Breaking News: USPS Will Continue Saturday Mail Delivery

The USPS Board of Governors has directed the US Postal Service to continue its Saturday Mail Delivery (for now, anyway):

http://about.usps.com/news/national...tatement.htm

Interesting that the USPS tried to implement a new national delivery schedule without getting the authority {they should have known?} they needed.


-IBFS

Ours never stopped! But cool!

It was not to end until some time in August. I think it would have been a good thing to deliver only packages on Saturday. Wonder what the public opinion was on this.

Public Opinion on the matter varied depending on who was doing the surveys. The USPS reported something like 75% of the US public was in support of ending Saturday mail delivery, but the Postal Unions and Greeting Card Companies and Pharmaceutical Companies and Newspapers ... all of whom have a vested interest in continuing with Saturday mail delivery ... put the survey results much, much lower.

Personally, with the little mail I receive, I could have easily lived without Saturday mail delivery, but I can see the concerns of those who protested against it, too.

I think the real piece of information that was missing in this puzzle was the USPS's claim of the $2 billion savings by eliminating Saturday mail. Several organizations and government groups were asking the USPS to support that number and no one from the USPS came forward with justifying that number, which speaks volumes for how inflated those numbers probably were as compared to realistic figures.

Then when the idea came to only delivering packages on Saturday (and not general mail) the claims eroded even further, as there is no way that the USPS could have continued Saturday delivery of packages, since staff and vehicle expense would still be there, while still claiming the previously announced cost savings for eliminating Saturday mail.

The real bottom line seems to be the fact that the USPS doesn't want to antagonize the US Congress right now if they are soon to consider a means to review the entire financial future of the USPS organization as a whole.

Why does the USPS continue to be subject to government intervention? If Nixon was going to privatize them, he should have completely privatized them.

Right now they're expected to be fiscally viable, but they still have to answer to the government for every little thing they try and do.

Either privatize them, or make them part of the government again. This in-between thing doesn't work during a crisis like this.

This.

Between the mandated benefit prefunding (that none of USPS's competitors are subject to) and the union contracts and work restrictions that need to be voided, combined with nanny Congress, the USPS is hamstrung.

The USPS tries to remedy the shortfall by cutting back delivery (note: only *DELIVERY*... post offices would still have been open 6 days and PO boxes would still have gotten 6-day delivery), and Congress gets into a snit.

If I were the Postmaster General I'd throw my hands up and say to Congress "Fine. We have no choice. USPS is filing for bankruptcy. You idiots fix it."

Frankly, I would have been perfectly ok with home delivery 5 days a week.

Don't you love the way they say " We're not going to bail you out, but at the same time you must become fiscally solvent without changing anything you currently do."

And in reality, they haven't given them any kind of bailout. The USPS has just missed the last few prepayments on benefits/pension. Considering Congress mandates they prepay 70 years in advance, I think that just means they're now only 69 years ahead of every other government agency.

I think the real money now is in shipping packages, not first class letters. If the USPS could do 2 day delivery, and land most major online retailers like Amazon through lower prices, they could generate some serious revenue.