Government involvement is part of the problem, but the primary problem is loss of sales resulting from loss of customers.
A similar fate faced the makers of buggy whips when the automobile came on strong and horse drawn vehicles disappeared. the same is true for the now gone fountain pen makers. they lost out to the ubiquitous ball point and gel pens.
Except with the post office, there is a mandate for postal service that universally delivers every day, every where.
While most get stuff via e mail, there are those that do nor or refuse to change. the question becomes how to serve those patrons.
The first way will be to adjust the way delivery is made. Service should be reduced to three days per week. the patrons are either monday, wednesday friday or tuesday thursday saturday. In what amounts to a one day delay, cost savings will be enormous.
a second savings could be obtained from ceasing door to door delivery. A series of boxes at the end of the block or some nearby convenient location would save the carrier much time.
The post office should either get out or totally revamp the package delivery business. Although the business is trying to grow, it might not be providing the revenue required.
My main gripe about the PO right now is that they don’t deliver to my house, because of cost cutting measures in the past. As a result, they provide me with a free PO Box. Not a problem.
Except when I order things online. And the ordering systems will not allow me to enter a PO Box (packages have to be addressed with both the physical and po box address).
And the company shipping uses the cheapest shipping option available, which happens to be shipping via UPS/FedEx, who get it across the country cheapest, but then dump it at a PO for the final delivery.
And guess what, no PO Box address. So my item gets returned.
Mail is not required to be delivered everyday.