Imagine that Amazon decides to ship a product from a warehouse in Northern Nevada to a sorting facility in Sacramento and then onto a truck for final delivery somewhere in Reno.
If such a delivery route seems unnecessarily complicated, ridiculously inefficient, and patently illogical, it's because of all those reasons, and that's exactly why Amazon doesn't do it that way. The reason is. Meanwhile, the federal government appears to believe that a similar route for domestic mail processing is somehow a successful business strategy.
Last week, the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced it would move forward with plans to move its Reno mail processing operations to Sacramento. That means mail in northern Nevada must first be trucked over Donner Pass and sorted before returning to California. Final delivery of reno.
The move understandably drew bipartisan outrage from elected officials, with the entire Nevada delegation criticizing the agency for the litany of problems it could pose for residents of the Silver State.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) correctly argued in a recent Senate hearing that this measure would wreak havoc on local mail delivery times. As Rosen pointed out, USPS is already struggling to meet his two-day delivery window goal. Add to this the unpredictable weather patterns along I-80 and it probably won't help matters much.
If you are mailing a letter locally in Reno, the additional time it takes to send a package back to Sacramento during inclement weather is just an inconvenience. But for other items routinely sent by the USPS, such as medical supplies, jury notifications, and election ballots, the impact could be even more severe.
And politically, we should prepare for the first election after the mail begins being routed to Sacramento. If you think there's an overabundance of election conspiracy theories floating around in the state right now, you might be wondering if mail-in ballots in the North were shipped to a processing facility somewhere in California before being delivered to local governments for counting in Nevada. Please wait until you have to.
The mere possibility of a USPS truck full of ballots jackknifing on Interstate 80 is enough to worry even a rational voter. Imagine what opportunists on the fringes of the conspiracy would do in response to such an event.
Unfortunately, the concerns of Nevada's elected officials fell on deaf ears. Despite unanimous and bipartisan opposition from politicians, the agency has issued a “business-based policy” to the relocation, regardless of how it impacts those who rely on the USPS in northern Nevada. They argue that the “evidence” is too strong to sustain operations in Reno.
But you have to wonder what exactly the USPS means by the term “business case.” After all, while government agencies are preparing to move out of the region, businesses have been doing just the opposite for years.
Northern Nevada has become a logistics “hotspot” as companies, distributors and manufacturers flock to the region to better serve their customers and shareholders. How is it possible that the agency's “business case” is so at odds with the many actual businesses that find Nevada to be such a convenient place to start business? ?
First of all, the USPS is desperate to save money in any way it can, and much of the mail processed in Reno is destined for other areas, such as California, so moving operations could result in small savings. There is a gender. Despite the ridiculous inefficiency of shipping local Reno packages to Sacramento for processing, the move is expected to save the agency between $3 million and $4 million in the first year. Masu.
Apparently, all that matters to DeJoy's top D.C. bureaucrats is that potential savings. As fellow columnist David Colborn recently wrote, Mr. DeJoy is “trying to run the Postal Service like a business,” so cutting costs to get the balance sheet back into the black seems to be his main focus.
However, reducing costs is not the only concern for profitable businesses. Logistics efficiency, customer satisfaction, and public relations are all equally important. Amazon, for example, could cut costs by consolidating its distribution centers and eliminating its Prime delivery guarantee for many customers. Calculated in a simple spreadsheet, closing a few warehouses or laying off thousands of drivers means immediate “savings” for companies to increase their profits.
However, in the real world things are not so simple. Such layoffs and closures will obviously have a negative impact on how well the company can serve its customers, but this is not a winning strategy for long-term profitability. In fact, most companies are interested in meeting the needs of their customer base as well, if for no other reason than to make a profit.
Meanwhile, the Washington, D.C., bureaucrats who run the USPS don't seem concerned with the concerns of their “customer base” in northern Nevada.DeJoy couldn't care less. Please pronounce the name of our state Actually a few weeks ago.
And the reason for their indifference to the concerns of postal “customers” is simple. USPS is not a real company; it is a government agency with a monopoly over the services it provides. As a result, the company's “business” interests are very different from those of private distributors, manufacturers, and logistics companies operating in the very same region.
That's why Amazon has no problem continuing to deliver products directly from its warehouse within one day. But every time Interstate 80 is closed, it quickly becomes days or even weeks to get a letter from one end of Reno to the other. Michael Schaus is a communications and branding expert based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Schaus Creative LLC — An agency dedicated to helping organizations, businesses and activists tell their stories and inspire change. He has over 10 years' experience as a public relations commentator, News He has worked as a director, columnist, political humorist, and most recently as a director of public policy think tank Communications. Follow him at SchausCreative.com or on Twitter. @ShausMichael.
