Posted on 02/06/2013 7:47:33 AM PST by re_tail20
Apparently trying an end-run around an unaccommodating Congress, the financially struggling U.S. Postal Service says it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to disburse packages six days a week. In an announcement scheduled for later Wednesday, the service is expected to say the Saturday mail cutback would begin in August and could save $2 billion annually.
The move accentuates one of the agency's strong points — package delivery has increased by 14 percent since 2010, officials say, while the delivery of letters and other mail has declined with the increasing use of email and other Internet services.
Under the new plan, mail would be delivered to homes and businesses only from Monday through Friday, but would still be delivered to post office boxes on Saturdays. Post offices now open on Saturdays would remain open on Saturdays.
Over the past several years, the Postal Service has advocated shifting to a five-day delivery schedule for mail and packages — and it repeatedly but unsuccessfully appealed to Congress to approve the move. Though an independent agency, the service gets no tax dollars for its day-to-day operations but is subject to congressional control.
It was not immediately clear how the service could eliminate Saturday mail without congressional approval.
But the agency clearly thinks it has a majority of the American public on its side regarding the change.
Material prepared for the Wednesday press conference by Patrick R. Donahoe, postmaster general and CEO, says Postal Service market research and other research has indicated that nearly 7 in 10 Americans support the switch to five-day delivery as a way for the Postal Service to reduce costs.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
And over time goes up m-f,the feds need to sell it along with Amtrak.
If they remove the Saturday delivery then they damn well better work all the ancillary holidays they used to get off like MLK day and Columbus day etc...
Private companies have to work those days, the USPS should work them as well if they are now getting Saturdays off.
Funny thing is the postal service is IN the constitution...
The libs will scream like stuck pigs and cite the constitution as justification for keeping the USPS around, but the document is outdated when it comes to gun rights....
Based on their decline in business volume, they need to go to a 3 day a week schedule, MWF.
And if one of those 3 days falls on a holiday, add the Saturday of that week.
My son is away at basic training. Hand written letters are our only method of communication for the next several weeks. There are quite a few of us waiting to hear from our young men. :)
At this point you could do away with the US mail entirely and I’m not sure my life would fundamentally change once everyone had 6 months to adjust. The junk mail will not be missed of course. Packages come via UPS or Fedex. There are a few bills that are not electronically delivered (I can think of local taxes in particular) but sheeesh - how hard is it to convert the odd holdouts to email? We still need our guns like 200 years ago but as far as the Pony Express goes - technology and competition has passed them by.
Yes, it's getting tiresome for my husband and me to listen to the complaints of government workers, whether USPS or whatever. We've had a PO Box here in semi-rural CT for nearly 20 years, and the annual cost for that little box has nearly tripled... maybe quadrupled, I'm not sure.
The service goes further downhill every year... we continually get other people's mail in our box. Who knows what mail we're not getting.
And nearly every conversation lately with (the mostly slow) postal workers behind the counter involves how "unjust" it is that their benefits are being cut, and how they're counting down to the day when they can retire *early* and collect their government pensions.
Cry me a freakin' river. Try existing in the private sector these days...
Thanks, my bad - should have taken the time to learn the whole story. Silly me
Politicians want the USPS to be run as a business... but then they don’t.
Saturday mail service should be eliminated. No one will miss it.
Try existing in the private sector these days,Amen gov worker have been on the gravy train to long over paid and under worked.
Considering the deficits the post office has been running (not all due to the P.O.’s fault, considering the difficult pension burdens imposed on it by Congress), this is probably a wise move.
I sense that if a private company had taken over the P.O. with an eye on reducing expenses with the least impact on service, this is one of the first steps they would take.
Under those circumstances, the mail would certainly be a lot more important to me, too.
May your son have a special guardian angel to watch over him, and arrive safely home when his tour is over.
I will keep him in my prayers.
Come August, neither one will be able to deliver on Saturday.
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