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Politics
Post Office Ends Saturday Mail Service
The United States Postal Service will announce today that it is ending letter delivery on Saturdays in order to save money.
It is doing so without permission from Congress, which has oversight over the agency. The USPS has been trying for a while to get legislative approval for the move, but has been denied by Congress members.
Yes, a government agency has been begging Congress to let them save money, but Congress is refusing. Unlike most government agencies, the Postal Service’s budget is not unlike what you’d see from a private business. Its source of income is its customers; it does not get money from elsewhere in the federal budget. So if it is losing business (and it is – quite a bit) it has to cut back to balance its budget. The USPS reported a net loss of $15.9 billion last fiscal year and is projecting a loss of $7.6 billion this fiscal year. They’re hoping dropping Saturday deliveries will save about $2 billion.
The Postal Service appears to be trying to bypass Congress through semantics. Congress won’t let them close on Saturdays, so what they’re doing, according to the Associated Press, is continuing to deliver mail to post office boxes on Saturdays and will keep their hours of operation. They just won’t deliver mail to homes.
Representatives for their union are upset:
[T]he president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Fredric Rolando, said the end of Saturday mail delivery is "a disastrous idea that would have a profoundly negative effect on the Postal Service and on millions of customers," particularly businesses, rural communities, the elderly, the disabled and others who depend on Saturday delivery for commerce and communication.
They left out their own jobs that they're trying to protect, obviously. Latest numbers have the average postal employee making $83,000 a year in salary and benefits even as the volume of mail delivered by the USPS has dropped by about 20 percent over the past decade.
I have a short write-up about the sorry state of the USPS finances in the March 2013 issue of Reason, so check it out. Assuming it gets delivered.
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Comments
The Postal Service cannot
The Postal Service cannot change mail deliver on weekdays due to the Universal Commercial Code which standardizes business transaction across the USA. Official Government notifications are also based on "business days", Monday through Friday. The only day the Postal Service could stop deliveries without effecting other specific laws is Saturday. Otherwise, I agree with many of the other suggestions made by commenters. I have every sympathy with remote & rural locations, as well as, the employees whose income & job security maybe threatened by this change, but we cannot continue adding the losses of the USPS to our national debt each year. It is unfortunate that Americans are more interested in invading each other's private lives that organizing together to force Congress to allow our USPC to keep its funds separate for its own uses & to reorganize efficiently. If US voters spent as much time & energy reviewing how their taxes are spent as they do trying to prevent their neighbors exercising their civil rights, we might actually become a nation "By the People". The amounts of taxpayer dollars wasted by the average House Member on perks, staff, and "special privileges" would make the average wage earner ill to read.
"If US voters spent as much
"If US voters spent as much time & energy reviewing how their taxes are spent as they do trying to prevent their neighbors exercising their civil rights, we might actually become a nation 'By the People'."
Well stated, Gem.
I'd prefer if they eliminated
I'd prefer if they eliminated Wednesday deliveries so we wouldn't go two days in a row. But maybe cutting delivery two days in a row saves more money.
I am a huge fan of the USPS,
I am a huge fan of the USPS, and the vast majority of the time that I want to send packages, I prefer the USPS to FedEx or UPS or any other private package service. That said, it is obvious that the personal mail aspect of postal delivery has been massively reduced ever since the advent of email. I think it would be perfectly acceptable even for the Post Office to reduce home delivery to Mon-Wed-Fri to save money. Sure it sucks for many postal workers who are going to have to find other jobs, but I think it is worth it to keep the Post Office alive without being a drain on the economy. For all that congress complains about the budget and the economy and governmental spending excess, why is it so hard to save money through simply accommodating technological advancement?
I seriously doubt that
I seriously doubt that congress will do more to help the USPS than stretch them over a barrel and beat them with a hickory switch - which is more or less what they've done to them so far.
Previously congress passed a law requiring the USPS to pre-fund their retirement plans 75 years in advance: before many of those employees are even born. That's quite a burden to impose on the agency, especially since the USPS is funded entirely by postage sales.
The USPS has been making payments towards that funding goal, but has been handicapped in that area by having overpayments it made into the FERS retirement system tied up and congress has not allowed them to get that money back, so they've missed payments on the newer, and steeper, retirement requirements.
Probably what is driving this hatred of the USPS in congress is a desire to abolish the service in favor of a private parcel delivery service (most likely one that said congressmen own stock in, since they are exempt from insider trading regulations and laws)- though this would eliminate many of the standards for delivery and handling that everyone has come to expect, since laws currently in place for the USPS would not apply to a private service. We'd also lose a degree of safety, as the Postal Inspectors - the law enforcement section of the USPS - would no longer be protecting us and our packages.
But why would we let safety and dependability stand in the way of some profitability for a few congressmen and businessmen, right?
Excellent points,Cityboy.
Excellent points,Cityboy. The American people have a vested interest in protecting the USPS. Voters would be wise to encourage their local news sources in their investigations of Congress & force through changes to the "special privileges" Congress has been creating for themselves for decades. If Americans are equal under the law why are Congressmen allowed to violate our insider trading laws? Instead of worrying about who is in the office of President which is under 24/7 media scrutiny, American voters need to be focusing on Congress who is the only branch of government that can create laws like The Patriot Act, exempt their members from the laws & create policing monopolies like Homeland Security. Look into the financial records of your own senators & House members before the 2014 elections.
I have a few friends who live
I have a few friends who live in a European country where the postal service is privatized, and about 10-15 percent of the time, cards I send never get delivered. Quite often they take much longer than "estimates". I'm not sure if it is simply the carriers for these particular people or the service in general, but I suspect the latter.
When it is no longer a federal crime to steal mail, I suspect more stealing will occur.