Posted on 10/01/2021 10:51:19 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
The United States Postal Service projects that it will have a $160 billion loss over the coming decade, so it needs to boost revenue and cut costs.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy thinks he has the answer: offer slower service.
That's right, DeJoy's blueprint for making the USPS solvent includes cutting costs by slowing mail delivery for millions of Americans coupled with hoped-for increased revenues from postage rate hikes, CBS News reported.
However, critics have been quick to point out that this will likely discourage people from using the Post Office.
What's happening? Starting Friday, DeJoy said, the postal service will officially begin slowing down mail delivery. According to CBS News, the USPS' three-day delivery for first-class mail, which includes letters, bills, and tax documents, will drop to five days. That means customers can expect their bills, letters, and other mail to take up to a business week to get delivered. The agency did say, though that it was keeping its two-day delivery for first-class mail traveling within a local area.
A USPS spokeswoman said in an email to CBS News, "The postal service has shown steady improvements for all first-class mail, marketing and periodical mail categories over the last seven months. We have worked tirelessly to overcome challenges from recent storms and continue to recruit thousands of employees for the upcoming holiday peak season."
But critics are not buying the positive spin and say the plan to slow the mail will only hurt the USPS.
Postal service expert and Lexington Institute senior fellow Paul Steidler told CBS News that the new plan is "disastrous" and "means mail delivery will be slower than in the 1970s."
He also pointed out that it will be the elderly, disabled, and rural people who will be most impacted by the new, slower delivery standards.
"It's the least fortunate who will be hurt hardest by this," he said. "Everything in American society is getting faster, it seems, except for the mail delivery — which is now going to get slower."
The intentional slowdown of bills, checks, and important documents, combined with postage hikes that were implemented in August, will probably make Americans less likely to use the USPS, experts said. From CBS News:
It's possible that people who are paying their bills by mail and not prepared for the change could incur late fees, for instance, if their checks don't arrive on time. Others may face longer delivery times for important documents such as tax forms or passports. The change could further undermine customers' faith in the U.S. Postal Service, which took a hit in 2020 when delivery delays snarled everything from prescription medication to election ballots, experts say. Even the federal Postal Regulatory Commission, which oversees the USPS, doubted whether the plan to slow down delivery would save the agency money, CBS News said.
But the PRC refused earlier this year to reject the USPS' plan after 21 state attorneys general asked them to, calling the plan a "misguided effort" that would negatively impact election mail and essential documents and "disproportionately impact elderly and rural residents, as well as individuals with disabilities."
Image source: CBS News video screenshot Steidler emphasized his warning against the new plan in a statement to CBS News.
"When you reduce standards you perpetuate a vicious downward cycle," he said. "You tell people you can take your time delivering it. It causes people to lose confidence in the mail."
Dropping Saturday delivery would save a bunch, and eliminate the nutty shifts (swing men, etc).
Stop delivering 1.6 billion tons of junk mail daily.
The mail will disappear like absentee ballots did.
Can it actually be any slower?
Whoa... great idea. You are in the hole, mostly because you are slow and irrelevant, so slow down your service even more. That’s gonna really pack people in!
Ridiculous. I’ll bet if President Trump was currently in the White House (where he *should* be), he’d fix this mess in a heartbeat.
They went broke shipping all those fake ballots.
Good.
However, having six-day mail might save the postal service some of the costs and headaches of absenteeism. I’m not sure how it works now, but some years back, I was acquainted with a letter carrier and learned that they had a “traveling” day off. It moved a day from week to week, until after so many weeks, they would have off Saturday and the following Monday as well as the Sunday in between, for a three-day weekend. And that schedule made it easy for them to schedule any sort of appointment they might need to during one of their regularly scheduled days off during the week (they also had a regular person who filled in for them doing their route on their day off). If that’s still how things are done, then eliminating Saturday service could create other problems.
Resolve budget issues with higher costs and less customer service. Only the FedGov. Funny. Walking the trash form the “box”;to the house is so difficult. Y
Trump handpicked Dejoy
He picked the guy doing this.
They probably copied their tactic from FedEx. Yeah, that’s how you get people to use your service and make money, turn next day air into 4th day air, frequently lose packages, and treat your customers like total garbage. USPS and FedEx are the perfect example of what not to do.
Put Scott Walker (Wisconsin) in charge, he’d fix the place.
bookmark
they need to cut the number of employees and go with more part time....THEN they can cut hrs......
Haha an email . . .priceless!
USPS must continue to adapt and improvise.
Unless something changed in recent years, USPS is self-funding via counter sales — not taxation. But, Congress forces USPS to fund pensions 15 years in advance.
The projected losses should be easy to correct.
I’ve never noticed an overstaffed Post Office.
USPS should be given more control over the pension requirements.
its frustrating
they complained they were losing money because fedex and ups were taking too much of their business
now that more people are using them they are losing money because they have more paxkages to deliver
give em more of what they say they need, they still lose money
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