Tuesday, March 2, 2010

How many delivery days?

We've been talking about the possibility of a five-day delivery week for some time now. During today's major conference called, "Ensuring a viable Postal Service for America," PMG Jack Potter raised the spector of "Six to five, to four and even three-day delivery."

Do you think America would adapt to fewer delivery days?

Comment here.

31 comments:

The Missive Maven said...

I would really hate to lose a postal delivery day - personally I would much rather pay higher postage rates. However, if we must lose a day, I would hope it wouldn't be Saturday - why have two mail-free days in a row? In any case, I can't conceive of fewer than 5 days of delivery a week! That would be awful!

gerardf1957 said...

Why not no deliveries? Come on now we should keep Saturday deliveries. Keep the SERVICE in U S POSTAL SERVICE.

Anonymous said...

The Missive Maven....if it goes to 5 day delivery....why not Saturday? No employee wants to to have Sunday & Tuesday off or Sunday and Wednesday off??? If this plan is going to succeed, yo need the support of the employees and not haveing two days off in a row is a real morale killer. Saturday makes sense in this office and would be met with favor if it means keeping postage rates down.

Anonymous said...

i believe we should keep all amil delivery days.

Anonymous said...

This 5 day delivery is not for the employees to have two days off in a row, its for survival. It would be better to split the days because Mondays will be a BEAR. Tues or Weds off would disrupt service less. Though, I too say leave 6 days delvivery.

Anonymous said...

There was just something in the paper about the Postal Service going the last mile for UPS and FED-EX EVEN on Saturday's. well if we go to a 5 day delivery week the others will not need us for their Saturday delivery and we would start losing more. 6 day delivery and universal service that is what makes the USPS stand out from all the rest. I just think we have too many Chiefs and not enough Indians.

Anonymous said...

5 day delivery will mean nothing to a post office with only box delivery. They will be required to accept and deliver mail 6 days a week. Leave it at 6 day delivery.

Anonymous said...

The trucks will still have to bring the mail to the Post Office for the PO Box mail. I do not have DPS, so I will still be coming in (or my PMR, if I still have one)and sorting all the mail to get the PO Box mail separated. So then I will be holding the carriers mail to add to the massive amount of mail we get on Monday. This a rural community and I will have people on the route asking if they recieved their check or medicine because it didn't come in on Friday. I will have to tell them I can't give it to them unless the want to rent a PO Box for their check delivery and medicine. But they will have to change their address on their checks to get their checks at the PO Box. Not having Saturday delivery will be hard on the rural community because we usually get our mail a day or two later than the city offices as it is.

Anonymous said...

Keep 6 day delivery or UPS and Fed Ex will suck up the rest of the business.

Joan said...

5 day delivery is fine. I don't think the public will go for less. It will also give our competition more reasons to take our parcel select back. Don't go less than 5 days.

Anonymous said...

If letter carriers are already working until 7 or 8 pm, how late will they be on the street on Monday if there isn't delivery on Saturday and Sunday? The Plants and NDCs will continue to process mail 24/7 and all of that mail will be there waiting for the carriers on Monday morning, putting them out on the street even later, or causing them to curtail the mail another day. What effect could this have on the PTF letter carriers that aren't guaranteed 40 hours per week? I'm all for trying to cut the budget to make us viable for many years to come, but I think other options need to be explored before we do anything too drastic. Delivering on Saturday without an extra charge is what sets us apart from the rest.

Anonymous said...

There are places already that have less that 5 delivery days. I think people would get used to it. FedEx and UPS aren't going to take anything from the Postal Service just because thier rates are too high and the public is slowly realizing that. The Postal Service has got to do something and has anybody come up with a better idea??? Maybe we should try it and if it doesn't work then go back to 6 day delivery. We seem to be going back to things that haven't worked in the past why not try it. Monday's wouldn't be bad if the mail was handled correctly besides Tuesday's are slow anyway so you would just have 2 days of equal mail volumn. Think of something else that we can do to keep afloat. We just tried getting rid of all of the upper level management but that doesn't seem to be working because they are still getting paid what they were making and we seem to be creating more higher level jobs anyway. Get rid of the bonusses that Potter and higher level management are getting right now and maybe the Postal Service would be able to make ends meet.

Anonymous said...

People will probly go online more for purchases or depend on the the minature post offices around town.
Will be a mega pay CUT for postal workers...some subs will lose work altogether which equals MORE UNEMPLOYMENT. Looks like s SOMEBODYS goal for America.
NOT A GOOD STEP !

Anonymous said...

Five days only as a last resort. There are still many cuts that can be made, and early outs offered.

Anonymous said...

If it means longer sustainability, do it.

Anonymous said...

Since when do we REALLY listen to what the customer wants? It's not about what the customer base wants. If the postal service chooses to do this, society will adapt, mailers will adapt. What other choice will they have but to use our competitors. Another nail in our coffin, I say.

Merk said...

As I understand it only delivery to street adresses will be discontinued, PO Box mail will be delivered & retail service will be provided. Some mail processing will also continue. I hate to lose the 6 day delivery because we use that in our advertising: "Saturday delivery at no extra charge." It will take away that incentive. Will more customers rent boxes to continue getting Sat. delivery? Probably not too many. And none of our competitors delivery on Saturday without extra charges so I doubt they'd get more business because of it. Actually small towns may end up with better service than larger cities as they have PO Box delivery instead of city carriers & that will continue. The rural routes will lose a day of delivery, of course. I think dropping Saturday would be best as that is a day some businesses are closed. We don't want to lose a weekday when businesses need us. BTW, there are many employees that have split days off now - but I agree that it isn't an action that would be done for the benefit of employees. And, yes, we may lose some sub rural carriers and other replacement employees as they will only work when the regular is off for AL, SL, training, etc. Polls show that the public is more willing to accept 5 day delivery than a hike in postage rates and most businesses and mailers are also willing to agree to it. I'm still not convinced it will save as much money as they claim. Since the Board of Governors has to research it first I hope they'll evaluate the savings, possible loss of business, affect on various communities, etc. very closely before making their decision. Either way we know business cannot continue as it is now - changes will have to be made for USPS to remain viable.

Anonymous said...

I would say Alternate Day Delivery. Create an another Avenue like priority mail for mailing any day and have employees(maybe fewer) work on that Schedule. Something between Priority mail and First Class mail. We need less people to be employed on those days. Rates can be anything between current parcel /priority mail and First class mail but works just like First class mail and need to have special designated cover or stamp.

Anonymous said...

My office is in a rural community with few businesses, so the "most businesses are closed on Saturday" argument doesn't fly here. Our Saturday mail volume is almost as much as our Monday mail volume. If our carriers don't come in on Saturday, how long will it take them to complete their route on Monday? Will they meet the cutoff time? No delivery on Tuesday would be better, but I'm really not in favor of eliminating any delivery day. Seems like a step in the wrong direction, to me. It would be taking part of the "service" out of the Postal Service.

Anonymous said...

Delivering mail only 5 days a week would be our kiss of death. Our competitors will gladly deliver what we don't. Would it be great to just throw out the top heavy management along with all the scanners and just get back to the bacis's. Have the clerks come in and sort the mail and carriers delivery it. No scanning no reports, no supervisors inputing figures on the computer all day.

Anonymous said...

I don't think it would be that bad. We have to react as a business and make changes. About 20 years ago the USPS did a survey and it revealed that roughly 70% of our customers found non-delivery on Saturday acceptable. If they need Saturday delivery they can PAY to rent a PO Box. We can handle heavy volumes on Monday by delivering the preferential mail and working the rest of the mail in during the week. This could save our jobs in the long run.

Anonymous said...

Need to keep 6 day delivery week. Will be shooting ourselves in the foot if we cut "service" and raise rates. Yes people would adjust but do we want them to?!

Anonymous said...

Regarding the comment about working only the preferential mail, that's much more difficult than it used to be. DPS contains FCM and standard letters. If your carriers get tubs of flats pre-sorted from the plan, they contain all classes of mail. The only mail we can actually set aside is mail which comes bundled 5 digit. The parcel post is required to go out the day it's received in the office, though that policy could be changed.
I wonder if Mondays we would have the subs work part-days, to help the regulars.

Anonymous said...

Let's remember the (5)days of "delivery" doesn't affect Mail moving across our Nation.. It doesn't affect "Retail Sales" It doesn't affect "Processing" AND it doesn't affect PO BOX delivery. I work in a "PO Box ONLY" delivery unit SO, we'll be working every Saturday (like we presently do)IF Congress makes the change from 6 to 5 delivery days!! My suggestion as a means to get around this new change would be to convince our present Customers that they should get/apply for PO BOX delivery... it's MORE SECURE AND they could continue to get SAT.DELIVERY !!

Anonymous said...

Has anyone thought of the "costs" of going to 5 day delivery? There will be greater use of "overtime" since the greater volume of mail on tuesdays will not get delivered in 8 hours. You simply can not deliver three days mail in the same time as two days mail. Look at the delivery days we now have on Tuesdays following holidays. Every Tuesday would now be like that. What about carrier safety? What time will out carriers be getting off the street on Tuesdays? In the North, it gets dark early in the winter months. It is also in those same winter months when we have the most holidays. I would assume that Tuesdays will become the "holiday day" which would have over half of the week's mail arriving to be handled on the Wednesday following a holiday. Add to the huge volume, the liklihood of non-favorable winter storms, and we are looking at delivery days ending way past daylight. That brings us back to the overtime thing. With carriers out on the street later, someone will still have to be in the offices until the last carrier is off the street, which many times may be after the last dispatch has departed. This will require more overtime and travel expenses to bring collection mail to the nearest processing center. These added costs could easily eat away at the anticipated $3Billion "savings" being envisioned. Add these additional expenses to the probability that 5-day delivery will probably push more business away from the USPS, and it doesn't seem to me like the answer we need to get profitable.

Anonymous said...

The sooner we go to five day delivery the better. Postal Employees need to comprehend the reality of our situation.

Anonymous said...

Amen.......previous comment,or a step further..privatize!

grannybunny said...

Privatization is "off the table," because Accenture -- correctly -- determined that no one would buy USPS, because of our mandates to provide universal service at affordable rates. The Gallup Poll confirmed that the majority of the public is OK with 5-day delivery and prefers that over rate increases, although they will probably end up with both, in 2011, due to our need to seek an "exigent" rate increase.

Anonymous said...

Not sure I understand what you mean about the Tuesdays. From what I see, processing and transportation wouldn't change...we'd get the mail just the same, but the carriers would have twice as much mail to process and carry on Mondays. In my office, the rural carriers sort ALL their mail (only 3rd class letters are DPS'd), so they would be working much longer to sort twice the mail on Mondays. Tuesdays might have more held-over 3rd class, but that would make it like a Wednesday volume. Of course, throw a holiday in there, and it will be a nightmare!!

Anonymous said...

5 day delivery could work, and would save millions but it needs to be tested first. We have to know what the affect will be before we completely flip the switch.
And PLEASE stop with the "Upper Management Bonuses". That's crap.

Anonymous said...

Another thing that should be considered, is universal 6 day delivery service really needed? I’ve talked with my customers and they seem OK with it as long as it keeps postage rates down. Many offices could easily make the jump to 5 day delivery, while in other offices it would be a nightmare. Why not let those offices who think they can, give it a try. I'm in a level 13 offices were both rural carriers are evaluated at about 35 hours. I looked at the last mail count documents, averaged the volumes into a 5 day matrix and the hours were still within the evaluated. The big savings is in the EMA, an annual savings of $5,000 a year. Take that times 5,000 other similar offices and you are looking at 25 million in savings!