Dropping a day
Post office looks at eliminating one delivery day
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| Princeton city letter carrier Grant Blakey transfers Wednesday morning’s mail from his cart to his delivery truck. The city of Princeton has about 5,500 possible city and rural delivery routes, as well as another 387 post office boxes. The U.S. Postal Service is looking at ways to cut expenses, including reducing route deliveries to five days a week. (BCR photo/Donna Barker) |
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PRINCETON — The look of postal delivery could be changing in the not-so-distant future.
U.S. Postmaster General John Potter has announced the post office is looking at a variety of cost-saving measures, including eliminating one-day-a-week delivery service. Without drastic action, the agency could face a cumulative loss of $238 billion over the next 10 years, Potter said.
On Tuesday, Central Illinois Area 9 Supervisor of Customer Service Support/Finance Michael Clark said the postal service needs to make some changes in order to remain viable in the future. A basic problem facing the postal service is the fact the volume of first class mail is decreasing while delivery points are increasing.
When you have less mail going to more places, that’s not a good thing financially for the postal service, Clark said. By eliminating one day of service, the postal service estimates a $3 billion savings per year. Also, by eliminating one day per week, there would be a green savings with fewer postal vehicles on the roads, he added.
Locally, the Princeton Post Office has more than 5,500 possible city and rural delivery points with 387 post office boxes, Clark said.
Nationwide, the U.S. Postal Service reached its peak delivery in 2006 when it delivered 213 billion pieces of mail. In 2009, that volume dropped to 177 billion pieces of mail. By 2020, that number is expected to decline to 150 billion pieces of mail.
The reason for the decrease in volume is primarily two-fold. Clark said the struggling economy itself plays a temporary factor, but even when the economy improves, the postal service doesn’t expect its first class volume to bounce back because of the increased use of technology by the American people. More and more people pay bills on-line, text and use other means to communicate.
Though first class mail is decreasing, the postal service is seeing that bulk mail, which is advertising, is maintaining its volume or even increasing slightly, Clark said.
In spite of the decrease in first class volume, the postal service is dealing with more and more addresses or delivery points each year. Clark said the delivery point number is growing by about two million addresses a year, and the postal service expects to have approximately 17 million additional addresses by 2020.
Concerning a possible Saturday-delivery elimination, Clark said there are varying opinions on which day would be the best to eliminate. Different interest groups have different suggestions. For instance, some businesses want to keep Saturday but eliminate a mid-week day like Tuesday.
Regardless of which day could be eliminated, the current proposal is to keep retail units, or post offices, open so people can still get mail from their post boxes.
The elimination of one day of service per week is just part of the total plan to look at possible savings for the postal service, Clark said. Other parts of the plan include, in part, an expanded awareness of on-line opportunities for customers to do mailing, shipping and buying of supplies; a restructuring of retiree health benefit payments; and providing services at convenient locations like stores.
Concerning a time frame for any proposed changes, the earliest prognosis for a change would be in 2011. There are many different factors which would have to fall into place before a change could become final, he said.
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