The Postal Service is required by law to “provide, reliable, and efficient services to patrons in all areas and shall render postal services to all communities.” Consequently, the Postal Service has the largest retail presence in America with more than 32,000 leased or owned facilities located across the country.
Today, alternate access channels are widely available. Customers can purchase stamps and access services at the Postal Service’s website www.usps.com, self-serve kiosks, grocery stores, retail outlets, and privately-operated shipper locations.
Loading ...Meanwhile, in the past decade, business and household mailers have increasingly turned to electronic media to transmit correspondence that was formerly sent through the postal system. In addition, a weakened economy has resulted in declining mail volume and revenue.
The combination of the availability of alternative access and declining revenue requires the Postal Service to re-evaluate its retail network to eliminate growing excess capacity, reduce costs, and improve efficiency. In May 2009, the Postal Service began a national initiative, known as retail optimization, to consolidate its retail stations and branches in urban and suburban areas. Unlike some other retailers, the Postal Service can’t close their stores without generating public reaction. Closing just a small percentage of postal facilities can affect thousands of people and communities and is often questioned by those communities involved. As a result, there is a need for the Postal Service to work with stakeholders to balance their interests and optimize resources.
This topic is hosted by the OIG’s Network Optimization Team.
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I have to agree with Rachel’s comment. I have been a postal employee for 27 years. The biggest waste is in management. They have cut so many employees in my office we have nobody to do the work that must be done daily. We have added managers which are simply not needed and a waste of money. Cut the fat at the top. Most of the workers can run the operation without management. After that is done we should return to giving customer service like we did back in our better years. We need to staff our windows properly to move the lines and give our customers the service they deserve.
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Saturday delivery can be cut – we will all adapt in no time at all. Retail services – the self serve machines are wonderful, they could be expanded to include a few more types of packages/mail and put in grocery stores, Hallmark’s, Wal-Mart, Target, etc. Also, if more folks would use USPS.com to mail packages by using a scale at home to weigh them, print postage, and have the carrier pick them up, it would allow the PO to better utilize the staff they already have. And as a retired Federal employee, I think it would be just dandy if PO employees paid the same medical insurance rates as we did – never did think it was fair they paid so much less and were paid equally for work.
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(1) Reduce to 5 day services.
(2) Reduce the number of post offices, where there are many within 3 miles radius.
(3) Reduce big buildings and if the building is own, rent out to banks and commercial purposes.
(4) Introducing debit cards, greeting cards, envelope sales.
(5) Using fuel efficient vehicles.
(6) Avoid union workers.
(7) Having new graduates at low pay rate.
(8) Wherever possible, in smaller close net towns, using bi-cycle.
(9) Possibly en-cash pay checks for those don’t have bank accounts (about 10%, I read in an article) at a small fee.
(10) introducing drive way counters to avoid big offices and to quick service.
thank you..
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I own a franchised, independent printing, packing and shipping store. I pay basically the same rate for postage that my customers do, and then mark it up in a similar fashion that I do to FedEx and UPS services (which I do buy at wholesale.) It amazes me that most customers, not all believe me, but most are willing to pay my price and possibly even more to avoid going to one of the many local stations. Mr. OIG, what does this tell you?
Retail counter customer service is simply abhorrent at most stations. I’m sure there are exceptions, but in general, people who do not have unlimited time on their hands or have a choice in carriers prefer to go elsewhere. Time is money to them. And if they are willing to pay us, they are probably willing to pay you if the service is a s good.
That’s job one. Job two and beyond are even larger quagmires. Distance based pricing, streamlined processes and operations, creating a merit based organization, changing a culture that seems bent on never changing…good luck Mr. OIG.
And on another note, someone in an earlier post said get rid of contract carriers. On the contrary, if it weren’t for our rural route contract carrier, I would severely limit the amount of USPS services I offer.
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I think you need to stop delivery of mail on Saturdays, BUT keep post office open on Saturdays in big cities and any towns over 500,000 people. Have all post offices open so folks can get to their mail boxes. I like the idea of buying stamps at my local grocery store, which I do. The rest of what you run, I do not use.
In our medium size town we have two post offices. The one in middle of town is very busy and the newer one never seems to have but very few cars there and not more than a dozen folks standing in line for service, even at Christmas.
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I have tried twice to write to the Post Master General with this suggestion and I will do it again here. The self-service machines at the post offices give receipts automatically after you do a transaction. Why not let it ask if the customer wants a receipt or not? This would potentially save a lot on wasted paper (look how many people throw the receipt away).
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I think USPS can start with remove saturday delivery, people will be upset, but adjustment will not take much. I think we can start there and assess after that point.
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I have 8 post offices within 8 miles of my house and I will bet there are more if I looked online. Stop talking about closing them and do it. I can tell you of at least 4 you can close tomorrow and people will only have to drive 2mi. extra max. Get rid of sat. dilivery and make them help pay health ins. have them take a pay cut or lose there job. The best idea is make them work harder sitting in the truck sorting mail for 20min is not working. Last if the price of stamps goes up I will mail less just as I have done in the past.
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Cut Sat. (sorry guys).
Stop putting postal business other than stamps at retail locations. Some of those places or so sketchy, I worry about the security of my mail. That is one reason I don’t think it shold be privatized. (Besides some of these places go bankrupt within a month of the PO going into their business.) Contract grounds and cleaning crews, no need for janitors. Allow carrier to “sell” the PO by providing fantastic customer service like they want to rather than management telling them not to talk at all to customers. Have every house put a mailbox on the street or a cluster box. No more walking and down icy steps and battle dogs (increases liability and injuries). But back drastically on management. If you are going to push the carriers, push management to do more. They don’t need supervisors (middle management). Have a floating manager to fill in on their days off. This also puts a different pair of eyes in the branch incase regular management is doing shady things….This would cut down on the number of roving auditors that are needed. LISTEN TO YOUR EMPLOYEES NOT MANAGEMENT. STOP GIVING MANAGEMENT MONEY INCENTIVES TO HARRASS EMPOYEES.
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Capitalize with humorous stamps; e.g., snails in many different poses.
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As a retired Postmaster I would like to suggest that we return to foot carriers. WhenI was appointed in 1976 at my first class office we had one vehicle that took relays to relay boxes for foot carriers to pick up on their routes and delived parcels and heavy items. Now we have four vehicles using mounted routes. We did not save any man hours wit the mounted routes and added the cost of gasoline and vehicles. Gasoline in 1976 was about 50 cents a gallon. I am sure if gasoline was$3.oo a gallon back then we would not have went to mounted routes.
SAVE TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS AND GO BACK TO FOOT ROUTES!
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We can no longer afford the luxury of 6 day delivery to our houses; nor do we get enough mail to warrant.
I suggest dividing the areas into Tues/Thurs/Sat or Mon/Wed/Fri. deliveries.This would seriously reduce gas costs while keeping the workers at current 6 days. Decreasing 1st class postage and increasing bulk/junk mail would also help consumers. Encouraging electronic banking would also expedite things.
I am opposed to raising postage rates; let’s rethink what consumers really need.
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Maybe USPS can reduce costs by:
1) using electric postal trucks or other alternative fuel sources for their postal vehicles.
2) reducing the number of days for the delivery of bills, catalogs and junk mail (which should also save some trees).
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Charge the junk mailers the same as everyone else pays.
The Postal service would see increased revenue, I would see less junk mail, and it might even save a few trees.
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Recently vacated Postmaster positions are now being filled. All lower level Postmaster positions should be withheld for possible consolidation with other offices depending on location and revenue. This should be done nationwide
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Tuesday’s USA Today indicates the Postal Service is asking the public for input on cost containment.
Delivery service should be reduced to three days per week. This would be accomplished by delivering Monday, Wednesday and Friday to one half the district served by a Post Office and Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday to the other half. The workforce and vehicle fleet should be reduced accordingly.
The Defined Benefits Pension Plan should be discontinued and replaced by a Defined Contribution Plan as is the case in most operations in the Public Sector. Public Sector businesses simply cannot afford the Defined Benefits Plans and neither can the Postal Service.
Retiree Medical Benefits should be discontinued as is also the case in the Public Sector.
These measures would result in tens of millions of dollars saved every year.
Rates should be increased for all classes of mail with the greatest increases applied to the class of mail that provides the greatest volume.
These may not be “popular” measures but those necessary if the Postal Service is serious about cutting costs.
Sincerely
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The P.O. gives out millions of $ for Management bonuses.The executives were all given a new Ford Fusion Hybrid to drive around in(713).That is where the problem is.Miss management,Sounds alot like A.I.G.As far as health care for employes,I pay $280 a month right now and retirees dont get any paid for.We have so many people in management in our office that they trip on each other.As far as getting rid of union workers,UPS has union workers and they make more hourly than USPS employes.They still make a profit so what does that tell you about USPS management
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I would have liked more than one option on the above vote! I dont mind delivary 3 days a week, if it keeps the postage rates down. Why are you so quick to “get rid” of old stamp issues. Collectors love to find these items. I had one postal clerk tell me he could not sell me the stamps in his drawer, because they were not in the inventory of his cash register!! (your new system) Lost sale right there!
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This is an interesting discussion. Cost reduction is always a touchy subject as unfortunately you almost always end up looking at reducing salaries and benefits.
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that’s a tough question the usps is asking itself. but it’s a very valid one in many respects – profitability, serviceability, sustainability. from my perspective, it’s particularly challenging as shipments of products from website sales are increasing and expect to increase in the years to come, thus adding another layer of complexity to the aforementioned question. (I know this because I do 3D Renderings for e-Commerce websites and the demand there is increasing).
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