The latest move in a U.S. Postal Service plan to change the way it processes and delivers mail is taking aim at the frequency of pickups and deliveries for rural customers, a change that could hurt the ability of electric cooperatives to communicate with their members.
The proposed changes would intensify pressure on co-ops, which have already faced sharp postage rate increases in recent years that have raised costs to ship their magazines, electric bills and other mail to members.
The proposal “is a travesty of solutions for the agency’s self-inflicted financial troubles, only exacerbated by the unprecedented rate hikes of the past three years,” said Cally Peterson, editor of North Dakota Living, the member magazine for the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives.
“If rural mail service continues to decline—and it will under this new proposal—electric cooperatives will have to take a hard look at how we reach our members,” Peterson said. “A functioning and effective rural mail service is critical to how electric cooperatives communicate with member-owners.”
The Aug. 22 proposal is part of the Delivering for America initiative, an effort to cut billions of dollars in annual costs and make USPS’s network more efficient. This latest move would eliminate mail pickup in the evenings from many rural post offices, adding another day of delivery time to mostly first-class mail, according to the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers.
Slower mail service could hinder key communications between rural co-ops and their members. Peterson said North Dakota co-ops use mail to send essential member information, including annual meeting and director election notices, electric bills and North Dakota Living, the statewide magazine. The magazine, which has been in print for the past 70 years, contains information on cooperatives’ financial condition, how to participate in director elections, annual meeting details and education on safe electric use, energy management programs and money-saving electric tips.
In a recent survey of North Dakota Living’s readership, members said printed news and information received via mail was their preferred method of co-op communications by far.
The rural and remote communities that many co-ops serve also depend on the mail as a “lifeline” to get everything from medications to tractor parts, Peterson added.
“In North Dakota, we have already experienced a decline in rural mail service. It has been noticeably worse this past year,” she said.
Peterson encouraged USPS to listen to rural voices and said co-ops and members should express their worries with the proposal to their elected officials in Congress.
The Postal Service has scheduled a pre-filing virtual conference Sept. 5, where USPS staff will explain the proposals and take questions on it.
“One thing folks can do now is to sign up for the pre-filing virtual conference,” said Stephen Kearny, executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers. “They could sign up for a speaking role and explain how rural service is already worse than it had been. And explain how the changes could negatively affect cooperatives and their members.”
Molly Christian is a staff writer for NRECA.