A contributing factor to the losses of the USPS

[rz]

Same thing in the airline industry. I live in Orlando, and took a trip to Pensacola, which is in the same state. For the flight up, I had to fly to Atlanta. It's a little out of the way, but not too bad. But for the flight back, I had to fly through Dallas... which is 4 states away in the opposite direction. On that airline, it was the only option (unless I wanted to wait until 6am the next morning and fly through Atlanta). Other airlines had direct service, but it cost more than twice what it was to fly through Dallas.

When you're dealing in the kind of volume that USPS or the airline industry deals in, it actually saves money to standardize on things that might not make sense.