The problem is two fold ~ the URBAN postal operations are probably trimmed as far as they can be safely trimmed at the moment. The rural postal operations are FAT and for the most part so overstaffed you wouldn't believe it. They can be trimmed way back and the whole business in any county with less than 10,000 population handed over to rural delivery service.
There are a good 95,000 people involved in running those small buildings. That's what they do BTW, just open the doors, turn on the lights, certify the utility bills for payment by the PDC.
FYI-—
I live in a small rural community.
We ALREADY have private delivery. The persons who bring us our mail already are NOT employees of the USPS.
They work for a ‘Private Carrier’ and have NO benefits. I have yet to clearly understand who pays for their gasoline, etc, since they are driving their OWN cars.
Some places we have ‘cluster boxes’. Some places, individual mailbox delivery.
I would support cluster boxes all over the valley to speed things up.
Meanwhile, if they close our local USPS, it is a minimum of 17 miles to the next closest one.
Oersonally, I think the rural post offices could be inside other places of business—like the satellite banks inside the grocery stores.
They could have FEWER employees and not be paying for their brink/mortar buildings.
In the past 7 years, within 35 miles of where I live, there have been 3 THREE NEW USPS buildings built—when the old buildings were just fine.