USPS to stop Saturday Services

[AKSinghSingh79 143]

US Postal Service to End Saturday Mail Delivery

Weekend mail delivery is about to come to an end.

The U.S. Postal Service will stop delivering mail on Saturdays, but will continue to deliver packages six days a week, the

USPS announced at a news conference this morning.

While post offices that open on Saturdays will continue to do so, the initiative, which is expected to begin the week of August

5, will save an estimated $2 billion annually. The USPS had a $15.9 billion loss in financial year 2012.

"America's mailing habits are changing and so are their shipping habits," Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said. "People

will say this is a responsible decision. It makes common sense."

The service reduction is the latest of Postal Service steps to cut costs as the independent agency of the U.S. government struggles with its finances.

To close its budget gap and reduce debt, it needs to generate $20 billion in cost reductions.

USPS officials have pushed for eliminating mail and package delivery on Saturdays for the past few years, but recent data

showing growth in package delivery, which is up by 14 percent since 2010, and projected additional growth in the coming

decade made them revise their decision to continue package delivery only.

Saturday mail delivery to P.O. boxes will also continue.

Research by the post office and major news organizations indicated that 7 out of 10 Americans support switching to five-day

service.

Since 2006, the Postal Service has reduced annual costs by $15 billion, cut the career force by 28 percent and consolidated

200 mail-processing locations.

The USPS announced in May it was cutting back on the number of operating hours instead of shuttering 3,700 rural post

offices. The move, which reduced hours of operation at 13,000 rural post offices from an eight-hour day to between two and

six hours a day, was made with the aim of saving about $500 million per year.

The cutback in hours last year resulted in 9,000 full-time postal employees' being reduced to part time plus the loss of their

benefits, while another 4,000 full-time employees became part time but kept their benefits.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

US Postal Service to End Saturday Mail Delivery

Weekend mail delivery is about to come to an end.

The U.S. Postal Service will stop delivering mail on Saturdays, but will continue to deliver packages six days a week, the

USPS announced at a news conference this morning.

While post offices that open on Saturdays will continue to do so, the initiative, which is expected to begin the week of August

5, will save an estimated $2 billion annually. The USPS had a $15.9 billion loss in financial year 2012.

"America's mailing habits are changing and so are their shipping habits," Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said. "People

will say this is a responsible decision. It makes common sense."

The service reduction is the latest of Postal Service steps to cut costs as the independent agency of the U.S. government struggles with its finances.

To close its budget gap and reduce debt, it needs to generate $20 billion in cost reductions.

USPS officials have pushed for eliminating mail and package delivery on Saturdays for the past few years, but recent data

showing growth in package delivery, which is up by 14 percent since 2010, and projected additional growth in the coming

decade made them revise their decision to continue package delivery only.

Saturday mail delivery to P.O. boxes will also continue.

Research by the post office and major news organizations indicated that 7 out of 10 Americans support switching to five-day

service.

Since 2006, the Postal Service has reduced annual costs by $15 billion, cut the career force by 28 percent and consolidated

200 mail-processing locations.

The USPS announced in May it was cutting back on the number of operating hours instead of shuttering 3,700 rural post

offices. The move, which reduced hours of operation at 13,000 rural post offices from an eight-hour day to between two and

six hours a day, was made with the aim of saving about $500 million per year.

The cutback in hours last year resulted in 9,000 full-time postal employees' being reduced to part time plus the loss of their

benefits, while another 4,000 full-time employees became part time but kept their benefits.

It's about time. Wit h Fedex,UPS, E-mail etc it's way past time to stop it. In fact I think 2-3 days per week would be plenty.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

6 days a week the US postal service fills my mailbox with junk mail. I take it out to make room for the next day's junk mail and put it in the recycle bin. Once a week I take the recycle bin outside and place it on the ground near the mailbox.

I can see no reason for junk mail delivery more than once per week, preferably the day before recycle day and change the law so the mailbox can also be the "paper recycling bin"

On a happier note, I discovered Monday that the US Postal 'Service' no longer have delivery confirmation for a regular letter. Now it has to be priority mail, $5.60 PLUS the .80 cent fee for the tracking number.

Cut service and raise prices..a winning combination! Wait until they close hospitals 3 days per week.

The postal service was a great institution, just like the pony express, the telegraph, and the steam locomotive. Sooner or later it will be enshrined as it should be. Sooner is cheaper.

Like the railroads, who decided they were in the railroad business rather than the transportation business, (which is why we do not have Santa Fe airlines) the postal service decided they were going to decide HOW our mail was delivered...and we were no longer interested. Just as railroads tried to dictate how we would travel. Never works. We moved on long ago.

[SAT 9,609]

1360203824[/url]' post='5964722']

6 days a week the US postal service fills my mailbox with junk mail. I take it out to make room for the next day's junk mail and put it in the recycle bin. Once a week I take the recycle bin outside and place it on the ground near the mailbox.

I can see no reason for junk mail delivery more than once per week, preferably the day before recycle day and change the law so the mailbox can also be the "paper recycling bin"

On a happier note, I discovered Monday that the US Postal 'Service' no longer have delivery confirmation for a regular letter. Now it has to be priority mail, $5.60 PLUS the .80 cent fee for the tracking number.

Cut service and raise prices..a winning combination! Wait until they close hospitals 3 days per week.

The postal service was a great institution, just like the pony express, the telegraph, and the steam locomotive. Sooner or later it will be enshrined as it should be. Sooner is cheaper.

Like the railroads, who decided they were in the railroad business rather than the transportation business, (which is why we do not have Santa Fe airlines) the postal service decided they were going to decide HOW our mail was delivered...and we were no longer interested. Just as railroads tried to dictate how we would travel. Never works. We moved on long ago.

What if we all took that junk mail and returned it, or use the business reply mail and drop it back in the mail box, would that save the USPS?

[lostinblue 1,989]

One postal employee I talked to said that in his office they had 7 carriers out on disability due to lifting so much mail on their walking route.A 5 day work week it would be worse. On another note Saturday delivery always went to the more senior workers as it was overtime pay. More money for them. The newer workers and (lower wage) workers hardly ever delivered on Saturdays.

Edited February 7, 2013 by lostinblue

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

What if we all took that junk mail and returned it, or use the business reply mail and drop it back in the mail box, would that save the USPS?

Why would we want to? You want to recycle junk mail in order to "save" something that wasn't needed to begin with?

Why don't we start fires to "save" the fire department? Rob banks to "save" the police department?

Better to kill it quickly. At this point 3 day per week mail can be considered nothing but "excessive", at best, "abusive" is more appropriate. Congress should just go ahead and take the cue and cut mail delivery to 2 times per week to be reduced to one time per week in 3 years. Sell the "name" of US Postal Service to a private business for a few billion $$$ to be applied to the national debt and get out of it!

It is obsolete, we no longer need to pay for this nonsense. If we can do "electronic signatures" for income tax, certainly we can develop some acceptable means of electronic signature for other documents,,,abiut the only need to "mail" anything anymore. The only reason we mail anything to USCIS for immigration is for original signatures, anything else can be scanned

The sad thing (and scary thing) is that the USPS literally OWNED the delivery business in the US and threw it away because they could not adjust and innovate. They planted their feet in cement and said "THIS is how you will do things" We found a better way.

Nothing to mourn over, it happens. It was a good service for a long time, longer than needed. This has been going on for years and it is not going to improve. The ONLY way it could be saved is if those advertisers are willing to pay MORE and allow first class items under 1 oz. to be delivered for FREE. Exactly the way email or broadcast TV works. Let it be "sponsored" by the advertisers and FREE to the user (at least for first class letters) then improve the package delivery to compete with Fedex and UPS.

In other words, reduce costs and improve service (what a novel idea, sounds like capitalism!)

If they cannot do that...and they can't...then just rip the plug out and be done with it

[SAT 9,609]

1360210554[/url]' post='5964993']

Why would we want to? You want to recycle junk mail in order to "save" something that wasn't needed to begin with?

Why don't we start fires to "save" the fire department? Rob banks to "save" the police department?

Better to kill it quickly. At this point 3 day per week mail can be considered nothing but "excessive", at best, "abusive" is more appropriate. Congress should just go ahead and take the cue and cut mail delivery to 2 times per week to be reduced to one time per week in 3 years. Sell the "name" of US Postal Service to a private business for a few billion $$ to be applied to the national debt and get out of it!

It is obsolete, we no longer need to pay for this nonsense. If we can do "electronic signatures" for income tax, certainly we can develop some acceptable means of electronic signature for other documents,,,abiut the only need to "mail" anything anymore. The only reason we mail anything to USCIS for immigration is for original signatures, anything else can be scanned

The sad thing (and scary thing) is that the USPS literally OWNED the delivery business in the US and threw it away because they could not adjust and innovate. They planted their feet in cement and said "THIS is how you will do things" We found a better way.

Nothing to mourn over, it happens. It was a good service for a long time, longer than needed. This has been going on for years and it is not going to improve. The ONLY way it could be saved is if those advertisers are willing to pay MORE and allow first class items under 1 oz. to be delivered for FREE. Exactly the way email or broadcast TV works. Let it be "sponsored" by the advertisers and FREE to the user (at least for first class letters) then improve the package delivery to compete with Fedex and UPS.

In other words, reduce costs and improve service (what a novel idea, sounds like capitalism!)

If they cannot do that...and they can't...then just rip the plug out and be done with it

Jobs

[spookyturtle 9,465]

If there is a postage paid envelope in the junk mail, I put all the junk in the envelope and send it back.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

One postal employee I talked to said that in his office they had 7 carriers out on disability due to lifting so much mail on their walking route.A 5 day work week it would be worse. On another note Saturday delivery always went to the more senior workers as it was overtime pay. More money for them. The newer workers and (lower wage) workers hardly ever delivered on Saturdays.

Got to love unions

[SAT 9,609]

If there is a postage paid envelope in the junk mail, I put all the junk in the envelope and send it back.

2 birds with 1 stone

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Jobs

Apply a punitive tax on employers that exploit illegal aliens for profit. Say $100,000 per exploited worker per day, seize their property to collect tax if needed.

VOILA!!! 12 million jobs. The illegals walk home just like they got here. No deportation costs, the freed slaves will find their own way back to freedom from exploitation for profit. And NO, Americans will not do those jobs for the amount of money paid to exploited illegals so I guess they will just have to pay more and give benefits to workers. What a shame.

OR

As I mentioned, let the advertisers pay the bill and deliver first class mail for FREE. Then the service would be a service and everyone keeps their jobs.

Maintinaing an obsolete dinosaur for the sake of "jobs" is stupid.

Edited February 7, 2013 by Gary and Alla

[SAT 9,609]

Apply a punitive tax on employers that exploit illegal aliens for profit. Say $100,000 per exploited worker per day, seize their property to collect tax if needed.

VOILA!!! 12 million jobs. The illegals walk home just like they got here. No deportation costs, the freed slaves will find their own way back to freedom from exploitation for profit. And NO, Americans will not do those jobs for the amount of money paid to exploited illegals so I guess they will just have to pay more and give benefits to workers. What a shame.

OR

As I mentioned, let the advertisers pay the bill and deliver first class mail for FREE. Then the service would be a service and everyone keeps their jobs.

Maintinaing an obsolete dinosaur for the sake of "jobs" is stupid.

easier said than done.

we're on the verge of granting EADs to 12, may be 15 million or more people and you're talking about cracking down on employers. Congress is talking about letting them stay and you're talking about sending them home. You want to shut down the post office so 1.2 million people can go on unemployment. What is needed is attrition. not abandonment.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

Saturday mail delivery took awhile to get used to when I moved here. I still forget.

[SAT 9,609]

Saturday mail delivery took awhile to get used to when I moved here. I still forget.

now get use to not having it again lol

[Penny Lane 8,159]

now get use to not having it again lol

Won't be a problem.