The Postal Service has released an industry survey regarding a reduction of mail delivery to five days:
Despite very aggressive cost cutting, the Postal Service is projecting financial losses for this and the next several years. This is due to a significant decline in mail volume and a major requirement to prefund its retirees health benefits. The Postal Service is committed to fulfilling its fundamental role as a deliverer of mail and packages to all Americans. To accomplish this, the Postal Service is developing a plan to transition from six- to five-day delivery on a national basis. This will remove delivery costs and help bring the financial picture into better balance. The alternative would be large price increases.
The survey is available here and takes about 5 minutes to complete.
The Postal Service is considering no delivery or mail collection to homes and businesses on Saturday, while maintaing PO Box delivery, and delivery of Express Mail on Saturday and Sunday.
Discussion
By Tom Harris on Sep 02, 2009
Disagree with dropping Saturday delivery. Customers get advertising mail on a day that most are off of work and have time to read. If a day has to be dropped to reduce USPS costs, make it mid-week or not at all.
By brian on Sep 02, 2009
I read another report that they were talking about Tuesday as the dropped delivery day.
By Tom on Sep 03, 2009
Our customers often request their mailings get dropped to avoid Saturday's mail with a concern it will be less noticed on the weekend.
The consumer is also flooded with newspaper advertising inserts in weekend newspapers, so would make sense for mail to not compete on the weekend.
By Larry on Sep 03, 2009
I am a postal employee and I realize that reduction to a 5 day delivery would result in the loss of many jobs for swing carriers and rca's. However fiscally I think it would be a good thing. It might just end the down spiral that the Postal Service is in.
By Mike Creason on Sep 04, 2009
Dropping a day of delivery want save the postal service. Making it easier to keep up with changing postal regulations would do more to keep customers and mail volume up.
By Wayne on Sep 07, 2009
What Government agency makes money? The USPS has been Making money most of its existence. From what I see to much fat at the top. The usps needs carriers right now but if I were in charge I would delete carriers and give every body a free PO box For free p/u 24 hrs a day. I am also a ptf letter carrier fo 3 years. It has been brutal working not knowing when u will get a dayoff to have a quality of life with family. At this point 5 day work week sounds good. But if I loose my job its a gamble I am willing to accept.
By D Fowler on Sep 07, 2009
Going to 5 day delivery makes a lot of sense. One proposal was to start laying off employees and that would not be good for a lot of families. The best day to cut would be Saturday because a lot of businesses are not open, a lot receive checks in the mail. Advertising mail will be delivered during the week.
By kevin on Sep 07, 2009
I really hope the post office has the guts to do what needs to be done and cut saturday deliveries just do it. 24yr vetran kevin
By George on Sep 09, 2009
Saturdays and Monday should be the non-delivery day. The usps would not go for Monday because they already get Memorial Day, Columbus Day, Labor Day, MLK Day etc etc.
Make it Monday, no delivery, no paid holidays like the rest of us.
Saturday is usually the delivery day that many government agencies send out "bad new" letter, so that if you get this letter on Saturday, you've got no one to call until the next week.
Friend of the Court uses this Saturday Delivery.
Then pick one more day off, and layoff half the carriers, and divide the routes.
By Julie on Sep 12, 2009
It would make sense to go to a five day work week. Most businesses are closed, residents don't care and the amount of sick calls would be greatly reduced if we all had the weekend off. Look it up- most sick calls by carriiers are on Friday or Saturday so they can have the weekend off and have a life. We roll the mail on Monday anyways, so whats one more day off?
By Craig on Sep 14, 2009
I have been a letter carrier for over 30 years. The postal service needs to go to a 5 day work week and Sat. needs to be that day. I have never seen the mail this light. When I put the mail in the mail boxes on Mon. the customers mail is still in there from Sat. It's mostly 3rd class. About 30 thousand employes will loose there jobs. That is better then 700,000 employes. I hear it could be next March.
By Audrey on Sep 17, 2009
I have been a letter carrier for 14 yrs. This is the lightest volume of mail I have ever seen. At my office we have just lost a wed. & sat. shopper. OUCH! I know Milwaukee gets the ADVO (a.k.a. marriage mail) every week. We get a weekly shopper on Tuesdays. From Wed. to Sat. volume is light. We took streets off one route to keep the remaing 4 routes at 8 hrs. I believe that if we were to go to a 5 day week, mailers would adjust to the change. So would billers, prescrpition mailers, retirement, ect.
"You can please all the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never please all the people all of the time". Author unknown
By Gary on Sep 27, 2009
We do not need to go to a 5 day week delivery. We need to put an end to all of the bonuses that management gets for not even touching the mail.
Discussion
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