribund, shrinking Postal Service. 

If Postal Service management shows no interest in innovation while Congressional partisans wish to dismantle the Postal Service for political reasons, it is more necessary than ever that Ms. Goldway and her PRC colleagues learn from international postal best practices.  It is a shame that more postal officials are not interested in such innovations.

[Gerald E. Connolly (VA-11) is a member of the Federal Workforce and Postal Service Subcommittee on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.]

(Photo credit: Congressman Connolly)