In a move that admittedly makes me sad while smiling, the Post Master General John Potter announced today that he intends to ask Congress to make the necessary changes to appropriation legislation to allow him to cut mail service down to five days eliminating Saturday delivery. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night can keep the mail from going through, but a raging recession, growing costs, private-sector competition, and government inefficiency will do the trick… Republicans on Capitol Hill have to be loving this development. Could there be a better example of the federal government’s shortcomings in the administration and implementation of services? How about five years from now cutting back doctor-patient visits to Monday through Friday as well.
Though the idea of cutting service from six to five days has gotten a cool reception on Capitol Hill, Potter said that the plan would include enough flexibility so that customers who need Saturday service can get it and that this and other changes need to be implemented for the Postal Service to survive.
“We built a plan that we think is very reasonable. … We intend to pursue that,” he said. “It’s a move that we simply have to make.”
The financially struggling Postal Service is trying to find ways to get out of the red without resorting to taxpayer aid. Potter announced Tuesday that the service could lose a staggering $7 billion this year — losses attributed to a combination of the recession and the predominance of e-mail and other electronic forms of communication.
It is estimated that cutting Saturday delivery, a move that requires congressional permission, could save $3.5 billion a year.
Potter said the Postal Service, aside from trying to cut down service days, would also use price increases in “moderation” to close the budget gap as well as pursue other changes. He urged regulators to act quickly in helping the Postal Service implement those changes and expressed optimism that the service could eventually get above water.
Though he said privatization had been on the table during a lengthy internal review, that option appeared to be ruled out. One consultant, Thomas Dohrmann from McKinsey & Company, said privatization was “unlikely” in part because it would be hard to find a buyer.
“We need to rethink everything and every approach to move the Postal Service forward,” Potter said. “We need to reinvest, redefine and reinvigorate the value of mail to business and households.”
The Postal Service posted $3.8 billion in losses last year. Mail volume was down 13 percent, a decline officials say will continue.
Potter said mail volume went from 213 billion pieces in 2006 to a projected 166 billion pieces in fiscal 2010.
Perhaps instead of cutting services, they could -GASP!!!!!- increase efficiency to the point that we trust them again? Nah, a simple solution to a complex problem is unacceptable to these schmucks in DC. It’s a rare week that goes by that I don’t get at least one piece of mail addressed to someone else, sometimes to addresses clear across town, and this is a small town that I call home.
I honestly think that the electronic age and the higher efficiency of private organizations such as FedEx and UPS are ringing in the Darwinian death-knell for the USPS. These clowns are overpaid and underworked and still can’t get the job done right, charge us more and more money for postage and the faint hope that our mail will arrive successfully to its destination, and then they get stressed-out and shoot one another with depressing regularity.
I think they simply need a new postmaster general and a new rulebook to get rid of the underperformers and increase the efficiency, and we’ll probably start using them a bit more.
Patrick Heffernan
A Proud Texas Conservative
I have delivered mail for the USPS for 11 years now. Before that I served 11 years in the US Navy. I’m not a union member, I’m a proud “scab”. I’m also a die hard conservative. The Post Office is actually the best example of what the federal government should be. Look at article one section 8 of the constitution. The Post Office is one of the very few things actually under the power of congress. That said it is paid entirely by taxes collected only from those who use the service they provide. If you don’t want a single dime of your money to go to the post office then you don’t have to ever use the service. Even if you exercise this right they will still deliver what other people have paid to have shipped to you house. If you don’t want any delivery that is your option as well.
Is the PO inefficient? There is always room for improvement, we are definitely fat with management and other’s who’s jog it is to supposedly improve efficiency! I’d still put our rates and service up against any foreign post office, and I’d put our parcel service up against UPS and FedEx. They don’t want the PO’s job. Have you checked UPS wages lately? They are much higher then what I make. They don’t want to do the job we do. Its easy to make money when you don’t have to provide universal service at flat rates, and guess what, they aren’t making money now either. The only reason we are in the red right now is because of a congressional mandate that we increase retirement funding by billions of dollars. FedEX and UPS don’t have that kind of account or requirement, nobody does, not even in government. What that means is we will never need the buyout of retirement funds that so many other failed business have used from airlines to car companies.
Should we cut a day of delivery? If it were Saturday it might make some sense but it won’t save what they are projecting. The volume will just be spread out into the remaining days which means making more routes or paying more overtime. It will save some but not 1/6 of the delivery costs. We should raise the rates for junk mail. Guess who has the best lobbyists? Not grandma paying her bills but Victoria’s Secret. There is no way we make any money delivering hard to handle slick pizza coupons or Satellite TV ads at $.05 each or less.
PS Patrick, if you are truly from a “small town” then you mail is delivered by exactly what you are pushing for. A private contractor who put in the lowest bid. No wonder you service sucks!
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No offense Bryan, but there’s a reason the postal service is going to lose $7 billion this year. And I know that the lovely bureaucrats in Congress mandated a brutal retirement funding, but seriously? There are plenty of reasons why the USPS has been unable to overcome this. http://bit.ly/bUAy8C How about the ridiculous price increases? How about its complete inefficiency? No, FedEx and UPS are in the black for a reason.
Sorry Jackie, USPS has nothing to do with the price increase… talk to your Federal Government.
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