In the midst of its busiest season, the financially troubled U.S. Postal Service has decided to delay changes that would have been tantamount to suicide. That is good news for consumers and for businesses that would have been slammed by plans to end next-day delivery of first-class mail and put the brakes on other services as well. Now postal executives and lawmakers must use the time to come up with realistic reorganization plans.

This month, the Postal Service announced it would lay off nearly 30,000 workers and close more than 250 processing centers to cut $3 billion from next year’s budget and stave off bankruptcy. That would have triggered service delays that would have driven customers to find other options.

On Capitol Hill, where efforts to help the agency map its future are proceeding at snail-mail pace, legislators have applauded the moratorium. Yet many of these same lawmakers have impeded the Postal Service’s search for solutions by denying the self-sustaining agency … the ability to remake itself and compete.

Lawmakers should give the Postal Service a fighting chance. That could include a fresh look at onerous pension contribution requirements that the Postal Service complains have catapulted it toward insolvency.

A new study from England rates the U.S. Postal Service first among its peers in the world’s 20 largest economies for access, efficiency and trust. The challenge is to preserve those outcomes amid heightened competition.

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer