The United States Postal Service (USPS) is vital for American seniors. We use the Postal Service to pay our bills, send cards and care packages to loved ones and receive our Social Security checks and other benefits. The Postal Service also delivers our prescription medications and other medical products, food, household supplies and other items — all straight to our doorstep thanks to online shopping. Our neighborhood mailman is a familiar visitor, bringing essentials directly to us, six days a week.
But some special interests are trying to raise Postal Service package prices to enrich their own pockets at the expense of seniors. UPS is lobbying the U.S. Senate to pass postal reform that would lead to a hike in Postal Service prices, allowing UPS to raise their prices even higher. One study found that UPS and private carriers could earn billions if they could force the Postal Service to hike prices. That means more consumers will pay an increase of up to $16.95 to receive a package.
That’s more expensive medication, more expensive household goods, more expensive online purchases.
For those seniors living in rural areas, the Postal Service is the only package delivery carrier. It’s not “profitable” enough for private carriers like UPS to deliver to thousands of zipcodes. That’s why some private carriers already dump their packages with the Postal Service or charge heavy “rural surcharges” to more than half of America’s zipcodes.
The legislation would codify the existing status quo — receiving letter mail and packages delivered straight to your door almost every day of the week. We cannot let Washington lobbyists make a backdoor deal to increase prices at the Postal Service.
