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).
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It’s really simple. The government has absolutely no business whatsoever trying to compete in the business world. Staggering incompetence combined with obscene costs associated with federal employees unions have guaranteed that every attempt the government makes to enter into the business world will be a colossal failure as evidenced by the Postal Service. The American people understand clearly that government intrusion into the business world will always smother, stifle and choke the ability of business to provide a product or service. It is therefore painfully obvious to everyone except the government employee that government involvement in business is nothing more than a poorly disguised entitlement program.
We need to privatize the Postal Service and then, finger by finger, peel away the government claws of regulation that grasp and choke private business. Privatize, gentlemen, privatize – and then get out of the way of the professionals.
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Doing away with Saturday mail will upset a lot of people and increasing rates will not help, that’s why people are using the post office less and less as it is.
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On almost a weekly basis a Management Team of anywhere from 2 to 10 people will show up in our office just to stand and watch us. Now thats cost effective.
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I think they should be closed on Monday, that will give them sunday and monday. if they stay open on Saturdays the post offices will pick up business. And having sun/mon off gives them time for family ,church and business! God Bless Postal Workers!
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Keep the Saturday Delivery. Pick Tuesday to not deliver. The other modifications may help.
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I”m glad to see alot of people on the same page of stopping Saturday delivery. Stopping Saturday delivery will not be a problem for most. I read an article that alot of private courier services went out of business. In cities and towns where there’s alot of business needs, this would put these small businesses that provide courier service and those who ride bikes to deliver paperwork back to work. Hmmm Sounds like a little step for the economy. ( Jobs )
Saving millions on gas…. Not only that when I go to the post office thier always hiring subs to delivery our mail 16$ an hour, never out of work maybe no benefits, but what the heck, someone got to cover all the carriers while on vacation 4 weeks of the year.
Maybe cutting Sat. delivery we won’t need those subs,
Money saved on no subs and paying for vacations at the same time. Oh! by the way subs are not screened with background checks to delivery your mail. Wonder why your mail is mixed up, watch your mail delivery driver, most likely won’t be the same person daily if not weekly.
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I have mailed packages to Visalia,CA and it has taken 14 days to get there even though I send it first class mail. I have even “overnight” mailed a package with house keys in them from Escondido, CA to Phoenix, AZ and it never arrived there at all. In fact, they sent it to my return address in Tucson and it took 2 weeks to come home. I think the service of many of the employees leave quite a lot to be desired. They just decide not to work a day so they don’t.
The most important thing that needs to be fixed is the employees that you don’t have work for have to come to work and sit in a closet so they aren’t side tracked from them doing absolutely nothing. My husbands employer has changed the benefits and “full employment” policy that he was hired on with many times and we don’t still get the same contractual benefits. You need to fire the people that are useless and lay off those that you don’t have work for.
Entitlement policies have long been gone in the private sector; It is time the Government jobs quit the same entitlement policies.
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Please before considering cutting Saturday mail delivery think about our elderly and Senior citizens who can not get out. Some of them have to depend on others, whom may not always be available on Saturday, to take them out and about for whatever reason. I speak for myself when I say I do not drive or even own a car and greatly appreciate that my local post office agrees to deliver all my packages, that won’t fit through the mail slot, on Saturday. Now that’s customer service! I also believe if you must cut back a day make it Tuesday and/or Wednesday. Anyday but Saturday.
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The workers don’t get bonuses yet supervisors all the way up to the PMG are still getting bonuses. Why was America so upset about the banks getting bailed out and still giving out bonuses yet we hear no angry cries about the Postal Service going broke but still giving bonuses?!
If the mail volume has fallen back to what we had in 2000 then why do we have so many mangement positions? There are fewer employees to oversee so there should be fewer managers at all levels but especially at the very top.If you don’t move the mail then you should have to justify your job.
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the idea of changing the delivery standards for mail is only a clever ruse.. think about.. no saturday delivery means delayed mail on mon. and if theres a monday holiday then mail will be delayed on tues..duh..so… change the delivery standard to meet your needs without saturday delivery.. anyone who knows anything knows that they cant get the first class, second class and dailys out on monday now without ot… they cut so much that pivoting is a daily routine.. then factor in vacations.. etc..
believe me..it will be a mess.. any savings by not having saturday delivery will be chewed up with ot on mondays and tues…in the meantime they erode serice, force businesses and patrons to find another source for receiving mail on saturday. the closing of offices for retail service will be the next step…
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I am for having Saturday delivery stopped! I would love to have Saturdays off after all of these years but that isn’t why I think they should cut stop delivery. It is because the mail volume is down and keeps dropping because it costs 44 cents to mail a letter! Even congress wanted the info sent to them via the internet which = FREE! Gas at $3.00 a gallon. Management buying 1 billion dollar machines to sort our flats so they can cut carrier jobs but have to hire people to run the billion machines. Our lightest day of mail is saturday and most bussiness are closed. They are the ones who generate 90% of our mail, they vote saturday.
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Hey,
Raise 1st class mailing rates to balance budget to keep
Saturdays deliveries. Most depend upon six days review; to compressed to 5 days, a time usage effort overload. For our/your
USPO employees and my staff and business contacts.
NOTICE AND WARNING
Alternatively, we’ll use email and PDFs, video chat,
free internet live streaming conferencing to handle
six days a week communications. Legal documents by surface mail mandatory for federal jurisdiction over documents sent/received. You decide to, in fact, to
radically reduce demand for surface mail, and lose even more demand. We pay and pay and go along with you.
We’ll pay more, yet you reduce services. Think again and raise rates 1st class mail to $0.75 per 1 oz to 3 oz, $0.20 thereafter, post cards stand size $0.50, and others rates set by a knowable collection of cost facts.
Of course, proportional set by demand, usage of capital equipmewnt variables, ROI for USPO
equipment. reply by email plz.
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The Post Office faces many issues… from an aging workforce to a struggling economy to personnel who are overly secure and protected within their jobs. The issue of relaxing the service standards such as increasing SLAs for delivery will not solve the problem. This will lower the expectations of the current workforce – which they are already non-compliant with today’s standards. In my experience (and I’ve worked in this industry), there are a few ways to improve upon and help solve the major issues. (1) Standards must be set and employees must be held accountable (including management). Incentives could be offered as part of the equation which must include both quality and production at various levels of the management chain and for individual performance; (2) To address the aging workforce issue, a reasonable retirement package should be offered. The cost could be offset simply be eliminating most of these high salaried positions. There is a lot of extra “weight” in the amount of staff at the post office, especially those who have worked there for decades with ever increasing salaries. I realize this may be unpopular due to the current ecomony and the desire to create new jobs. But there really isn’t that much of a need compared to the amount of staff. (3) With (1) & (2) in place, the Post Office should not need to relax their SLAs, in fact, they should be able to provide even better service. Thereby becoming increasingly competitive, eventually resulting in more revenue (and for the consumer, slowing down the rate of postage increases).
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Close some of the small rural offices . in some places there is 2 offices within one half mile and 3 in a 5 mile radius. by closing just one of these office that offer no delivery about $40,000 or more would be saved per year. I am sure this instance is all over the United States. Also you might try listening to your postmasters. They know a lot about the problems facing them and the future.
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How’s about making sure every stamp is canceled so people don’t reuse stamps? I hear a few brag about the ‘bonus’. It can add up to a sizable amount if you consider how many mail rooms there are in the private sector throughout the US.
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I feel if you pay for a service like Priority Mail it should be delivered that way. Why should a person have to wait several days all day long just to get their mail. I feel that the letter carriers of NALC need to start delivering mail sooner. On average right now they get started on their route at 10:00 am. My former landlord was a L – 5 letter carrier. He left the post office he worked in no later than 7:30. He would be done by 2:30. This was in 1992. Now the postal service has these machine that sorts the mail in the order the carrier delivers them. Then why if the volume of mail is way down does it take so long for the carrier to deliver their mail? I think that making $1638.85 for a NALC worker is way too much to start out. Then you wonder why the postal service is how many billions in the red?
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how about the mail men take a pay cut to like $10 a hr. or use trucks that run on propane instead of gas, how about not having 3 post offices in one town and have just one? or get a private company to deliver the mail instead of the gov.
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I don’t care when most of my packages get there as long as they get there. The delivery standard could easily be relaxed. Most people only use USPS bc it is cheap. If they wanted overnight confirmation the would use someone else. Another thought: letter carriers near a PO do NOT need a car. Let them walk the neighboorhood by the PO. No sense in wasting the gas or capital expense.
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There’s lots of “freebies” to be had at any Post Office, in the form of some types of shipping boxes. I’m curious as to how much the Postal Service spends providing those items. How about charging for them? Even at a few cents over cost, at least the Post Office would get it’s money back and have a small profit to show for it.
I’ve personally used the items and would be willing to pay for them.
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Delivery time standards & number of post offices must be key in any considerations; it’s sad but cost cutting in the postal service is inevitable due to the increased competition and less regular mail being sent due to email.
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