In these challenging times, reducing the cost of delivery operations — one of the Postal Service’s largest expenses — could save millions. One option the Postal Service is considering is to discontinue Saturday city and rural delivery and collection services.
Saturday is said to be one of the lowest mail volume days. It’s also a day when many businesses are closed. The September/October 2009 digital issue of Mailing Systems Technology included a survey of managers working in the mailing industry. Of those surveyed, 98 percent said changing to 5-day delivery would not require a change in staffing. The survey results also indicated that most managers surveyed (81 percent) preferred Saturday as the day of the week that the Postal Service would stop delivering mail. An additional 62 percent of the managers surveyed felt that once implemented, there should be no exceptions to 5-day deliveries such as for holiday weeks or high-volume mailing periods.
Loading ... Loading ... Loading ...Gallup also conducted polls on ways to help the Postal Service solve its financial problems. They found that 66 percent of Americans supported reducing mail delivery days from 6 to 5 days, and 66 percent also supported reducing the number of days the Post Office is open from 6 to 5 days.
The Postal Service is currently studying the reduction of mail delivery from 6 days to 5 days. Should the Postal Service consider eliminating delivery, collections, retail, and remittance services only for delivery units with low mail volume? Should the Postal Service eliminate these services for all delivery units nationwide?
This blog is hosted by the OIG’s Delivery directorate.
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eliminate as much door to door delivery as possible.
Probably 80% of suburban delivery which is now door to door could be changed to curbside, or property line
with no problem.
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mail handlers, clerks and carriers have all been cut. Why has there not been cut in management jobs? It appears that no manager has be retired, jobs were eliminated but then jobs were created?
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We learned this morning that we have taken back about 25% of UPS business with our flat rate parcel commercials and the white board guy will soon be history as the commercial is ineffective So why would we give back that business closing on saturdays With the flat sorters coming on line mail volume will be too heavy on Mondays already our heaviest day and once they
come on line we will have no control over overtime as we will be at the mercy of the plants.
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Close all post offices that are PO Box sections only. I see hundreds of small post offices that have less than 100 po box customers. What a waste of money and resourses.
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I resubmit this because it is the answer, especially as volumes continue to drop. Nothing that I have heard anywhere comes remotely close to the impact this would have.
I have written to my Congressman and Senators and the pmg. Under my plan the PO continues to operate 6 days a week, but we actually go to a 3-day delivery with each carrier being responsible for 2 routes on which he would alternate days on and half of the people would get M-W-F and the others Tu-Thur-S. Your reach a point on any route where no matter how light the volume a carrier can only cover a certain amount of ground. There would at the very least a 40% reduction in manpower, Vehicles and fuel costs. On this system it would require 6 carriers to cover 10 routes, which is actually a 50% reduction from the 12 required today, and 5 vehicles instead of 10. The public, given the choice of losing the USPS or switching to 3 day delivery, could be brought over to our side. Of course there are other logical cost cutting moves they can make such as eliminating Park & Loop delivery wherever possible.
5 day delivery has little impact when compared to the Logical 3-Day Delivery System.
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Before throwing the baby out with the bathwater, there are MANY cost saving measures that should be taken.
First and foremost,the USPS needs to recognize that Ben Franklin is no longer PMG, and a lot has changed. In this day of real time data transfer and all the rest of the high tech stuff, not every office needs a postmaster! Most small offices level 18 and below would be adequately staffed by clerks, many offices would not even require a full time one. Talk about waste, fraud and abuse! Many of these small office postmasters get paid 8 hours to sit in the office and sleep, do their own private business on PO time (like selling real estate) or just not showing up at all.
Why pay 8 hours a day to staff an office that “earns” 4 hours? Change the regs, keep the post offie open, staff it with a clerk, and have a central “postmaster” or the MPOO oversee the operation. An FT postmaster is not needed anywhere under level 20.
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I suspect that numerous USPS employees submit responses to the USPSOIG polls with self-serving responses to “save” jobs. The USPS should (must) implement 5-day delivery – sooner not later. My initial suggestion is that 5-day delivery shouls be phased in by District as normal attrition occurs. Eliminating Saturday delivery incrementally will be the least disruptive. We have significant turnover in non-career employees, despite this fact, the USPS continues to employ a significant number of non-career employees in delivery operations (City and Rural). As attrition occurs in City and Rural delivery operations, local management should determine which route(s) the 6-day delivery should be ended. Factors in determining which routes to end 6-day delivery could be a) volume; b) type of delivery (d-2-d, mounted, cbu); c) customer base (business, residential). While ending 6-day delivery all at once might be desired, it would create a situation where too many non-career employees would not be needed and would result in an impact on the economy. Alternatively, if there were a Carrier retirement incentive we may be able to reduce carrier complement sufficient to warrant ending 6-day delivery sooner without impacting the economy by laying off the non-career and significantly reducing PTF hours. Finally, the USPS needs desparately to create new business through services and products. Why is the USPS not in the Product Fulfillment? Product Fulfilment is a good fit for our organization. There would be jobs answering phones for the employees with physical limitations and other jobs with reduced physical demands to fill small boxes with product for shipment.
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Our service sucks. Our management has never done the job of carrying mail. We are doomed.
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wait and see all the new injuries and worker’s comp claims this is all going to cause.
You’ll have city and rural carrier’s bodies going out faster than ever. First you automate everything you can, shove them out on the street fast, fast. How can a 50 yr. old carrier repeat the same motions day after day as it is? Now, shove more volume at them by going 5 days a week. Seriously, how long can a city carrier do that before their knees give out on them? Or shoulders? There will be no light days for your body to have a break. Just go, go go.
Also, our 2 route office has a PM who sits on the phone or computer with the heat set on about 80 degrees all day while we are out on the street. Do you really think one of OUR days should be eliminated?
Brilliant!
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Why is it that no fat is being trimmed from the beast…I mean management fat? Every carrier knows what their responsibility is. Every clerk knows theirs. At our station you have the manager there and two supervisors. For what? I’m convinced that if no management was there the mail would still get delivered. Our manager is only there for three to four hours a day but I assume he still gets his full pay regardless. They want to save costs but they feel like they’re not part of the problem it’s us. We’re doomed.
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No G Rural,
I’m not suggesting you carriers are not getting beat up.
This is a brainstorming blog man. No matter how wild the
idea, under the current econ conditions the USPS is
experiencing, we’d better be changing sumthin.
I delivered newspapers door to door when I was 9-12yr
old. My route was suburb/city & apartment complex.
Around 160 papers at peak. Never a mail carrier though.
But, I certainly talk carrier’s every day.
And, the only way Washington’s going to read the
volume’s we’re all speaking every day, is right here
on this Blog.
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Take the mailboxes off the house and put them curbside on the street! Stop walking across lawns to deliver mail. Would probably eliminate thousands of routes, and the mail would be dryer when it’s raining. A no-brainer, but I wouldn’t expect the idiots in DC to recognize it.
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Ask craft employees where to save and generate money before we destroy our service further. Why don’t we charge for mail forwarding and vacation holds? We hold mail on “check day” without a fee, why? Hire only capable honest supervisors and you won’t need all the managers managing managers. There are only two out of 13 in my office that I would consider hiring. Two are blatently dishonest and would be so easy to fire but the watch dogs aren’t very capable either. Service in our office is falling fast, lets not push it over the edge.
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Start by firing every incompetent USPS employee, beginning with PMG Potter! After all, you can’t pay Potter what he is worth – you would violate the minimum wage law!
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What would the private sector do?
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Nothing can be done without Congressional approval. NOTHING! Post offices are like military bases; No politician wants to lose one. There will be no 5 day delivery without Congress approving it. Capish? No matter how many proposals are circulating, there must be legislative approval.
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Start charging people a fee to get their mail. Even a dollar a month will help. Who else will deliver to every home, apartment and business for free? Times-a-changin’.
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It may become absolutely necessary, for the continued economic survival of the Postal Service, to reduce service to only 5 days per week. But why discontinue on Saturday? Why is that the only day that, apparently, is under consideration?
I can make a guess at answering my own question — the Postal Service does not want to upset businesses, but is quite all right with the idea of upsetting citizens. Otherwise the idea of stopping delivery on Monday might at least be discussed.
As for shutting down the actual offices on Saturday, this would be disastrous for me. My local post office is only open Monday through Friday during the hours that I’m at work. As I live in an apartment, items that won’t fit into the small mail box assigned to me have to be picked up at the post office — on Saturday. Currently my local office is only open for two hours on Saturday (and half the town shows up to pick up packages during that time). Shutting down offices on Saturday means I’d NEVER get a portion of my mail.
But I’m just a citizen, and not a business, so the Postal Service doesn’t give a darn about me, right?
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Arbitrary pay for performance and internal evaluations are a fraud. Cancel mail on mechanical cancellers to get the numbers. Waste the labor because mail must be re-run on an ISS machine.
Bypass the BDS and undermine national security for the BONUS!
Mandate non-ODL employees to work 10 hours. Assign 10 hours of preventative maintenance routes. Expect employee to sign off as completing 10 hours of PM routes knowing the machines are only available for PMs for 7 hours or less. Pay the employee 2 hours of overtime for work that cannot be done. Collect the BONUS for 100% route completions. Harass employee if he refuses to participate in the FRAUD.
Machines do not get their PMs completed.
Employee receives 2 hours unnecessary overtime.
Management receives unearned PFP incentive.
Post Office continues to bleed red ink.
Supervisor says “Its a game, and I’m going to play it.
I will not be left behind”.
OK. Your the BOSS!
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As a letter carrier, I see fraud and waste on the part of usps management everyday. Up in New Hampshire, they just caught managers stealing from carriers by way of shorting their time cards, will these managers be punished? If past experience is any indication, NO! They would rather browbeat craft employees who do the work- MSP, GPS, etc. I for one would LOVE to have Saturdays off to spend time with my family just like the rest of the civilized world. And for those who don’t think the time has come for that, look at Canada or Australia, no Sat. delivery! They and other countries seem to get along just fine! I know that if you put this to a secret vote, you would get a majority of craft people to say yes, In my office, Sat. off is unanimous, the only ones who oppose this are the union bigshots who have’nt carried mail in years and have Saturdays off anyway. Just let the postal service give a REAL “early out”, and through that and attrition, you shoud’nt even have to lay anyone off. And by the way, I am a union member! To close, let me just say to those who think this is a bad idea, UPS and FedEx don’t want Sat. any more than the USPS, otherwise they’d be delivering, and didn’t the buggywhip industry make the same argument when the automobile first showed up?
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