Posted on 07/26/2011 4:55:30 AM PDT by Libloather
Post office looking to close offices to save money
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID - Associated Press
AP – 7 hrs ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Postal Service is launching a study of thousands of local post offices for possible closure in an effort to save money.
The cash-strapped agency, which lost $8 billion last year, scheduled a briefing for Tuesday at which it is expected to announce the action.
Most of the approximately 3,600 offices that face reviews are in rural areas, but postal official say they are looking into alternate service, such as locating offices in local businesses, town halls or community centers.
In those cases the so-called Village Post Office would replace one to be closed.
And coming under review doesn't necessarily mean an office will close. The post office announced in January it was reviewing 1,400 offices for closing. So far 280 have been closed and 200 have finished the review process and will remain open.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I thought they did this a couple of months ago
Was not the alleged efficiency of the US Postal Office
the reason American medicine was hijacked by the DNC
into deathpanel laden and racist ObamaCARE?
There are some under review in my area. These are very small rural offices that will likely be consolidated into nearby larger town POs. The routes won’t be eliminated, just the offices (and Postmaster/clerk).
cut ‘em loose...entirely!
It is ongoing.
How about closing the letter-carrier’s UNION, instead?
As one blog put it: Congress in 2006 passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which granted more authority to the Postal Regulatory Commission, comprising five appointed members, and an Office of Inspector General; altered the rate-setting structure for certain mail categories; and mandated that the Postal Service prefund its retiree health benefits plans at more than $5 billion annually. Absent that requirement, USPS would be in the black.
Postal service is Constitutionally mandated.
I guess I don’t understand.
They announced in Jan. they were doing this and now they’re announcing it again? Why do they need 2 announcements? Just do it.
one of the doors at my post office has not been working for over a month.
i’m watching to see how long it takes them to repair it.
a capitalist business would call up a repair shop immediately and get the job done.
not the socialist usps.
meanwhile, the a/c’s cranked up for the comfort of the union. the post office is only 2 miles from the ocean and the climate is sublime.
then, there’s the pool of water next to the building that is killing the landscaping. the automatic sprinklers over water the sloping landscape.
then, there’s the unionized “workforce” inside the building.
They might want to speed up the review process a bit.
I was wondering about the routes. When I heard this on the radio today, I immediately thought of a couple offices in my area that used to serve independent rural communities, which are basically suburbs now. Didn’t understand why they still had full-function post offices.
The service improvement for this change has been estimated to be as great as 1.5 days faster from point of origin to the destination customer.
The existing rural system actually gets in the way of providing high quality service.
NOTE: With the arrival of the 9 digit ZIP Code there was no longer a need to change anyone's post office address!
I'm having some difficulty with figuring out why today's postal management is so dissinterested in cutting costs. Is there some rural Senator or Congressman on one of the relevant committees calling the shots here? Or, maybe the Postmaster General has his own personal interest at stake?
It's worth looking into because that's the sort of thing that's always stopped wholesale closures in the past.
If he doesn't repair the door and its left to USPS to do so, they will take the cost out of the rent.
Eventually, when maintenance costs rise high enough, and USPS needs more money for repairs than they would ever pay in rent, they have options ~ (1) Seize the building, (2) Move somewhere else, (3) Drag the landlord through the courts almost eternally.
Sounds like the landlord best get that door repaired.
It sounds like the January announcement was a review of 1400 offices, this time it is a review of over 3000 different offices. And of course, the PO moves at the speed of the government. LOL.
The quality of our service has deteriorated significantly in recent years. Between the slow as molasses counter help and the carrier who mangles our mail, I’ve not been very happy with them lately.
On my local news, they said that out of the 1400, 200+ have been closed and another 200+ have been reveiwed. Moving fast to get those reviews done, aren’t they?
You assume the landlord knows of the problem.
I attended a postal conference about 12 years ago and this very topic was discussed at length. The PMG at the time stated that the USPS has turned into a benefits management organization and no longer focuses on innovation which is why FedEx and UPS would best them in 20 years. Meaning, they exist to service the employees and retiree benefits and not the end-user.
Now they must reduce the services even further to make sure that Mr Retiree gets his Viagara and retirement pay for the next 20 years.
I don’t fault the people that work there, I fault Congress and the gubmint for allowing this to happen.
If you love what the nameless, faceless bureaucrats did to the post office, you’ll love what they do to healthcare.
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