We’ve got this nice shiny new post office in Española and I haven’t heard a good thing about it yet.
It’s too small. The parking lot was designed by someone after drinking a bottle of Jack Daniels. The egress and ingress are insanely narrow. Traffic on Industrial Park Road makes turning in and out dangerous when school lets out. There are no drive up boxes outside. The lobby is locked Sundays and holidays. There are only two windows and you still have to wait in line ten minutes to buy one stamp.
I am selfishly delighted with the new post office. That’s because I don’t use it like the average citizen. I try to stay out of it at almost any cost.
But the dock in the back is wonderful. When we make our weekly Wednesday evening trek to deliver a truck load of newspapers, we now can back up and unload without waiting for the parade of contract mail carriers who are unloading at a snail’s pace.
But let me tell you what I am bothered by. Postal rates went up again this month for periodicals. That means we actually lose money on out of state subscriptions now and break even in-state. A basic business model says raise the rates but common sense says raise them at your own peril. Of course stamps went up at the same time so billing is higher.
Also simultaneously, a pencil pusher in Albuquerque decided we had to fill out our paperwork and write the post office its precious check before they will deliver the newspaper. For 53 years my parents have been figuring the paper (percentage of advertising versus weight and distance the post office carries) and filling out the ever-changing and ever-confusing post office Form 941 and writing a big fat check to the post office. We’ve done this on Thursday until earlier this month.
Don’t try to reason with the post office. Common sense and a 53-year business relationship doesn’t enter into the conversation. “That’s the postal regulation and that’s what you’ll have to do from now on,” I was told by a grouchy (grouchier than I) old prude in the Albuquerque distribution office.
So while I was pretty peeved at the rate going up, I about go through the roof every time a post office commercial comes on the television. The post office is a monopoly of sorts. If you want a hard copy letter delivered somewhere in a reasonable amount of time (and that time differs every time) you have to mail it through the post office.
Yes, you can use Fed-X or UPS or some other company but the United States post office was set up to deliver mail all over the country at a reasonable rate. So why are they spending our hard-earned money on ads to encourage you to mail through the post office? Is there another choice?
I found it ironic after my steaming about the overall condition of the postal service to find it was actually set up by the Second Continental Congress in 1775 to deliver newspapers at a reasonable rate. That was the post office’s primary mission when first organized. When Thomas Jefferson and James Madison insisted on including the press in the first amendment, the formation of the postal service to deliver the newspapers was right behind it.
Today periodical and third class (junk mail) pay most of the post office’s way. As the internet and email erode the letter traffic, this will become worse. I think the post office would try to treat us a little better and keep in mind Jefferson’s and Madison’s original idea.
And in defense of our local post office employees, they didn’t drink the Jack Daniels, design the parking lot, pick the location, draw up the building plans, decide where your box would end up or pay the contractors. They’re employees trying to deliver your mail. Please don’t hassle them.
Write to the post service in Albuquerque. Go to www.usups.gov and go to “contact us.”
Give ‘em heck.