Get ready for some big changes in your mail service. After losing $16 billion last year, the postmaster general announced Wednesday that the Postal Service intends to halt Saturday delivery of first-class mail by this summer, Aug. 1. That means most mailers, letters and catalogs would not arrive on Saturdays, ending a 150-year tradition.
The plan to shrink delivery from six days a week to five would only affect first-class mail, while packages, mail-order medicines, priority and express mail would still get delivered on Saturdays.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., says the move will save the struggling postal service $2 billion a year. "It's a proper business decision and (in the) long run, good for the Postal Service and good for Americans."
The Postal Service has lost $41 billion dollars over the past six years as more and more Americans turned to private shippers, email, and online banking.
To save money, the Postal Service slashed hours of service at about half the nation's 26,000 post offices and trimmed its workforce by 35 percent.
But it wasn't enough. David Walker, a former government watchdog, is part of a panel looking at possible postal reforms. Walker told CBS News' Nancy Cordes the new measure "won't come close to solving the postal service's problem. It's got to look at more fundamental changes in its infrastructure, its compensation costs, its retirement obligations, and also what it does and who does its business."
But there's just so much the Postal Service can do without congressional approval. Despite years of begging by postmasters general, Congress never passed a reform bill that would have given the Postal Service more flexibility to modernize and streamline its service.
Asked whether the Postal Service is making this announcement because they're trying to force Congress to act, Coburn said, "No, I don't think so at all. Look, they're in survival mode. You're not going to have any post office. I mean, here's the alternative: They're losing $25 million dollars a day. A day. They have to do something."
Coburn and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the two top Republicans on the House and Senate committees that oversee the Postal Service will issue a letter Wednesday going to House and Senate leaders, asking them to support the elimination of Saturday service and change the law that has prevented the USPS from doing this in the past. The letter reads, in part, "What has impeded the Postal Service from phasing out universal Saturday delivery of letters is an appropriations rider carried in law since 1984 that ties six-day mail delivery to the acceptance of roughly $100 million in reimbursement from the federal government for services rendered by the Postal Service. According to Postal Service estimates, the rider constitutes a more than $2.5 billion annual unfunded mandate. With the current [fiscal year] 2013 government funding resolution set to expire at the end of March, we ask that the six-day mail rider be omitted from any subsequent government funding legislation, enabling the Postal Service to implement this necessary reform without impediment."
And, they point out: "This change has bipartisan support. President Obama has repeatedly called for moving to five-day delivery of mail, most recently in his FY 2013 budget. Furthermore, according to an October 2011 Quinnipiac poll fully 79 percent of Americans endorse the shift."
Technically, the Postal Service is not allowed to its reduce service unless Congress changes the law, but lawyers for the Postal Service think that they have "figured out a way around the law."
source
This is not good.
The plan to shrink delivery from six days a week to five would only affect first-class mail, while packages, mail-order medicines, priority and express mail would still get delivered on Saturdays.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., says the move will save the struggling postal service $2 billion a year. "It's a proper business decision and (in the) long run, good for the Postal Service and good for Americans."
The Postal Service has lost $41 billion dollars over the past six years as more and more Americans turned to private shippers, email, and online banking.
To save money, the Postal Service slashed hours of service at about half the nation's 26,000 post offices and trimmed its workforce by 35 percent.
But it wasn't enough. David Walker, a former government watchdog, is part of a panel looking at possible postal reforms. Walker told CBS News' Nancy Cordes the new measure "won't come close to solving the postal service's problem. It's got to look at more fundamental changes in its infrastructure, its compensation costs, its retirement obligations, and also what it does and who does its business."
But there's just so much the Postal Service can do without congressional approval. Despite years of begging by postmasters general, Congress never passed a reform bill that would have given the Postal Service more flexibility to modernize and streamline its service.
Asked whether the Postal Service is making this announcement because they're trying to force Congress to act, Coburn said, "No, I don't think so at all. Look, they're in survival mode. You're not going to have any post office. I mean, here's the alternative: They're losing $25 million dollars a day. A day. They have to do something."
Coburn and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the two top Republicans on the House and Senate committees that oversee the Postal Service will issue a letter Wednesday going to House and Senate leaders, asking them to support the elimination of Saturday service and change the law that has prevented the USPS from doing this in the past. The letter reads, in part, "What has impeded the Postal Service from phasing out universal Saturday delivery of letters is an appropriations rider carried in law since 1984 that ties six-day mail delivery to the acceptance of roughly $100 million in reimbursement from the federal government for services rendered by the Postal Service. According to Postal Service estimates, the rider constitutes a more than $2.5 billion annual unfunded mandate. With the current [fiscal year] 2013 government funding resolution set to expire at the end of March, we ask that the six-day mail rider be omitted from any subsequent government funding legislation, enabling the Postal Service to implement this necessary reform without impediment."
And, they point out: "This change has bipartisan support. President Obama has repeatedly called for moving to five-day delivery of mail, most recently in his FY 2013 budget. Furthermore, according to an October 2011 Quinnipiac poll fully 79 percent of Americans endorse the shift."
Technically, the Postal Service is not allowed to its reduce service unless Congress changes the law, but lawyers for the Postal Service think that they have "figured out a way around the law."
source
This is not good.
They've been saying something had to give and that this might be it. As someone who had Sat delivery in the US and then none in Canada, I can testify that you get used to it.
eta: And this one. I just missed it.
Here:
The U.S. Postal Service will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to deliver packages six days a week under a plan aimed at saving about $2 billion annually, the financially struggling agency says.
http://www.nwcn.com/news/190027671.h
I rely heavily on being able to ship packages (I do print sales of my art), so I had a mini heart attack when I read about this. Everything else is so fucking expensive.
Edited at 2013-02-07 05:45 am (UTC)
This is going to shift a lot of business towards UPS and FedEx.
I will SO miss standing in line for half an hour, while you piss around in plain veiw, secure in you gummint job. I will also miss your deliberate dead stare, as you feign bafflement about my tiny, simple, pre signed label. I AM SO SAD that people like me don't want their entire day ruined by your poisonous attitude, and have found other, less toxic ways to mail.
I AM SO SAD that we got tired of your clammy, condescending, glacial, arrogant incompetence. I AM CRYING SO HARD that you won't deliver on Saturdays ANYMOAR OH oh Oh
Taste the wave. Of UNEMPLOYMENT.
And then congress says the USPS MUST put money into their retirement fund for 75 years for each employee. Even with that, we've been making profits until the last six months.
Can you imagine? Congress slaps this onto the USPS around 2002 (when the USPS refuses to spy on its customers) and it's only now that it's starting to slow us down. It's such BS!
I love our little local post office, have always enjoyed going there, and am pissed that Congress seems hell-bent on hamstringing it.
Said group had plenty of lobbyists and Republican friends, of course who would love to see the post office close down entirely because WHAT DO YOU MEAN GOVERNMENT SERVICE PRIVATE SECTOR.
Edited at 2013-02-07 12:27 pm (UTC)
The specific purpose is to render the USPS untenable in order to replace with with private carriers.
It would be one thing if USPS was horribly inefficient for one reason or another. But when you look at what they do, they're pretty freaking amazing. (Able to deliver even to very remote areas for small prices that can't rise at a very fast rate. In addition to competing with private carriers + the Internet + paying their workers fairly well.) But as it is, they're doing an amazing job, but are stuck with one ridiculous rule that makes it almost impossible to do their jobs.
I can't even imagine what it would be like if every company in the US had to prove that it could fund all worker's pensions (and well...actually grant pensions) for the next 75 years. Or even 50. Or, heck, even 10.
eta: I think everyone who feels strongly about this should call their senators, actually. The whole thing with SOPA made me realize how not-scary it was, so give it a try?
Edited at 2013-02-07 05:12 pm (UTC)
I left regular business delivery on there during week as it would be a big pain in the ass for businesses if it didn't happen AND because due to zoning in most places, the business delivery routes are actually some of the shortest. They tend to be very compact and efficient to deliver to. The residential ones are the ones that tend to be pretty inefficient.
If you're a home based business, since post office would still be physically open, if you KNOW something is supposed to be in, you can still go in and ask if there's mail for your address. probably isn't efficient to do that every week, but if you know the check you need to make payroll is coming in Wednesday, its worth the trip to the post office. (and you were going to need to go to the bank anyway to deposit it)
But if packages become an issue... my nearest post office is already closed on weekends and UPS can't figure out how to open the door to my building. Yay. I get to curtail my shopping because I want to make sure I actually get my package. WAY TO STIMULATE THE ECONOMY, GUBMINT.
{edit to get someone's name right}
Edited at 2013-02-08 02:06 pm (UTC)