USPS To Cut Saturday Delivery

Heres the Article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...8878762.html



WASHINGTON—The U.S. Postal Service plans to end Saturday delivery as part of a strategy to halt losses at an agency that hemorrhaged $15.9 billion in its most recent fiscal year.

The Postal Service is set to stop Saturday mail delivery to homes and businesses on Aug. 1 but will continue to deliver packages that day, a spokesman said Wednesday. Post-office boxes would continue to receive mail on Saturdays. Postal officials are scheduled to announce a broad cost-cutting plan later Wednesday.

Many American rely on Saturday mail to receive such items as newspapers, NetFlix movies and bills. Postal carriers pledge that "neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail" can stop deliveries.

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Ending Saturday delivery "would be particularly harmful to small businesses, rural communities, the elderly, the disabled and others who depend on Saturday delivery for commerce and communication," said Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, a union representing many mail carriers.

The plan to end Saturday delivery could meet resistance from members of Congress, and it is unclear of the agency can take the step without lawmaker approval. For many years, the annual appropriations bill has contained a rider that prevents the Postal Service from ending Saturday delivery.

Legislation in the Senate last year would have put a two-year moratorium on ending six-day delivery and called for additional study to be completed. The House never took up the bill.

The Postal Service, however, says there is broad support for the cost-saving move. The agency plans to point to a study showing that about seven in 10 Americans support the switch to five-day delivery.

"The American public understands the financial challenges of the Postal Service and supports these steps as a responsible and reasonable approach to improving our financial situation," Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe said in remarks prepared for Wednesday's announcement.

"The Postal Service has a responsibility to take the steps necessary to return to long-term financial stability and ensure the continued affordability of the U.S. Mail."

In other efforts to cut costs, the Postal Service has closed or consolidated dozens of mail-processing plants and relocated or cut hours at many post offices.

The annual loss for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 was the largest in Postal Service history. The loss in large part reflects a default on $11.1 billion in required retiree-health-benefit payments and the continued decline in first-class-mail volume.

The Postal Service is set to release results for October through December, typically its most profitable quarter, on Friday.

No surprise really.

I think postage rates are a joke here in the US. Given the size of the country it doesn't make sense you can mail a letter from New York to Hawaii for 46 cents. No reason they loose money.
Have a look at Europe. In the UK, the cheapest way to send a letter is by second class which costs 50p (approx. 80 cents). Okay, in the UK you can mail up to 100g for that, but who does - it still has to fit into a small envelope, otherwise the postage will be higher. Population density is much higher in the UK and the distances smaller, but postage is higher.
I can't see USPS introduce a tiered postage structure depending on distance as it would too confusing. But for them to break even, I guess postage would have to be double the current rate. I think the only things they make money with is priority mail, which often isn't fast than first class!
And for an even better comparison, have a look across the border to Canada. A 30g (1oz) letter costs 63c!

Totaly agree, there is really no surprise that this is going to happen.

The reality is who writes letters these days?...via e-mail your message can go from New York to Hawaii in seconds.A lot of companies that you use to remit payment to via mail is today done online. People still use the post for greeting cards, wedding invitations etc...but i'm certain a lot of folks out there rarely put pen to paper, then stamp to envelope. Saturday delivery discontinued in Canada ages go..i personally don't miss it. Unfortunately postal agencies will continue to cut services and raise rates in an attempt to add to their continuing shrinking revenue.

I'm not opposed to the idea, but what gets lost in the above news article is this quote:




Also not mentioned in the WSJ article, but is being reported on some other sites, is that the move will also suspend Saturday mail pickups from the blue mailboxes all over the country. In other words, if anyone deposits mail into a mailbox after 5 PM Friday, they should not expect it to be picked up until at least Monday AM. That's too long. Furthermore, if the mailboxes outside my own post office are any example, if I try to mail a piece on a weekend, the mailbox is so chuck full I have to force the piece into the mailbox, which means that some unscrupulous individuals would have no problem stealing mail from such receptacles as a result of such poor mail pickup practices by the USPS.

While I know it would be a Federal offense for anyone to do such a thing, it nevertheless does happen. Frankly, I would be more concerned about this component of the measure, as I'd rather be assured that my mail was being sent and delivered properly than I would about not receiving any of it on Saturdays.

I haven't seen a blue box in over a decade, until I moved, now I see them and I wouldn't use the ones near me. There's a reason for that, federal law or not.

Now, I would concur that Alaska and Hawaii gets a different rate, but I don't know how much mail goes there, to warrant the "confusion" of issuing a new stamp. Then we'll all complain about printing more stamps as well. Unless it is just a 20 cent surcharge.

There's lots the post office could do, and congress is at fault as well by forcing certain things to not even be allowed to be mailed to me anymore, or the PO not encouraging me to use everything else. However it seems they would like to be run like a city bus system, raise fares and make people wait more for less buses and then wonder why it doesn't work.

Anyway, did paperless billing, been there done that, never do that again. And I'm a young guy. But it's good for companies, charge me the same amount, spend less to bill me, and great for raising rates and fees for those who don't even look at the bills either. Must be a billing departments dream come true.

I think it is a sad satet of affairs that Congress can dictate to the USPO and have them pay at a rate for benefits that no other business in the US has to yet they contribute nothing to support the function. They get free mail by sugning their name as usual the bubble that surronds Washington DC is solidly intact.
Nick

The stop of Saturday delivery is only for Letters and First class mail. Packages will still have Saturday delivery and it's probably due to the Contract work between the USPS and UPS & Fed Ex.

How many of you have written to your Congressman or Senator? I have. I've promised to vote them out of office! I did it last year when the topic came up. If you don't like what's happen then...

IT IS TIME FOR ALL OF YOU OUT THERE TO STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT THE LOSS OF SERVICE ON FORUMS LIKE THIS -- YOU NEED TO COMPLAIN WHERE IT COUNTS -- YOUR SENATOR AND CONGRESSMAN.

THEY CAUSED THIS PROBLEM -- THEY NEED TO FIX IT -- OR GET SOMEONE WHO WILL - YOU NEED TO VOTE THEM OUT OF OFFICE.

Otherwise, no complaining... If you haven't voted -- you haven't earned the right to complain.

I'm all for it. One less day to receive junk mail and bills, which is practically the majority of my mail.

Bizarre as it sounds, I collect stamps (prior to 1970's) but shun the mail. I rarely even look at the mail anymore, maybe once a week. Maybe if there were actually some stamps on the mail and the stamps weren't ugly as sin, I'd be more interested. Sigh...

I have so much to write my congressman about, if I do all the letters that I would like to do I would probably personally support my own mail route.

I must say, it is a brilliant decision. I get mail on Saturdays, and since I'm in an apartment complex and I live by the boxes I see a lot of others do as well. Lower class area, folks wait for important stuff too.
Anyway, since people get mail, there's obviously volume and demand. So let's cut back. now with less days for service, people will be less inclined to use the mail or mail services or order things via the mail, ie Netflix for one massive example.
Now volume goes down further and we've created a death spiral. How long until one day a week service?

how about we fix the service..or dare I say it, revenue problems if any such existed, before shrinking demand by shrinking service??

Some of our federal agencies are the most efficient in the world, believe it or not, I have a hard time believing mail going through machines can be so financially burdensome.

Here's what I find rather humorous about the entire situation:



It's become so political that in less than a day, one postal service web site already has compiled this list of news reports on the situation, with US Senators and US Representatives at odds on whether the USPS can or should do it, and Letter Carrier Unions and common citizens chiming in with their take, with responses ranging from praise, to condemnation, to anger, to calls for the resignation of the Postmaster General.

I'm sure it is going to continue to make headlines for next several weeks or months, so stay tuned...

FYI Australia hasnt had Saturday mail delivery for years - Didnt seem to be a big problem at the time it was introduced but then again we do have a much smaller population base - But having said that "land mass" wise we are about the same with the USA

USPS just released a statement about this on their website: http://about.usps.com/news/national...pr13_019.htm

I wonder how Saturday "Package delivery" works. My zip code is mainly apartments.

Package delivery for me is the mail man putting a note in my mailbox telling me I have to go to the office to retrieve it.

If he's going to open the thing to give me the note, why not just give me my mail on the way? I'm really not going to check on Saturdays just to see if there is a note, thereby making my package wait till Monday either way.

Well, I think it's a bit more complicated than that. All the mail needs to be sorted in a sorting office first of all before the mailman gets it. This would happen during the early hours on a Saturday. If they don't deliver on Saturday, then there would be no need for doing the sorting. However, there will be more mail on Mondays which will inevitably lead to stuffed mailboxes, bent envelopes etc.