Latest Headlines
- ECSO: Truck Stolen In Bratt, Note Left Behind Claims Woman Was Attacked, Kidnapped
- Two Northview High Career Academies Create Food Cart
- Special Election To Replace Matt Gaetz In Congress Set For April Fools’ Day
- Food Distribution Held Friday In Walnut Hill, Saturday In Cantonment
- Escambia Schools Announce Top 10 Teachers Of The Year
- Still Time To Sign Up! Let The Miracle League Fry Your Thanksgiving Turkey
- Tate Aggies Beat Atmore Blue Devils 71-68 In Nailbiter Home Opener (With Gallery)
- FDLE Charges Escambia Man With Child Porn Possession
- Cantonment Man Charged With Sexual Battery, Molestation Of 5-Year-Old
- Truck Driver Airlifted After Crash On Quintette Road
The End Of Saturday Mail Delivery
March 25, 2010
On Wednesday, the U.S. Postal Service took the first step toward eliminating Saturday mail delivery.
U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors approved management’s request to move forward with its five-day delivery proposal and to file a request for an advisory opinion with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) on March 30.
Revenue from First-Class Mail – the Postal Service’s longtime bread-and-butter product — continues to decline as the use of electronic message delivery increases, according to the postal service. The Postal Service has identified the elimination of Saturday delivery as a primary method of cutting costs.
Email and other electronic media, along with the recession, are significant contributors to a continuing decline in mail volume, which in fiscal year 2009 plummeted by 25.6 billion pieces — nearly 13 percent of total volume — resulting in a Postal Service revenue drop of nearly $7 billion. The trends underlying these declines will only continue.
Current global economic conditions have put the largest users of the mail under severe financial stress. In the past, they spent millions of dollars on mailings and now many have drastically cut back on their use of mail.
Saturday is the lowest mail volume day in the country, with more than a third of U.S. businesses closed.
Comments
24 Responses to “The End Of Saturday Mail Delivery”
I would not mind one bit if Saturday delivery was stopped. It is a luxury with little practical benefit. And we simply can not afford it.
But I would go further and go to a every other day delivery. Mon Wed Fri Tues Thursday. One staff working 5 days a week could literally be half the size of the current delivery team. What would be the difficulty with that system. Those fewer customers who have a reason to want mail every day could use postal boxes and pick up on their schedule.
What needs to be stopped is contact postal employees for usps. They are in such a hurry to get the mail delivered so they can take off work early. Need to go back to old days. Hourly pay with time clocks and have gps moniters attached to vehicles so any extra time won’t be spent at home. If you have to stay on a job for a certain time then you won’t be in such a hurry to get the job done and quality would greatly improve. There are some! who if you have a package or letter to be signed for you can forget it. That takes too much time. They will not come to your door they just leave a notice for you to pick up at nearest post office because they are too lazy and in a hurry to get off early!!!! Don’t get me wrong, there are a FEW postal carrier in north escambia that are good at their jobs.
I’m in the 32568 zip. I’ve lived in the same place for about 14 years now and can count on the fingers of one hand the mistakes that have been made with my mail delivery. In fact, I can only remember one or two times that I got the wrong mail in my box. Pick ups have been reliable as well.Maybe it’s just good fortune but the letter carrier who runs our route does an excellent job and has gone the extra mile for us on several occasions. I also agree with the individual who stated that 44 cents is a bargain to mail a letter. I’ll also note that I do a lot of mail order business and have generally found that the post office delivers to me faster than UPS and with less hassle than FedEx. But like a lot of businesses these days the USPS faces a lot of competition and shifting technologies. Hopefully it’s not the case,but it is just possible that they simply won’t be able to compete in the future.
No mail on Saturday? I wouldn’t miss it if it only came once a week.
Glad to know that we aren’t the only ones getting other peoples mail. I put it back in the box with “sent to wrong address” on it. No Saturday delivery will only mean less junk mail to put into the recycle can for us. Thank goodness for the Walnut Hill PO as all of our outgoing mail goes there or some other post office.
As I said before, did you know that the Gov. sets Postal rates, not the Post Office, but did you know that if the Post Office does make a proffet were it goes. It goes to the general fund for Congress, not the Post Office. Did you know this is the last year of the current contract for one of the unions (1 of 3). Did you know it takes years to get all of the Postal Unions to agree on anything. If five day delivery does come about, it will be five to ten years away. Did you konw that if you receive someones mail by mistake and then give it to that person you just covered up the mistake and your carrier will not know he or she ever made it. Just put it back it the box and leave a note that says you have made a mistake. The carriers don’t want to make mistakes anymore than you want to receive them. Just though you should know.
USPS admits that due to emails and other delivery services that they have lost a lot of business (mail to deliver) and not as much work, yet the postal rates continue to increase. Even with less mail to deliver they still can’t get it to the correct address. Now they are cutting out Saturday delivery. Is is because they don’t have enough mail to deliver on Saturday? Yet it still cost more to deliver and process less? Something is not right with this picture! Without Saturday delivery will the Post Office be closed on Saturday as well? Boy it’s really going to be fun during the holidays with one less day to mail and receive packages on time. Somebody has really put a lot of thought into this???
FIRST OF ALL!!!! IF YOU HAVE NEVER WORKED FOR THE USPS YOU DON’T HAVE A CLUE… WE CAN’T GIVE YOU WHAT DON’T COME INTO THE POST OFFICE, IF WE DO MAKE A MISTAKE WE ARE ONLY HUMAN. THERE ARE OVER 2,000 MAIL BOXES IN JUST A SMALL PO. SO IF WE ONLY MAKE A MISTAKE ON 1 OR 2 WELL THATS PRETTY GOOD!!!!!! THERE ARE SEVERAL STREETS THAT HAVE THE SAME STREET NUMBER BUT DIFFERNT STREET NAMES. SO IF YOU HAVE NOT TRIED TO READ MORE THAN 1,000 PIECES OF MAIL IN JUST A SHORT TIME YOU WOULD NOT UNDERSTAND. AND TO “CLARIFY” WHEN ONE IS NOT AT THE COUNTER IM SURE THEY ARE DOING OTHER JOBS THEY HAVE THAT TAKES JUST AS MUCH TIME AS WAITING ON YOU. AND TO YOU THAT THINK WE START OUR WEEKENDS EARLY YOU COULDN’T BE MORE WRONG THERE ARE SUPERVISORS THAT CHECK OUR VIECHLES AND OUR MAIL AS WE REPORT BACK TO THE PO. EVERY SINGLE WORKING DAY!!!! IF WE MISSED YOUR BOX YOU WOULD KNOW IT BECAUSE WE WOULD BE RIGHT BACK OUT THERE.
No mail on Saturdays huh??? hmmmm…NO BILLS to have to look over on the weekend..we can finally enjoy the week end! I get my neighbors mail a lot…AND THERE BOX IS NEXT TO MINE, GUESS IT’S JUST EASIER TO OPEN ONE BOX AND SHOVE IT ALL IN THERE…THEN I GET TOPLAY MAILMAN AND TAKE IT OVER TO THEIR BOX
Having several family members who work for the USPS, I can tell you that the mail comes to them already bundled. They don’t get to sort it themselves, so what you get that shouldn’t be in your box is not the fault of the carrier, it is the fault of the machine that sorts it.
As for telling the carrier that someone doesn’t live there and you don’t want their mail in your box, there’s nothing they can do about it. By LAW, they can only put mail where it is addressed unless they have a change of address to send it somewhere else. That is the federal law. Sorry that you don’t like it. I don’t care for it either, but the only thing for you to do is either have the people put in change of address forms to go to their correct address or simply write on the envelope “Not at this address. Return to sender” and return it to the mailbox. Writing your name and address inside the box will not change the law or the fact that the carrier has to put it there.
Carriers do their jobs. They aren’t allowed to sit and go through the mail. They must deliver it to wherever it is addressed and however it has been bundled. As for not delivering mail on certain days, those days always have less mail. Why else do you think they’re cutting out Saturday delivery? They already explained that to you in the article.
As ridiculous as it sounds, they were correct to not deliver the mail because of the ornament. If the box is blocked in any way, they are supposed to skip it. Now of course, there really wasn’t any reason for him to do that. He could have just picked up the ornament, put your mail in the box and left a nice thank you note. Oh well. Some people just don’t have any common sense.
To Did You Know, I understand your thinking about one stamp being .44, but if you multiply that by 1,000,000 it is 440,000$ Think about how many people have stamps in there possession that they haven’t used yet, and they definitely handle more than a million letters a day. Maybe if the USPS considers cutting back on employees ( you know the ones that AREN”T at the counters when you go into the office) it will cut back…….
Stop the junk advertising mail, this is what cost more to run the mail delivery, gas etc. I have placed outgoing mail in my box and put the red flag up, postal worker does not pick it up unless there is mail to be delivered. I now drop all my mail in a drop box nearby. With the cost of one piece of mail today, no wonder we are using other methods to communicate and pay bills.
i still get mail from the last two families that lived in my house before I bought it. Ive wrote on the mail and returned it, spoke to the mail man, taped the infor on the mail box. Its weird cause I even get mail for my sisters ex mother in law that has ALWAYS lived in White Oak Texas. I left a Christmas Ornament of a Santa Postman with a “To. Mr.Postman last year and the mail man took it off the box, wrote a note that he couldnt deliver the mail because there was a ornament blocking the mail box! Then he closed the door without my mail in it, and replaced the ornament on the hook. WFT??? Just last week he pulled in my drive the day we buried a family member and asked “Did someone die here” I couldnt be upset because I was so shocked. Ive had to move my trash can to sit by the road because we kept running in the ditch and making huge ruts in the mud day after day instead of pulling back on the road! He needs that extra day off for some “re training” or maybe a “How to deal with public” videos!
It’s just as bad in the 32535 area also we get mail from neighbors and also from same street number that is two county roads over.
I’m not a rural resident, and many times my mail is not delivered on Friday or Saturday. I guess it just depends on how many on my street are getting mail those days–and how quickly the mail carrier wants to start his/her weekend.
To Bob & 32568,
I agree with the both of you. I do not live in a rural area. The problem is so bad in our neighborhood that several of us have actually taped our names and address on the inside of our mail box and that does not even help! I often wonder if the postman or lady can even read. I still have not received my pay check stub from June of 2004. Who ever received it now has all of my private information. They also tried to deliver someone meds to me on a Saturday. Think God I can read, I informed him he had the wrong street. Shame on the post office.
Hay, Big Al, did you know that the USPS is not supported by the Gov. The USPS is a self supporting agency. It is not subsidized by your tax money. However , it is controled by the Gov. Not only do the set the number of delivery days. they also set Postal rates, Speaking of Postal rates, did you know the USPS has the lowest rates in the free world? Just stop and think what if UPS, Fed-X, or any of the others had to deliver letters, and what you call junk mail, and packages, and travel the same route every day, regardless if you have a dlivery, ( someone mite have mail to pick-up). You thing they mite ajust their raites a little? I guess it goes to show you, “you get what you pay for”. I just don’t know what we should exspect for 44 cents. Do YOU?
>This will give everyone in the rural area an extra day to swap our mail and give it back to the perspective address
You are so right! My neighbors will continue to have Saturday mail delivery. I get mail that belongs to three people on my road, and Saturday is the only time I have to deliver it.
My neighbor up the road delivers my mail to me on Saturday.
It’s so bad, that sometimes a business up the road will call me and say ‘we are expecting a check to come in the mail from XYZ Company. If you get it, please call us and we’ll run by and get it.”
I’m thinking we should start sharing cookies too.
Welcome News;;This will give everyone in the rural area an extra day to swap our mail and give it back to the perspective address. USPS is the biggest joke that we deal with everyday. Could be run by private enterprise for a fraction of the cost. When you think about the money these people make and the arrogance that is displayed by the people behind these counters living on the taxpayers money just makes one sick.
The government should allow private enterprise to deliver the mail instead !!!
My mail already isn’t delivered on 3/4 of the Saturdays. five days a week, I get a huge pile of mail at my business in the 32568 zip. I mean 5-8 inches think with dozens of pieces a day. What do I get most Saturdays? NOTHING.
I’m guessin my lazy mailmail already knocks off early on Saturday.
I wonder if the price of stamps will go down by 1/6th. Since the “service” provided will be cut by 1/6th. Just wondering.
We are witnessing the beginning of the end for the USPS. Email is much quicker and more efficient not to mention free. Several delivery services are faster and cheaper than the USPS. If it hadn’t been supported by the Gov. it would have folded years ago.
And they think they can run healthcare? Ha!