Recent Posts

Earlier this week the Postal Service shared a list with the Postal Regulatory Commission identifying 170 post offices that were “temporarily” suspended several years ago and that will soon be closed permanently. The list was submitted as part of the PRC’s Public Inquiry into what can be done to push ... Read More

Steve Hutkins In February the Postal Regulatory Commission opened a Public Inquiry docket to invite comments about the large backlog of long-standing, unresolved post office suspensions. Here are the comments I submitted today. (Comments were also submitted by the PRC’s Public Representative and the Postal Service.) Pursuant to Order No ... Read More

STEVE HUTKINS In the run-up to the election in November 2020, the iconic USPS blue boxes suddenly became controversial. It appeared that the Postal Service was removing a lot of collection boxes just when they would be needed most — to handle all the ballots being sent by mail due ... Read More

The spring 2022 newsletter from Community and Postal Workers United (CPWU) has articles about opposition to the Postal Service’s deal to purchase up to 148,000 mail delivery trucks from Oshkosh Defense, 90% of them powered by gasoline fueled combustion engines; the postal workers’ protest in Denver when PMG DeJoy visited; ... Read More

The Winter 2022 newsletter from Communities and Postal Workers United has articles about the effort to “Dump DeJoy,” letter carriers resisting delivery after dark, and a new type of post office being piloted in Canada. Read the newsletter here ... Read More

BY STEVE HUTKINS Last week the Postal Service published its service performance reports for the first quarter of fiscal year 2022 (Oct-Dec 2021). This is our first opportunity to see any details about how on-time delivery has been going since Oct. 1, 2021, when the USPS introduced lower service standards ... Read More

Here’s a map of the USPS locations that are serving as Fulfillment Centers for packing, labeling, and sorting the free Covid tests being sent out by the federal government. The list of sites comes from a Memorandum of Understanding between the USPS and National Postal Mail Handlers Union ... Read More

Will the U.S. Postal Service be a part of our future the way it’s been a part of our past? CBS Mornings explores the question, featuring interviews with residents of Alplaus, NY, which lost its post office 10 years ago, author Devin Leonard, and post office photographer Evan Kalish ... Read More

[Press Release from Cinema Libre Studios] It is broadly known that current Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has significant conflicts of interest due to his and his family’s investments in a number of companies closely tied to the U.S. Postal Service. Established by the U.S. Constitution, the once-venerated agency has been systematically dismantled ... Read More

Evan Kalish has photographed more than 10,000 post offices all across America. Back for its sixth year, the 2022 “Postlandia Calendar of Post Offices and Places” celebrates a dozen new photogenic and historic post offices from around the United States. This year’s selections include one-of-a-kind post offices in California, New ... Read More

On her show on Nov. 19, Rachel Maddow focused on President Biden’s changes to the USPS Board of Governors “that apparently are finally going to clear the way to getting rid of that guy,” Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. She also talked with Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi about his hope that ... Read More

First Class: The U.S. Postal Service, Democracy, and the Corporate Threat, the new book by historian Christopher Shaw, is hot off the presses. Shaw’s examination of the essential role of the Post Office in American society should have a profound impact on shaping the postal narrative and the direction of ... Read More

The Fall 2021 newsletter from Communities and Postal Workers United has articles calling on the 21 Attorneys General who oppose slowing down the mail to file for an injunction; the APWU rally to “Dump DeJoy, Bounce Bloom” on Sept. 23; Chicago letter carriers stand against late start times and delivery ... Read More

BY TIM BOND As part of its Delivering for America plan, the Postal Service has promised to “procure and deploy more than 185 new package sorters.” This statement has remained somewhat vague in the messaging materials, but the Postal Service recently invited the media to the Seattle Processing & Distribution ... Read More

The new Household Diary Study is out. From the Executive Summary: “The Household Diary Study survey, fielded continuously since 1987, aims to collect information on household use of the mail and how that use changes over time. The survey collects household information on demographics, lifestyle, attitudes toward mail and advertising, ... Read More

The Summer 2021 newsletter from Communities and Postal Workers United (CPWU) focuses on the Postal Service’s plans to close 18 mail processing plants in November and the fight to stop these consolidations. Read the newsletter ... Read More

By Steve Hutkins The Postal Service’s plan to reduce service standards is now being reviewed by the Postal Regulatory Commission for an Advisory Opinion. On Friday, June 25, the Postal Service and several of the intervenors in the case submitted their Reply Briefs. (You can find the briefs and replies ... Read More

By Steve Hutkins The Postal Service’s plan to reduce service standards is now being reviewed by the Postal Regulatory Commission for an Advisory Opinion. On Monday, June 21, the Postal Service and several of the intervenors in the case submitted their briefs and statements of position. You can find the ... Read More

By Douglas Carlson Editor’s note: The Postal Service’s plan to reduce service standards is now being reviewed by the Postal Regulatory Commission for an Advisory Opinion. The Postal Service presented five witnesses to make its case. Last week, four witnesses submitted rebuttal testimony. Below is the rebuttal testimony of long-time ... Read More