In a front page story, USA Today interviewed Postmaster General Pat Donahoe.
The question of five-day delivery came up, and the PMG reiterated the Postal Service's request to Congress to authorize less than six-days a week delivery.
He also said, "In 15 years we'll be talking about delivering mail three days a week."
The logic is that paper mail will continue it's steep decline and thus the revenue won't be there to sustain a six -- or five -- day delivery system.
A 2010 USA TODAY/Gallup poll said more than half of Americans favor dropping Saturday delivery.
What do you think about this? How would it work? Comment here.
25 comments:
It would be hard to retain RCA's and TE's but will you really save that much since offices will still be open and trucks will still be delivering mail to the PO's. Here's a thought maybe have people that live in small towns in the city limits of less than 400 people not be able to get rural delivery but give them a free box at the PO. Think of the money that would save. Then you wouldn't have to close the small offices and hurt small town USA.
It seems wasteful to have mail delivered, sorted and sit over the weekend for Monay delivery to rural customers. Monday is already our busiest day except the day after a holiday. Every Monday would then become, in effect, the day after a holiday for rural delivery, but would, in fact, be very doable.
Keeping subs for rural route coverage would be a problem since the sub would only be working once or twice a year when the regular carrier is on vacation vs every Sat for familiarity and knowledge of route and conditions thereon.
When we loose saterday it will just be a final nail in our cofin.Instead of trying to figure out when to close more we should be looking when we could be open more to serve the public without standing in line for 20 minutes.Saterdays are the only day most working people can visit there office with the window open.I also feel that ther eshould be no in town delivery in a town under 2000 unless there is a hardship. Make them come to us and the revenue will raise.
The more small Post Offices that close, forcing us to go to large unfriendly offices where you wait in line forever just so someone can be rude to you, I plan to pay my bills on line and use another source for packages. They don't want to keep small, user friendly offices then they don't want my money.
AMEN AMEN AMEN AMEN
Do you suppose MR Donahoe will read any of these? Maybe he should and take into action some of the suggestions.
I get so upet when we don't believe in our own product. If the Postmaster General thinks this way, how are the employees supposed to be positive in their jobs? Closing small offices is another example of this-we don't think you use us anyway, so we're closing you down. All that is doing is making people mad and they will try to figure out another way to send something.
I hope he's wrong, but fear he's right.
If we make ourselves LESS accessible to our customers, then, OF COURSE they'll find other ways to do things without using our services!! I just don't understand this line of thinking from the PMG. He's always telling the employees to look for ways to "grow the business", but HQ continues to close post offices where they are needed the most. Make up your mind! Do you want the Postal Service to be successful, or do you want to close it down completely? Please let us know, so we know what to expect!!
People are missing the point...we aren't really going to be less accessible...the retail window is still going to be open, the PO Box will still be getting mail; the rest won't get mail on Saturday and I bet most of them don't really care. For small towns...if you can make it cost effective then they will probably keep you open but to have a place that year after year cost more to operate than is brought in is not good business sense (no other company would continue that way). If they go to 5 day delivery I think they need to figure out a way to make the routes 4 days for the regular and 1 day for a sub. This might require some route adjustments but at least we would stand a chance of keeping subs. I think it is better to go 5 day and have a job than to not have a job at all.
I really wish the Postmaster General would read our comments.We are the people that are working with the public.We know what is needed in our rural offices.He doesn't.Closing us down is only going to help Fed Ex and UPS.Not the Postal Service.Going to a large office is not going to work for rural america.They are rude and waiting in line for a long time.People will stop going to post offices altogether.
Lets take the S out USPS. No more service on Saturdays and whatever day mgt chooses next. Wait that will make us UPS.
The USPS system needs changing.
We must get rid of the Corporate controlled Postal Rate Commission, and Board of Governors.
We must fire the disloyal, greedy Corporate lackeys that got their political appointments to Postmaster General and the PRC and the BOG in order to chop up the company and give the profitable bits to Corporations and return to the taxpayers the un-profitable bits to support.
The USPS is neither Government nor Business - it's a Constitutionally REQUIRED means of secure, affordable communication for all Americans. The Radio, Telephone, Television, and now the Computer were all supposed to be the end of the Mail, but none of those tools can do the work that Mail does in the way it does it.
The Mail will go through - but we must take the administrative control away from the greedy political/corporate hacks that would destroy a vital institution for their own financial gain. The last big step in the evolution of the Mail was over 40 years ago - let's take another step by fully taking the USPS away from the Political and Corporate folks who cannot look at or touch anything without trying to wrest a personal profit from it.
The larger offices better hope the PMG doesn't read these comments--seems like the general consensus is that they are a rude bunch of employees who don't appreciate their customers.
At the rate the PMG is closing small, rural Post Offices I think we'll be delivering 3 days a week sooner than 15 yrs. down the road.
The rural folks are the ones with the most loyalty to the USPS, but once their local Post Offices are gone they'll find other ways to pay bills, ship packages, etc. The only customers the PMG is interested in are large, commercial mailers and I think he'll look back at these rapidly accelerating small PO closures with regret.
"It's a Constitutionally REQUIRED means of secure, affordable communication for all Americans." A crucial point to remember. This is complex...as so many crises in our country are at this point in time. We need our postal service - I do not know anyone who feels differently. I support the idea of keeping small PO's open and having small rural customers have a box and be able to come to their Post Office for their mail. If a five day delivery makes sense, then having a sub on one day and regular person on 4 days makes sense. Some folks have mentioned the relatively free ride for "junk mail" - if that were eliminated, or cost increased - perhaps that would help.
I agree with the perspective that having the Post Master General say that in 15 years we will be down to 3 days a week is not a perspective that supports success or employee loyalty or enthusiasm. I live in a medium size town and we have a wonderful Post Office and it would be sorely missed by all. FedEx and UPS have their place...however, there is no substitution for the USPS. I send my rent through the mail - my landlady lives hours away.
If the current governing structure of the USPS does not support the very institution they govern...then..the earlier commenter is correct (from my point of view)there needs to be a restructuring from the top down. This is very unlikely in our current social/political climate.
So: keep the rural PO's and have folks come in for their mail. Go to a 5 day delivery and have one of those days covered by a sub each week for training for vacations and holidays. Cut down or out on junk mail. Restructure from the top down ASAP.. !
Getting mail three days a week would likely be fine for most people. I doubt that advertisers – who effectively subsidize first class mail – would like it. If they decided that direct mail doesn’t work on a truncated delivery schedule, it will start a self-reinforcing spiral of declining mail volumes. And wasn’t it just a year or two ago that the Postal Service crowed about package delivery being it’s new bread-and-butter? Parcel Post, the class of package delivery which is geared toward frugality rather than speed is a pretty dismal performer. Taking away three days of first class mail delivery is one thing, and taking away the paying parts of the business is another.
good suggestions above but is anyone listening?
i don't think so...
This has been stated before and above, but needs repeating. USPS needs to trim the upper layers. Eliminate most or all districts and have those jobs absorbed by the areas.
As a management employee (small rural community), mine is one of the few offices operating in the black. Will it be targeted for closure, probably. Then the current residents will need to travel several miles for service. How may will remain loyal to USPS?
What needs to be looked at is the value (not just $$) a position provides. If hours need adjusted, do so, if the position is redundant, eliminate, but when you begin to eliminate service, you begin to destroy the organization.
I refuse to call this a business, while we should be businesslike in our operations, we are first and foremost a service. Without service, we have nothing.
As an employee who has worked in both small rural PO's and larger PO's I find some of the above comments untrue. First of all, you WILL NOT loose mail service if the small office is closed. Mail will still be delivered to your rural box. So mailing letters and receiving letters will still go on.
Yes the small rural PO's are friendly and helpful but the customers who come in mainly want to gab and it's usually about the weather. Do we really need to spend the money to keep these offices open? The inconvience comes into play with the mailing of packages and picking up certified mail or anything that needs to be signed for. Most people shop at a grocery store at least once a week so they make the trip to the larger town to purchase their groceries, do their banking and even purchase gas; so they can also do their mailing needs at that time also. Not a HUGE inconvience. BTY - I live 15 miles from town and I have neighbors who live over 30 miles so we have to travel that far to do any business at all and and we still get our mail everyday and we've not crying to complaining about the inconvience of that travel so why would it be such an inconvience to close PO's that are within 15 or 20 miles of another larger town? It just seems rather logical to eliminate duplication of services with PO's that are so close to one another. I also know from visiting with customers and my neighbors that the elimination of Saturday delivery does not even register on their radar. Most people really don't see the need for it now. It seems to me that the only people who are so up in arms over this solution are the employees themselves who may loose their jobs or loose some of their hours and not most of the general population. I will say though that I do hope the PMG is wrong about 3 day delivery but I could see it happen.
Most of the people who want reduced delivery days live in the city. Fine, reduce city delivery days, but rural customers depend on daily mail for medicine, daily papers and many other things that city customers don't. And lets all remember the postal service isn't in trouble because of poor operations, they are in trouble because congress started messing with their finances in 2007 and mandating PREPAYMENT of retiree health benefits for the next 75 years. That's the main problem. Let's correct that before we start reducing service and closing offices
To "apostalemployee" - My PO is 60 miles from the nearest town and we have severe winters, with icy and snowy roads which are treacherous to drive. Some of my customers live over 25 miles further out and many are in their 80's. Most of us only go to town once or twice a month, so LOSING our PO will have a huge impact on this community.
Many ranch employees buy money orders once or twice a week and, no, they can't wait for an hour at the end of a 2 mile ranch road in hopes of catching the HCR carrier.
Like I've said before, if they close all these small, rural POs they will definitely LOSE customers.
i agree saturday delivery is not that big of a deal to lose. most of the neighbors in my neighborhood could care less if they get mail on saturday. most of us are not even home it is the weekend and it is summer months. if they keep closing the small town post offices they will lose more bussiness to ups and fed ex. those people will no longer use the postal service, becuase they feel like they were treated badly by the postal service. the other side of it is if we put the offices into gas stations grocery stores etc. a postal employee loses there job for one and the store will hire a person for minumum wage. that person is not going to care about the delivery of the mail or how efficent it is. they are also going to have problems with theft. that person will not be held to the standard a postal employee is. i really don't see any of it working out for the postal service, like they really think it is going to.
ups and fed ex just won the battle for the package service!!!!!!! like you said our own pmg dosen't belive in our products and offices why should anyone eles!!!! sad sad sad day for usps.
i bet you are right there will be alot of theft problems to deal with when and if they move these small offices into wal mart's and other store's. wonder what the post office will say when medicine or other vauleables comes up missing. there gose the trust for the postal service.
I have an 85 elderly aunt. She is handicapped, and has to walk w/her bad knee 50-60 ft ea way to get her mail, which is 6 inches away from the curb. She stands in the street to get her mail. This street was once a rural route, now that it has been widened to a 4 lane highway, the city says its a street, the post office says its a rural route. The box is 6 in. from the curb. There is no shoulder on this road so the postal employee is in harms way every time there is traffic when she/he stops to deliver mail. My aunt has a sloping driveway. The carrier cannot get out of her car "per union rules". The friggin union, and the arrogance of the postal office telling me there is nothing they can do. I went to our congressman and he took care of it. If the mail carriers don't want to walk, they can always get another job. If they are not fit or too fat or have physical problems of their own, hire healthy young workers. My Aunt has her hardship letter and the Congressman expedited her request after a year of this craziness. The post office should be revamped, with the employees and their union. There are plenty of people who would love your job and benefits, if you don't believe me, just put out the message the USPS is hiring and thousands of people will stand in line.
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