U.S. Postal Service pushes to cut Saturday mail delivery early next year
U.S. Postal Service pushes to cut Saturday mail delivery early next year
The proposal, which would save $5.1 billion annually by 2020, would eliminate the equivalent of 49,000 full- and part-time jobs.
Miguel Maldonado, a 20-year employee of the U.S. Postal Service, walks his route in Van Nuys. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times) |
March 29, 2010 | 11:27 a.m.
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"Given the fact that we're facing such a huge deficit, we'd like to move as quickly as possible," Postmaster General John E. Potter told a news conference.
Faced with a projected $238-billion deficit over the next decade, the Postal Service board of governors approved the cuts last week and ordered Potter to submit the proposal to the Postal Regulatory Commission on Tuesday. In addition to cutting one day a week from the delivery schedule, the proposal would eliminate the equivalent of 49,000 full- and part-time jobs.
Officials said the changes would save the Postal Service a forecasted $3.3 billion in the first year and about $5.1 billion annually by 2020.
Under the plan, letter carriers would stop street deliveries to U.S. homes and businesses and pickups from blue collection boxes on Saturdays. Mail would continue to be accepted at post offices Saturday, to be processed Monday. Express mail and remittance mail services would continue seven days a week.
If approved by the Congress and the regulatory commission, officials said they hoped to implement this plan by the first half of 2011. Congress currently mandates delivery to all U.S. addresses six days a week.
Potter said the Postal Service would eliminate about 26,000 positions through employee attrition and lay off 13,000 part-time workers, most of whom carry the mail once a week as substitutes. He said the high attrition rates are only possible because the average age of letter carriers is 53 and most have pension arrangements that would allow them to retire at 55. About 10,000 carriers retire each year, Potter said.
Potters said the changes were made necessary by citing continuing drops in mail volume. American mailboxes currently receive an average of four pieces of mail each day, but this is projected to be reduced to three pieces by 2020. Current daily revenue generated by each delivery is $1.40 but will slide to about $1 per delivery in 2020.
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times
We have a post office next door to my job. One of my most regular and favorite customers who comes in daily is the clerk there where she has worked almost 30 years. I asked her about this just last week and she said it is being discussed and may happen but it's not for sure and wouldn't be for a while before it does happen.
Personally I don't really care. I could live with getting my mail only 5 days a week being that i only check it once or twice a week anyways but i hate to think of the jobs lost which is what my friend from the post office said would most definitely would happen.
She said they would start with the old timers like her and offer them early retirement packages in which some loss would be taken but she is fine with it.
It's just a sign of the times and with e-mail and so many people paying bills online, the mail volume has decreased significantly. My mom retired in '99, after 32 yrs. as a mail carrier. A lot of the volume of mail are circulars and advertisements to make up for the decrease. Personally, I can't stand going through all that "junk mail" to get to the important stuff. It's a waste of time and just fills up the trash. I hate it that so many are going to lose their jobs, but won't mind having my mail delivered only 5 days/week.
Mystery Deepens~
- joci2203
on Mar. 29, 2010 at 7:48 PM