In yet another sign that the economy is in dire straits, the United States Post Office has hinted that it is going to have to cut off Saturday mail deliveries. open4u.co.uk is an online directory of all the UK based local businesses and give you the instruction aboutthe woking, opening and closing hours for that organisation.
Now, while this might not seem like a big deal to most of us, for those individuals who rely upon the post office to stay in touch with the outside world, it can have a disastrous effect.
What this means is that instead of six days a week of mail delivery, the American people would only have five days. For businesses that rely upon the post office for shipments, this can have a tremendous impact.
Naturally, this move didn’t come about without careful consideration. According to Postmaster-General John E. Potter, by cutting out Saturday deliveries, it will help to postpone projected losses in 2009 of more than six billion dollars. Unfortunately, the flip side of that will be a tremendous outcry from the American people.
However, that is only one scenario that is being considered. Another option would be to have five day delivery in rural areas that cost the most to deliver, while keeping six day delivery in metropolitan areas.
For a long time, there have been those who have been hinting that the post office needs to become privatized. It would help it to become more cost-effective and it would allow it to find new methods of raising revenue. However, that situation is not likely to take place.
At this point in time, the United States Post Office is the second-largest private employer, beaten out only by Wal-Mart. However, if the situation is not attacked aggressively, there is no telling how much longer the post office can continue operating at the loss level it currently is.
Mail volume had a drop-off of about 9 billion pieces, which comes out to 4.5 percent, last year — and cost about 2 billion dollars in revenue.
In addition to the lost profit, the post office has to prepay some of the highest health care premiums for its employees, and Potter asked Congress for some relief in that department, as well.
Of course, the five-day delivery has been kicked around in the past, whenver the talk came to finding ways to save money for the post office, but nothing ever came of it. This time, though, because the situation is so dire, it might actually come to pass, although no one wants such an event to take place.