Washington, DC – The Postal Regulatory Commission today issued its Advisory Opinion in Docket N2010-1 on a Postal Service plan to end Saturday mail delivery, collection, and outbound mail processing.
The Postal Service is required to ask the Commission for an Advisory Opinion on any change in nationwide service it proposes. The Postal Service advised the Commission that due to falling mail volumes and revenues it is considering eliminating Saturday mail collection and delivery except for Express Mail and existing post office box service.
“Some of the Commission’s analysis in today’s Advisory Opinion suggests that even lower estimates of savings and higher volume losses are possible. In all cases, we chose the cautious, conservative path. Our estimates, therefore, should be seen as the most likely, middle ground analysis of what could happen under a five-day scenario,” said Chairman Ruth Y. Goldway.
Key findings of the Commission’s Opinion include:
*The Commission’s annual net savings estimate is $1.7 billion.
– The Postal Service’s savings estimate is $3.1 billion.
* Full savings in either case would likely not be achieved until year three after implementation.
* The Commission’s estimate of net revenue losses due to volume declines caused by the service cuts is $0.6 billion.
* The Postal Service estimate of net revenue losses is $0.2 billion.
* The planned changes would cause an average of 25 percent of First-Class and Priority mail to be delayed by two days. The Postal Service did not evaluate the impact of the proposal on customers who reside or conduct business in rural, remote, and non-contiguous areas.
*Customers in rural, remote, and non-contiguous areas can be particularly affected by the Postal Service’s plans. The Commission received significant input from rural America and traveled to South Dakota and Wyoming to meet directly with rural customers and community leaders.
The following chart provides a comparison of Commission and Postal Service analyses of cost savings and revenue losses that would result from implementing the proposed service reductions. The Net Savings totals would likely not be achieved until three years after implementation.
Financial Impact of Postal Service Plan (millions)
5-day delivery costs
The elimination of one mail delivery day has been proposed many times and was the subject of extensive congressional review in 1977 and 1980. In 1983, Congress adopted specific language requiring the Postal Service to maintain six-day delivery. The Commission’s Advisory Opinion will be considered by Congress as it reviews the Postal Service’s request to change the law.
The Commission held extensive public, on-the-record hearings to analyze and cross-examine the Postal Service’s proposal and supporting evidence. Mail users, postal employees, elected officials, community leaders and members of the public provided supporting and opposing views, both informally and as part of more formal, technical presentations. The Commission also conducted seven field hearings and received thousands of public comments through its website.
“All five Commissioners have signed the necessary certification for this Advisory Opinion,” Goldway said; adding “the Postal Service remains a vital, beloved and important institution facilitating economic growth, aiding small businesses, enhancing communications and unifying the nation. A decision to change the existing patterns of postal communications and delivery should be made with care.”
PRC Letter To Members Of Congress
The Separate Views of Chairman Goldway, Commissioners Blair, Langley, and Hammond are attached
PRC Issues Advisory Opinion On Ending Saturday Delivery
It seems to me that Brett is behind the times. With a majority of our population being baby boomers, who not all em-brass the electronic age, postal mail is the choice of communication for doing business and connecting, a hard copy letter is proof of those communications when push comes to shove not an email. Perhaps you have not read the latest findings but Print and Direct Mail, even junk mail, is preferred method of communication by the boomer generation.
For me as a small business publishing company, postal delivery on Saturdays is the difference between my clients making a deadline and me making deadlines with my printer. Yes, companies do conduct business on Saturdays, especially in this economy. (By the way, I have never received a notice or tax refund check from the IRS via internet or email). The problems the USPS is having is not in the 6 day delivery schedule but in the irresponsibility of the management of the “company” and the Union pushing for unprecedented benefits, I’m speaking directly about the retirement fund and of course “job security”, (no, I am not anti-union) and I agree with Jim there are too many small postal offices that create a redundancy in some areas. I read that the US postal service has more offices than Mc Donalds has fast food chains in the US..
The US Postal Service is an integral part of the United States and many of it’s citizens and businesses rely on this service. Cutting 1 day equates into several days of delayed mail. There are many other ways the USPS can cut cost and become profitable. By the way, raising mail rates to Direct Mailers and Catalogs, etc., is not a solution, USPS has to be proactively competitive and cater to the mail service users not exploit them.
This is a very complicated subject that should not be treated with flippancy but rather a constructive conversation that brings about ideas for positive change.
The USPS needs several changes to operate more like a business.
Change the requirement to pre fund retirement pension benefits.
Drop Saturday delivery
Close lots of tiny Post Offices.
Ending Saturday delivery saves billions of Dollars.
This change should be implemented as well as changed the rule on funding of pension benefits.
Saturday service is valuable for many small businesses such as ours. Chocolate is subject to melting, so the more days that are available for delivery (vs. sitting) around the better. Also, we often drop off shipments on Saturday and I can see them reach their destination (often cross-country) by Monday or Tuesday (priority mail). This means that the package must keep moving on Sunday! It’s important to keep chocolate moving. To do the same with UPS and Fed-x would be much more expensive and a blow to our small business and consumers who expect low shipping fees or free shipping!
When you’re dependant on receiving your paycheck via the mail on Friday and for whatever reason when you check your mailbox Friday afternoon its not there, well, there’s always the next day, Saturday, to wait to get my paycheck delivered by the postman. For those of us who are one paycheck from destitution, it’s important for me to have Saturday mail delivery of my paycheck so that I can support my family. Not everyone is lucky enough to work for an employer who offers direct deposit for payroll.
The problem is not the union. It’s the requirement that the Post Office fund retirement benefits for retirees up front which costs the Post Office billions of dollars every year. In fact, right now, the Post Office has a few billion dollars in surplus in this federally-mandated account. The Post Office is the only government or corporate entity in the US that is required to prepay retiree benefits. If this requirement were removed from the federal regulations, the Post Office would be operating in the black instead of losing money every year.
Frank you should join the one group without a union. Why don’t you be a casual?Do you know why they have no benefits, or sick leave or vacation time? Why their pay is so much less than ours? Why when management barks they jump because they have no rights? Why they can be let go for no reason? Frank try putting 2+2 together, if you don’t like the union get involved and create the union you want.
Take a hike, Frank, you f**k face scab!
The gutless commission once again failed to make a choice. They left an open ended letter leaving the dirt bag unions an opening for continuing Saturday delivery. I do not know which is worse. A spineless PRC or the Dirt Bag unions. I am just glad I have finally seen the light and gotten out of the NALC for good. I can also proudly say we have, according to a FORMER branch president, gotten 28 people to leave the union in the past year. It would be nice to have an office of no union. Oh to dream.
Brett maybe- what you fail to realize is if the delivery of mail is changed it leaves the door wide open for any joe blow to deliver your mail, even those bills you really don’t want. Who do you want delivering you medication? How about a drug addict do you want them to deliver your mail? There are still plenty of people that don’t have internet, and many more who don’t trust online bill pay. How about we do away with one day of your pay and see how you like it. The mail doesn’t just go away when the post office is closed. The work hours are still there. This will only make the rest of the work days longer!
Sat. mail delivery is a wasted cost that is non recoverable. Postal mail is not the mode that connect individual and business. A physical street address with a phyical mailbox is not used to connect people. The INTERNET via an E MAIL ADDRESS connects people and businesses instantly in lieu of purchasing a postage stamp to deposit in the postal system for a 1-2 day delivery. New APPS are comming available daily to enhance individuals and business messaging..
The primary product delivered on Sat. is bulk business mail, low revenue, or sale advertisements, commonly referred to as JUNK mail, which are not time critical to act on. Sat. and weekend mail delivery should focus on Express and 2nd day priority which would cover weekend delivery of mail which a premium has been paid and is sensitive to time factor. UPS and FED X operate in this manner.
The Amerian public is not impacted by eliminating Sat. delivery and could care less as any First Class would probably be a bill and is not time sensitive. Any time sensitive message would be sent iinstantly via E mail.
195,000 vehicles idle on Sat. with gas@ $3.69 a gallon and eliminating delivery personnel cost has to be a signifigant savings. A COMPANY CANNOT CONTINUE TO OPERATE IF IT SPENDS MORE MONEY DAILY THAN IT TAKES IN..
SAT. MAIL DELIVERY HAD ITS PLACE IN TIME BUT IN TODAY ADVANCED TECHNOLOGICAL AGE IS OBSOLETE.. YOUNGER GENERATIONS WILL USE POSTAL MAIL LESS AND REVENUE WILL CONTINUE TO DECLINE. ELIMINATING SAT. DELIVERY WILL ACT TO OFFSET THIS DECLINE.