Express and local

The proposal by the U.S. Postal Service to restrict mail delivery in parts of Northern Maine and a half dozen other rural places in the nation betrays the very idea of a national delivery system. Postal officials should reverse this idea and make the needed investments to keep all regions connected to the same degree.

The change contemplated would eliminate next-day Express Mail from Aroostook County, apparently because of the cost of needed upgrades to computer systems to route the mail through the Postal Service’s new alliance with Federal Express. Under this $6.3 billion agreement, the Postal Service would share Fed Ex planes, saving the quasi-governmental agency approximately $1 billion over seven years. Next-day Express Mail would take two days to deliver in parts of New York, Montana, California, Vermont and Maine. Instead of Aroostook’s Express Mail being flown into Boston and then to the County, it would be trucked to Portland and then flown, losing a day in the process.

It is hard to blame the Postal Service for being cost conscious and smart enough to reach a deal with one of its major competitors. But surely it could keep the vast majority of its billion-dollar savings while spending a relatively small tens of thousands on needed computer upgrades, thus keeping members of Congress off its case. Sen. Olympia Snowe, upon hearing of the plan, described herself as “outraged,” called the plan “simply unacceptable” and that it “smacks of dogmatic decisions by bureaucrats,” and we sensed she was just warming up.

The senator is understandably angry. Institutions such as the Postal Service are supposed to unite the country, not create desirable and undesirable neighborhoods. And while Fed Ex itself will continue to offer its next-day service, the Postal Service snubbing holds up a sign for all the places affected that says, “Boondocks this way.” Potential businesses for these regions are likely to be less than impressed.

Fortunately, the Postal Service is sensitive to helpful observations from Congress, shown particularly well when it floated the idea of stopping Saturday deliveries. Members of Congress screamed; the Postal Service decided it was just kidding. That would be a useful approach to take with this idea also.