The United States Post Office (USPS) delivers nearly 40 percent of the worlds mail, so the government is giving notice six months in advance of this major change. The Postal Service will stop delivering on Saturday’s to save $2 billion dollars in cost a year “once the plan is fully implemented.”
“The Postal Service is advancing an important new approach to delivery that reflects the strong growth of our package business and responds to the financial realities resulting from America’s changing mailing habits,” says Patrick R. Donahoe, Postmaster General. “We developed this approach by working with our customers to understand their delivery needs and by identifying creative ways to generate significant cost savings.”
The USPS has advocated changing to a five-day delivery schedule for mail and packages; however, with Internet sales increasing, the need for the postal service has increased in the eCommerce field over the past few years.
Once the plan goes into action the week of August 5, 2013, mail delivery to street addresses will happen Monday through Friday, while post office boxes will continue to be delivered Monday through Saturdays and all post offices that are currently open on Saturdays will remain open.
“The American public understands the financial challenges of the Postal Service and supports these steps as a responsible and reasonable approach to improving our financial situation,” said Donahoe. “The Postal Service has a responsibility to take the steps necessary to return to long-term financial stability and ensure the continued affordability of the U.S. Mail.”
The operational plan for the new delivery schedule anticipates a combination of employee reassignment and attrition and is expected to achieve cost savings of approximately $2 billion annually when fully implemented.
The USPS says that marketing research poll results show most American’s are in favor of the change in light of the financial challenges the Postal Service face. The USPS Board of Governors plans to publish instructions on what business and residential customers can expect with the new delivery schedule.
In other words, the Postal Service plans to give current employees new job duties or positions and gradually reduce the number of employees through retirement and resignation as part of their restructuring of retail, delivery and mail processing locations. Since 2006, the USPS claims lower annual cost base of roughly $15 billion and a reduction of employees by 28 percent and has also combined more than 200 mail processing centers to district-type locations.
Source: USPS
