USPS

"Due to this arctic outbreak and concerns for the safety of USPS employees,55 USPS announced Wednesday morning," the Postal Service is suspending delivery Jan.

"I think we're unique as a federal agency," USPS official Mike Swigart told me, "because we're in literally every community in this country."

A dedicated USPS employee was on the job carrying out duties in spite of extreme conditions.

According to Rae Ann Haight, the program manager for the national-preparedness office at USPS, Smith was fulfilling a request made by some of the home owners to pick up any mail that was left untouched.

After Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Michael last fall, USPS worked with state and local election boards to make sure that absentee ballots were available and received or time.

After Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, mail facilities were set up in dozens of locations across the country in the two weeks that USPS was unable to provide street delivery.

Days after the deadly 2017 wildfires in Santa Rosa, California, a drone (无人机) caught footage (连续镜头) of a USPS worker, Trevor Smith, driving through burned homes in that familiar white van, collecting mail in an affected area.

Every day, USPS processes, on average, 493.

In a 2011 USPS case study, the agency emphasized its massive infrastructure as a "unique federal asset" to be called upon in a disaster or terrorist attack.

In response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, USPS redirected incoming New Orleans mail to existing mail facilities in Houston.

It can be hard to identify which parcels are carrying crucial items such as Social Security checks, but USPS and UPS try their best to prioritize sensitive material.

One official says USPS is unique in that it has more direct reach to communities compared with other federal agencies.

Spokespeople from both USPS and UPS told me all mail is important.

USPS has sophisticated emergency plans for natural disasters.

USPS urges those without standing addresses to file change-of-address forms with their new location.

There's no change to collective bargaining at the USPS, a major omission considering that personnel accounts for 80 percent of the agency's costs.

The latter step would largely offset the financial burden of annually pre-funding retiree health care, thus addressing a long-standing complaint by the USPS and its union.

The emerging consensus around the bill is a sign that legislators are getting frightened about a politically embarrassing short-term collapse at the USPS.

The U.Postal Service continues to bleed red ink.

That common-sense change enjoys wide public support and would save the USPS $2 billion per year.

Legislation is moving through the House that would save USPS an estimated $286 billion over five years, which could help pay for new vehicles, among other survival measures.

Fundamentally, the USPS is in a historic squeeze between technological change that has permanently decreased demand for its bread-and-butter product, first-class mail, and a regulatory structure that denies management the flexibility to adjust its operations to the new reality.

And interest groups ranging from postal unions to greeting-card makers exert self-interested pressure on the USPS's ultimate overseer-Congress-insisting that whatever else happens to the Postal Service, aspects of the status quo they depend on get protected.

Fundamentally, the USPS is in a historic squeeze between technological change that has permanently decreased demand for its bread-and-butter product, first-class mail, and a regulatory structure that denies management the flexibility to adjust its operati

Legislation is moving through the House that would save USPS an estimated $28.6 billion over five years, which could help pay for new vehicles, among other survival measures.

That common- sense change enjoys wide public support and would save the USPS $2 billion per year.