Take the poll, found to on the upper right corner of this blog.
There are a few options.
1) Keep things the way they are. (We've done it for hundreds of years and it's not worth the PR and service hit.)
2) Skip Saturday delivery.(Catch up on Monday. Perhaps we could still deliver P.O. Boxes on Sat. Just no physical delivery)
3) Deliver on Saturday, but skip delivery on Tuesday (Tuesday is a light day anyway.)
4) Another possiblity. (Use the 'comment' tab below to tell me your alternative.)
To comment on any of these, click here.
417 comments:
1 – 200 of 417 Newer› Newest»Skip Saturday delivery. Many businesses are closed. Residential types are busy on weekends, possibly visiting relatives overnight or away to the mountains. Personally Saturday residential deliveries are just an inconvenience that I endure because I thought that it could never be changed. It would save huge $$$$$ in fuel cost & labor. It is really a "no-brainer"!
Have UPS or FedEx deliver on Sat, we gave them our package service that were fighting like hell to get back !!
Take away Saturday delivery; away goes any sixth day overtime issues. That alone amounts to a tremendous amount of savings.
We are already upsetting our customers with late deliveries, why would we take away another day during the week that they are all at work and deliver to them on Saturday when they are closed and if you did a poll most americans do not even know that they get mail on Saturdays. If you think that our sick is a problem now, have Tuesday as a non delivery day and what sick leave sky rocket
I agree with the 5 day delivery. We should have done this years ago.
Doing away with Saturday delivery is another nail in the coffin for the USPS. Customers depend on us to deliver their mail and we should keep our level of customer service above all others, that is the way to KEEP customers. Their are many other ways to reduce our costs such as keeping details down so as not to pay hotels, per diem and travel, reduce energy costs, uniform allowances etc.
It's a no-brainer, something must be done to cut costs. If delivery is the only option than look at Sat., this would upset the business world the least. I truly beleive we should cut labor costs at the top levels, do we really need that many non-productive individuals earning top salaries.
Learn form UPS & Fed EX! They only deliver Mon - Fri. Look at the way they move their product. Mondays are not that bad. And they provide Saturday delivery for a premium price. We can do that and save billions!
Learn form UPS & Fed EX! They only deliver Mon - Fri. Look at the way they move their product. Mondays are not that bad. And they provide Saturday delivery for a premium price. We can do that and save billions!
If we go to 5 day delivery - then keep retail open and have express and collection drivers on the street to still have BLUE on the road!!! Lets stop giving our competion our customers!!!!
I agree with the no Saturday delivery. If you get a piece of mail that requires reponse, the first available day would be Monday anyway. Most businesses are closed on Saturday. If we were to eliminate mail delivery on Tuesday, like they were suggesting, how many businesses would put up with that??? Then on top of things, the last delivery day on a holiday week would be Saturday. You would be off on Sunday, Monday, AND Tuesday. HMMMMMM.......
I think Saturdays should go away. It could be a tremendous cost saver for the USPS. It would eliminate the need for weekend child care costs for employees and reduce the sick leave abuse.
I think it's a great idea. We have adjusted to other companies closed 2 days a week why not the Postal Service. I'm sure businesses can adjust their schedules to 5 day delivery. Also give the employees 2 days in a row off. This would sure boost moral!
the person that says do away with Saturday delivery must already work M-F
Offices that depend on PMRs to fill in when the postmaster is sick will be in real trouble with 5-day delivery. The PMR gets all their experience and training,etc.,on that 6th day. How will they know what to do if we are closed that day? How will we be able to keep them as employees if they only work every so often? It's hard enough as it is.
I think they should investigate all other cost saving options before making a decision. Send a form to all employees asking for thier ideas. They would be surprised at how many employees see waste and unneeded spending that could be stopped, which would improve our bottom line.
the government should recsend the payment the usps has to pay for the health insurance for employees
that would help the usps finances.
I have some customers that only get mail 3 days a week if you cut one they would only get their mail 2 days a week how is that going to work?
Don't stop 6 day delivery. The economy is going to get better. Mail will pick up. It will be difficult to go back to 6 day delivery from a 5 day delivery. Lets put the Service back in the U S Postal Service.
Monday through Friday retail and delivery would be in line with the rest of the business world and would not be a problem. Mail flow would adjust so the light delivery day would be Thursday. Retail would be busy Monday and Friday but level out the other 3 days. Continue to deliver express on weekends. If any day is chosen as a non-delivery that causes a 1-2 dat split, you will see an alarming use of unscheduled leave causing more financial issues.
If we cut out delivery on Tuesdays what will we do after all these Monday holidays? Work overtime on Wednesdays? Maybe we should do another half day like the Saturdays are and cut service by several hours a week. Have customers rent a box to get thier delivery on the days the carriers don't go out to deliver. That way every one could work. Even our PMR's
I think no Saturday delivery is a great idea. And while your at it discontinue all thoes details where we have to pay milage and per deim and also have someone take a look at how much mileage some Postmaster are putting themselves in for is it really nessary or are they cheating the Postal Service???
I agree with the 5 day delivery and dropping Saturday's. As American's we could use the time with our families and bring back some tradition in our households. We are very fortunate to have our jobs and I for one am willing to do whatever it takes to keep us in business and employeed. As the 2nd largest employeer in the Nation we can't afford to loose sight. CHANGE is good and necessary. It all starts with each ONE of US. Take Pride in America, Take Pride in our Company and in our jobs. Give more and ask for less! Or we will ALL suffer the consequences.
No city delivery on Saturdays might work but HCR'S might need to still deliver that day since they may not deliver every day of the week anyway.
Retail windows should remain open for customers that work 5 days a week and only have Saturday to visit the Post Office
I remember when I was a child, most business in the town were closed on Wed. If the PO goes to 5days, other business might follow suit during our nations time of recession.
I think we need to ask congress for a break from the 6 billion a year we must pay in order to pre-pay retiree's insurance.we would have been in the black ink had we not had that concrete pair of shoes to wear.If this does not work than I think saturday would be the best day to loose delivery. We need to keep PMLR's active and we could use them on Monday mornings to cover the mail volume increase to that day.Do not close down rural post offices at all except a few EPM offices.
Skip saturday delivery. Most all of our businesses are closed on Saturdays. most customers leave town for sports or family on the weekends. Would also help with work hours as this office is already short help for Saturdays.
Stop Saturday delivery half the business or more are already closed and we are already delivery Saturday mail on Monday. You can not take away mail delivery during the week from business when they depend on the mail to employee their employees. We will just cause more effect to them. plus tues is a big express day for us, we can't afford to let that business to go somebody else
Eliminating Saturday delivery would save in many catagories... including sick calls, fuel, vehicle usage and carrier floaters. It would make scheduling a lot easier and would still allow the PO to be open for other business (box sections, windows, PMR training, etc.). I think that with the economy being they way it is right now, the public would understand very well. Asking for a government bailout would do a lot of damage to the Postal image.
A five day work week would indeed save the post office lots of money; however, Tuesday is not a good choice as it hurts the business community the most. A lot of RCA's, T-6's, TE's, and PTF could lose their jobs or have their hours drastically cut back.
Skip Sat delivery, catch up on Mon.
I am a Postmaster of an SCF with 26 Associate Offices. Going to a Monday through Friday delivery would be great. None of my Customers would be upset about not getting their mail on Saturday. However, if we were not to deliver on a week day this would really hurt some of Home Business customers as well as our weekday customers. These Business customers depend on their mail Monday thru Friday for income and merchandise.
Saturday non-deliveries instead of Tuesday makes the most sense, especially when you factor in holiday issues and of course the present labor/management agreements: to schedule two consecutive days off for craft employees whenever practicible. This would give carriers more ownership on their routes. In addition to the 17% cost savings in salaries & benefits, think how much fuel we would save!
Yes go to the five day work week. Instead of VOE survey. Send out this survey. Ask the employees about where to make cuts. You will be surprised at the savings they suggest throughout the company.
I believe that going to 5 days is the best option the USPS. Saturday is the only day that makes any sense. Businesses are closed, which happens to be the reason Tuesday is a low volume day!
I see several issues here- First, as mentioned; OUR OWN advertising uses the 6 day delivery as a selling point.
Second, those of us that have rural offices and utilize PMR's have a hard enough time filling the position with only a guarantee of Saturday hours; now they would ONLY be 'on-call'?
Third, are we going to shut down the WHOLE system or will the plants still be running? If the plants still run, we've got 2 days worth of mail, and no extra time to deliver it. If they shut down as well, we're just going to turn off the conveyors and leave everything? What about live/perishable goods? What about our delivery standards?
Fourth, what about the contract, where-in regulard are guaranteed 40 hours? Are we, after all this re-arranging, and fiding we have 4 1/4 positions but 5 reg clerks going to just 'give' them the money? How is that helping our financial situation? I imagine to do this, we excess the PTF's; then we are up against having enough to do day to day, but no flexibility for changing workloads or emergencies, leave, etc.
Sixth, does this become 'the slippery slope'? We start by cutting one day, does that lead to other days? What about closing unproductive Post Offices? Do we end up with only large metro areas being served? Outlying regions either not getting service or paying a surcharge? Maybe on a sliding scale, so that I, as an outlying area; mailing something to my Uncle in another outlying area, pay double surcharges?
Since everything (in this scenario) is now a POS Office, we can load up the software with a listing of available delivery areas; then when the customer asks if we deliver there, we can tell them.
Boy, are our customers going to be happy with us!
I believe USPS should do away with Saturday delivery. This is the least likely to affect our businesses.
Mondays are already heavy mail volume days. Why would we want to curtail Sat delivery only to be overwhelmed on mondays? If we curtail Tuesday delivery that would just be STUPID! Every handler/clerk will be calling in sick on monday or wednesday. Small offices that are stuggling would lose hours and its hard enough to keep PMRs as it is. If we don't deliver on sat. then I would just have my PMR in on Monday to help with the overburden and that is NOT saving workhours. Same with a tuesday curtailment, the PMR would be in on wednesday, still not saving any work hours. We are in for some tough times, and there are no easy answers. If we are to be a viable service provider then we need to be completely privatized and not have to answer to Congress or the Postal Rate Commission. We either sink or swin completely on our own. Every other retail outlet sets their own prices etc without checking with congress or the rate commission first.................
I am a PMR. I rely on Saturday hours. But, I also think if you have to go to 5 day work week Sat. would be the best to not deliver. I don't think it would be fair to customers to close on Tues. especially when some holidays fall on Monday. Regardless, the PMR or postmaster would still probably be required to come in on Sat. or Tues. if Express Mail is to be sold/delivered as our customers have been used to.
What about all those people that work Mon-Fri & can't get to their post office except for saturday? How do they conduct their business if we're not there? (Pick up or mail.)
get rid of saturday delivery
Gas prices are going to rise back up. You can count on it. Eliminating Saturday delivery would save millions. As somone else mentioned, a lot of holidays fall on Monday,so Tuesday delviery would be ludicrous! Businesses, even the postal service, depends on Monday through Friday mail delivery to send or receive information from employees and other businesses pertinent to their needs.
This is a terrible idea. It will further deteriorate our image in the public's eye. Tere are much more effective ways to cut costs. Consolidate money-losing offices, encourage local merchants to open contract stations, freeze NPA increases, adjust workforce to workload, discontinue the expensive district and area meetings, discontinue wasting money on frivilous video productions, stop sending people on details and payiong for housing, lodging and per diem, eliminate POOM positions and have postmasters report directly to the district manager (as was the case for many, many years), hold people accountable for productivity, and the list goes on and on. Potter's idea of cutting one day of delivery will do little to secure the USPS' future. It will further tarnish our reputation, diminish the American peoples' trust that postal management is able to properly run a company, embolden our competition and put may PTFs and RCAs in the position of losing their homes. This is just a very bad idea. If they want to cut costs, I'll show them how.
Closing offices and plants has not been proposed. Delivery is the issue. It should be Saturday. Right now, the split days off for carriers is only tolerated because the rotating days off equate to the three-day weekends every once in a while. If Tuesday is chosen, there will not be enough carriers after all the AL and SL which will be taken on Mondays.
A 5 day deliver week would be great. Many business are closed one day during the week why not the PO. Give employees 2 days in a row off. WHAT A MORAL BOOST!!!
If Saturday delivery were eliminated, the small offices would have a very difficult time retaining PMRs. Everytime a new PMR is trained, that costs my office. What about the rural customer who needs their precription and Saturday is the only day they has access to the Post Office. I feel that the situation has not been well thought through. I dislike the idea of a broken week by eliminating Tuesday delivery and the thought of delivering the box up after a Monday holiday on Wednesday is frightening.
To those that are worried about being overburdened... Have you seen the mail volume lately. If you can't do the job that you were hired to do then you need to find a new job. Yes, there are days that it is tough. Yes, everyone has been asked to put forth a little more effort. People that says that they can't get by without their PMR are either lazy or aren't thinking outside of the box. There are exceptions like a small window of operations, but I have seen far too many people say that they can't get by without help who miraculously get the job done when required to believe that it is a "real" problem. Especially when you consider the environment that we are in right now.
Something has to be done and Saturday nondelivery is the best option. We will all just have to suck it up and do a little extra work on Tuesday.
I have been saying 5 day delivery for years. Now is the right time. Saturday would be the day I would choose to drop and here is why: most businesses are closed on Saturdays, most Americans would not miss their mail on Saturday and carriers get 2 consecutive days off instead of Sundays/rotating. The result of this would be about a 15% reduction in workhours by not having to staff the 6th day for the carriers. Mondays would be heavier than they are now and here is how you deal with that: carriers work 10 hours on Monday (No OT) and then Tue-Fri they work 7.5 hour days, WOW 40 hour work weeks. The staff used to cover the carriers 6th day can now be moved into the open positions without hiring new people and eliminate the casual workforce. Customer that want Saturday delivery can opt for a PO Box and we could continue to deliver to PO Boxes on Saturdays. This would also increase the revenue from box rental. Express mail can still be delivered 7 days a week. Fuel costs would drop because one less day of delivery. Thinking outside the box to save the USPS. Rocky Mountain Heaven.
Skip Saturday delivery. Window operations are closed on saturdays in alot of locations now. If you have a weekday closure, you would lose the window revenue, which most other businesses use because they are open for business mon-fri. Also, close the plant on saturday too and mail volume wouldn't be so high on mondays.
I believe we should look to no sales on saturday, no rural delivery but continued service at processing plants and scf offices.
I beleive if we have to cut out one day of delivery , it should be Saturday. I believe the dog bite numbers would go down, as people tend to let their dogs run loose when they are home.
I believe on my route that doing away with saturday delivery wouldnt be so bad.I have to take a large part of my saturday, setting aside business customers and I dont get any extra time on monday to deliver all that mail. So nothing much would change for my except finally having two days off together.
Five days a week is a good idea. No delivery on Saturday makes more sense. Leave the windows open for sales and possibly work up mail in the PO boxes. Being closed on Tuesday after a Monday holiday will be a major irritation to business.
for the economy down turn, Saturday delivery should stop and cut all OT, period!
I am also a Postmaster. From the people in our community I have discussed this with I have had absolutely zero negative comments about closing on Saturdays. I think it's time that we face facts, keeping delivery on Saturday will have little to do with our ability to survive. We need to manage our funds and workforce as are other companies and take what at times may seem like the hard road to success. This will go a long way to cutting operational costs including compliment which would save in the long run on retirements and benefits, etc. Once FSS is in play this will not be as difficult to handle in five days. The fact is volumes are dropping at an alarming rate which equates to income. We are no longer in a position to act as if we own the show, we no longer do. Let's be realistic and save our company by doing whatever it takes to cut costs and continue to serve our customers on days they need us the most. Saturday is no longer one of those days.
No Saturday deliveries make more since than Tuesdauy. Mail Delivered on Saturdays is often left in mail boxes when people go out of town for the weekend. No saturday delivery would help keep this from happing. Cutting down on mail theift.
Why did the PM General and his cronies get such a huge BONUS this year(2008 sorry) and an increase of 36% salary for the same useless individuals when the PO is in such a dire situation? I would like to know of all those commenting how many of you are ready to give up your jobs? According to my disfunctional math 1/6 of the letter carrier work force would be gone. I am sure the PO will reduce the management force by the same amount????
Keep all 6 days to deliver and help with the economy by not putting more workers out of good paying jobs.
I agree with 5 day delivery. Saturday is lighter than Tuesday. In addition to this, closing on Tuesday would tarnish our image even further. We have many business closures on Saturday. Businesses depend upon us during the week. Keep retail hours the same as they are now on Saturdays. The savings would be tremendous.
how will we ever keep relief help, most are young mothers who count on this income. if we go to 5 days, we'll lose these employees. and how could you blame them. they would only get to work vacation days and sick hours. have you thought about who will work when, we don't have enough relief help. What a mess!
With out a doubt, the USPS should go to 5 day delivery. Making Saturday the non delivery day makes the most sense. Making Tuesday the non delivery day would be silly. The business world is Monday thru Friday. Most businesses that are closed on Saturday do not receive mail delivery now. UPS & Fed Ex work Monday thru Friday so why don't we? Is working that sixth day really worth it? In my opinion no. Some carriers are forced to work 6 days a week. People need to not only think about how many millions or even billions the Postal Service would save by eliminating Saturday delivery, but also think about how many carriers would have less stress and be able to spend more time with their families. Eliminating Saturday delivery would cut out overtime problems, scheduling problems, save millions or even billions on fuel and maintenance costs, and a lot of carriers could actually have a life and spend time with their families. Every government job that I know of works Monday thru Friday. Isn't the USPS a government job? Times change and the USPS needs to change and not be stuck in the past. I'm all for a five day work week! You should be too!
David Commeau
HCR Carrier
Powell, WY
Yes I beleive 5 day delivery would work, and making saturday a nondelivery day would be the best day considering that is when you have the majority of your absence.
MY HEART GOES TO MR POTTER FOR THIS BIG DECISION AND THE CONSIDERATION OF LARGE ROUTES AND UNIONS....
SATURDAYS WOULD BE THE OBVIOUS DAY OF NON-DELIVERY: 1) PM/SUPR/MGR DON'T WORK SATURDAYS AND THEY WOULD STILL HAVE "40" HOURS 2) RESIDENTIAL PICKUP MAIL IS VERY LOW 3) A LOT OF BUSINESSES ARE CLOSED ANYWAY AND GET DELIVERY ON MONDAY.
TUESDAYS WOULD BE A BAD NON-DELIVERY DAY: 1) PM/SUPR/MGR WHO HAVE CLOSED WINDOWS ON SATURDAY (DUE TO NO/LOW REVENUE) WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO WORK; THEREFORE, NO 40 HOURS. 2) RESIDENTIAL PICKUP MAIL WOULD FORGET WHAT DAY IT WAS. 3) BUSINESS MAIL COULD NOT BE RECEIVED.
The Postal Service can survive this, but we can't continue to do business the way we have, and expect to see different results.
We cannot disregard the tremendous volume losses. There is less mail going out for delivery every day. Unprecedented losses require unprecedented thinking. Reducing one delivery day is one option. We have data on volumes for each delivery day. It would make the most sense to eliminate the day with the least volume for delivery. No arguments about pivoting for your undertime on that day. Day off overtime goes away.
USPS can continue to reduce staffing at all levels through attrition. Fuels costs and maintenance for delivery vehicles will be reduced. I didn't see anywhere that we were closing the retail post offices on that day too. Customers could still pick up box mail and make necessary purchases. There would still be energy cost reductions by not lighting the workroom floor for most of that non-delivery day. Having read the PMG's comments before the Senate Subcommittee,he made many valid points; staffing reductions of 120,000 through attrition (not layoffs, for those who aren't protected), the possibility of changing the law on pre-funding retirements at a higher rate than the private sector, HQ staffing reductions, exective salaries frozen.
HQ leaders have partnered with union leadership to identify ways to create the necessary flexibility in our workforce to remain viable. We can continue to blame each other or we can work together to seek the business solutions we need. Drastic times require drastic measures.
While we are at it, let's just drop the "Service" from USPS. There has been little if any "Service" at the po for a long time.
The post office is just looking to slam carriers with heavy days on both Mondays and Wednesdays. Saturday is the only common sense day. Window services would still be open on Saturday. A ten hour day on Mondays and 7.5 hrs Tuesday -Friday as stated in an earlier blog might be a possibility.
No Saturday deliveries GREAT IDEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Most Buisness are closed Saturday, and 90% of the mail boxes that I deliever to on Monday still have the same mail in them that I delivered on Saturday. Doing away with Saturday's would save the Postal service a TON of money, and it would be a major boost to carrier moral. Carriers would be able to see there childerns Dance recidles,soccer,football,baseball, and what ever they are into. With out having to take annual or even more often call in sick.
No delivery on Saturdays would have the least amount of affect on business. Just becasue we go to a 5 day work week will not make people use other venues. There is no other delivery service that extends to the back woods of Kentucky or up state NY. People that use out letter service have no other choice. Who will deliver their letters. FEDEX and UPS depend on the USPS for parcel service to areas that they dont deliver to. I really do not think since the surcharges for FEDEX and UPS are going up and they cant afford to lessen their cost that it will drive anyone to them and the people that do will not off set the cost we will save in Gas and overhead. I do think that a
5 day motified service with EXPRESS mail going 7 days would most diffenently be a valuse to look at...
We should have gone to a 5 day work week long ago. The savings will be phenomenal. Most businesses are closed on Saturday.
Many people leave for the weekend and do not pick their mail up until Monday anyway.
Rural customers who get a daily newspaper would not be very happy not getting their papers on time. Window hours should not be eliminated on Saturdays since that is the only time some working people can get to the post office; that way the small offices could still utilize their PMR's so they can keep up to date with all of the many changes.
I would like to add one more cost-saving measure that I find particularly annoying: handling mail more than is required, i.e.missorting by clerks, CFS returns with good forwards, mail that is put in proper zip code slots in the hot mail case but is sometimes dumped back into the mail stream, misdelivery of mail. How much could we save if everyone just did their job to the best of the ability and focused on the task at hand? Could we have a series of 5-minute refreshers on proper handling of mail?
Eliminate Saturday delivery on routes. Leave retail window open. PO boxes become a true premium service. Express hold for pickup would still be available. Have subs case the routes but no delivery. No standard mail delivery on Mondays.
The Post Office will spend more money studying the issue than what they may save. Still having to fullfill union contracts, savings will be minimal. Comments have suggested that people won't miss Saturday deliveries or services. Only if they're city folk. There's a lot of people that can only get to a PO on Saturdays. Raising postage more than a penny or two and adjusting work hours will work better than slicing off a days service.
Before service is cut, perhaps some corporate management jobs and middle management positions should be eliminated.
I have some very mixed feelings about 5-day delivery....I agree that we need to do whatever will save the company, and this sounds like a logical and effective solution, especially if it would be a temporary situation, as has been proposed. It would save fuel in delivery vehicles, wear and tear on the vehicles, and of course all those T-6 positions would not be necessary anymore--how many jobs nationwide would that eliminate?! On the other hand, one of the feathers in our cap is that we DO deliver to every address, every day (well, 6 days out of 7, anyway), and that is something our competitors can't boast about. I agree that we need to cut costs where we can, but we also want to keep whatever edge we can, and i think 6 day delivery gives us that edge. If Congress would relieve us of the obligation to pre-pay the funding of the retirement program, that would help immensely. If I put it in perspective and ask how I would like not getting mail at home on Saturday, to be honest, i would miss it! And how would I like it if we kept Saturday delivery and then my job were deleted to save money???? Well, I'd miss my job and income more than I'd miss Saturday delivery!!
Stopping mail delivery on Saturdays rather than Tuesdays makes the most sense. Lets get in line with the rest of the business world. By stopping Tuesday delivery, many businesses would only be receiving mail delivery 4 days a week because most businesses, including schools, courthouses, banks etc... are already closed on Saturdays. I also believe that employee moral and less sick leave usage would be a great $$$ saving benifit for the USPS.
So most of the employees want to do away with Saturday delivery because it will save so much money.So will those employees take a 1/6 pay cut?
Get rid of the Rehab's. Retrain them for other employment. They cost the Postal Service in lost work hours, moral, positions, etc!
You ask us to go out and sell our services and then you cut them. This is a fine line which could cause us to lose even more. Why not quit paying the transportation to deliver to all the offices on Sundays and Holidays that don't work anyway trying that first and see what it saves and how we manage it.
duh. no saturday delivery is the best option. Closed business, lighter mail and people don't expect mail on saturday anyway.
I don't think that the public and most of the rank and file in the USPS understand the seriousness of the postal financial crisis. If things continue as they are there a real anticipation that the postal service will not have the money to make payroll in six months. There are currently underway 15% reductions in HQ staff; 19% staff reductions in Area staff; and 15% reductions in each district's staff. The last several months the USPS has lost 400-500 million dollars a month. Know any businesses that can sustain that kind of loss? We're in serious trouble and "inconvenience" is, unfortunately, not something that we can avoid.
No Saturday delivery would be the best. Tuesdays or any other weekday impacts customers expecting to have bank deposits and other transactions credited to bank accounts, etc. I strongly suggest boxing mail on Saturdays. Maybe, for those businesses that want mail delivery on Saturday, they would rent all our non-rented PO Boxes. This would generate extra revenue for a service that many city delivery business do not purchase because they have free city delivery.
A major unlearned lesson for the USPS over the last couple of decades is that their management must do far more to reach out and develop positive work relationships with their employees. There have been improvements made but not on the scale that it should and MUST have. We cannot make the gains that necessary when we continue to be adversarial and "Us vs Them". This has to change and change big time. Part of the result of this, I suggest, is that while most postal employees feel a strong pride in working for the USPS in the job that they do, many, it seems, do not feel that they are a real part of the solution.....understanding that being as efficient and productive as they can will have a major impact... that means not using sick leave when they aren't sick...working out issues at the lowest level to avoid the costs and expenses of money and time on grievances and EEOs... picking up the slack in the office when it is there... unions and employees holding their own co-workers accountable for doing their jobs effectively and honestly.... There is enough waste on both sides for sure; but if we become a "Team" with a bit "T"... we will get much farther in pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, dusting ourselves off, and getting back to the unfinished business of making the USPS the most effective, efficient and HOSPTIABLE agency in which to work. Pie in the sky? Only if you believe that it is. As Henry Ford sais, "If you think you CAN or you think you CAN'T, you're right." Our thoughts and believes drive us or keep us confined. It's our choice to decide.
Skipping Saturday delivery is feasable, but it creates major overtime problems on Monday. If you go to a 4 day week ( 4-10 hour shifts) you can eliminate alot of overtime and still skip Saturday delivery.
Customers wouldn't want us to stop delivery mid week, but majority of customers don't care about Saturday. We could still deliver Express on Saturdays & Sundays. PO box mail would still be delivered on Saturdays also.
No Saturday delivery would save a lot of expenses for the Postal Service. Smaller offices with just P.O. Box delivery and a PMR could still sort the mail to the boxes but have the window closed to retail. Most smaller offices are only open for two hours early Saturday morning anyway, with very little retail sales taking place. If it would only be temporary and not a permanent solution, PMR's might stick it out instead of quitting (it is hard to keep a PMR anyway).
Just one more reason for the PTF not to be a member of the union. Is the union going to protect the PTF? Probably not.
NO MAIL ON SATURDAY. MAKE ALL ROUTES 8 HOURS OR MORE 5 DAYS A WEEK ONLY.
Instead of swtiching to 5 day delivery, I'd like to see us close down some of these tiny post offices that are within a couple miles of each other. Our district has many of these offices located fairly close together. I live in the city and drive 6 miles to my nearest PO. The small towns should be able to drive that type of short distance to the next town to get service. Let them keep their ZIP code, but have them drive a bit farther. Perhaps a mobile post office once or twice a week would satisfy their needs along with NDCBU's. And, please, give us some relief from that unfair pre-funded retirement requirement.
Let's see... The government is bailing out private businesses and banks, but doesn't give a crap about a government agency. So now with this wonderful "change" all of the unions and associations voted for, we are marching right through socialism and into being a third-world nation. You all wanted change. You got it.
Delivery should not be cut. Expenses could be cut hundreds of other ways. If the company is in such a financial crisis, why are there still NPA increases? Some folks are getting upwards of 10% increases (or more). Why are there still people on details? Why does the company still pay to relocate managers instead of promoting locally? Why are there still so many light duty employees? Why do we still waste money on videos, service reviews, meetings, banquets and silly safety training? Why are there places with three money-losing post offices within 5 miles of each other? Why why why...? The list goes on and on...We stop delivering on Saturdays and our competition will pick up the business. Then THEY can claim service is their premier product, unlike the irrelevant, antique postal service.
5 Day deliver is a good idea. We should also cut our hours at the window.
I think in order to ensure our jobs, 5 day delivery needs to be an option.
Do away with Saturday delivery. We should also look at closing the mail processing plants for one day a week, if we close the doors at midnight Saturdays, then open again at midnight 24 hours latter, we would save in night dif and Sunday premiums. This would also even out the delivery load on Mondays reducing overtime.
I have some people who get mail 3 days a week now. How would that change?
For the window, we already don't open Saturdays, so no change.
PMR's wouldn't get any practice with sorting OR window, unless the PM was gone, so relief service would diminish.
If all this is covered in planning, I agree with the PMG, reluctantly, it is something we probably need to do.
Instead on cutting back on delivery days change the laws on no fee boxes. If you rent a PO Box then the customer should have to pay for the security and the employee that works the mail.
The Postal Service has hugh problems fiscally. Small corrections are not going to work. A big fix is to go to a five day delivery week. Tuesday and Wednesday make some since for the Postal Service, but very little for corporate America. For the Postal Service to not deliver billions of dollars worth of accounts receivables across the nation would be devastating to the economy. A corporation such as Sears would loose tens of millions of dollars a month by not getting float money. They live by getting your payment in their bank account as soon as possible and therefore receive income. A lost delivery day during the business week would be too costly for our customers.
Saturday is the best answer.
If you must cut delivery days then do it selectively on Saturday. Smaller offices with no city or rural delivery 55's and 11's can catch up on Mondays if Saturdays are cut. This wont cause the problems with clerks having split days off or with the workload on mondays being overwhelming for clerks and carriers in the larger offices. Yet it should reduce costs for staffing and transportation of mail on that day.
I agree Skip Saturday delivery. If we choose to take the light delivery day of Tuesday, far too many of our customers will get confused and angry on which day, do we deliver. Lets not confuse them. Plus, we can increase our revenue on Saturday/Sunday/Holiday Premium Express Mail Delivery. Only need one ptf for a town of 7000 to 20000 people to deliver a few expresses on the days off.
I think 5 day delivery with sat./sun closing will save billions a year on fuel, energy, vehicle longevity, maintenance, overtime, less sick calls, better attitude in the work place, and well rested workers who will perform better. I believe it is a great idea if this needs to be done to save our future.
If a day needs to be eliminated, Saturday's would definitely be the better day for residential and business. Most people don't pick their mail up on weekends anyway. We need to keep our express mail delivery open all seven days. If we were to close on Tuesday, our small office would lose $500 a week on express mail from one customer who mails all his on Mondays.
Lots of good ideas and comments. Cutting Sat delivery would initially be bad PR, but a big cost savings. Mondays deliveries heavy already, but all carriers & PM have to do is roll 3rd cl to Tue or Wed, just keep away from OT hrs. Don't forget to turn off lights in po during the day when you have lots of sunshine here in CO. all savings will help.....also stop misc mail delivers to other PO's that is not EXPRESS Mail, or not with a delivery requirement.
4 tens eliminate saturdays. we would be able to keep the RCA's, PTF's and T-6's.
To remove tuesday delivery is just plain stupid. It is not the lightest day of the week. In Denver we deliver ADVO - Red Plum (currently until they go under like everything else), to discontinue Tuesday delivery will make Wednesday tougher and overtime will go up. I don't necessarily agree with the five day delivery but whatever we can do to keep our jobs in twenty years from now. Saturday would be the best day - outgoing mail is very light, transportation cost could be far less. Monday is already a somewhat heavy day, having Saturday and Sunday mail in with Monday would be less stressful than worrying about Tuesday off. Any third class mail could be curtailed and worked through the rest of the week, finishing up on Friday.
Just don't lose our customers and give our competition a reason to undercut the Post Office. It seems that is what management does anyway.
I, too, initially thought of Saturday as the delivery cut day, however, as some comments have gone, you'd have too many days of non-delivery with a holiday week. The thought of Tuesday delivery cut day would post the same problem. Not only would it over-load the facilities on Wednesday but also the clerks/carriers. I think the best solution would be a combination of top-position salary cuts, not so much on the details, and cut the work week by one day. Perhaps a Thursday might be the right fit for all involved? Not much mail is received to deliver on Thursdays and you’d still have Fridays and Saturdays to get the customers their mail. This would not put such a burden on the clerks/carriers and wouldn’t over-load the facilities either.
Five day delivery seems to be a great idea for personal agendas, but it would destroy the institution we call the Postal Service. Not near the money stated would be saved by this needless drastic change. And there are many ways to trim expenses that haven't even been tried yet. Our bosses may see the sky falling, but it's merely changing. The fallout from further lack of service would be major. The loss of jobs and the disruption of rebidding routes and relocating personnel would be devastating. We must stop ignoring empirical wisdom and start using common sense. Listening to employees who respectfully disagree with you would also be helpful. Trying to decide which day of the week that is least destructive to service is ridiculous. In a service business, all you have to offer is service.
Here are the options, we can cut off your foot or we can cut off your leg. My thoughts would be instantly why cant we do some kind of surgery to fix it so we dont have to cut off anything. How many management jobs do we actually need? How many people do we need in a vice president position? Even though we have a great delivery supervisor, how many offices actually need one? Our office is mature enough to get the mail out and delivered without some guy walking around pretending to count mail. So I ask again, which part should we cut off?
The Postal Service is no longer the main means of commnication in this world. Time to face the fact that it is an antiquated system. If you asked and private citizen or business in this country, they more than likely would tell you that not receiving mail on Saturday would not impact their lives or business in the least. If something has to be delivered on Saturday, the PO has a little thing called Express Mail.
I have noticed some people have been voting to keep six day delivery. I wonder how many of you that are saying this actually work six days a week now? You probably have a sub and only work five days a week so why would you care about the people such as myself who work six days a week? You wouldn't. I also believe that some of you may be RCA's and afraid of losing money so that's why you don't want to go to five day delivery. The USPS is losing billions every year with six day delivery so those of you voting to keep six day delivery must only be thinking of yourselves and do not care if the USPS goes out of business.
I have spoken to a lot of my customers and they have no complaints with us working Monday thru Friday. In fact, they think it's a very good idea. In my office we have a Postmaster and a Supervisor. I feel bad for my supervisor because although he does get two days a week off, he usually has to work every Saturday and have a day off during the week instead. Even with a high position like his, he does not even get Saturday and Sunday off. If we had five day delivery, he as well as all carriers would have the weekends off.
Here are some positives and negatives of going to five day delivery.
POSITIVES
1. USPS will save millions if not billions on fuel, maintenance, and overtime.
2. USPS would need fewer RCA's which would save the USPS a considerable amount of money. Fewer RCA's in one office would mean a RCA would move up more quickly and acquire their own route instead of waiting five to ten years (if not more) behind other RCA's.
3. Express Mail service would still be available Saturday & Sunday which would continue to provide customer service while at the same time providing additional revenue for the USPS.
4. Carriers and supervisors would have less stress and be able to have two days off in a row and be able to spend more time with their families. Isn't family important to anyone anymore?
5. Carriers would enjoy their job more and look forward to coming to work which would probably result in fewer leave of absenses.
6. Scheduling would be easier.
Negatives
1. Carriers would take a pay cut.
2. RCA's may not get as much work depending on the size of the office. However, a RCA could be trained on more routes so they could pick up more days.
So as you can see, there are more positives than negatives with going to five day delivery. This is the most effective way the USPS can cut costs and make it a better place for carriers and supervisors to work. I do not think the USPS should stop there though. I think the USPS should close down smaller Post Offices that are just breaking even or losing money. Most of the time there is another Post Office within ten to twenty miles anyway. Customers will adapt. Wal-Mart did not become as big as they are today by building stores in areas they knew would not be profitable. The same can be said about UPS & Fed Ex. They both do not work Saturday's, aren't in every town, and yet they are both very profitable and not losing billions of dollars a year like the USPS.
The bottom line is that the USPS needs to go to five day delivery if it wants to survive. I would rather take a small paycut than not have a job at all. I urge you to look at all the positives about going to five day delivery before you are so quick to click to keep six day delivery. Thank you!
David Commeau
HCR Carrier
Powell, WY
Saturday makes the most sense. So we will probably close Tuesdays.
******POSTAL EMPLOYEES UNITE
I find this all hilarious. Will we one day go to a 5-day delivery? Maybe. But this is not going to happen anytime in the foreseeable future. The five day suggestion was a ruse to get congress to back off from the punitive pre-funding requirements.
Settle down, folks. Six day delivery is here to stay.
Sounds like making the carriers do 6 days work in 5. It will save the P.O.money at the expense of the employee. The mail still comes in 7 days a week and gets processed 7 days a week. Now it will just be delivered in 5.
First, Obama and the government should provide healthcare for All.
Second, get rid of middle management. Let station managers and postmasters do split shifts to run the office. Morning and evenings when the carriers are there. What do they do during the 5-7 hours the carriers are on the street?
I think we should cut Saturday delivery. But that does not mean we have to cut Saturday window and box service. We could maintain Saturday window hours and Box service, encouraging the customers who need Saturday mail delivery to rent a PO BOX increasing our revenue. Furthermore those clerks working Saturday could distribute mail to carrier cases thus lessening the distribution workload on Monday. We should also retain Saturday Express mail service and collections.
Here is a though... Instead of going to 5-day delivery across the board. Why not have certain select routes go to 5-day delivery. Such as those that have businesses that are closed on Saturdays. And the other thing in mind is anyone concerned about all the jobs that will be lost due to the 5-day delivery across the nation. Because I most certainly am.
Please cut the delivery days down to 5 and pick Saturday as the day to cut. There would be multiple savings in gas, vehicle repair, sick calls, T-6 carriers, etc... The mail could still come to the stations, as it does on Sunday. There would still be a need for ptfs, they could work Saturdays, casing, delivering priority packages and expresses. Also, cut some supervisor positions along with the smaller number of carriers.
I agree to eliminate Saturday delivery. Most of our customers aren't home or care about delivery on Saturday. If we eliminate Tuesday delivery, we lose revenue, and our service to our business customers who will turn to UPS or FED EX to deliver packages since they can't wait until Wed. What happens if we have a monday holiday, no mail from Sat. to Wed.???? Eliminate Sat. delivery is the best option to save fuel costs, and wages while still serving our customers.
The USPS needs to close some small town offices. Rural carriers can sell stamps, pick up packages & provide most services. Why pay PMs $50 G + benefits? Take a look at not renewing leases on these buildings. McD's would never keep a store open that brought in so little revenue.
If we would put Service back in our business, we would not be in a financial crisis. Every Postal employee should work at increasing revenue.
i strongly disagree with the 5 day work week i am a sub and only get to work one day a week, cut it down and i'm out of a job and i love my job. lots of people still count on saturday deliveries, not all of our customers are businesses99% of my route is residential, people who need to receive checks, bills, prescriptions, whatever, don't our customers deserve to get their mail as soon as possible? raise the cost of stamps, cut out the length of training costs,etc but don't take away my job!!!!!
Who besides carriers and other craft people will even bother to read these comments? Sounds a lot like VOE to me. Entrenched upper managers should log-on with some of their comments. Wouldn't that be entertaining! Here's a novel idea, how about letting our lower level managers, ie. postmasters, make some choices instead of listening to those above them who are out of touch with reality at the local levels? If we were not enslaved to the asinine egalitarian socialism all around us in our government, there could be some real decisions made. Each route and carrier should be looked at individually. Let the postmasters decide which routes would save money if put on 5 day work week. I know, a pipe dream. We've been looked at as clones for so long to see us as individuals is impossible. For the stop-gap-- close on Saturday, until Potter et. al. can do something really helpful.
We should consolidate Post Offices and Mail Processing facilites before go to 5 day delivery. Additional facilities were added for increased volumes now that they have decreased we no longer need these facilities.
close on Saturdays, something needs to be done. Several offices could share a PMR, giving them enough hours to keep them employed.
I think that if we go to five day delivery, it should be Saturday. this would the day that would not effect most Businesses. If we go to Tuesday or Wednesday most businesses operate these days and this would be a major difference to our customers.
If 5 day delivery will keep us in business than go for it. People don't like change but they will get used to it. Saturday seems like the logical day to cut service. Just don't allow carriers to work overtime the other 5 days of the week to make up for the closed day.
eliminate Saturday delivery, costs go down, the possibility of overtime goes down, this would add up to huge savings. I've had many customers tell me they think doing away with Saturday delivery is a good idea.
Discontinue of Saturday would be a good idea.
Also rural routes do not need 6 day a week delievery. Three days would be ample.
I hope the logical, intelligent, choice is made (eliminate Saturday delivery). This will make scheduling MUCH easier with the dwindling number of employees, not to mention the additional number of jobs that will undoubtedly be abolished upon implemention of this schedule. It's really a good idea, because the other companies have been saving money for years by not delivering on Saturday. It might make mail a little heavier on Monday, but maybe not; and also then Tuesday won't be all that light any more.
We could continue to have our retail window open on Saturday to accept pkgs and sell stamps and the PMR's and Clerks could sort PO Box mail. This would in turn persuade customers to rent a PO Box if they want Saturday mail.
Whether it be Saturday or Tuesday, cutting one day a week is a TERRIBLE idea. I thought we are all supposed to be about what is best for our customers? Well that is not best for our customers and if they want to mail a package on Tuesday, they will go to the competition and probably stay there!!! We will slit our own throat if we make delivery only 5 days a week!!!!
If a day of delivery has to be lost, I vote for Saturday. All I ever get on Saturdays is my sale ads. I usually get them about 1:30, which is too late for the best sales anyway. I would like to see these ads come out on Fridays. We could still do Saturday Express Mail delivery for those wanting to pay an extra fee, similar to the Sunday fee.
WE THINK ENDING SATURDAY DELIVERY IS THE ONLY OPTION THAT MAKES SENSE, THIS IS BECAUSE MOST BUSINESS'S ARE OPEN M-F AND CLOSED ON WEEKENDS.
Stopping delivery on Sat.is the wise choice. It would greatly improve morale by allowing us to spend more time with our families. Close on Tues and watch the sick leave rise to enable us to get 2 days off together and not get any weekends off when we at least get one every 6 weeks now. The input I"ve receive so far by the public is in favor of Saturdays off since it is pretty much the standard work week for most anyway and they also say Tuesday is STUPID; take away service from the public and see what happens. You could still use skeleton crews for Express mail and collections and emphasize the use of the APC machines on Saturdays for customers. Offer early outs with full benefits and no penalties to carriers eligible and I'm sure enough would take them and allow the T6 people to get routes and minimize job losses. I'm sure the initial change would cause problems at first, but as time progressed it would probably get smoother. Like I said, the Saturday option would probably increase morale and in turn productivity and probably reduce sick calls whereas the Tuesday option would probably have the opposite effect on all the above. Most generally, the mail is heavy on Monday and Tuesday and then tapers off towards the weekend also making the Saturday closure option viable. I'd say if Saturday is not the choice then leave things the way they are where we can at least get an occassional weekeng with our families instead of none at all. Times are changing electronically and we have always been asked to adapt in the past, this would just be another choice necessary to make. DJ
Drop Saturday delivery. A lot of businesses are closed anyway. The businesses don't want Tuesday dropped!
Several of my customers have asked me what we in the world Potter is thinking, TUESDAYS??? Saturdays would be much better for the majority of our customers as well as an obvious choice for carriers as well. Being able to spend more time with my family would be a HUGE morale booster and I would go as far as to say I would be willing to take a PERMANENT STEP DOWN to a level 5 position for that opportunity. The USPS is drowning in debt and I would be willing to take that compromise of weekends off with a bit less pay. Wade Gardner - MAIN Post Office / Littleton, Colorado
I feel we need to deliver 6 days a week. We should capitalize on Saturday delivery since our competitors do not offer service on Saturdays. On another thought, I think we should be charging everybody $10-20 to deliver the mail including country and city delivery, and if they move they get charged again. We can't continue to do business these days for FREE! No other business can handle delivery for free.
I think Saturday delivery is a long overdue cutback. Tuesday is normally when the Grocery Ads are delivered and we DON"T want to jepordize that.
Another HUGE savings would be to curtail the detail-go-round, eliminating the overhead of details and the overtime to cover the spot. Have folks actually work the job they were hired to perform would in some cases be a novelty.
5 day work week, no saturday/sunday delivery. Not only would the Post Office save money by fuel savings alone. We would make money, because our customers want and need a solid schedule, the customers that I have talked with like the monday thru friday solid schedule.
Saturday "free" delivery must go. Customers can have some fee structure for Saturday home delivery. In packaging services, their can be a "Priority Prime" service like an "Express Mail Lite" for Saturday delivery.
Keep 6 days of delivery and cut out other expenses, such as closing small town PO's, and eliminating some of the transportation that is not necessary to get the mail to plant before a certain time. If our mail volume has gone down that much why do we need to run an extra truck to the small offices to pick up almost nothing so that the plant can run it?? Level 11 PO's are having 2 trucks pick up mail; one around 4pm and the other around 5pm.
If we must go to 5 day delivery, Saturday is the day we should not deliver because our competitors don't work on Saturday either and we would be giving them our business if it were on Tuesday.
I agree to eliminate Saturday delivery. Most bussines are close or care about delivery on Saturday.
I have talked with my neighbors and business customers about this and almost all have said they wouldn't miss it if we eliminated Saturday delivery. The businesses that really need their mail on Saturday use caller service and we could still provide that service. Dropping a day during the week does not make any sense.
Keep Retail windows open on Saturdays for the revenue, and cut Saturday delivery.
It has come to the point where we really do need to function like a business. We need to look at closing post offices that have service for 2 to 4 hours per day when a RR or HC deliver mail on the outskirts of those towns and sometimes drive right through those towns. For a few more dollars a day, all these small towns could have delivery at their driveways. This would eliminate a postmaster position and a pmr position which so many people say it is hard to find a pmr, train them, and keep them.
If we were a normal business, and a post office can't generate enough revenue for its own operation, the normal business would close.
It doesn't take much effort to be in block 15 in a little town and then in return get a big NPA check, but the office can't generate enough revenue to pay its own bills and salaries of the PM and PMR?. What type of normal/private business would survive?
I'm for eliminating Saturday delivery because it would decrease overtime and sick leave and would give our overworked carriers a much needed rest. Saturday nondelivery would have less impact on businesses than a work week would.
A Postal Service presence should be available on Saturday. If regular Sat delivery must cease - how about keeping out windows open, box sections sorted and run Express mail & pick up collections.
Eliminating Saturday delivery would cut costs, eliminate many substitute jobs, cut fuel costs,
raise the moral of the employees and eliminate the problem of getting enough RCAs and TRCs to cover on Saturdays. You could make the subs PTFs and you have a more dedicated employee. It is a win, win situation. When the economy recovers you can also add it back.
If the USPS needs to choose one day to not deliver, I believe Saturday is a better choice than Tuesday. Many businesses are closed on Saturdays anyway. The Postal Service looking at Tuesday as a nondelivery day because of low volume is putting its own interests ahead of our customers'. As a Small Business Specialist, explaining to potential customers that we will pick up their packages every day except for Tuesday would be a nightmare. That alone would probably keep many businesses from choosing the USPS instead of a competitor. Current customers would use our competitors in order to get items sent or delivered on Tuesdays and the USPS would end up losing business. Election Day always falls on Tuesday and the USPS is an important factor in voting by mail. Giving carriers Sat/Sun off instead of Sun/Tues is a wonderful goodwill gesture and carriers would have 2 days to rest up for heavy volume on Mondays.
Everyone seems to assume that this discussion includes closing offices one day per week. I have not seen that proposed anywhere. To me, curtailing delivery means city and rural carriers, not post office box delivery. That is typically accomplished in conjunction with retail services within a building.
If it is a federal law that mandates 6-day-per-week delivery, how then can we have HCRs and 2- and 3-time per week delivery in some parts of the country?
Curtail delivery on Saturdays and how many sick leave calls will there be on Fridays and Mondays? If Monday is a holiday, sick leave on Friday and Tuesday--hmmm, that may be a good way for FERS people to use some of their accumulated sick leave before they retire....
Before you do away with the 6th day of delivery, how about doing away with night work? 6pm to 6am night differential would save a lot of money, not to mention save on sick leave because night time employees want off to go to their kids ballgames or watch the super bowl on TV. The plants can process the mail during the day and deliver it to the stations before 6pm. All mail deposited prior to NOON will get processed that day for next day delivery in the local areas. After that time, the mail gets processed the following day. Can't get the mail ready for the Post Office by NOON and it has to be there tommorrow? Use next day EXPRESS MAIL before we close at 5pm. This also helps the delivery unit because they know how much mail they have for the next delivery day and bring in the carriers at 6am! Hooray, clerks are happy, carriers are happy, supervisors are happy, customers are happy because they get all of their mail at a decent time EACH DAY. And guess what, sick leave percentages go down because the plant people go to work instead of calling in because of some important TV event they want to watch! Consider it people before you lose more of our business by eliminating a delivery day.
I am willing to take a $1.00 an hour cut in pay to help the Postal Department. If EVERYONE took a $1.00 an hour cut---just think how much money WE would be putting back in OUR business. And it may meen keeping our jobs and hours.
I am a postmaster in a Level 18 office and I think that 5 day delivery should be the last option we invoke. After looking at reducing nonessential area and district personnel we should look at eliminating small post offices (level 11 and under. Especially those that are within 5 miles of a larger office. I have 4 level 11 offices within 5 miles of my office. They do not have rural routes out of them and their customers come to my office during the week because they work here and on Saturdays because we are open longer then their own offices. My rural route carriers already go into those towns and deliver the majority of the citizens mail. We would instantly save $50,000 a year between salary and expenses Adding the 60-70 rural boxes to my routes would not even equal 1/4 of that $50,000. If congress wants us to operate like a business they need to let us do what needs to be done.
Sounds as though five day weeks could save a lot of money. Saturday would seem to be the only realistic choice.
How would smaller offices be able to retain PMR's if they didn't get a couple hours work each week? It's already difficult to keep a decent PMR.
Maybe the USPS should consider postponing the "American's With Disabilities Act" upgrades that are currently underway so we could save some money. How can we justify these expenditures to our customers when we are crying that we are losing money hand over fist. Evidently we can make these changes and spend thousands of dollars on them but we're considering a reduction in the services we provide. That's a mighty tough sell. There are no disabled customers in the town where I live and according to the Postmaster she has never (over eight years) had a disabled person attempt to enter her post office. But by golly we'll be ready for them, just in case!
It's a nice gesture but the timing is lousy. Someone in a senior management position should take note and put a stop to this ridiculous waste of money until we are back on an even keel. It might be the law but now is not the time for indiscriminate spending.
Closing Saturdays would be the best option. Mail and business is so light on Saturdays that it sure doesn't pay to stay open. Think of how much we would save! Why not try this option first.
Learn from FedEx & UPS???
We should stop playing follow the leader and try being the leader.
The new President says he wants to put Americans back to work and we are trying to make reasons for having less employees.
We should tell the President that we want to show him how we are helping him accomplish his (our) goals.
A 5 day delivery week will impact the entire service, not all bad. Retail options are still available. No matter what your role, employees need to realize the big picture, not just their single part.
Personally I would prefer to not deliver on Saturdays. However, I am a 36 hour office, open 9-3 Mon thru Fri, so that means that I see most of my customers on Sat. Truthfully, my customers would be furious if I were closed Saturdays, but Monday is my slowest day. Aren't we in the business of Customer Service? I realize that we need to save money as well, but it is a fine line between saving money and angering customers
If we must go to a five day deliver we should deliver on the same days our competitors do. If they don't deliver on Saturday, then that's the day we should cut. We should never give them the advantage of advertising to businesses that they deliver on a weekday (such as Tuesday) that the USPS doesn't. They will eat us alive if we discontinue a weekday delivery and we will lose all of the package business customers that we have worked years to gain.
Never remove a SERVICE unless it's absolutely necessary. There are other ways to cut costs. Broadening your services keeps you head to head with your competitors. Allowing competitors an advantage like this will only make things worse. On top of that, you'd have an overflow of mail as Saturdays can be fairly heavy as it is. So we'd be delaying mail to compensate or we'd be adding extra staff to Mondays to handle the extra load. How does that save money exactly?
Sweeten the pot on the early outs and get rid of the high dollar employees before you get rid of the 6th delivery day. Replace high salaried station mangers ($80,000 p/yr) with lower level paid managers ($55,000 p/yr). Offer an early out incentive of say $50,000 and in 2 years the post office will recoup that offer. Otherwise if the current manager does not retire, then the Post Office will pay out over $250,000 per manager over the course of 10 years (and that does not include yearly pay raises!). Same holds true for the high end craft employees. Don't be so cheap with the early outs, everyone wins with a monetaray offer. No layoffs, 6 day delivery, senior people gone, fresh young ideas motivating us into the future. Take a short term loss now for the benefit of the Postal Future!
No delivery on Tuesday? Boy now that makes sense. Lets see, vote by mail ballot deadline falls on yeah a Tuesday. Day after a Monday holiday and then be closed?
No thanks.
Make it Saturday. Volume is light, a lot of schools and businesses are closed. Families traditionally travel on weekends. That has a much better thought out sound to me.
And, bonus of all bonus, we have the rest of the week to catch up the increased volume due to one less delivery day.
The idea of having retail windows open with no delivery is not a wise one either. No delivery, no HCR? NO trucks? Has this guy even begun to think this one through???
Small offices depend on depend on PMRs to fill in when the postmaster is sick. PMRs work on Saturday predominately. If you remove that option you won't have backup relief for Postmasters. Besides, PMR's become OIC's and gain a lot of experience through this venue. Let's stop double handling mail by getting it to the proper location the first time. Let's get the proper price for our services (revenue protection). Instead of removing services, lets expand or alter our services to become more competitive. Flat Rate boxes are a great example of that. Find better ways to evaluate performance that are less time taking and costly. Allow more electronic record storage for less paper and ink waste. If we were proactive BLUE would have invented e-mail. Let's come up with something better than email and market it.
I love seeing someone suggest taking a $1.00 per hour cut in pay.
Excuse me. Postmasters do not even receive a cost of living to keep our pay in line with clerks and now you want to snip away at my base pay too.
I think someone like the Postmaster General needs to take a step back into the field and see what we are up against as it is.
Eliminate some of these ridiculous reports we do so we can back to taking care of our customers.
If the mail isn't moving into the office, there is not a lot of point to being open. It won't move out of the office either.
I would be willing to do 4 ten hour days per week and give a PMR one day.
This would have window service available to the customers who cannot make it in for the 9-5 normal work day. Some of them actually have to work then too.
I believe there are several things that could be done before we resort to five day delivery. We should require all customers to put their mail receptacles where it is most economical for us to deliver. Centralized units should be required on all floors of highrise buildings. Carriers should not deliver individually to each office. This would cut time from many routes. This would make more sensible use of our resources. More flexibility should be given to employees to do their job. If they can show that they can save money by casing mail in the office instead of taking DPS to the street on some routes, let them do it. Forget the chasing numbers game. Let's look at the bottom line price. Don't try to make one category of expenses look better by increasing expenses in another. We should close all small offices that are within close distance of a larger office. The USPS is required to provide delivery to everyone, not to be a gathering place for a community. We are limited in that a carrier has to cover the route everyday whether the mail volume is high or low. If five day delivery becomes necessary, so be it. I get really tired of comments of what the government should do for everyone. The government is US, not an institution in the sky. We are becoming a self centered country that want what we want regardless of the cost to others.
Perhaps the PMG might consider reducing his raise to 5K instead of 72K. That would save us 335K over 5 years alone. Multiply that by the other 7 execs who got similar raises and we're saving some real moeny. The mailers are not going to allow us to give up any week day and we know it. As for operating like a business that won't happen without us actually stepping up to the plate and addressing poor performance.
Doing away with Saturday delivery is the only sensible option in the current environment. It would remove a structural inefficiency with our business model. Don't talk about temporarily suspending delivery one day a week. It's time for bold decisions. Why would we even consider not delivering mail on a weekday such as Tuesday? We would still have to operate the retail windows, still run transporatation to deliver the mail from the retail operations to the Plant, etc. Eliminating Saturday delivery,retail operations, collections, and Plant operations would do away with slow Tuesdays. The mail collected Monday from Saturday/Sunday would be our Tuesday delivery mail.
Cutting Saturday delivery is a good idea for the LARGE cities and communities. However, it will hurt those of us in the small/rural communities. What happens to our PMR's if they are no longer working those days. Who I am going to get to come my office when I am sick or take AL? The nearest PO is in another state; over an hour away. My retail window is currently open for 1 hr on Saturday's and this gives my PMR tremendous training (for days I am gone) as well as my customers are able to mail or pick up items during that 1 hr. And as for reducing delivery days. I have 1 HCR that already delivers mail to customers on MON-WED-FRI only and the other delivers on TUES & FRI only. We already have a reduction of service compared to those in a LARGE area. Cutting anymore here is just going to 'upset' the residents. And that's putting it mildly...
The PMG requested two options to congress. The real question is which will congress approve. I doubt it will be the reduction of delivery service. Instead it will more likely be to stop pre-funding the retirement account as this will effect the least amount of people. In an economy where you read about layoff left and right I'm thankful that as a postal service employee that rarely effect most of us.
We should really look at Saturdays if we close on that day we save carriers as well as clerks we may need to ajust for Monday but in the long run it would save with out upsetting the businesses. The work week would be 5days with all employees having the same day off that should make scheduling very easy. Just think what could be saved gas,utilities,wage.
Having no delivery Saturday will only put pressure on Mondays dispatch.Especialy during the peek seasons.
Offices that depend on PMRs to fill in when the postmaster is sick will be in real trouble with 5-day delivery. The PMR gets all their experience and training,etc.on Saturdays. With all the new requirements, how will they know what to do if we are closed that day? It's hard enough trying to find people who want to work just one day a week! How will we be able to keep them as employees if they only work every so often?
As a member of a Business Development Team I can say that Saturday delivery at no cost is a major selling point for postal products and services to all small and medium size businesses. I think other options should be considered before removing Saturday delivery.
Here's an idea: Let's eliminate Saturday's AND Wednesday's (there's some good arguments above why Tuesday's would not work). Next year we can get rid of Fridays!
The PRC has reported that eliminating a day of delivery could save as much as $1.9 billion (but also acknowledged the potential for further reduced volumes by reducing service). With a projection of a $5-6 billion loss, we would need to eliminate 2-3 days, right?
Cutting our services is not the answer! Many advertisers and publishers WANT their items delivered on Fridays and Saturdays; even more businesses rely on timely delivery of their statements and remittances. If we cut the services on those or make it more difficult for them, do you think they'll stick with the mail? Not likely.
The Postal Service should NOT be run like a business; we are here for one reason- To provide universal service to ALL Americans, even the more expensive Rural America, like we were created to do.
We have a PMG (government right?) who now makes more than the Vice-President of the United States (with his 2008 pay raise). This same PMG, who has recently appointed and created more VP positions than ever before, has gone before the country and the world and told them that we are important. . . . .just not important enough to be there 6 days a week.
I'm sure that UPS and FedEx are chomping at the bit over this, ready to release their lobbyists to eliminate our monopoly and the Private Express Statutes. They want to take over the profitable, metropolitan deliveries. Eliminating any delivery day or further reducing our services will be the final nail in the coffin that leads to privatization, and the end of the USPS as we have known it.
Deliver on Saturday! Mondays are the heaviest volume day now! Tuesday would be the best day. Keep the post offices open for window services and delivery of PO Box mail. The carriers who want two day off still can, Sunday-Mondays are the best days to have off anyway. Businesses,doctors and densists offices are open on Mondays! Win Win!!
I think we should only eliminate Saturday DELIVERY, leaving everything else still operational, including the plant and our window services. If the mail still goes to the offices we can sort the box section providing mail for those who want to pay for the extra day. I think this will increase the number of PO boxes we sell, and we shouldn't loose any business by keeping the plant running. It may sound complicated but in the long run, this should save alot of money, and possible increase our revenure with the PO box rentals.
Cutting back service is not the answer. It would be the death sentence for the post office. We need to start believing in our own product!
We need to continue with the 6 day delivery week. Thats one thing we have over UPS and FEDEX. How would small Postoffices keep a PMR that never got to work? There is way to much change happening and things to learn that a person needs to work at least one day a week to keep on top of things.
If we cut a day have it be Saturday delivery. If we keep POB mail delivery we might get more POB customers that would rather have the 6 day delivery. That would be more PO revenue.
Take off Saturday not Tuesday. Think how much mail you would have on Wed after all of the Mon holidays.
wE HAVE USED THE FACT THAT WE DELIVER 6 DAYS A WEEK AND EVEN EXPRESS ON SUNDAY AND HOILDAYS. i THINK THAT GOING TO 5 DAY DELV WILL WEEKEND THE POSTAL SERVICE IN THE EYES AND USAGE OF THE PUBLIC.WE NED TO DO SOMETHING TO CURTAIL SOME COST BUT DOWNGRADING OUR DELIVERY SERVICE SEND THE WRONG MESSAGE AND COULD CAUSE UNBELIVBLE DAMAGE TO THE USPS
No Saturday delivery - five (5) day delivery IS one of the solutions that may save this company and future jobs. The elimination of that Saturday delivery day saves - an incredible amount of $$ in fuel/Vehicle maintenace and wear and tear - huge amounts of personnel expenses - and it can't hurt morale with the majority of NALC workweeks being Mon-Friday. The economic slide is NOT the only issue, we will continue to see the impacts of electronic communications.
Skip Saturday delivery! No T-6 is necessary. Reduce the number of vehicles needed. Reduce the cost of gasoline.
Don't let politicians dictate what we do. Make sound business decisions based on the needs of the Postal Service.
I'm not sure what 5 day delivery will do to the Postal Service but I do know that there are two distinct possibilities. There are many questions to be answered before we go that far. What would we do with carrier technicians (T-6) ? If it is only temporary then how do we bring them back when we go back to 6 day delivery? There are a lot of businesses that don't receive mail on Saturdays so that would be the best day to cut. We could still deliver Express and priority packages and run with a limited crue and still save money and deliver on Saturdays.
Shutting down on Tuesday would only bring extreme absenteeism on Mondays. I think Saturdays are the only logical day to be closed. Here in the small towns of the country we are busy all six days we're open now. If someone's not busy come to WY I will be glad to put you to work. I don't know who suggested Tuesday - but they have made us the laughing stock of the country. Businesses will want to get their business done and if we're not there M-F they will find alternative service.
Do we really want every Monday to be like the day after a holiday? I think many who are voting for no delivery on Saturday simply want that day off and it has nothing to do with saving the postoffice money. Let`s just alldo our job with no wasting of time. That would save money!
I am a rural carrier; I feel this solution is absolutely ludicrous! They think a solution involves taking away yet more service? Look at all the supposed premier services that they have cut so far, driving yet more business to Fed. Ex., or to other sources. I agree and have let my opinion well known to management, (upper management as well as O.I.G.) as well as coworkers that there should be drastic changes made to the postal service in general, all have fallen on deaf ears... gee what a surprise.
Here are several areas that should be looked at:
1. The Postmaster general hasn’t done a thing for service in postal service since Runion! Its time for change alright, that’s a good place to start.
There is far too much excess in postal management. Do away with excess, instead of just moving them around. Postal inspectors trying to nail workers to the wall over trivial items, why not go after actual mail fraud to protect customers as well as employees.
3. job redundancies, why some much excess, our office alone has 4 people acting as 204b , and 1 held route due to possible dps flat sorting machines coming online in the next few years. That’s 5 routes out of 22 routes not having carrier people on them! all that so we can have 3 managers and a postmaster in that small an office, not to mention one carrier on loan to a different office in a different district?? Where is the logic?
4. It will become impossible to find anyone willing to come in as a substitute carrier, let alone being able to keep the very few we have now. try hiring someone who will supply there own vehicle and given no benefits, nor any future prospects of becoming a full time employee, oh and not being able to guarantee any work, but must be on call 5-6 days a week. It will not
Happen!
6. There will be an impossible situation created for any kind of leave to be approved, when we have no substitutes. And sick calls will go up because people will get over whelmed. Not to mention what will happen when a holiday is thrown into the mix, especially if we were off Tuesday after a Monday holiday, not to mention what the volume would look like.
7. The rural craft is about to go thru a national mail count in a few weeks. Just think of all of the waist that occurs when you bring postmaster in have to put them up in hotels and give them a food allowance every day for a four week count. All for what counting how many pieces of mail we get and how many minutes that it takes us to walk around doing our jobs!! Talk about a waste! But yet YOU still haven’t come up with a better way for that how can you even think about cutting mail service to the very people who pay our salaries.
they think a solution involves taking away yet more service? Look at all the supposed premier services that they have cut so far, driving yet more business to Fed. Ex., or to other sources. I agree and have let my opinion well known to management, (upper management as well as O.I.G.) as well as coworkers that there should be drastic changes made to the postal service in general, all have fallen on deaf ears... gee what a surprise.
If six day a week delivery is required then we go back to the Department of the Post Office. We abolish all contracts and agreements and start over. Everyone gets compensated based upon production. Start rewarding our high achievers with more and those who do not produce receive a lower compensation. Remove the union and management barriers. If we have a union, then have one union. Everyone has a primary assignment and is cross-trained to fit the need of the day. One day you may carry mail the next you may work the retail counter. Every assignment would have the clause, “other duties as assigned.”
By reducing service we are encouraging our customers to find alternatives for their needs. This will lose us revenue in the long run and and is short sighted. If we are to survive we must insist that congress passes reasonable regulations that do not require us to pay for requirements in contrast with other government institutions.
I agree with the savings we will capture by reducing delivery days to 5 days instead of 6. Saturday would be the best option as most businesses are closed anyways. I also think we could reduce costs by all of the unnecessary grievances filed that cut into our bottom line. Alot of work hours are lost while management has to defend what's already written in the contracts and should be decided locally. We should pull up our boot straps , do our jobs and stop biting the hand that feeds us !
I wish all of you would realize that our compliment is based on a 6day delivery. What do you think will happen to all the positions if we went to a 5 day. Do you want a job???? Be real careful what you ask for. Saturday is very crucial in staying ahead of or at least competing with our competition. It gives us leverage!!
First of all if we must go to five day delivery it must be M-F.
Second, I am working on plan B. I have almost 20 years left until I am eligible for retirement. I am not sure I can count on the Postal Service to continue to provide for my family the way that it has. I invite you to join me...
Instead of looking at ways to cut service, why don't we take stock of the biggest of our financial issues; all the speacial deals the Unions have finagled over the years that tie current Management's hands on almost every issue at every level. The nit-picky bs that is being filed on is a time-wasting, money wasting practice and needs to be stopped. I am pro-union (for it's original intent) to protect the people from abusive managers and help them aquire competitive wages and benefits. We have gone from a sense of ownership to a sense of entitlement. Greed has taken over and it is all out of hand. We need to work together to solve the crisis at hand and stop fighting each other or we will all soon be looking for new jobs (which don't exist anymore).
We should do away with Saturday delivery, permanently, for a variety of reasons. It would allow the USPS to drop it’s current complement of Temporary Employees (& their wages). The T-6 carriers would assume those vacant positions thereby reducing overtime and at the regular carrier pay rate. With the advent of new processing technology such as the flat sorters coming on line, there is lesser need for carriers to be in the office sorting mail which would improve our customer service on the street at a time when we have an expanding customer base and a shrinking work force. The fuel savings alone would make it worthwhile. The vast majority of employees prefer weekends off so they can spend time with families and friends and not have the frequent scheduling conflicts of having to work a Saturday. No Saturday delivery would also virtually eliminate the need for mail processing employees on Sunday and save paying the Sunday premiums. There would less overhead costs, reduced energy bills and give more time to our maintenance personnel to clean and maintain machines. Customers leaving for a weekend wouldn’t have to worry about their mail sitting in their box overnight and thus reduce mail theft. I believe the American public is ready and willing to accept, even embrace no Saturday delivery and it is high time the Postal Service accepted it.
Eliminating Saturday delivery would generate a huge cost savings for the Postal Service. Gone would be many overtime issues and scheduling problems, as well as vehicle expense and undertime on business routes. Properly implemented, public reaction would be kept to a minimum. Regarding Tuesdays, a Sunday-Tuesday weekend would not be very favorable to carriers and would likely increase Monday sick-calls. It would also make volume on Wednesdays as heavy as Mondays.
I think that the USPS should continue 6 day delivery to PO boxes and 5 days home delivery. This will give customers an option to receive 6 day delivery, increase revenue by renting more PO boxes and compete against competitors mail box outlets. This would bring more customers into post office lobbies, maybe increasing retail revenue. One off the wall comment that I have thought about; is why not eliminate home delivery for city carriers altogether and only have PO box delivery? It would save on labor costs, motor vehicle costs and drastically cut down on vehicle accidents.
We are being told that 1) we are losing a half a billion each month. The first quarter results are out and it is a loss of 348 million. What is the actual truth?
2) We were told that Headquarters and Areas were cutting staff by 25 to 30 percent. The PMG said 15 percent. Why do we get information that does not match the facts?
I propose Seasonal Saturday delivery w/6-day at certain times of year (month of December, before April 15, day before Sunday holidays like Easter, Mom & Dad's days, etc.) Would reduce a great deal of operating costs, probably eliminate the need for a daily floater. May satisfy Unions by allowing planning for some overtime. Tuesday bad idea because of Monday holidays.
Let's keep 6 day a week delivery. At least to P O Boxes as suggested. Maybe this would increase P O Box revenue. Why do we have 80 districts? There are only 50 states, consolidating a few district offices would save quite a lot. How many people work at each district office? Consolidating down to 50 or 60 would be a huge savings. We need to keep our advantage of 6 day delivery. Who wants to be like UPS and FED-Ex anyway?
To all who complained about going to 5-day delivery... Offer some constructive alternatives! While some think they are not heard; yes, your opinions count. Offer critical views, but also offer ideas that you feel conter those views...
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