USPS Priority Mail: A first-class shame

Priority Mail isn’t delivering well for consumers.

The latest post office statistics show that the typical Priority Mail package reaches its destination more than a day and a half longer than first-class items sent for as little as 34 cents.

Priority Mail, hyped as the Postal Service’s low-cost answer to FedEx and UPS, costs a minimum $3.50.

A third of the Priority Mail slated for delivery within three days didn’t make the target for the fiscal year, compared to a 19 percent miss record for first-class mail during that period.

The delivery cost is to rise by an average of 13.5 percent June 30, based on weight and distance. That increase follows another double-digit increase from last year.

The latest statistics add fuel to the idea that it’s time to retire a long-standing Postal Service’s monopoly.

Under the current federal rules, it’s illegal for anyone else to deliver first- and third-class mail. The Postal Service defends the monopoly by saying it provides everyone in the country the same service for one low price.

The price of first-class postage increases to 37 cents from 34 cents on June 30. First-class postage cost 25 cents at the beginning of the 1990s.

Competition could result in more options at less cost.

The postal service expects to have a deficit of $1.5 billion for this fiscal year. Postal officials say the agency’s already-poor financial health worsened with a slowing economy and the anthrax and mailbox-bombing assaults.

Postal officials are looking at a number of cost-cutting measures, including closing and con- solidating several offices.

Congress is studying the plan. It should take a closer look at allowing more competition as well.