Pondering postal fixes

Most of us take the mail for granted. For years, you dropped a letter into the mail and it reached its destination, for the small price of a stamp. “Lost in the mail” is a joke: Mail doesn’t get lost very often; it’s quite reliable and always has been.

Until recently, that is.

After the mail sorting station in Duluth closed, most of our mail is routed through the Twin Cities, and now takes longer than ever to get a simple letter from Moose Lake to Proctor.

To that problem, I say: So what?

I have noticed that most of my mail is advertising, bills, advertising, bank statements, advertising and packages from my oldest brother in Houston. The Pine Knot News is delivered by mail each week too.

There are very few personal letters. I still see wedding invitations occasionally, or graduation announcements. But let’s face it: There are better ways to correspond with others. The last personal letter I wrote was a few months ago, to the spouse of a friend of mine who had recently died; before that, I can’t remember sending a personal letter.

In my law practice, the volume of mail I receive is about half of the amount I got just a few years ago. Most documents from the courts are sent via email, and soon even real estate deeds may be filed electronically. I still pay some bills through the mail, but most are paid online. Mail just isn’t relevant anymore.

But that doesn’t mean the postal service is irrelevant. They provide an important service, and getting mail delivered to each and every address in the United States is necessary.

But is it necessary every day? I don’t think so.

I suggest that we re-examine the job of the postal service. For starters, I don’t see why every address needs home delivery six days a week. By eliminating daily delivery alone, the postal service could be viable.

If daily mail is so important, maybe we ask people to go to the post office to pick it up, rather than have it delivered. It wouldn’t be too hard to design a system where you go to the post office, enter your individual code and get your mail. If it’s not picked up after a week, it gets delivered.

Maybe the postal service expands its services. Remember, AT&T started off as a telegraph company and evolved. The postal service could evolve too — maybe by providing the very service it has been replaced by: the internet. If the postal service office shifts from a package delivery service to a communication delivery service, it may have a bright future.

Or, maybe the postal service goes in the other direction: as more people shop online, there has been a greater need for home delivery. Maybe the postal service should expand its package delivery service. FedEx and UPS are successful companies, but what service can deliver groceries or prescriptions locally? This might be a good service the postal service could provide.

I’d draw the line at pizza delivery, though. That takes a certain, special skill that is not easily mastered. Besides, the post office is closed by dinner time.

Pete Radosevich is the publisher of the Pine Knot News community newspaper and an attorney in Esko who hosts the talk show Harry’s Gang on CAT-7. He can be reached at [email protected].