Public policy debates about solving the Postal Service’s financial crisis have largely focused on reducing costs by cutting service such as Saturday delivery, transitioning from brick and mortar post offices to alternative retail sales channels, or limiting other functions performed by the Postal Service. There has been less talk about the costs of meeting delivery service standards, which were reviewed following the passage of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006.
Can the Postal Service relax some of its requirements to save money in transportation or processing costs? Right now, its goals are to deliver First-Class Mail in 1 to 3 days and Standard Mail in 3 to 10 days. A slight adjustment of these standards in particular areas might make it possible to save a great deal of costs. Instead of developing the goal first and trying to reach those levels, no matter how costly it is, maybe the Postal Service should closely analyze its infrastructure and develop goals that allow for reaching the greatest efficiencies.
Loading ... Loading ...For example, if the service standards for bulk mail from Chicago to Los Angeles were given an additional day the Postal Service could avoid the expense of trucks and instead utilize economical rail transportation. A First-Class Mail package that currently travels by air could be carried by truck if given another day.
By relaxing service standards, the Postal Service can move further towards a hub and spoke network, which could result in substantial savings. Currently, plants may have lots of half-empty, smaller trucks fanning out to a multiplicity of plants only once or twice a day. Under this new strategy, many trucks would go to a mail consolidation facility, which consolidates the mail and ships it on larger, fuller trucks to the destination facilities throughout the day. This design has the additional benefits of network stability and is capable of scaling up or down with changing mail volume.
The bottom line is that the Postal Service and its stakeholders need to decide what service standards are worth the cost. The Postal Service should have an honest and informed discussion about the cost savings that it can pass on to the public by relaxing some of the present delivery service standards.
Do you think the Postal Service should adjust its delivery standards to cut its costs?
This topic is hosted by the OIG’s Risk Analysis Research Center (RARC).
151 Comments
Leave a Reply
It sound like you already know. I think stopping saturday delivery is a good idea, also getting rid of post offices an postmasters in towns with less than say 1000 population needs to be done. I know in our area alone there is at least 15 to 20 little towns within 30 miles, what a waste.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I find it hard to understand why I can get mail from several states away in 3-4 days but it takes a letter 10 days to cross our city.The mail has to be SETTING someplace for a week without moving. Its very irritating to receive a bill on or after the day it is due….with no time left for the return.
Also it’s annoying to get someone elses mail in my mailbox, even worse if my bank statement ends up in someone elses mailbox.
Go ahead, cut service, raise rates, you’re just putting yourself out of business.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Where do you live? I worked in mail processing 18 yrs and never saw that happen–10 dys to cross the city. Even during XMAS ( I used to work Christmas Day for the extra money)we would get letters from out of state to our processing center in 4-6 days, 8 dys was the absolute worst. Normally stuff would be on time i.e. 3 dys nationwide, 2 dys in the western states, and overnight in the adjacent sectional centers. It got alot worse in the 1980s as the postal management said the public wanted “more consistent ” service. What they meant (in doublespeak) was we would be “consistent” by doing more 2 dy service for adjacent areas. After I left (1998) I heard in one of our service areas (934 zip)wanted to eliminate overnight service altogether!
Again, where do you live ? Are you in a big urban area, NY or Phila? I worked in Santa Barbara Calif. as a clerk and collector.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Whats the operation cost broke down by the day of week—whats the heavy load days in a month knowing Govenment slugs for what they are—A slow down is pretty evident—you need a counter action plan to avoid this and other delay tactics—you have to think like the slugs to keep ahead of them
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
no more door to door delivery. I envy those in new subdivisions with centralized mail boxes.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Cut cost of overtime and abuse within the system, hire casuals to do the job, that permanent does not do, a lot goes on that supervisor overlook due to submitting grievance between the supervisors/workers. Being outsider working as an casual, abused we received from the permanent due to lack of work that they supposely paid to do, we (I) love working for USPS for many reason, experiencing the abuse really bad. verses the permanent getting away with all the B.S.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
While some people have posted some interesting comments and others have just complained and offered no solutions to the matter at hand. The fact is that the USPS is a Government run business that has lost money for years, this is nothing new and will continue to happen unless drastic measures are taken to hold the Postmaster General accountable for the red ink and subpar service provided by the USPS. The following are just a few things I for one would like to see happen.
1. End Saturday mail delivery.
2. Stop being the Official Sponsor for _________(fill in the blank). Seriously you are losing money and when is last time the FBI or Justice Department was the Proud Sponsor of anything … exactly, probably never…
3. Reduce salaries and learn how to better negotiate with the Union. $40 dollars an hour is pretty excessive for someone who delivers the mail or works the counter.
4. Lose the dead weight, as with any Government agency you have people that just show up, don’t care about their jobs and watch the clock waiting to go home. These people will not change so long as they are still getting paid.
Just my 2 cents…
4.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I agree that grouped mailboxes would be a good money saver. And Saturday mail is not necessary. And perhaps some junk mail regulation? I regularly receive at least 4 catalogues and papers I never ordered/do not wish or need to receive, and live in a building with about 49 other apartments that receive the same thing. It really adds up.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
MON – WED – FRIDAY! … thats it… do we really need more days then that? I can live with getting junk mail only three days a week!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I’m all for cutting mail delivery on Saturday and I would even consider cutting it back on Wednesday as well.
The most annoying thing about the mail is the tons of junk that arrives…what a waste of energy and materials.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
The post office without a doubt has multiple issues to address and being a Government run business doesn’t help one bit.
First and foremost is they are over paided and under worked. Way to many locations and days of service.
That said I still think the post office offer a fast, reliable serivce and price to other mail serivces who serivce and quality have slipped. But they have adjusted quicker and faster to the changing ecomincs to stay profitable unlike or Government!
If the Government and Government workers opened their eyes to the other 80% of the common ever days workers they would see and do the right things.
Time have been hard and our Government and Government workers need to show the America people they understand our hardship(s) and will surport the Amercia worker not live off them!!
There as a time a long time a go when the Government care about the people and did not live high off the hog! It is we the people!!!! Not we the Government!!!!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I as a fellow worker for replacing mail boxes when knocked down. What they need to do is by me there is about 2 post offices and I live in a little village and i can not see why they can not get ride of the older post offices.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I agree with Karen, door to door service is a thing of the past, either install centralized mailboxes at each street’s corner (continue to provide door to door service for those with special needs of course) or move surburban neighborhoods to a more rural style with mailboxes at the street so a delivery person could make many more stops in a truck than pushing a cart down the street. The solutions are obvious, perhaps hire an inspector general with true business experience running a large corporation. And as to Saturday service, I can wait until Monday to throw out the hundreds of pieces of trash mail I get a week!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I avoid using the postal service because of the inequities of pricing. It costs me 44 cents (I think) to pay a bill by mail. It might weigh a quarter of an ounce. I pick several ounces of junk mail from my mail box almost every day. Guess what I’m not a rocket scientist but I don’t think the postal service collected .44 cents an ounce or per piece for that pile of junk.
Let all the people who use the postal service pay the same rate and maybe you wont need to stop Saturday service.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Where to start… Because the postal service is hiring short time employees they have no incentive (will be let go after a period of time) to provide good customer service. Currently management appears to have been given instructions to harrassin an effort to force them to retire, the older employees (those that may be albe to retire but still under 50)that are the glue that holds customer service together. Management will not allow employees to speak for more than a second to patrons on the route. They are told to just refer patrons with any question to their branch where they must try to get through on a line that is taken off the hook or they must speak to manager or supervisor who are rude and curt. Management should not represent customer service but they do. I know plenty carriers that delivered every piece of mail during hurricanes, tornadoes and snow and ice storms with….only one chain on their mail trucks (all they were alloted). Which one of you would do that?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
An uneducated guess is that managment is monitarily incentivized to meet quotas. They are the ones that have caused customer service to suffer. Employees are so beaten up by management (pubically on the work floor) that employees even the die-hard employees, are finding it hard to take pride in their work because managment sends mixed messages allegedly in an attempt to force employees to fail.
How about cutting back on the number of auditors that swarm to look for time wasting actions. A route inspection to look for this. Why not just ask the employees. They can give you a list of things management asks them to do that cause it to take longer to do something.
What gives with the janitors at some branches delivering mail to the carriers on their routes. Can’t cut the grass (most branches exterior and grounds look like heck) even though they have two or more janitors because they are doing the duties of clerks and carriers at managements demand.)Another thing to help, have one clerk at the front counter to prescreen everyone in line and answer questions. Sucks to wait in line for 30 minutes only to ask a question.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
took a week to have a certified letter delivered five miles from the postoffice, why?????
as time goes by, the generations will use the internet more and more for “receipt of mail”, the postoffice is becoming more obsolete as we move forward, just as the horse did when it delivered mail back when
layoffs, no saturday mail, no junk mail (get it on the internet, there is more than enough to go around) and restructure pension plans and health care plans, it is time people were responsible for their own well being and stop relying on others to keep feeding them, especially the u.s.of a government and their employees and staff, which includes the so called servants of the people, your congressional staff
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I do agree that Saturday delivery could be stopped. If further cuts are needed, Wednesday could be cut as well. I do agree with one posting that mentioned if they are only cutting one day of deliveries, maybe Wednesday would be better. Then the days of no deliveries would be spread out. I use USPS quite a bit and love their home package pickup service.
I think additional increases in postage costs need to eliminated for a while. Individuals are now paying so many things online due to the cost of a stamp. Raising the price again will only push more people to use alternate methods of paying bills and mailing items.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
What about yearly subscriptions for regular customers?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I think that if you have to close one day per week, it should be on Mondays.
Most Federal Holidays fall on a Monday, the post office does not usually deliver on these days anyway and you would save payroll by not paying postal workers who work the holiday or get holiday pay.
Also, you could make residential package delivery a pick-up instead. Leave a card and residential customers can go to the post office to pick up packages.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Cut one day a week delivery of mail, cut upper management pay, cut employee pay, all employees pay part of health insurance coverage, reduce workforce, in subdivisions use central located mailbox system instead of each house having a mailbox,stop advertising
Like or Dislike:
0 
0