The U.S. Postal Service, struggling to cut costs and conserve cash, said Thursday it wants to end overnight delivery of letters and postcards and will study about 250 processing sites for possible closure.
The agency, which lost more than $3 billion last quarter, has said it must downsize drastically or will be forced to stop delivering mail by the end of next summer. Overseen by Congress and a regulator, it funds its services with postal-related revenue and does not get any taxpayer dollars.
Delivering First Class mail in two to three days instead of one to three days could save about $3 billion by 2015, the agency said. The change would allow it to close facilities, cut back on overnight work and eliminate about 35,000 jobs.
“Our entire network was designed based on a requirement that we maintain the capability to deliver First Class mail the next business day,” said chief operations officer Megan Brennan.
“This has enormous implications for the way we process mail … and it’s why we currently maintain so many mail processing locations,” she said. “Our plan is to rebuild our network based on a two- to three-day standard for First Class mail.”
The Postal Service has struggled to offset falling mail volumes as consumers correspond by email and pay bills online. Personnel costs for its half a million employees are among the factors driving the agency out of business.
In June, the agency stopped making biweekly payments into a retirement fund and, in July, it said it was considering more than 3,600 post offices for potential closure. It also wants to stop Saturday delivery to save cash.
While the agency has some ability to consolidate and cut costs, officials are relying on Congress for serious structural reforms. The Postal Service said Thursday’s proposal would not require congressional approval but it would still need broader changes to get on a path toward financial health.
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5 Responses
Actually under the plan you could still get next day delivery – but your would have to pay for Express mail (it isn’t clear how “Priority” fits into the system).
Of course, if you want something to get to someone right away, you often can email them (suggesting that if a big chunk of the frum community wants to boycott the interent, we’ll need our own postal system at some point, or at least our own intranet).
Akuperma- priority mail is first-class mail for larger packages. USPS Express Mail is often late as it is.
Priority mail is higher than first-class mail with a guarantee of two day delivery, and costs about $5 for a large envelope, and more for packages. They are deliverd by the regular home delivery.
Express mail has a guarantee of next day delivery (by close of business), and costs about $20 for an envelope, and more for larger packages. They usually involve a special delivery, though not always.
Message to the USPS. If you eliminate all service, your cost go down to zero.
The problem – so does your revenue.
The only way to make money is to provide better service. If you downgrade your service, we customers will find another service to use (ie UPS, FEDEX, private courier). An example is in some frum comunities, the local papers which used to be sent by mail are being delivered by private service.
If you still pay bills by mail you’ll have to remember to mail them earlier to get there on time, and also remember to send out your birthday and anniversary cards earlier.