How Would You Fix the Post Office?

When you think of how well the government could run healthcare, do lunch breaks killed in Post Office queues pop into your head? Even President Obama trashes on the country's mailmen.
The United States Postal Service is facing the greatest crisis of confidence in its history. It's set to lose seven billion dollars this year and the Government Accountability Office now lists it as a "high risk" federal agency. Higher stamp prices and lower benefit levels for its workforce might not bring the Post back into the black. That newfangled communication innovation called email just isn't going away.

So to all the turnaround experts out there, I'd like to hear your proposals for fixing the Post. Here are a few solutions I've found to get the conversation started.

• Cut costs by shuttering Saturday service and closing up to 1000 branches nationwide.
• Open up the delivery of third-class mail to private organizations so that the Post can focus on the First-Class category.
• Design "green routes" where letter carriers forgo the use of vehicles and walk out from their local post office to deliver the mail.
• Generating more revenue from Post facilities by handling other services such as driver's license renewals.
• Privatize the Post as former U.S. postmaster general William Henderson has argued.