While delivery times for a majority of the U.S. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, in a little over a week.īy the 1950s, the Post Office has established a goal of "next-day delivery for all first-class mail in the United States." How unlike today, when DeJoy wants to reduce the existing service standard of one to three days for first-class mail delivery to one to five days. President Abraham Lincoln's 1861 inaugural address had established a record when copies completed the journey from St. At that time, there were older citizens who could still remember the Pony Express. Generations of Americans had witnessed a remarkable and continual improvement of the postal system. Back then it took three and a half days for a letter to travel from coast to coast, but this was almost a day faster than the speeds that express railroads offered. The postal system had come a long way since the pioneer transcontinental airmail service was inaugurated between New York City and San Francisco in 1920. By that point, advances in service standards had made the category itself superfluous, since most first-class mail was being transported on airplanes. While DeJoy's actions will curtail air transportation of first-class mail, airmail as a separate class of mail actually ended back in 1977. Degrading standards of service and discarding competitive advantages is not a formula for long-term relevance. Lost in this short-term calculus is the cost to American citizens and to the health of the Postal Service in the long run. Unfortunately, after more than one year as postmaster general, the tenure of DeJoy remains unimaginative at best and destructive at worst.ĭeJoy claims that lowering service standards offers an outstanding opportunity to cut costs because hauling mail overland on trucks will prove cheaper than using air transportation. Beginning this October 1, many Americans can expect permanently slower mail, especially if they live on the West Coast. ![]() ![]() While previous postmasters generals sought faster mail delivery, DeJoy stands out for his wish to make it slower. But the current postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, is pursuing a course of action that departs from the goals and aspirations of his predecessors. In this ongoing quest to move mail faster, a series of transportation advances were eagerly adopted, from stagecoaches to steamships to railroads to airplanes. Starting with Benjamin Franklin, one postmaster general after another endeavored to speed up the U.S.
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