Should the USPS cancel Saturday deliveries
March 25, 2013
Vikki Hartt
Opinion co-editor
On Wednesday, Feb. 6, the United States Postal Service announced that mail will no longer be delivered six days a week. As of Aug. 1, it will deliver Monday-Friday, thus eliminating mail delivery on Saturdays.
Major media outlets have reported mixed reactions from consumers about this announcement from the United States Postal Service.
Personally, I think the USPS chose the best option they could to save money in such a stiff economy. According to The Washington Post, the USPS is financially struggling to keep paying their staff to work six days a week. The elimination of Saturday deliveries will result in a whopping $2 billion save per year for the USPS.
Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe was quoted at a news conference saying, “The postal service has a responsibility to take the steps necessary to return to long-term financial stability and ensure the continued affordability of the U.S. Mail.”
Post offices will still continue Saturday package delivery, and some post offices will be open on Saturday for customers to access post office boxes and drop off mail or packages. The only thing people will not be able to do is go out to their mailboxes on Saturdays and pick up their first class mail.
As a college student, I rarely use the post office. Times have changed and technology, like email, has taken over the communication platform. It’s fast and free. Email does not require a paid stamp and the recipient receives the email almost instantaneously.
Kelly Rickert
Opinion co-editor
The United States Postal Service deciding to discontinue delivering mail on Saturdays is apparently meant to help cut the losses that the postal service has had in recent years. However, this change is not going to make much of a dent in the deficit the USPS has incurred.
By ending mail delivery on Saturdays, the USPS is projected to save about $2 billion. While this change could help mitigate a percentage of their deficit, their overall losses will still be upwards of $10 billion. According to The New York Times, USPS lost $15.9 billion last year. In order to decrease their debts, the post office made the decision to end Saturday deliveries and also increased the cost of stamps to 46 cents.
These changes, however, are not enough to make up for the two biggest reasons they are losing money. As stated by post office officials at a recent news conference, the two biggest costs they are facing are “a requirement that [the USPS] pay nearly $5.5 billion a year for health benefits to future retirees, a mandate imposed on no other government agency…[and] the fact that since 2007, first-class mail volume has declined by 37 percent as use of email and online payment services has soared.” Despite the idea that saving $2 billion will be a great benefit, it will not make much of a dent in their overall budget deficit.
It will, however, hurt the USPS customers and many small businesses that rely on Saturday mail delivery. Having to wait an extra two days to send and receive checks and bills will hurt those people in a big way.
