Outside In | Despite Donald Trump’s attack on the international postal system, he might be in for a nasty surprise in the mail next year

Tying US Postal Service’s losses to Chinese e-commerce, the Trump administration forced the Universal Postal Union to allow the US to set its own international postal fees from July next year. However, this is likely to make only a small dent in the country’s mail woes

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A US Postal Service worker takes packages out of a truck on December 2 in San Francisco, California. The postal service has recorded a loss of US$8.8 billion and will finish the year with US$11 billion in debt outstanding. Photo: Getty Images/AFP

Published: 1:00am, 7 Dec 2019Updated: 1:36am, 7 Dec 2019

One of the joys of my childhood in nondescript public housing in the heart of England was the annual cascade of Christmas cards that dropped through the letterbox in the weeks leading up to December 25. We received hundreds, which quickly festooned the walls along with all manner of Christmas decorations, bringing a temporary orgy of colour to England’s long, grey winters.

This was the heyday of Britain’s postal services, before the internet, email, WhatsApp, Skype and “e-fulfilment”. While I love the convenience that electronic communication has brought, I mourn the loss of those morning moments of excitement as mail clattered through the letterbox onto the hall carpet – Christmas cards in particular. If I get four or five cards this year, I will be impressed.

No surprise, therefore, to see so many of the world’s postal services nowadays descending into crisis, haemorrhaging cash, being privatised and procrastinating over their universal service pledges. Even here in Hong Kong, losses on operations amounted to HK$224 million (US$28.6 million) in the 2018-19 financial year.

But dozens of other postal services, most of them government-controlled, share similarly awful arithmetic. Linked with losses and efforts to cut costs, strikes have threatened postal operations around the world, from the UK and Finland to Brazil and Sri Lanka.

A Royal Mail van drives through the Drumochter Pass in Scotland on March 11. In October, 100,000 Royal Mail staff voted to go on strike over job security and terms, but in November the postal service won a court injunction that will prevent the action. Photo: Reuters

None are deeper in the mire than US Postal Services (USPS), which employs more than 600,000 people, and has annual revenues of US$70 billion.

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.css-1m2rp1p{color:#34b8b5;}Outside In | Despite Donald Trump’s attack on the international postal system, he might be in for a nasty surprise in the mail next year

Outside In | Despite Donald Trump’s attack on the international postal system, he might be in for a nasty surprise in the mail next year