US postal service may move to 5-day-a-week delivery from 6

[TrueBlueTerrier]

US postal service may move to five-day-a-week delivery from six

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/ja ... ost-office" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Perhaps neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night keeps American letter carriers from delivering the post. But economic downturns, paperless offices and an ever-increasing reliance on electronic communication are another story.

The US postmaster general today asked Congress today to allow it to scale back deliveries to five days a week, from six, the result of a massive budget deficit caused by dramatic declines in mail volume.

The postal service had $2.8bn budget shortfall last year, and dwindling mail volume and rising costs could send that up to $6bn or more this year, John Potter told the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs subcommittee.

Americans' extra day without bills, solicitations, magazines and other mail might not be Saturday, but could come on another day of light mail volume, perhaps a Tuesday.

"It is possible that the cost of six-day delivery may simply prove to be unaffordable," Potter said, asking Congress to remove a funding requirement that it deliver mail six days a week. "The ability to suspend delivery on the lightest delivery days, for example, could save dollars in both our delivery and our processing and distribution networks. I do not make this request lightly, but I am forced to consider every option given the severity of our challenge."

The US Postal service has suffered declines in recent years as individuals and businesses increasingly turn to email for ordinary communications, and pay bills electronically instead of using the post. In the agency's fiscal year ended September 30, total mail volume declined 4.5% from the year before to 202bn items. Meanwhile, the agency has steadily raised postal rates in an effort to meet the decline in volume.

The service cutbacks could save the agency $1.9bn to $3.5bn a year, Dan Blair, chairman of the postal regulatory commission, told the committee. But Blair said scaling back to five days a week could result in lost mail volume.

The US postal service dates back to the nation's founding. The first postmaster general was Benjamin Franklin, one of the framers of the US constitution and a co-author of the declaration of independence. In its current form as an independent government agency, the postal service was created in 1971, replacing a cabinet-level agency, the US post office department.

The US postal service's troubles mirror those of the Royal Mail, which in addition to the rise of electronic communications faces a large and growing pension fund deficit. But on its most recent figures, all four Royal Mail divisions were profitable for the first time in 20 years.

[NWpostie]

I reclon it won't be long before RM will want to scrap Saturday deliveries and is probably watching this closely to see what happens.

[johnnyp]

About 3 years ago we moved from a 5 day week to a 4

[ar26]

Ah but you missed the subtle bit about the day they loose may not be a saturday, might be a Tuesday. I think there would be a good opportunity for Royal Mail to make money out of this. I personally don't think having no mail on a Tuesday would go down well especially with business's however if we moved to the sort of position that PArcelforce does then and make Saturday a non standard delivery day, Royal Mail could charge a premium for that.
1/ Companies want thier bills and stuff to arrive on a Saturday ( hence why we're slaughtered by 3rd party mail on a Saturday). Why not charge extra for a Saturday delivery and make it overtime for us posties ? Therefore if SKy or HSBC want something delivered on a Saturday and Royal Mail only deliver Royal Mail mail on a Saturday then they could charge say an extra 10 -20p per item. We would score in 2 ways, 1 we get extra volume from 3rd party users who switch back to RM products and 2 RM get extra revenue for the Saturday delivery
The downside is for us that we would loose a lot of staff reserves who are covering peoples days off.

[DGP1]

http://www.postalnews.com/

I was reading about this yesterday but I forgot to post it anyway, I got it from the above site.

[Darren Bent]

Instead of scrapping tuesday why not do it on monday So it will be better despite not being able to spend time with families on Saturday morning. But I don't think we will do it as it will mean lot of jobs loss for reserves.

[heapsy]

Probably the best time to do it would have been when SDD came in, which would have avoided the need for the extra staff. I can't see things changing now, unless something really dramatic happened and it was the only way to keep the business afloat.