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Your thoughts: No more USPS Saturday delivery?

November 17th, 2008 | Postal Service | Posted by Gregg Carlstrom

I’ve received a lot of feedback today on one of this week’s front-page stories, about the U.S. Postal Service’s dire financial condition. Most commenters seem in favor of ending Saturday delivery, which experts say could happen in the next few years.

A rural letter carrier who works six days a week wrote:

It’s time to bite the bullet and change the old ways of 6-day delivery. I know that 4-10 hour days can never happen, but I would like maybe 5-8 hour day weeks. Having no family time by working 6 days is not fun.

Another commenter suggested even more drastic measures:

The USPS needs to quit Saturday delivery. Major savings with man hours, fuel, electricity etc. They also need to sell all excess real estate all over the US. They should also close all the small Post Offices nation wide that are losing money daily. This alone would save millions of dollars.

This is another possibility; experts want Postal Service management to close facilities across the country, many of which aren’t operating at full capacity thanks to new technology.

What do you think? Should USPS end Saturday delivery and close underperforming facilities? Are there other ways to bring the Postal Service back to financial health?

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Permalink | November 17th, 2008

Comments

  1. Moondawg55 Says:
    November 18th, 2008 at 1:37 pm

    Well, it’s worth a try. Stop Saturday delivery for a year or so, and see if the P.O. can get ahead, then they could resume it or discontinue Saturday delivery for good…

  2. Rayzor Says:
    November 18th, 2008 at 2:25 pm

    I have been a city carrier for 25 years and eliminating Saturday delivery would save a bundle of money. There would be jobs lost such as T-6 carriers would be gone, save money on gas, electricity, overtime, etc. Most people don’t care if they get mail on Saturday, alot of times it stays in their mailbox till Monday. The Postal Service can control the mail flow so that it would even out through out the week. Be nice to have a 2 day weekends.

  3. rrehman Says:
    November 18th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

    This is a horrible idea. I live in a small town where we do not have delivery service. Everyone in my town has to go the post office and pick up their mail. Our local post office has limited hours, M-F 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM and (closed from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM for lunch), Saturday 8:00 AM until 12:30 PM. There are no additional lobby hours. We are only able to access our mail on Saturday’s. If Saturday service was eliminated, citizens of small towns would not be able to get their mail, unless post offices were combined, and mail delivery was expanded to all houses unless restricting them to post office boxes only.

  4. Mike17090 Says:
    November 18th, 2008 at 4:25 pm

    5 day delivery sounds good on the surface…but it does not do anything for the situation…anyone who works behind the scenes knows that the facilities have no room to store an extra days worth of mail and it will only cost MORE to run the extra trips that will be required to get the mail to the AO’s on time since they have no space to store it either. Just because the mail would not be delivered does not mean it does not exist…it will still be there, just lost in storage and delayed even longer than it is now.

  5. sullystang Says:
    November 18th, 2008 at 6:16 pm

    Saturday delivery should be elimated to save routes. The USPS is looking to cut one out of every six routes because of the decreased mail volume. That would elimate carriers and t-6’s. It would also add about 20% more deliveries to each route that remained. The volume could be spread out more evenly over five days instead of rushing everything out and treating bulk mail like it’s 1st or 2nd class. I’d rather keep my route as is than get addition which amounts to a pay cut….. more work same pay. But don’t count on the NALC to do anything but protect themselves.

  6. RR Says:
    November 18th, 2008 at 11:43 pm

    Getting rid of Saturday delivery is a start, but let’s face it, the powers that be have been running the Postal Service to the ground on purpose, this can’t be fixed, because it won’t be fixed. Such is life … find another line of work. because in a few years there won’t be a Postale Service.

  7. mailman Says:
    November 19th, 2008 at 12:32 pm

    Getting rid of Saturday delivery would be a wrong step in the wrong direction. Look at all these P.O.s in small towns that should have home delivery. Maintaining a building, Payroll benefits and short hours to get to their PO boxes. Have you forgotten it is the Postal Service and not business. Don’t cut customer service lets cut more non productive management.

  8. Hub City Clerk Says:
    November 19th, 2008 at 3:40 pm

    The Post Office needs Saturday delivery. Its what sets us apart from other delivery businesses.
    Where the most money could be saved is within management. Function 4 teams ride all over this great nation, spending money on gas, hotels, per diems. The amount of money for these people to do this every week for years is beyond figures. On top of all this theres usually has to be someone captianing these PM’s offices. At which point these OIC’s get higher level pay. The amount of money the PO shells out for these types of “jobs” should be non-existant. Every PM that wants too keep his/her office should go back there and take care of it. The Post Office needs to quit creating these phony jobs for people who basically dont want to work.

  9. silver squirrel Says:
    November 19th, 2008 at 10:01 pm

    What in the world did we establish express & priority mail for? Bring in a clerk or 2 for 4 hours and bring in a skeleton crew of carriers for 4 hours Saturdays and deliver only Express & priorities. Our presence is still out there and costs are minimal. DUH!

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