Friday, September 10, 2010

Five-Day delivery, what's the word on the streets?

It's been several months since the request for consideration for a five-day delivery week was first proposed.
There's no impending action, but it continues to be on the hearts and minds of many.

I'm interested in hearing what your customers are saying? Do they think it's a done deal? Are they making plans? Or do they just not care?

Comment here.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Due to Postal Headquarter's media blitz, some businesses already went to a private delivery service for their magazines to be delivered on Saturday. Poll question put out by Headquarters was a choice of 5 day delivery or closing down post offices, so naturally most people chose 5 day. The PRC simply asked about 5 or 6 day delivery, and it is currently 7 to 1 to remain at 6 day delivery. Both the House and Senate presented spending bills that include continuation of 6 day delivery, so 5 day will not be happening next year.

small town said...

I work at the window at a PO in a small town of about 16,000 and the VAST majority of my customers don't see the need for Saturday delivery. This comes from people of all ages and both genders. Unfortunately with declining mail volume and with most mail consisting of nothing but ad mail, what is the need for Saturday delivery. Most business are closed on Saturday; but if they are open, they usually don't do office work on Saturday. So again, not a real need for Saturday delivery.

Anonymous said...

According to some of the carriers in my office they have lost deliveries because of the MBU's Companies and retail stores just don't have the man power or have the time to have somebody go to an MBU to get the mail everyday. So we have lost alot of business just because of this. Most of my customers are asking when it will start, some of them just don't care, they are more upset of the raise in prices. The problem is IF we don't do something soon THERE WILL NOT BE A POSTAL SERVICE to be employed by.

Anonymous said...

5 day delivery:
"Bad idea"
"Wrong"
"Losing business"
How do You feel when you don't get mail ?... or a business is closed when you go there??

Anonymous said...

My customers are concerned about the lack of mail delivery if we go to a 5 day work week...alot of them receive papers and most importantly medications and checks. The major concern is that other companies will pick up the USPS mail deliveries and if that happens, will we need to deliver mail less days a week in the future and if so, will we even need the Postal Service? We will be giving away our universal service and costing the ultimate downfall of our business which could be our demise for the USPS.

Candice said...

We already gave UPS part of our parcel business, why give them more?
My customers do not like the price raise AND less business. "Why are we paying more for less business?" Keep Saturday delivery! We get most of our mail and customers' medications and paychecks on Saturdays. I just think it will be the start of a major downfall.

Candice said...

...and most of my Sat. customers don't have time during the week to mail packages so most Saturdays I am really busy! I'm lucky to get out of the office on time.
I've heard lots of complaints about no Sat. delivery and they will go somewhere else for service.

Anonymous said...

% Day Delivery is a real bad idea. Next it will be 3 day delivery and then privatization.

Anonymous said...

From a small, rural town...that does not receive door to door daily paper delivery...it would be another taking away of services to the rural area. Many agricultural people use the USPS because they know the repairs can be mailed and they can have them on Saturday...instead of waiting until Monday to keep their operations moving. Rural areas vote to keep 6 day delivery!

Anonymous said...

It is ridiculous to continue delivering mail on Saturdays. The polls show over 70% of customers do not care. With the declining volumes it only makes good business sense to go to 5 day delivery. If we don't do something soon maybe we will all be looking for a job.

Anonymous said...

I'm a PM in a very rural area, 60 miles from town, and most of my customers want 6 day delivery for their medication, newspapers and parts. Some of my customers only receive delivery M-W-F and they seem to manage ok. The "town" newspaper has changed their mailing schedule so we get the paper on Fri. now instead of Sat. due to the threat of 5 day delivery.

grannybunny said...

While it will impact some customers and require some adjustments, the move to 5 day delivery is needed and -- hopefully -- will be approved by Congress. For items that absolutely have to be there on a Saturday, Express Mail will be available, and it is cheaper than the Saturday services offered by UPS and FedEx, so they will not be picking up the slack.

Anonymous said...

It appears customers in larger cities are less likely to care about Saturday delivery. The first writer is correct that the USPS phrased their questions to get more support for 5 day delivery (that or close PO's or lay off employees, etc.) Magazines, newspapers, some business that must have Sat. delivery will find other carriers but UPS and FedEx only deliver on Saturday for a higher fee - and USPS will still deliver Express on Sat. too, probably for less than the competition. My small office doesn't have carriers so it will not affect us much - box customers can still pick up mail and send mail, however it won't be dispatched till Monday. They are more concerned about the price increase. Trying to implement both changes at the same time is wrong - less service for a higher cost doesn't look good. At this point I'm pretty sure we won't do the 5 day delivery anytime soon, since Congress won't act that quickly, and it's kind of iffy on the price increase too. I'm more intersted in seeing what comes of the Union negotiations - as one union does, the other will follow. The next few years are going to be difficult & see lots of change.

Anonymous said...

I hope we do not go to 5-day delivery. From a purely selfish standpoint, it would be a burden every Tuesday to get twice the mail out. The PMG keeps saying that Saturday is the lowest volume delivery day, but that's not the case in my office (we have two rural routes). Monday is the heaviest volume day with Saturday a close second. Plus, Monday holidays would be an absolute nightmare. We just had a Monday holiday last week, and my FT carrier worked 11 hours on Tuesday. Throw Saturday's mail in there, and you lose any cost savings you might have thought you were getting by cutting Saturday delivery by paying the rural carriers OT. And this would happen every week.

Aside from that, is it really good business practice to offer customers LESS service? Free Saturday delivery is one of the advantages we have over FedEX and UPS...why would we want to throw that away? Rather than cutting services we already offer, we need to be thinking of new services we can add to our product line.

Anonymous said...

I am the PM in a small town and like the post above, most are more concerned with the rate increase versus the 5 day delivey. Many of my customers don't collect their mail on a daily basis from their boxes. We talk about universal service, yet there are many areas in the US that only receive mail a couple of days a week. I know of a town that has one carrier and two routes...he alternates between the the two...so those customers only receive their mail 3 days a week. People will adjust to no mail on Saurdays just like they adjusted to no mail delivery on Sunday. A local grocery store was asked to provide retail services on Sunday, so she did a trial period. She discovered that her sales did not increase, but rather they simply spread over the 7 day period. She had to hire additional staff to work Sundays and she actually lost money. So she raised prices to cover those additional labor costs and the people got mad. So she went back to 6 days a week. Overall she lost customers and in the long run lost revenue. Cutting back to 5 day will save money, if nothing else it will cut EMA costs in the rural areas. We can not continue to preach from our soap boxes about universal service without finding ways to cut costs...or we will be out of business.

Anonymous said...

Keep Saturday delivery.....we already have it in play, don't lose our advantage over our competitors. We need to add, not take away service! If we are going to raise stamp prices, we don't want to be cutting our service. This would be cutting our own throats.

Anonymous said...

I don't know how we could lose out any Saturday deliver to the competitors in our area. They will only deliver (and charge alot) if it is guaranteed to be there. I think people will adjust. Our Saturday window most times doesn't produce enough revenue. I know they say they will keep it open but if there is an option. I would say cut Saturday window hours and deliver the mail.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the previous comment. My PMR rarely has any sales on Saturdays, not even worth being open. Maybe just have a few larger offices open on Saturdays. We need to start cutting back somewhere.

Anonymous said...

UPS had Satruday delivery...it failed and they stopped. FedEX had Saturday delivery...it failed and they stopped. We have Saturday delivery and it's costly to us and we can't charge more for Saturday delivery....its a drain on our finances.