Postal Regulatory Commission denies most appeals of proposed post office closings

Almost 200 communities have tried to save their post offices from closure, but nearly all have failed, Steve Hutkins of Save the Post Office writes. From January 2011 to April 2012, the Postal Regulatory Commission issued orders on 180 closure appeals. Only 13 were upheld or sent back to the U.S. Postal Service for further review. The agency affirmed closure of the other 167. Hutkins says the number of suggested closures is "totally unprecedented." USPS closed 430 offices last year, and another 240 are expected to close when a closure moratorium ends May 15.

Hutkins says appeals to the PRC have historically been unsuccessful, but were more successful before last year. USPS has closed an average of 100 post offices a year since 1971, and fewer than nine were reported to the PRC each year. A third of last year's 671 proposed closings were appealed. According to PRC data, 93 percent of those appeals were affirmed, and only 7 percent were remanded. Twenty-five percent of appeals between 1976 and 2010 were remanded. Hutkins says "communities actually had a better chance with USPS" last year, when it withdrew 24 closure orders.

To be sure, USPS is likely facing direr straits now than it has since 1971. The agency is billions in debt, mainly because it was ordered by Congress to set aside money for pensions before employees retired. To heal the gaping wound, USPS decided it would close hundreds of "underperforming" post offices, mostly in rural areas. Hutkins says it's unclear why the PRC is denying closing appeals, when "the Postal Service getting its facts wrong, giving out misinformation, failing to follow its own guidelines, abandoning its obligation to provide a maximum degree of service to rural areas, demonstrating a lack of responsiveness to customer concerns, and giving people the impression that the decision to close the post office was a done deal long before the process was completed." (Read more)