Postal Service Proposed Five-Day Service

I’ve heard that the United States Postal Service, my employer, is considering cutting back to a five day per week delivery. They have lost a considerable amount of money in recent years and are desperately searching for ways to cut their expenses. There is a federal law in the books since 1983, though, that mandates a six-day delivery week. The USPS will need to lobby congress to change that law before any cutback in service is enacted.

I don’t think that cutting back hours and service is usually a very far-sighted, wise thing to do. Sure, in the short run it may save some money. But depriving people of delivery on Tuesday (or some other designated day) will eventually reduce the overall mail flow (and subsequent postage revenue) as customers search for more dependable alternative ways that can substitute for sending things through the mail.

I used to live across a field from a small Krispy Kreme donut store/coffee shop. The man who had subleased this small shop did a thriving business in the morning hours, but in the afternoon, things dried up considerably. He told me that he had done an analysis of how much money he was raking in at various times of the day and concluded that, since he was losing money in the afternoon, he would close the shop then to cut his losses. Unfortunately, the result was that fewer and fewer customers came during the morning hours as well, since many were no longer confident about it being open. After all, who wants to drive out of their way to do business somewhere only to find that the business had cut their operating hours for the sake of their own expedience and convenience? Eventually, that Krispy Kreme store closed down for good.

In like manner, I fear something similar happening if the USPS begins to fine-tune their service hours and days. As far as my own employment is concerned, I naturally want my company to be financially viable. They have already attempted (not hard enough, in my opinion) to offer early retirement to more employees and are eliminating the daytime mail processing shift. If service is cut back to five days, I see this affecting carriers and window clerks the most directly, as many of them would have their jobs reassigned according to the new paradigm. But, at least immediately, I don’t see too much of a change in my immediate position, which involves processing mail. And mail processing takes place seven days a week. What would affect my position adversely would be if a reduction to five-day service caused the total mail volume to be drastically reduced. Which I see as a real danger.

It could be, though, that Postal Service leadership is simply floating this five-day mail service possibility as a way to get some federal funding (i.e. bailout) from congress. Well, mail delivery is definitely a crucial part of our national communications and transportation (of goods) infrastructure. If we’re going to be serious about economic recovery and make sure that our communications and transportation systems are functioning optimally, then the postal service should definitely be included as a full, active participant in this ambitious effort.