The nation’s postmaster general says delivering mail six days a week may no longer be feasible for an agency facing deficits in the billions.
John E. Potter told a congressional panel Wednesday that cutting mail delivery by one day a week may be necessary to curb a projected loss of more than $6 billion for this fiscal year. He asked a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee to lift the six-day delivery requirement mandated in 1983.
“It is possible that the cost of six-day delivery may simply prove to be unaffordable,” he said.
Potter attributed the Postal Service’s $2.8 billion debt at the end of fiscal 2008 to decreased mail volume and higher costs. The service has been hit hard by an increase in e-mail usage. Mail volume dropped by 4.5%, or more than 9 billion items, last year, to about 202 billion items, according to the service.
But lawmakers aren’t convinced that reducing service days is the best solution.
“Rather than helping it recover, I believe cutting services would ultimately be a death spiral for the postal service,” because business would look elsewhere, Collins said.
In case you didn’t know, stamp prices are scheduled to go up in May.
Who even needs 5 days a week? The USPS has spent decades ensuring that customers expect slow delivery from regular mail. The result is that no time-critical correspondence is ever sent by USPS. Mail should be delivered 3 days a week – every other day except Sundays. Half the addresses get Mon Wed Fri deliveries, the other half get Tue, Thurs, Saturday. Then the post office can save some REAL money and most people would never notice.
One major way to fix the post office and eliminate junque mail is to raise the rates for deliver to the next even dime.
Letters: 50 cents.
Junk: 30 cents per item.
Post cards: 30 cents.
At the same time, round parcels to the nearest 50 cents.
Sure, it will take some getting used to, but the loss of mailed crap will allow mail routes to move faster, even consolidate in some places. The rates will make intuitive sense, and avoid the tedium of figuring 7 times 42 cents equals ?.
Two letters: one dollar. No confusion.
#61, Cow-Paddy,
… tax evasion is the general term for efforts by individuals, firms, trusts and other entities to evade taxes by illegal means. Tax evasion usually entails taxpayers deliberately misrepresenting or concealing the true state of their affairs to the tax authorities to reduce their tax liability, and includes, in particular, dishonest tax reporting (such as declaring less income, profits or gains than actually earned; or overstating deductions).
The felonious part is when you lie.