The U.S. Postal Service will move this month toward reducing mail delivery from six days a week to five, a change Postmaster General John Potter has said is critical to reducing its massive debt.
Potter said Monday he’ll submit a formal request by the end of this month to the Postal Regulatory Commission, which must issue an advisory opinion on any change in mail service that would have national impact.
“We know we’re going to have less mail in 2020 than we have today,” Potter says. “We can’t freeze wages. We can’t freeze fuel costs.”
Once Potter makes the request, the Postal Regulatory Commission will hold public hearings in Washington and around the USA and seek expert testimony, Commission Chairwoman Ruth Goldway said.
“The Postal Service is an enormous organization. This change in service that they’re proposing is a very complex and significant change,” Goldway said. “The Postal Service is an essential part of the country’s infrastructure, so you don’t want to change it willy-nilly.”
Even if the independent commission approves the dropped day, the Postal Service also needs congressional consent. Federal law requires six-day delivery.
Potter raised the issue last year in testimony before a House oversight subcommittee. Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., chairman of the subcommittee that oversees the Postal Service, said then that other cost-saving measures should be considered before cutting delivery.
As more people communicate and pay their bills online, Postal Service projections show Americans in the next decade will send significantly less mail than they do now, reducing revenue while labor and fuel costs increase. Potter will release the details today of a $4.8 million study that projects how steeply mail volume will fall and how deeply the Postal Service will be in debt by 2020. The Postal Service delivered about 177 billion pieces of mail in 2009.
The Postal Service has already borrowed $10 billion from the U.S. Treasury. Potter says it expects to borrow another $3 billion this year, leaving it just $2 billion under the $15 billion cap set by Congress.
Potter also will ask the regulatory commission to reconsider requiring the Postal Service to set aside money for future retiree health care benefits.
The commission is concluding hearings on a Postal Service proposal submitted in July to close and consolidate 154 post offices throughout the USA, Goldway said. The commission expects to issue its advisory opinion in the next two weeks.
“The Postal Service is nervous about its financial conditions and is making a lot of broad proposals,” she said. “Some of the proposals, when they see the light of day may be very worthwhile.”
(Source: http://www.usatoday.com/)
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10 Responses
B’H. While the American government is moving towards greater Kavod Shabbos, the zionist government keeps moving in the other direction.
The extra day off will not be shabbos, it will be Wednesday
the mail is not slow enough, yet
I’m fully for it so long as the the day off is shabbos. most people are norm interested in their mail during business days rather than other days. shabbos is a good choice for all.
And this will make all post office employees Shomer Shabbos?
Oh well, ice deliveries were cut off in Boro Park years ago. The blacksmiths all closed. The typewriter repairman found other things to fix. Do you remember when the phone was any color you wanted as long as it was black, with a dial, and fixed to the wall? They used to deliver mail twice a day, and seven days a week (of course, before that, you had to go to the post office to get your mail – home deliver started relatively recently). Newspapers and magazines are probably dying as people prefer cheaper and faster methods of delivery (and how many people still subscribe to a daily newspaper delivered by post?).
Most mail these days is junk mail, and why should we use tax dollars to subsidize advertising? Other companies can do package deliveries without a subsidy. Important documents are sent by Priority or Express mail at a much higher fee. Routine mail is usually sent via the internet. So do we really need the postal service in the 21st century(and do we really want to pay higher taxes from the privilege)?
Did they really need to spend $4.8 million on a study that would show how much more debt they’d have in 10 years?
Canada has had no regular mail delivery on Saturdays and Sundays for 25-30 years. They haven’t suffered from that at all. Better than raising stamps through the roof!!
in my neighborhood, five days is all we get in actual delivery – on a good week!
theres no1 in Canada! u cant bring proof to the usa from a so-called “country” like Canada! 🙂