Watching PMG David Steiner testify before the House Subcommittee on Government Operations last week made some impressions, good and bad, and perpetuated concerns over conditions not being addressed. The hearing was in a large room with the subcommittee leadership sitting on the top row, above many other empty rows, looking at the witnesses some distance below. The more unusual element…
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The practice of regime change – one way or another – has gained a certain popularity of late. Usually the initial change is replacement of the person at the top, followed by a winnowing of those in subordinate positions until holdovers from the prior regime have left – one way or another. Fortunately, the US had an orderly process for…
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When Amazon announced last week that it was making plans to expand its delivery network into places served by the Postal Service’s rural routes, many postal observers rightly went UH-OH, knowing how impactful the associated loss of business would be on USPS finances. Though the possibility was always looming that Amazon could in-source more or all of the volume it…
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There’s an old expression to the effect that “If you’re a hammer, every problem is a nail.” In other words, people tend to view a problem, and approach its solution, in the context of their own experience. Applying this to the Postal Service, former postmaster general Louis DeJoy was a trucking guy, experienced in moving full trucks of boxes from…
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Sometimes it’s hard to get a straight answer. One such occasion was at the recent meeting of the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee. In a session that included a presentation about USPS service performance, the presenter showed charts (like the one above) that, among other data, compared service in late September 2025 to what it was a year earlier. After looking…
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In the July 14 issue of Mailers Hub News we initiated an award – the bull trophy – that would be given to the Postal Service when it makes an announcement that is no more than transparent spin, or issues a proposal that is egregiously self-serving, and thus worthy of being equated to what the trophy animal produces. We’re making…
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Deep in an appropriations bill passed by the 52nd Congress on March 3, 1893, was the clause “For free-delivery service, including existing experimental free-delivery offices, eleven million two hundred and fifty-four thousand nine hundred dollars, of which the sum of ten thousand dollars shall be applied under the direction of the Postmaster-General to experimental free-delivery in rural communities other than…
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It’s hardly a report for the evening news, but Sioux Falls (SD) station KSFY reported July 14 that Lewis Drug and Hy-Vee stores would no longer be able to “sell postage or mail packages” for the USPS by the end of September. When asked for comment, a USPS representative stated only that “the Postal Service determined that nearby postal facilities…
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After reading the Postal Service’s July 1 Industry Alert (“USPS to Implement Second Phase of Service Standard Refinements on July 1”) it’s clear that the agency’s PR writers have again shown their singular ability to spin anything the USPS does into a great benefit for its customers. Accordingly, we’re proposing that an award be developed that can be given out…
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The Postal Service apparently wants to keep Doug Tulino on the job very badly. Tulino has spent his postal career in labor relations and human resources, becoming chief human resources officer and executive vice-president in 2020. Despite little if any experience in field operations or management, he was chosen by former postmaster general Louis DeJoy to serve as deputy PMG. …
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