Postal Service to end Saturday mail delivery in bid to cut costs

FOXNEWS ^ | AP via FOX

[Doogle]

The U.S. Postal Service will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to deliver packages six days a week under a plan aimed at saving about $2 billion, the financially struggling agency says.

In an announcement scheduled for later Wednesday, the service is expected to say the Saturday mail cutback would begin in August.

The move accentuates one of the agency's strong points -- package delivery has increased by 14 percent since 2010, officials say, while the delivery of letters and other mail has declined with the increasing use of email and other Internet use.

[Doogle]

..bout time

[Doogle]

ping

[EQAndyBuzz]

Did they also stop paying postal workers for Saturday?

[DuncanWaring]

What they really need to do is get rid of 50% of all people associated with physical movement of the mail, and go to every-other-day delivery - half of all addresses get Monday-Wednesday-Friday delivery, the other half gets Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday delivery.

[txrefugee]

Certainly the overly generous pay of postal employees ought to be reduced by 1/6th when this reduction of service kicks in.

[F15Eagle]

You don’t know what powers you’re messing with!

So, just walk away ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hox-ni8geIw

[vetvetdoug]

Affirmative action for minorities is killing the USPS.

[1010RD]

Just open 1st Class mail delivery to free market competition. The law created the problem, undo the law.

[John W]

How dare you!

[sassy steel magnolia]

amazingly, the postal service workers have the best pay and benefits of all the federal employees! Their bloated benefits and employee numbers have brought about this dismal situation, along with poor competitive practices and outdated practices.

I’m ok w/ M-F mail delivery, and I can support some increase in mail cost BUT the postal service (employees, benefits, physical facilities, logistical framework, etc.) should be FULLY revamped. To use obummer’s favorite word, that would only be FAIR.

[1rudeboy]

LOL—Thank you, Mr. Sowell. /s

[justice14]

USPS is the perfect example of a horrible business model. Forever stamps? Union pay raises regardless of income? Genius.

[ilgipper]

I have thought that is the plan that makes most sense. It works for waste pickup. Surely it works for mail delivery. There is seldom something in the mail that can’t wait a day.

[Vision]

Well this sucks and probably doesn't address the real problem.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The Saturday WSJ is my weekend read.
I’ll miss it.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

Costs savings will be eaten up by more overtime on Mondays. They should cut out Tuesday delivery.

[SampleMan]

What they really need to do is get rid of 50% of all people associated with physical movement of the mail, and go to every-other-day delivery - half of all addresses get Monday-Wednesday-Friday delivery, the other half gets Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday delivery.

Concur, they would also be increasing their 1st rate mix. Bulk mail is not a money maker, it just helps offset costs, but by filling the bags, it also ensures that costs remain high. By decreasing to every other day, the USPS would be able to raise rates on bulk mail, accepting that some that business will just go away.

I just don't see the need for six day a week postal delivery.

[csmusaret]

Obama promised to do for healthcare what the Post Office has done for mail service.

[csmusaret]

Obama promised to do for healthcare what the Post Office has done for mail service.

[WVKayaker]

Well this sucks and probably doesn't address the real problem.

[Arrowhead1952]

Who will sign for registered mail if the recipient is working Mon - Fri? Unless the USPS treats them as packages instead of regular mail. Just a question.

[muawiyah]

Let me put it this way ~ it’s far more complex than that. Carrier time on the street is about 75% of carrier costs. Cutting street time in half doesn’t cut total carrier costs in half.

[deport]

half of all addresses get Monday-Wednesday-Friday delivery, the other half gets Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday delivery.

*************

I’ve agreed with that approach for a long time for residential delivery. However some commercial may need 6 day service but that wouldn’t be a large percent of them.

[edcoil]

They have not stopped paying for employees that stopped working 10 years ago.

[muawiyah]

Why? If you get paid for 5 days of work and the company shuts down for 2 days a week, why would they cut your pay?

[muawiyah]

minority employment today is about 25% of the work force and it was about 25% of the work force 50 years ago.

I think it's due to the feminization of the work force

[muawiyah]

Best pay? Your typical NIH guy makes possibly 5 Times as much as the average postal worker.

You can look up federal pay and postal pay on the internet and compare them.

[eartrumpet]

I once lived where we had the mail delivered twice a week. If you expected something important, you drove to the post office in the town of less than 90 and asked if it came. I never felt shorted.

[GeronL]

Probably will end up costing more

[upchuck]

Who will sign for registered mail if the recipient is working Mon - Fri?

Same way it works now. They leave a note in your mailbox that you have registered mail and you go to the Post Office to get it. If you go read the article, it states that POs will continue to be open on Saturday.

[Doogle]

no doubt......

[Lion Den Dan]

If you expected something important, you drove to the post office in the town of less than 90 and asked if it came. I never felt shorted. You might if it was an 80 mile round trip.

[pgkdan]

Who will sign for registered mail if the recipient is working Mon - Fri?

You will, when you drive to the post office to pick it up. They'll leave you a little green post card alerting you to the fact that you have mail at the p.o. Just like they currently do.

[pgkdan]

Who will sign for registered mail if the recipient is working Mon - Fri?

You will, when you drive to the post office to pick it up. They'll leave you a little green post card alerting you to the fact that you have mail at the p.o. Just like they currently do.

[Doogle]

most likely you’ll probably see it later in the day...or make arrangements with alternative drop off.

[upchuck]

Two more grafs from the article:

The agency in November reported an annual loss of a record $15.9 billion for the last budget year and forecast more red ink in 2013, capping a tumultuous year in which it was forced to default on billions in retiree health benefit prepayments to avert bankruptcy.

The agency's biggest problem — and the majority of the red ink in 2012 — was not due to reduced mail flow but rather to mounting mandatory costs for future retiree health benefits, which made up $11.1 billion of the losses. Without that and other related labor expenses, the mail agency sustained an operating loss of $2.4 billion, lower than the previous year.

Frigging unions. Although management knew very well what they were getting into.

[pgkdan]

Most people won’t even notice. I have one elderly aunt with whom I maintain a written correspondence. In addition to that my wife and I send and receive birthday cards and Christmas cards. The rest of the mail is bills (5%) and garbage (95%).

[count-your-change]

I’d be happy to have dependable week day delivery.

[DAC21]

“minority employment today is about 25% of the work force”

Maybe in Kansas, no way, no how in every post office I have been to in Califoirnia.

[Celtic Conservative]

Contract it out to FedEx, it'll run twice as efficiently for half as much.

My .02

CC

[DAC21]

The post office raised internation package rates by about 40% on Jan, 28th.(especially so for packages under 1 lb) I must thank them for devestating by primary income mail order business.

[muawiyah]

Ever been to a post office in North Dakota?

[Opinionated Blowhard]

This is fine as a cost-cutting measure but other posters are right that the real issue is that postal workers get pay and benefits that are much more generous than they should get based on a comparison to other workers who do comparable jobs.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Just open 1st Class mail delivery to free market competition. The law created the problem, undo the law.

A plan so crazy, it just might work. ;-)

[muawiyah]

FedEx rates are higher. BTW, FedEx drops the pieces it just can’t deliver to in the mail ~ but you knew that, right?

[muawiyah]

And who would those workers be?

[muawiyah]

BTW, the Department of Education which teaches no one anything at all COSTS MORE than the entire USPS ~ and it's 100% subsidized by taxpayers. USPS isn't subsidized.

You'll get more support for government cost cutting by going after the Department of Education,

[Doogle]

..several years ago I tried to stop the delivery of a local “free” rag. Tiny little newspaper with mostly ads, but very liberal commentary. I was told they could not stop it from being delivered...it was paid for...
So I Started bundling it, tied nicely, and started to drop off the bundles on the steps of the newspaper office building with a note saying stop sending me junk mail....*smiles* of course no address was involved and I only told one friend. I then started sending “free” rose flower seeds to the editor’s house along with everything “free” pre-paid cards I could find in magazines.....

[Celtic Conservative]

I do now (looking away, embarassed)

CC

[DuncanWaring]

May not cut it in half, but it takes a big chunk out of it.

Doubles the life-expectancy of the current vehicle fleet, too.