Postal Service needs reform, not another rate hike
This week is Postmaster General David Steiner’s first week on the job. He certainly has his work cut out for him. America’s mail carrier has lost more than $3 billion so far in fiscal 2025, $9.5 billion in fiscal 2024, and more than $100 billion over the past 15 years.
Unfortunately, Steiner has already started off on the wrong foot by hiking first-class mail, or letter, prices from 73 cents to 78 cents. Steiner should ditch these senseless rate hikes and instead focus on cutting costs to get postal deficits under control. It’s time for a new approach from the new postmaster general.
The Postal Service has cycled through plenty of postmasters general. Some have largely stood for the status quo, while others, such as Louis DeJoy, have had bolder reform agendas. But one thing that unites almost all of these postal CEOs is nonsensical price hikes.
In the past five years, America’s mail carrier has raised prices seven times, from 55 cents to 78 cents. And for all the financial pain foisted on customers, there’s little evidence that these first-class rate hikes raise revenue instead of simply driving business away.
According to a 2024 analysis by the nonprofit group Keep US Posted, the agency’s models used to determine how much to hike prices fail to take consumer preferences and demand into account.