Postal Service to file five-day-delivery proposal

[jimmy olsen]

Congress must pass? What the hell does that mean?

Also a $238 billion dollar deficit! Really?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36085659/ns/business-businessweekcom/

Postal Service to file five-day-delivery proposal
Under plan Congress must pass, Saturday service would end in early 2011

By Angela Greiling Keane
updated 2:50 p.m. ET March 29, 2010

The U.S. Postal Service would cut Saturday mail delivery starting in the first half of 2011 under a plan the agency will give its regulator tomorrow.

The Postal Service, which forecasts a $238 billion budget deficit by 2020, says it would save about $3.3 billion in the first year from eliminating deliveries on one day and $5.1 billion a year by 2020.

"Given the fact that we're facing such a huge deficit, we'd like to move as quickly as possible," Postmaster General John Potter told reporters today in Washington.
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The Postal Service will file its five-day delivery proposal with the Postal Regulatory Commission in Washington tomorrow. It is also seeking permission from the U.S. Congress, which requires delivery to all U.S. addresses six days a week.

The agency proposes to keep open local offices on Saturdays and continue processing and transporting mail during the weekends after dropping deliveries to homes and businesses.

The Postal Service said reducing deliveries, eliminating the equivalent of 40,000 full-time jobs, would help it return to solvency as mail volumes erode because customers switch to electronic communication. The Postal Service also is seeking to expand its retail offerings, reduce its workforce through attrition and change a requirement that it pre-fund its retiree health care costs.

The commission has 90 days to review the proposal and issue a non-binding opinion, Potter said. "As with all actions by the Postal Regulatory Commission, we give them great consideration," he said.

A survey conducted in August for the Postal Service by Maritz Research in St. Louis found 68 percent of 2,200 residential and small-business customers favored five-day delivery, and more than half the businesses said Saturday delivery "is unimportant."

Copyright © 2010 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved.

[sbr]

Congress must pass? What the hell does that mean?

I think they mean Congress has to approve it before it can happen, not that Congress "has" to pass it.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Good.  99 out of a 100 letters are junk mail that goes directly into the trash anyway.

[jimmy olsen]

Congress must pass? What the hell does that mean?

I think they mean Congress has to approve it before it can happen, not that Congress "has" to pass it.

I thought of that latter, but that's no reason not to take back the outrage, this is the internet after all.

[DGuller]

Also a $238 billion dollar deficit! Really?

Just some stupid journalists not quite aware of what "budget deficit" is.  It's actually a projected shortfall for the next ten years, which is still an enormously shocking number, and still questionable-looking.  That implies a budget deficit of $24 billion on average, which is a bit bigger than $3.8 billion it lost last year.  Are all their costs fixed and would remain that way after the mail volume continues to drop, did they get way behind on the pension fund contributions, or is it something else I'm missing?

[sbr]

Congress must pass? What the hell does that mean?

I think they mean Congress has to approve it before it can happen, not that Congress "has" to pass it.

I thought of that latter, but that's no reason not to take back the outrage, this is the internet after all.

Carry on then.

[MadImmortalMan]

That implies a budget deficit of $24 billion on average, which is a bit bigger than $3.8 billion it lost last year.

So, the projected deficit is 24billion, and they want to save 3.3 by doing this (which would be obviously inadequate), or the actual deficit is 3.8 and they would save 3.3 by doing this (which is pretty good)?

[Admiral Yi]

Are all their costs fixed and would remain that way after the mail volume continues to drop, did they get way behind on the pension fund contributions, or is it something else I'm missing?

Their costs are nearly fixed in the sense that it costs roughly the same to deliver one peice of mail to a mailbox as 50 peices.

[Mr.Penguin]

Are all their costs fixed and would remain that way after the mail volume continues to drop, did they get way behind on the pension fund contributions, or is it something else I'm missing?

Their costs are nearly fixed in the sense that it costs roughly the same to deliver one peice of mail to a mailbox as 50 peices.

Spot on, now try and tell that to the management...