Editorial: Postal Service can’t afford status quo

Six years is all it took for new technology to antiquate the U.S. Postal Service. Now the question is can it be saved, and if so, in what form?The U.S. Senate finally appears ready to act on legislation that could help the agency move forward. This has been a long time coming, and a little scary, since Congress exacerbated the problem by telling the Postal Service to focus on mail delivery instead of new revenue streams.We all know the result.The Postal Service methodically began closing and merging smaller post offices six years ago and more recently closed distribution centers in towns like Lima, Mansfield, Springfield, Youngstown and Akron. More than 200,000 jobs have been lost and delivery has suffered.A major element the Senate legislation may provide is the recouping of the $11 billion the Postal Service overpaid into one of its pension funds. Had this been done when earlier proposed by the Postal Service, the agency might be closer to returning to the profitability it saw in 2006 instead of its current $36 million a day in losses.The legislation also opens up revenue possibilities. It would permit shipping beer and wine by mail. The inspector general also is advocating the addition of 10 new products such as secure email and electronic bill payment that could yield almost $10 billion a year in revenue. There's been talk of adding banking services, selling insurance or mobile phones.Chatter like this is bothersome to private companies, who see the government becoming a competitor in areas where it was never intended to compete. It also raises the argument for privatization of the Postal Service, one that Congress should seriously consider.The Postal Service recognized long ago it needed to make sweeping changes to survive the changing lifestyles of Americans. Mail volume has dropped sharply as iPads, laptops and mobile phones have replaced envelopes and postage stamps for paying bills. Emails and tweets are used for conversing socially. By the end of the decade, mail volume could be down from its peak six years ago of 213 billion pieces to 118 billion by the end of the decade.In two years, it will weigh the cancellation of Saturday delivery. By then, the number of post office closings could reach 3,700 while 250 mail processing centers could be closed.Congress must acknowledge that the Postal Service cannot keep making such cuts without hurting service even more.