via engadget:
The United States Postal Service is reportedly retiring mail sorting machines. According to Postmaster general Louis DeJoy, the agency is in a “dire” financial situation, citing significant falls in mail volume, “a broken business model” and an inadequate management strategy as reasons for the “impending liquidity crisis.” Dejoy has been implementing changes since assuming the role in June, including organizational restructuring and a management hiring freeze, saying they’re meant to “strengthen the Postal Service.”
But there appear to be moves that he might have left out. Vice is reporting that the USPS is also retiring mail sorting machines around the country “without any official explanation or reason given.” The office of the USPS Inspector General and its media representatives have yet to respond to Engadget’s requests for confirmation.
According to internal documents obtained by Vice’s technology site Motherboard, close to 15 percent of the organization’s machines will be taken out of service. That’s a total of 502 machines around the country, and USPS workers Motherboard spoke with said the move would “slow their ability to sort mail.” An earlier report by CNN noted that the agency had begun removing these machines in June, and that it had initially intended to retire 671 machines instead of 502.
Motherboard added that the USPS presentation it obtained described this as an “equipment reduction,” rather than “mov[ing] equipment around its network” as a spokesperson had earlier said.
THE MANUFACTURED HYSTERIA OVER MAIL DELIVERY.
Related: Mailboxes disappearing as usage drops off.
—The San Francisco Chronicle, August 31st, 2011.
They can’t vote in person, you see, because they can’t stand around in crowded places t.co/BpakM6rSwh
— Leon Wolf (@LeonHWolf) August 16, 2020
h/t Ed